The Unintended Consequences of Simple

Until only recently, only people who had the proper technical expertise or access to a large budget could tap into the true potential of the internet. The introduction of blogs or, more aptly, simple publishing is changing all that, turning the tables on conventional content providers and forever altering the face of modern networks.

Blogs are technically mini-content management systems; scaled-down equivalents to the same portal software large corporations use to push their content to millions of users every day. They let you publish diverse content where you want, when you want, to whom you want. But that's not why blogs are so revolutionary.

Although the advent of large-scale content management systems has eliminated the need to learn html, it's hard for the individual publisher to justify the high development costs or steep learning curve associated with using one.

With blogs, sophisticated content management is no longer the distinct province of high-budgeted enterprises. They enable anyone who wants one to dynamically present prepared content via a professional face, with the ease and intuitiveness of a word processor. As some see it, Blogs represent a personal printing press on the desktop of every citizen.

Millions of people have realized the tremendous impact blogs are having on the internet, and untold more are awakening to the possibilities presented by them every day. However, of these untold millions, only a few truly (and justly) appreciate the consequences of this change.

The concept of self-publishing made simple, in the manner of blogs, is only a single expression of the mass enfranchisement of humans taking place. As more sophisticated systems enter into the general population of consumers, control over information and the internet will be transferred from existing networks to clustered individuals with vastly expanded capabilities.

Increasingly people are able to publish themselves, promote themselves, merchandise themselves, do it all themselves, bypassing the third-party supplier and communicating with their intended audience direct, without constraints to scope. 

In the wake of expanded capabilities, one person powerhouses are threatening to trivialize the importance of the third-party provider. Some day it may only be you and your target listener, with no intervening parties or interests.

Furthermore, greater quality controls over an individuals personal brand will result from their expanded capabilities, in effect letting the individual assume nearly total authority over their personal presentation to the rest of the humanity.

On the internet, at least, personal brands will rule, and corporate brands will adjourn the limelight pending the next cycle of the internet. Disempowered institutions will be on par with individuals in terms of how much influence they can exert over a given populace. The preponderating forces of the future will manifest as causes, which will likely decentralize from wherever they originated, and spread virally among interested clusters of the internet population.

Now the internet is really starting to come into its own as a democratic medium.

Do you suppose the progress of the medium will turn out to be in itself a step backwards as its users start relying on quasi-libertarian notions of responsible citizenship to guide their conduct? With more and more complex mechanisms entering into the general disposal of individuals, can we really trust the internet to organize itself according to the best interests of everyone involved?

Comments

[gulliver]

Good points, well made.

Upping the ante a little...

>Can we really trust the internet to organize itself according to the best interests of everyone involved?

Of course not. And do we even expect what's simply a 'medium of expression' to do otherwise?

To me corporate/personal and few/many aren't the central issue.

The web etc is just a tool. And one that may+is+will be deployed for both good and evil. Quality and crap. Like the telephone. I can 'hey how ya doin?' phone my mother or tele-canvas some poor soul. I can order a pizza. Others, an airstrike.

It's up to us as individuals how we use tools. I can use my Mac to push 'challenging' posts - or start a porn site. And that's an issue of personal responsibility. I've never been f***ed-over by a corporation - just the folk running them.

>The concept of self-publishing made simple, in the manner of blogs, is only a single expression of the mass enfranchisement of humans taking place.

Perhaps the third wave after shopping and porn, I'm entirely supportive of the blog principle. And more often than not bored with the practice. As the sector matures and moves toward less quantity and more quality this issue will resolve and lead to a more productive use of the tech - rather than 'folk chatting among themselves'. Of itself, no bad thing.

>Some day it may only be you and your target listener, with no intervening parties or interests.

>Furthermore, greater quality controls over an individuals personal brand will result from their expanded capabilities, in effect letting the individual assume nearly total authority over their personal presentation to the rest of the humanity.

>On the internet, at least, personal brands will rule, and corporate brands will adjourn the limelight pending the next cycle of the internet.

All great and valid points.

And perhaps, as we grow, we'll come to see 'corporate' as simply a tool of people.

So... a huge and genuine 'yay hooray' to the tech and the wellcome potential it brings. Let's not forget though that we need to enable ourselves.

;-)

g

[gulliver]

Or, as someone said...

"Knowlege is only as good as what we do with it."

Blog well.

[akil]

Scenes from my daily commute on the Information Superhighway...

Big trucks delivered pallets of websites

New construction building slowed down traffic hits

"Under Construction" signs were never removed

Personal computers crashed into personal Hummers

Web address streets were renamed

Y2K tollways cost $900 trillion

B-to-B service roads added HOV lanes

Billboard banners obstructed views

Spam slicks created virus road hazards

So everyone put on rose-colored Googles

Ebay became my Paypal

And my horn still blows Yahoo! when I drive through all of the thick heavy blog in the Amazon

[ronin]

Merely Human: now elucidate how the power of push-button publishing becomes unstoppable combined with the concept of "FREE" (as in gratis)

;-)

http://ronin.squarespace.com

[Zachariah]

I like to think of bloggers as our modern version of young America's pamphleteers. Certainly we're achieving a fascinating insta-forum of democratic discourse. I just don't know where it will go.

[Andy Wibbels]

Beautimous.

That is the hardest thing to convey in my blogging classes - that blogging is a tool, a practice. The 'medium' of the internet and HTML/XHTML remains the same. The difference between a blog and a website is less 'how it looks' but more 'how it's managed.'

The idea of being able to share my stories and experiences with anyone on the planet is what keeps me up at night tinkering with WordPress or MovableType. That is what we are supposed to with our lives - instead of having our stories fed to us by a ad-driven entertainment system.

[John Evans]

Of the 35m blogs out there, most are of the "Hi, this is me and my incoherent ramblings" type. 0.03% are business blogs. Of the rest many introduce some philosophical content which justifies the entire blogosphere. This site is one of them.

I'm enjoying your thoughts and looking forward to your periodical. In the meantime I'll make do with your RSS feed. However, please don't write off 2005 ~ it's a great year and deserves a post or two ;-)

Warmest regards,
John M Evans
SYNTAGMA
http://synastry.blogspot.com