Web 2.0 becomes Edge 2.0: Rewiring the web through Blogs, Global Voices, reading lists, Top Ten Sources, Delicious (I know, I never can spell it either)
Jun 23rd, 2006 by jimmoore
Edge 2.0. Consider that NetFlicks makes accessible 60,000 DVD titles, and promotes the long tail of film content, and feeds our insatiable desire to explore, to engage new people, to be curious. NetFlicks gives us access to the “edge”–to each other, to variety. NetFlicks is the opposite of Comcast’s “On-demand” of a few titles.
Can we work to create and support more NetFlicks-like models of indexing the web? These are so-called “long tail” models, which make available the rare, the excellent, the focused, but not necessarily the most popular items.
Can we fight our way beyond the echo chamber of celebrity, and meet some new people? In my last post I spok of the fight against the powerlaw of blogging celebrity, in this post I focus on enhancing the edge.
Edge communities
Dave Winer (archive) is fond of saying that “in blogging it is not how many people read your blog, but who reads your blog.” Blogs are a way, first and foremost, to link folks together into new forms of conversation and interachange of ideas. If a small community grows up around a blog or a ring of blogs, that might actually change the world. Ideas can be shared, a group mind can emerge, and sometimes a new insight of great beauty or power can be borne..If only Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld had a little private blog ring that had a few women in it…they might get some new ideas..
I began going to Africa a few years ago, and I was stunned at the pervasiveness of instant messaging and especially of ICQ. In the following years I got to know Yossi Vardi, of ICQ, and have been converted to his philosophy. “The most powerful force on earth is people’s desire to communicate with each other. Nothing can block this.” Any application type that enables communication is bound to succeed. IM, VOIP, blogging: all bound to succeed. Why? Because these applications shorten the links between people, they enable bridges to be constructed among social networks that have hitherto been isolated from each other. They increase the total world capacity for civility: social permission to reach out to each other, a sense of the continuous intimate presence of people physically and perhaps psychically far away, and instantaneous sharing of perceptions.
Powerlaw of celebrity
But what cuts against this trend is the powerlaw of celebrity. Powerlaw and celebrity trade away quality for popularity and simplicity.
Celebrity is convenient. Why get to know many people, when you can get to “know” a few like, say–Jennifer Aniston!! And always have someone to think about, talk about, fantisize about…
Celebrity provides rallying points. George Bush, Al Gore, Anne Coulter. Convenient, clear and edgy–if not exactly subtle or discerning.
Google Page Rank is based on a form of celebrity. Technorati is based on celebrity. Memeorandum is based on what Web 2.0 celebrities say to each other. O’Reilly Publishing is based on making celebrities, packaging them up into exclusive conferences (the Web 2.0 conference is by invitation only), and indeed servicemarked the term Web 2.0 itself–and sending “cease and desist notices” to people on the edge with the temerity to use a term that itself connotes edge-oriented applications.
The problem with the powerlaw of celebrity is that it sets up barriers to those on the edge. It creates second class citizens who are not tops on Google, who do not get invited to speak at Web 2.0 the O’Reilly conference.
The problem of the powerlaw of celebrity is as profound in its own way as any other form of “the rich get richer.” Ethan Zuckerman has documented how the worldwide formal media only covers news in areas where advertisers want to reach viewers, listeners, and viewers. Ever wonder why Africa gets little coverage?
In the next few weeks I plan to write about the movement toward the edge. This is a movement from celebrity to quality. This is a movement to find true experts, deep and wise voices, fun people, cultural creatives, and new ideas. This is a movement to bring out the mind-blowing variation across the planet. It is a movement to connect folks to others who share their most creative passions. It is a movement, conversely, to try to de-connect from celebrity and centralization of stars, portals, and over-simplified, stereotypical, boring opinions.
My topic is Edge 2.0: Rewiring the people to people. Rewiring media relationships through Blogs, Global Voices, reading lists, Top Ten Sources, Delicious (I know, I never can spell it either), Wikipedia, and their Edge 1.0 predecessors Craig’s List, Ebay, ICQ (There are even earlier attempts that involved seeking to take edge characters and make them celebrities–like the “outsider art” movement. I regard these efforts as worthy but not really as rewiring the world.)
See you next post.
Oh yea, if this happens to be the first commercial use of Edge 2.0 (I sort of doubt it, but it might be), here is a creative commons license to use it as you will. BTW I really think O’Reilly should offer a creative commons license to Web 2.0. It would be the Edge 2.0 thing to do.
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