The East Coast of the United States was a great idea. Religious protesters sought refuge from oppression, got on a boat, landed, formed a colony and most of them died. But the chance to get away was so great an opportunity that thousands more came despite the peril. Once the East Coast was sewed up with accords and compacts and Bills of Rights, a few adventurers sought refuge from the regulations and massive cities and pointed their wagons west to find the wild frontier, the Wild West.
Then money was found in the form of GOLD! A rush began and the Wild West homogenized.
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
-Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Reaching out to the masses has been of absolute importance. Decrees, wanted signs, posters, bibles, news pamphlets, broadsides and corantos could only get bigger and more widely circulated. Then money was found in the form of backcover and fraction-of-page advertising. Articles were buried inside ads; does your city have a magazine? Print publishing was homogenized.
The Internet used to reach out to strangers and introduce itself. Everything was new to 90% of the visitors. Early adopters had things like ICQ and smartly developed torrents. The Internet attempted self-regulation at the turn of the century. A few adventurers sought refuge from the regulations and massive geocities and pointed their efforts toward people instead of data. O’Reilly prophetically called this, Web 2.0, the Wild West.
Then money was found in the form of VISITORS! A rush began and your Inbox got flooded with invitations.
A lot of our successes don’t have anything to do with anything our executives thought were a good idea. – Sergey Brin, Google co-founder
Social Networks became the it of IT. Now there’s even a Social Network of Social Networks that you can start (ning). In the mid-nineties, an idea materialized out of the vapor that was, at that time, the Internet: Content is KING. That fact remains. Turning Visitors into content turns the idea on its head which was initially clever and a brilliant twist; quite ironic. Turning visitors into content creates a lethal circular argument that has never, in the history of humans, ever lasted or been a good idea to run with.
The Internet has become a shooting gallery for advertisers. The value of the Click has moved toward a center of gravity that cannot sustain itself: The Visitor is Content is King draws Visitors makes more Content cycle. Further exploration of Web 2.0 premises like data portability and deeper interest in The Cloud are being constructed on a faulty foundation. They’re not doomed to fail, but We, The People will inevitably fall under the control of companies that HAVE to steer us in order that those ideas, once matured, survive. Web 2.0 cannot be the future; it does not make logical sense. It vibrates with excitement and promises of friendship but it cannot truly move forward as we, the species, need it to.
A fracture will occur.
The average consumer does not know the difference between the browser, the internet, and the search box. – Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation
A happy fact is that the Internet was perfected by geeks. You big-brains out there were alienated in school, ostracized socially, didn’t get “the girl (or the boy in a few cases)” and were too advanced for the people around to cope with. What we’ve all done thus far has been brilliant. Continuing Web 2.0, however, is turning the tables on your aggressors. A majority (4 in 5 people on Earth) are now being excluded, alienated and ostracized by the technology that was supposed to enlighten and unite them/us. Just as Electronic Adventurers sought refuge and created the World Wide Web, so too will “normal people” seek refuge, and turn away from the coming regulations and mega cites and social networks. It’s only natural. We’ve squeezed so much revenue out of personal data that clenched fists are shaking. Vibrating.
Content is King. Go outside. Breathe fresh air. Have a sip of wine. Gain a fresh perspective that originates in your head. It can’t be wrong. Come back and make amazing, first-hand content about the blade of grass you saw, the digital camera you used, the movie you went to, the wine that wound up drinking you. You’ll find that the first World Wide Web is alive and well and not in need of a revision.
| DINARIUS Bryan's old Digital Interest blog |
