the big bang

Newsbooster.com barred from linking to Danish newspaper Web sites. I know you've already seen this one. In fact, if you work the web, you've probably come across no fewer than three heated, I-can't-believe-they-did-that debates online. I know. You've heard all the arguments, the similarity to search engine behaviour, how references in the offline world have been happening for years, how people go to the bathroom during commercials so how is this different, etc. I'm not writing this to inform you or even to debate with you.

I'm writing this because I'm scared.

And I'm writing this because companies are scared.

And while my fear may keep me up at night, theirs may very well strangle all the wonderful things we've come to love about the Internet.

Media companies, .net, AOL, these are the things that scare me. Dangerous precedents like the ones set by the Danish courts scare me. I'm afraid that ten years from now we'll all be logging on to MSAOLNBC.com, our only "portal" to the online world, and actual usable and exciting content will be in a wee 200 x 200 px box surrounded by blinking, flashing ads that talk to you and take note of every click you make, sending streaming reams of spam through the tickers that are built into the unchangeable desktop on your Windows.com computer.

Sound like science fiction? I'm not so sure.

I remember what online services were like before the web. Proprietary, forbidding, ad-laden... and companies had to pay through the teeth to get their content before the “eyeballs” of those online users. Forget about independent publishing. Just didn't happen.

With all the consolidation, constriction, law-making and bullying going on by so many companies today, I can't help but wonder if we're heading back down the road we've traveled.

I mean, think about it. Maybe the Web is just a micro version of the universe. It started with a tiny speck (Tim Berners-Lee's server at CERN) and grew exponentially at such a tremendous outward rate that it was staggering. Life flourished. Biological, chemical and physical creativity abounded.

But we have all heard what some scientists think will happen to the universe, haven't we. That what started with a bang will also go out as one, folding in on itself in an awesome display of gravity. The ultimate act of destruction, a neat bookend to the ultimate act of creation.

I'm sure someone with greater knowledge of cultural history, science and even math than I could probably even tell you some interesting supporting information for that theory. Not me, of course, but someone. :)

Of course, the universe won't be contracting out of fear. But the Web might. I can even understand in a way why companies feel so threatened. But what things we could do if they could learn to embrace it instead of fighting it!

And here's the kicker, the thing that non-web people may not even understand: I'm not afraid for my job. If the Web collapses and MSAOLNBC.com won't hire me (and maybe even if they would) I'll go off and do something else. Decorate cakes, maybe. But I will feel a hollow sense of loss for my entire life, and it's not because I lost my place of work.

It will be because we lost the Web, plain and simple. The potential (realized and unrealized both) of this medium stuns me on a daily basis. Exciting things happen here.

• Communities happen here.
• Markets and conversations happen here.
• We are small pieces, interconnected here.
• Our rights are protected here.
• We think and share and wonder here.

Do what you can to protect it. Help to educate every company you touch, every single day. That's where I'll be. Wave if you see me.

reader feedback

Kevin writes:
“I think I have a better answer than trying to convince the big media co's to play nice - build a market to make them irrelevant. Let me know if you agree.”

Angie responds:
In theory, I love this idea. It's an idea I've heard espoused many times, and I agree it would be the ideal solution. The problem is inertia. Web workers (in general) don't fall prey to this as often. Look at what we do when we come together! But the Average Joe just doesn't often rise up from the couch to fight such a thing. What do they care? How many independently published sites do they visit regularly? Would they even know it was independent and worth fighting to protect?

How many average joes still believe that the Web and all its “potential” is just hype?

The world has far more average joes than passionate web workers. We'd need one hell of a buy-in to create a new marketplace, and even then that's no guarantee that the new market would win out (see Napster). Not to say it isn't possible; it is. The point is, big business spent a lot of money to get our dollars, and are willing to spend countless more to keep us all lined up like ducks in a row.

Mass education is the solution, I feel, but even knowing the facts many may choose to allow the MSAOLNBC's of the world to make their decisions for them. How do we solve it? I don't know. Do you?