“When you’re low down and dirty, from walkin’ the street
With your old hurdy gurdy, no one to meet
Said love ain’t the same on the south side of town
You could look but you ain’t gonna find it around”
For those of you who have been faithful readers, my frustration with social networking and the twin issues of applicability and TMI (too much information) might be getting tiresome. But as I pointed out in a previous post, social media is reaching a tipping point where the critical mass will either relegate it to the commonplace or catapult it into the stratosphere. While some people ordered prime rib, I’m expecting meatloaf.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term Web 2.0, you might think that it was the new-and-improved version of the original Internet. Even for the technically savvy, the term was originally mistaken for IPv6 which is the next generation of internet protocol (IP). It has the ring of newness in the same way that… In reality, the novelty is more akin to Compassionate Conservatism or Van Halen III. In reality, some marketing genius came up with the term to sell the services to more users. They adopted the time-tested method of incrementing a number to indicate change and sent their minions of pseudo-journalists out into the fray to trumpet the new savior of the Internet. It’s kind of like saying Bush II was an improvement over Bush I!
Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend that changes aren’t fast and furious in cyberspace. New products and services are continually released and there are some incredibly fascinating offerings out there. What I am going to tell you is that Web 2.0 is a sham, a farce, and Three-card Monte game all rolled into one. And, the beneficiaries of the scam are the makers of portable devices and software developers looking for new frontiers to offer their wares. There are some terrific services out there and Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook are prime examples. They provide some incredible functionality but they aren’t quantum leaps.
I mention this not to denigrate the offerings but rather as a warning. For everyone who thinks that social media is the cure-all that will bring the world closer and facilitate a flat-world view, you need to wake up. Web 2.0 is not a magic wand that you can wave and instantly make all the children play nice together. This still requires good old-fashioned organization work at the lowest levels with a lot of sweat. Social media is a great tool but, as the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like nails. If you pin all your hopes in organizing people or disseminating a message on it, you’re doomed to failure. However, if you add it to your arsenal of communications tools, it can be an invaluable asset.
So That's Life?
Same Old Song and Dance
05/14/2009For those of you who have been faithful readers, my frustration with social networking and the twin issues of applicability and TMI (too much information) might be getting tiresome. But as I pointed out in a previous post, social media is reaching a tipping point where the critical mass will either relegate it to the commonplace or catapult it into the stratosphere. While some people ordered prime rib, I’m expecting meatloaf.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term Web 2.0, you might think that it was the new-and-improved version of the original Internet. Even for the technically savvy, the term was originally mistaken for IPv6 which is the next generation of internet protocol (IP). It has the ring of newness in the same way that… In reality, the novelty is more akin to Compassionate Conservatism or Van Halen III. In reality, some marketing genius came up with the term to sell the services to more users. They adopted the time-tested method of incrementing a number to indicate change and sent their minions of pseudo-journalists out into the fray to trumpet the new savior of the Internet. It’s kind of like saying Bush II was an improvement over Bush I!
Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend that changes aren’t fast and furious in cyberspace. New products and services are continually released and there are some incredibly fascinating offerings out there. What I am going to tell you is that Web 2.0 is a sham, a farce, and Three-card Monte game all rolled into one. And, the beneficiaries of the scam are the makers of portable devices and software developers looking for new frontiers to offer their wares. There are some terrific services out there and Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook are prime examples. They provide some incredible functionality but they aren’t quantum leaps.
I mention this not to denigrate the offerings but rather as a warning. For everyone who thinks that social media is the cure-all that will bring the world closer and facilitate a flat-world view, you need to wake up. Web 2.0 is not a magic wand that you can wave and instantly make all the children play nice together. This still requires good old-fashioned organization work at the lowest levels with a lot of sweat. Social media is a great tool but, as the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like nails. If you pin all your hopes in organizing people or disseminating a message on it, you’re doomed to failure. However, if you add it to your arsenal of communications tools, it can be an invaluable asset.
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