I met another elder of the Internet yesterday. Her Majesty invited me to attend the launch of the new monarchy website along with Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
Without the work of Sir Tim, Matt Cain would not have been able to launch a pithy attack on Neal Lawson’s Compass and Derek Draper would not be able to defend himself against big media.
The blogs of Matt and Derek illustrate two of the three points I made at Labour’s bloggers breakfast yesterday. I said that the three key points for political parties to understand about web 2.0 technologies were:
1. Web 2.0 represents the ultimate democratisation of self-expression. We are all publishers now.
2. We can now communicate to more people than ever before at next to no cost.
3. Groups can come together around shared values, issues and concerns with very low barriers to entry.
That’s allowed Matt to make his political debut on a blog and Derek to stand up to the Guardian in a way he couldn’t have done a decade ago. It makes life a little more interesting.
5 comments ↓
Er, no.
“That’s allowed … Derek to stand up to the Guardian in a way he couldn’t have done a decade ago”
He threatened to sue them, exactly as he would have done a decade ago
Tom. You’re absolutely right but I’d add one further thing. There’s a level of equality online which means that you hear and pass on my ideas online without knowing much about me. The act of publishing online establishes a level of credibility.
Yes, this was possible before, but in my experience was much less meritocratic and accessible to far fewer.
And the home secretary can ban whoever she likes, free speech can be denied and Muslim Lords can threaten the Houses of Parliament with a private army of 10,000 if hey feel “offended”
Hoorah!
> 1. Web 2.0 represents the ultimate democratisation of self-expression.
I hope and believe it is not the *ultimate* democratisation more innovation will happen and things will improve in ways we can not imagine now as they have since the web appeared.
[...] in blogoland, I noticed at least two references to a new blog by Matthew Cain, who it would appear is a friend of Luke Akehurst, a famous and pithy [...]
Leave a Comment