The New Democracy
Right now I am working on a big strategy project for a non-U.S. telco. Our central thesis is that the convergence of new communications technologies means that they must focus on user participation and user-created-content in order to be successful. The democratization has begun, driven by massive user particpation.
The list of examples is endless. Measurements of data flows on the world's networks show that the vast majority is user-created communications traffic. Email remains the killer app of the Internet. Multi-player online games, with the content created almost entirely by users, are growing at an extraordinary rate. eBay, with all of its content created by users, is one of the most successful and profitable companies of the new generation.
Here in America, I am seeing incredible changes in our electorate. Via email, via bundled cell phone minutes, via blogs and online papers, via a multiplicity of cable channels, we are seeing an incredible groundswell of involvement, of participation, of awareness, of democracy. This is a new new thing, and reminds me of nothing so much as two old things; the Philadelphia described in Ben Franklin's Autobiography, and the explosion of published tracts during the Protestant Reformation in Europe, kicked off by Martin Luther and rocket-propelled by the new technology of the printing press. I've just returned from a trip to explore the Reformation, and I assure you that the visceral impact of walking from a hand-lettered bible to a room absolutely full of printed cheap paper flyers is incredible. That previous revolution changed society to its core, and this one is doing the same.
In the past 18 hours, I have talked to swing voters in two different swing states; sent emails to a Yahoo group which have travelled around the globe; read first-hand reports from hundreds of voters in the comment sections of sites like the Daily Kos and Washington Monthly's Political Animal; and posted my thoughts here more than once.
And then... I open my browser to Google in a vain attempt to do some work, and there, right on their famously terse home page, is a link to the Google Election Page, telling everyone to get out and vote!
This stuff is pervasive, it is unescapable, it is changing our world for the better. Welcome to the future of democratic content, collective action, and widespread conversation. Props to Larry Lessig; we've just remixed.
The list of examples is endless. Measurements of data flows on the world's networks show that the vast majority is user-created communications traffic. Email remains the killer app of the Internet. Multi-player online games, with the content created almost entirely by users, are growing at an extraordinary rate. eBay, with all of its content created by users, is one of the most successful and profitable companies of the new generation.
Here in America, I am seeing incredible changes in our electorate. Via email, via bundled cell phone minutes, via blogs and online papers, via a multiplicity of cable channels, we are seeing an incredible groundswell of involvement, of participation, of awareness, of democracy. This is a new new thing, and reminds me of nothing so much as two old things; the Philadelphia described in Ben Franklin's Autobiography, and the explosion of published tracts during the Protestant Reformation in Europe, kicked off by Martin Luther and rocket-propelled by the new technology of the printing press. I've just returned from a trip to explore the Reformation, and I assure you that the visceral impact of walking from a hand-lettered bible to a room absolutely full of printed cheap paper flyers is incredible. That previous revolution changed society to its core, and this one is doing the same.
In the past 18 hours, I have talked to swing voters in two different swing states; sent emails to a Yahoo group which have travelled around the globe; read first-hand reports from hundreds of voters in the comment sections of sites like the Daily Kos and Washington Monthly's Political Animal; and posted my thoughts here more than once.
And then... I open my browser to Google in a vain attempt to do some work, and there, right on their famously terse home page, is a link to the Google Election Page, telling everyone to get out and vote!
This stuff is pervasive, it is unescapable, it is changing our world for the better. Welcome to the future of democratic content, collective action, and widespread conversation. Props to Larry Lessig; we've just remixed.
posted by Ethan at 10:38 AM
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