Anyway, he was talking about an online community that really makes change around them. Watch the video for his incite (I don't want to repeat what he so eloquently said), but it got me to thinking, "What do we get out of writing and reading blogs?"
I am very interested in this Web 2.0 thingie1. Where there is a network that shapes, in a way, what we see. Most radio, television and movies does not allow interaction. YouTube does. Blogging does. Okay, over time, perhaps some outlets do accept impact from outside of the production of its medium (the Real News, for instance).
You know, we can all write in our journals – my first journal was pink, and over time has turned to almost a tan color2. But when we write in journals, we don't interact with others, we don't change things.
This morning minouye got me thinking about changes I can make. We all change the world, really, by what we do, by what we consume, by how we treat the guy working at the local Quik-E-Mart. Perhaps we make greater changes by driving more courteously, by talking kindly to our families, by smiling at the grump in the office.
While I don't like minouye's cursing, I do like his message (and I like what his project will help; being near a military post, I get a glimpse at some of the long-lasting effects of war). It is not enough to talk about what should be done; things need to be done. I read somewhere that business schools spend most of there time talking about change – how to change organizations. Most of the time spent is on analyzing current conditions, the process of coming up with the change and communicating that to the masses. Very little is spend on implementation. And that's where the rubber meets the road.
Sure, if you are on YouTube, give minouye a good rating – perhaps he will get featured. But more importantly, much more importantly, change something you feel passionate about. Well, unless you want to gun down a school. Then seek help.
1Web 2.0 grew out of the "dot com" collapse, and the first Web 2.0 conference was full of brainstorming sessions. Some of the changes from the web to Web 2.0 can be seen below:
| Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| DoubleClick | --> | Google AdSense |
| Ofoto | --> | Flickr |
| Akamai | --> | BitTorrent |
| mp3.com | --> | Napster |
| Britannica Online | --> | Wikipedia |
| personal websites | --> | blogging |
| evite | --> | upcoming.org and EVDB |
| domain name speculation | --> | search engine optimization |
| page views | --> | cost per click |
| screen scraping | --> | web services |
| publishing | --> | participation |
| content management systems | --> | wikis |
| directories (taxonomy) | --> | tagging ("folksonomy") |
| stickiness | --> | syndication |
2Makes you think about the color that has come off on my hands over the years. I hope this dye is not carcinogenic. You missed my footnotes, didn't you?
3. My Stories. Yeah, I have a few erotic stories here. I know, they are not all that good, but they were fun to write. Don't read them if this offends you (and they represent less than 1% of the content here). These stories have elements of truth and fantasy, some more true than others. Complain about something that is a bit more substantive if you must complain. I have lots of faults.
1 comment:
akamai > bittorrent? Did you take this from some O'Reilly Report or somethin'? Akamai and Bittorrent aren't similar. I mean...the idea isn't exactly the same either. I don't think they line up well. I used to work with akamai in the day.
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