Hint: it’s not always about the technology. Now, let’s see if I can explain what I think that means.
Here’s a brief run-down of what’s been going on lately.
An information sharing project that I’ve been working on continues to tinker along its merry way with very little apparent sense of direction or awareness of its surroundings. The reason why this is significant is because its surroundings are *supposed* to be the Web…that strange place where the book continues to be written on what it takes to emerge community-driven productivity, incubate niche technologies, and aggregate everything without centralizing anything. Granted, that last one is a bit of hyperbole, but it’s good enough to make a point. And the point is that you’re never going to build the thing that creates transparency, aligns disparate interests, and forges common purpose. In fact, attempting to do so doesn’t just hint at conceit, but betrays an undue faith in an industrial model ill-suited to a digital age. So stop pretending. What you should be able to do, on the other hand, is take yourself into the Web’s ecosystem, listen to what’s going on, and learn to play by its rules; begin to understand that Web tools are as much where they come from as how they are used or what they do. Perhaps such introspection is esoteric superfluity, but — in most obtuse terms — if the capabilities of the Web are not the source of your diminished relevance, then what is to blame?
On a separate note, an ongoing discussion about precisely these issues is beginning to sound more and more like the previous one should have, though their specific problem spaces may only partially overlap. I’m wary of too much initial optimism, mostly because of concerns I’ve expressed before; pursuing the generativity of the Web turns in many cases to chasing the dragon of false assumptions. Nevertheless, this thing looks like it’s headed down the right track, with many different angles to prove out the deep-down ’2.0′ concepts in ways that should speak for themselves. Heh, I’m curious what I’ll be saying once some more clarity emerges and the dialogue really starts to take shape. If the conversation can be managed in a way that avoids fetishizing tools over potential capabilities, however, then I think there are some good times ahead. Once we’re out the gate, I’ll start dropping names and shout-outs.
