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Welcome to Our Internet

The Internet evolves as all things do. The Internet is a special case, however, as it embodies the spirit of growth. Think about it. Everything you can find via the Internet is interconnected (therefore the term) by hyperlinks and content referencing more hyperlinks and content. As more hyperlinks and content are added, the Internet grows. If it can be said there is a single purpose, it would have to be growth. Where does the Internet stand today? Today is the Internet of "We", a wholly unsurprising development. After all, growth stems through production and spreading of thought, and that is exactly what the Internet has been doing. It is totally natural for the Internet to have reached it's new stage of social networking.

By social networking, I mean the various new applications that seem to spread not unlike a virus throughout the Internet today (the Internet is perpetuating itself!). Many people are now familiar with del.icio.us and digg. These sites, and many like them, share the goal of having users take a piece of content, whether they authored it or discovered it, and share it. This content is then loosed to all the other users that choose to partake in this ritualistic spreading of thought. It is then up to the Internet as a whole to deem the content "worthy" (in digg, this is done by voting on a piece of content, where the higher-rated content appears on the front page).

The Internet has always centered around sharing content. However, this newest phase in Our Internet is different. With Our Internet (am I killing that term yet? How about parantheses? I bet I killed those about a paragraph back), we not only share content, but judge it and spread it in an automated manner. Where once we would simply recommend content, we are now allowed to "pass" it through a barrier.

tags: internet

posted by Richard Moriarty @ 11:52 AM