[Year 12 IPM] Who are the Pro-Ams?

[Keith Richardson]

My family wish to lodge a formal protest with you Roland.
Following up this link took me away from them for over 5 hours (but a
'thanks' from me).
Incredible stuff - absolutely mind blowing what the Internet has done.
Ciao, Keith.


On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 17:33:36 +1000, "Roland Gesthuizen"
<rge at westallsc.vic.edu.au> said:
> I read something interesting this weekend about an important emerging
> social
> group called 'Pro-Ams'. As amateurs, they pursue a hobby or pastime
> -which
> in many cases is an all-consuming passion - to a professional standard.
> Pro-Ams are involved in 'serious leisure', which requires specialist
> knowledge and a major time commitment.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-Ams
> 
> For example, my college relies and taps into the specialist knowledge of
> the
> volunteers (or Pro-Ams) to operate our computer games club. Major
> astronomical breakthroughs and contributions are often made by Pro-Ams.
> Opensource software is the ONLY realistic competition to Microsoft and is
> built entirely by Pro-Ams. It is a similar story to the growth of
> Wikipedia.
> Even something of what happens with VITTA is built upon the enthusiasm
> and
> energy provided by Pro-Ams. When dealing with organisations, we need to
> take
> into account the social and economic contribution by these Pro-Ams
> 
> A new report indicates that everyone needs a hobby and government should
> invest in leisure activities to encourage community cohesion.
> http://www.demos.co.uk/proamrevolutionfinal_pdf_media_public.aspx
> 
> Regards Roland
> 
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Keith Richardson
Leibler Yavneh College
Elsternwick Ph (03)9528 4911
keithcr at fastmail.fm