I followed the thread about how bad a term “user generated content,” is and I fully agree. It misses the point completely, so completely that it betrays a perspective bug.
The value of writing publicly on the Internet is that you can solve problems quickly, by using a network of people who pool what they know to create something larger. When the Internet works this is why it works. It’s why conferences of VCs and their employees miss the point on technologies like RSS and even new stuff like Amazon S3 (which isn’t actually entirely new, but it’s still cool, very).
Without the Internet to develop RSS, it would have turned into something like CDF or ICE. Never heard of them? Exactly my point. S3 is likely to benefit from the Internet as a development platform because it will require a healthy sharing of ideas to make it work. Whether Amazon realizes this and lets it happen will determine whether S3 is a go or a no-go.
You need a village to raise a child, and you need an Internet to fully develop an idea.
In the 80s I called my outliners “idea processors” to focus on the application over the technology. But even then I was sure that networking was going to amplify the power of these tools. In that way, instead of thinking of “user generated content” think of the Internet as an idea processor, and you’ll be much closer to the power of what’s going on.
Posted by Dave’s Wordpress Blog » Blog Archive » Scripting News for 4/8/2006 on April 8, 2006 at 12:23 pm
[…] Essay: The Internet as “idea processor”. […]
Posted by Sylvia Paull on April 8, 2006 at 8:51 pm
The Internet is a thinking machine. It’s more than the sum of its parts and part of it is magic.
Posted by Sandeep on April 9, 2006 at 6:03 am
I definetly agree that the Interent is the “Idea Processor” and would say that without the Internet, to implement the Idea will be like travelling across the continent without Airways, Waterways….
Posted by Dave’s Wordpress Blog » Blog Archive » Scripting News for 4/9/2006 on April 9, 2006 at 6:43 am
[…] Essay: “You need a village to raise a child, and you need an Internet to fully develop an idea.” […]
Posted by dcinput » Blog Archive » dcinput daily for Sun 9th April, 2006 on April 9, 2006 at 7:01 am
[…] Dave Winer: “Instead of thinking of “user generated content” think of the Internet as an idea processor, and you’ll be much closer to the power of what’s going on”. […]
Posted by mixednuts on April 9, 2006 at 4:44 pm
“You need a village to raise a child, and you need an Internet to fully develop an idea.”
I like this quote.
Posted by Squash » Blog Archive » The fleetingness of memes on April 10, 2006 at 6:07 am
[…] Dave Winer says we should think of the Internet as an "idea processor". The value of writing publicly on the Internet is that you can solve problems quickly, by using a network of people who pool what they know to create something larger. When the Internet works this is why it works. […]
Posted by mobile jones on April 10, 2006 at 10:35 am
Cluetrain Again, User Generated Content
Perhaps, it’s time to purchase another round of The Cluetrain Manifesto for a new round of technology executives. "We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers – we are human beings". – The Cluetrain Manifesto,…
Posted by PR meets the WWW » Thinking out loud: Is the PR blogosphere fragmenting? on April 11, 2006 at 9:58 am
[…] Quick questions for those interesting in thinking -and discussing- about these topics (in the spirit of using the Internet as an idea processor): […]
Posted by Marketing for Nerds on April 18, 2006 at 7:23 am
internet as idea processor
The Internet as Idea Processor [da: scripting.wordpress.com]
Posted by Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard » Blog Archive » Outliners then and now on July 26, 2006 at 3:12 pm
[…] I was reminded of this complex software genealogy recently as I read a page that Winer recently linked to — a detailed chronicle, written in 1988, of how his once-popular outliners (ThinkTank and More) came to be developed. (I found it because Winer linked to it from another page about thinking about the Internet as an idea processor — which is also food for thought.) […]
Posted by anna on October 18, 2006 at 4:09 pm
internet as idea processor ? I don’t understand.