2010 will mark the beginning of the end of US dominance of the web. I am not predicting the decline of the US Internet market, but rather its eclipse in size and overall influence by other centers of web economies. In essence, this is not an Internet prediction, but an economic one, as the web is simply a reflection of the world, and the world is clearly moving away from a US-dominated model.
Web
John Battelle: The world is clearly moving away from a US-dominated model
Nick Carr on "Sharecropping the long tail"
MySpace, Facebook, and many other businesses have realized that they can give away the tools of production but maintain ownership over the resulting products. One of the fundamental economic characteristics of Web 2.0 is the distribution of production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic rewards into the hands of the few. It's a sharecropping system, but the sharecroppers are generally happy because their interest lies in self-expression or socializing, not in making money, and, besides, the economic value of each of their individual contributions is trivial. It's only by aggregating those contributions on a massive scale - on a web scale - that the business becomes lucrative. To put it a different way, the sharecroppers operate happily in an attention economy while their overseers operate happily in a cash economy. In this view, the attention economy does not operate separately from the cash economy; it's simply a means of creating cheap inputs for the cash economy.
Unintentionally racist moment brought to you by CHOIRE SICHA
Whether he likes it or not, Choire has become enough of a fixture of the post-Gawker online publishing world to be considered part of the New York City media elite. And he's white. So it's no surprise I hurt my eyes rolling them after reading what is obviously intended to be a clever little throw-away post for him in What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night? | The Awl:
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This is what your internet services would look like without net neutrality
And now for something completely different.
Ever wonder what the hell people are talking about when they say put "net" and "neutrality" together? Well, I think sometimes pictures can speak louder than words as is the case with this theoretical "tiered internet menu of services" put together by the good people of Gawker. Via Gizmodo's Net Neutrality Worst Case:
Now, that's just for big media company sites.
Imgine all bloggers being blackholed unless you publish with Blogger, MySpace or WordPress. Imagine RCN or Time-Warner saying that for my blogs to appear on top tier internet services I would have to par them $300/month or something ridiculous like that.
That's what the net and the web would look like without net neutrality.
Welcome to my nightmare.
The Peabody Awards have more than a few surprises
The Peabody Awards are out and my first thought is, "Why in the bloody hell are they giving an award to NBC for their Olympics coverage?" But then there's well deserved awards like the one to YouTube and two which I didn't comment (because I don't watch the shows): Lost and Entourage.
Other winners include :
NBC Coverage of 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and Zhang Yimou (NBC)
I thought it was actually quite crappy the coverage with restricted web access and fucked up advertisement breaks.
This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money (Public Radio International/NPR)
Absolutely deserved. It is such an amazing documentary about the factors involved in the current economic crisis that I find myself referring to it constantly as background historical and theoretical information.
Coverage of 2008 Presidential Primary Campaigns and Debates (CNN)
CNN had indeed the best team covering the elections.
The New York Times Web site (www.nytimes.com)
Their's may be an example of the future of online newspapers but they still suck at attribution and linking back to bloggers (in the main newspaper articles, not the blogs. Their bloggers are actually quite cool.)
Saturday Night Live Political Satire, 2008 (NBC)
Sadly, the only funny stuff to happen on SNL in like 20 years ... maybe with the exception of "Dick-In-A-Box".
Avatar: The Last Airbender (NICK)
Best. Animation. Show. EVER! Ok, not the best ever because their ending actually sucked a little (am totally opposed to Aang and Katara getting it on. Still, it's really like nothing we've had in kids TV in this country. It is truly exceptional and brilliant.
Onion News Network (www.theonion.com)
This truly blew me away, but ONN is like extremely Daily Show. They really are pushing parody and satire to the limit.
YouTube (www.youtube.com)
Broadcasting and cablecasting will never be the same no thanks to YouTube. For that, they should get a Noble Prize in Computer Science as well.
From The Peabody Awards :: An International Competition for Electronic Media, honoring achievement in Television, Radio, Cable and the Web :: Administered by University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication:
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Dear Lazyweb : I want a virtual computer online of my hardware-based computer
Mercury is in retrograde and I have been told that when that happens, communications of all forms break down. Internet connections go kaput. Emails get lost. Miscommunication and missed communications of all kinds happen when Mercury is doing the backwards funky chicken.
Well, I have evidence that Mercury hates me. Nay, it doesn't hate me. It despises me.
I am writing on a PC, pining for my baby Linus to come back home so that I can put it on life support. My 17" Apple Powerbook is dying and I'll be out of a laptop sometime this year.
I had already plunked down for a new hard drive after the original flaked out on me a few weeks ago. Just this past Friday the screen blew out and that was basically that. It's just too expensive to repair, so am stuck in this recession with the need to buy a replacement. That's about $3K I can't spend right now. Ugh.
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