Time Magazine just made us “person of the year”. (Although I use “us” pretty loosely since they put emphasis on YouTube, Myspace and Wikipedia, two of which I use but none of which I’ve participated in much)
But look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.—Person of the Year: You
A bit of balance;
Sure, it’s a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.
Thanks Time. Got to wonder though, once Time starts using “Web 2.0”, does that mean we’ve jumped the shark?