... and the Democratization of Everything

It must’ve all started with man-on-the-street interviews. Some random event takes place, and a news team is out there to corral any yahoo who walks by and ask him what he thinks about it. Especially important if, say, a blizzard is on the way: “We’re here at Hinkle’s Hardware, where Joe Anybody is buying a shovel. Think this is going to be a big one, Joe?” “I think so, Andy.” “Thanks, Joe. That’s Joe Anybody and this is Andy Newsguy reporting from Hinkle’s Hardware. Now back to you, Samantha....” Hurricane coming? No prob: Joe’ll be buying plywood for his windows instead.

On the web, we don’t have to wait for Andy Newsguy to shove a mike in our face, we can volunteer our opinions anytime. And we do. Whether it’s my local paper or Huffington Post, I’m amazed at the level of public discourse to which technology has brought us. (First there are the Kilroy comments that simply register having read the article; then there are the Killjoys, looking to pick a fight.) And now there’s Twitter (in which I foresee no reason to get involved); can cyberspace handle this much public opinion? Can the universe?

And in line with Dylan Thomas’s observation from A Child’s Christmas in Wales that, after the useful presents of mufflers and mittens, there were the “useless presents” (including “a celluloid duck that made, when you pressed it, a most unducklike sound, a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow”), we have blogs like this one....

Mu!