Collaborative, Community Content is Key

What do we really hope to gain from Web Two Point OHHH!! shit here comes the McDonald’s marketing machine!!!

An article over on New Media Age sparked a little idea that has been rattling around for a good while.

I am a big believer in the idea that people themselves should control the medium of high culture. Its essential for democracy and a healthy storytelling culture in general. What this article shows is that we are moving to a point where everyone with a mobile is now connected via the world wide web.

From the point of view of a democrat (cultural and political) this provides an amazing opportunity to build platforms into this system that will allow for a more inclusive, collaborative society.

From a marketing perspective, it means a captive audience, constantly exposed to the machine of modern global capitalistic opportunity.

Why bother informing, educating and involving people more in the system when you can push them to buy more stuff. The more stuff they buy, the better the economy does, and that means everybody is happy.

I’m as realistic as the next man, and I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck, but there’s a line you don’t cross and a base level you try not to reach.

How good would Jesus’ message have been if he had been wearing the name of a local eatery on his gown while allowing his fisherman friends to sell copious amounts of cod at his speeches. Its a perfectly acceptable arrangement at some level, but you cant help imagining the self-styled Son of God thinking to himself, ‘Guys, I’m trying to ‘communicate’ here’.

Its completely understandable when you consider the day to day reality of our economic system and its affect on our culture in general. The medium, as with everything, is part of the marketplace. And, of course, that’s all very…. interesting.

Problems arise when, out of this system, culture becomes product and the medium is taken over by the producers to sell their wares (physical product and / or ideas).

Here you have a medium that is completely open, democratic and transparent. And yet there is a very real danger that it will be swallowed up by the progressive marketing machine that has plagued every other ‘modern’ medium.

The evidence is there to show that all you end up with over time is a diluted message, an uninvolved public, and a load of generic content that does little but aim at the lowest common denominator.

It was relatively acceptable in the the golden ages of print journalism, cinema, radio and TV. Industry controlled content and the means by which it was presented. Like smoke filling a room, it was inevitable that the marketing machine would invade every possible nook and cranny.

But this is OUR Internet, OUR medium. And it is unacceptable if we allow this smoke to pollute its airways.

When you accept that the medium is the avenue along which ideas, information and discussion are supposed to flow within a community, you come to understand why so many of the real problems we face as a global nation are not being dealt with.

People are dis-connected. They are unfocused. They are confused. They come to believe sub-consciously that the world being presented to them on their TVs is somehow real, and that they must live up to its underlying message.

And I don’t accept the argument that ‘that’s life’ or ‘that’s how people really are’. That’s ‘horseshit’ frankly.

Rather than being completely Red and anti-establishment about it, I look at this arrangement with a cool head and I think ‘this is not good for society’. Especially one that, if you read the right books, newspapers and websites, is slowly tearing itself and the basis for its existence apart.

What we are talking about here is democracy and storytelling and how these are allowed to breath within a society. What we are also talking about is a global society that really needs to get up off its ass and start working as a team to solve all the problems we face together.

What all of these require is a community communicating. But how could they communicate with each other through a TV or Radio? These media were like noticeboards controlled by the teacher. Content was not representative and non-collaborative. It was controlled by the upper echelons of whatever institution had the power and the money to do so.

What the Internet (especially in the Web 2.0 era) is supposed to do is to allow even the poor angry trouble making kids in the back of the class to be heard. And maybe if they did, if their voice mattered, if they could contribute, if they were allowed to express themselves, then maybe they would start to grow up, they’d get involved, they’d try to make a difference, maybe even lead.

To me, Web 2.0 is about giving people the power to communicate with each other. To talk to each other. To share ideas. To act together. To take control of their own medium.

What will emerge is relative, innovative content, created by the community, for the community.

Its not a commie idea. Its not a hippie idea. Its not the calling card of dreamers, greens, reds, right wingers, Jesus freaks, anti-war-riors, or any other interest party. Its not for them alone.

Its for the sake of humanity Goddamn it!

Maybe if we work hard to ensure the smoke doesnt fill the room. Maybe if we build collaborative, creative, open, democratic platforms that allow people to make themselves heard and to take effective action when necessary. Then maybe the whole concept of ‘Power 2.0 the People’ can become something of a reality.