As he so often does, Dave Winer nails it, this time with The Un-Internet. Some pull-quotes:
At issue is this: Control.
For whatever reason, the people who run the tech companies want it. But eventually the users take it.
Either the companies learn how to take the lead from their users, or they will be sidelined. Unless the laws of technology are repealed, and I don’t think laws like that can be repealed.
It’s the Internet vs the Un-Internet. And the Internet, it seems, always prevails.
The Internet is each and all of us. It is no more reducible to the companies that try to control us than time is reducible to clocks.
I believe 2012 will be the year that Net-based companies (which are most of them at this point) will discover that free customers are more valuable than captive ones.
Here’s the deal: the Internet is already occupied: by all of us. This is why the Internet will beat the Un-Internet.
We occupy the Un-Internet as well, which is why we’re going to take charge of that too, and bring it in alignment with the free marketplace that the Internet provides in a remarkably pure form.
But we won’t be a crazy herd. We’ll be sources of help as well as money. And we’ll have our own ways of providing that help. The demand chain and the supply chain will start working together. Just watch.
the internet models consciousness as it exist in nature ..
Could not agree more concerning your and Dave Winer’s views concerning the Un-Internet….
This will be the year of that the “Multitude” understands its “VALUE” and demands “VALUE” be returned.
We are trying to bring some of this to realization at http://www.kleemi.com
The goal of Kleemi is to turn the pyramid right side up where it should have been all along…”Community First” coupled with “Transparency” and “Empowerment”
A kind of new take on “Public Utilities”/”Common Wealth”
The app is in a usable alpha so please excuse some of the mess…we are making changes on a daily basis and expect that the site will continue to move towards wider usability in the coming days and weeks. We have have decided to begin by offering some basic services and then begin layering and integrating VRM inspired features as quickly as possible.
One thing that I have found interesting when discussing the product features with our development team is that most of what we are trying to build/achieve is not about technical ability….It has been more about understanding the potential and possibilities of what can be done when “Community” and “Change” are the prime movers in or decision process. Many times we have had to step away from the thinking around the Frameworks of business models/tech of Facebook and others as these seemed relentlessly attached to models of content control and value extraction.
Doc, I hope you’re right, but am not optimistic. Companies have yet to learn that vendor lock-in is a bad thing – they all still want more ways to force customers into a relationship regardless of the customer’s wishes in the matter.
Well, PJ, I have to be optimistic, because that’s what I’ve spent the last five years of my life working on. 🙂
I agree with it. Technology is fast growing and these are the days of high uncertainty where cloud computing has been taken as a game-changing technology and the most relevant solution for today. Be it any industry or social networking or CRM or VRM, I fully agree with you.
Hey Doc, I liked this. Very truly said: “The Internet is each and all of us.” This is what it is today.
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