This piece seemed to have a lot of unnecessary information in it. Perhaps it is because of my background in dealing with some of the artifacts that were being talked about, but his criteria for "new media"; numerical representation, modularity, automation, etc., seemed obvious and not needing of such a long description, although worth mentioning.
Manovich then continues into talking about "data" and "property". I find this means of compartmentalizing rather useful in describing media and relations to one another. Someone who has never heard of the brand of a soda for instance, could understand that the main product is the soda, not the sign advertising it. However again, I feel that the author used too many examples to make his point and could have been more concise with the information.
A little later, Manovich goes into the argument of "freedom" of variables for cultural objects and media. On side says that freedom give the responsibility of choice to the user, and makes it their own. The other side says that perhaps the freedom would hinder or slow down the use of the media. Not once in this section is the compromise mentioned. What if society has the choice of if they want the freedom on their private media. If it is a desktop on a private account on a computer, have a default setting, that can be changed. I wish the author would have gone into this area a little, it is after all how most of western culture operates now with respect to digital media.
Overall, I find that this piece lacks conciseness, for one of two reasons. First, the author may have been simplifying his points so that the information could get across easier, in which case I would like to know who the original article was intended for, or second, the author does not actually know the information as well as he is suggesting. It is an informative piece, but could become more interesting for an audience who knows computers had it been refined a little more.
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