I email subscribe to this blog called Life 2.0. They are quite reflective about life and human nature. I stumbled across this in my email inbox, and thought it was worthy of sharing. If you have few minutes to read it please do.
Life 2.0 - (rss1) |
Posted: 07 Dec 2007 07:30 PM CST
Reading Stephen Fry's excellent post “Is this the greatest living Englishman?”, I find it incredible that it was as recent as 1990 that Tim Berners-Lee first cooked up the hypertext transfer protocol (http) and the complete architecture for the web. It's probably made the biggest change to our lives since the invention of the printing press... completely transforming commerce and the way we communicate.
Altruism
To me, his gift was not http (someone, somewhere would surely have invented something similar), but his decision to make his invention free for all. There were no patent dues, no royalties and no restrictions: it was an open book. His dream was a free interchange of information, and he stood by his principles.
It's others -- the Googles and Yahoos of this world, and a million more, that have built their fortunes on the back of his work. Meanwhile Sir Tim still works away today, as modest and as unassuming as ever, heading the WC3 Consortium towards an open, free and wholly public web from his base at MIT. Still driving around in his beat up old VW, I believe.
But lets just consider for a moment the difference he has made. Ten years ago money was synonymous with power. Brands, both political and commercial, got build through mass media advertising campaign -- TV, newspapers, magazines. Not any more. How much have Starbucks or Amazon spend on advertising? Word of mouth now rules. Or, perhaps more accurately, the hyperlinked word.
Influence
PageRank (now one of the main leading indicators of influence) is based on the number and quality of inbound links. But how many people do you think link to Proctor and Gamble, BMW, Intel or any mainstream corporate site? Would you, as a blogger, every have reason to link there? Probably not. Corporate sites have a hell of a job attracting links directly, because what attracts interest is rarely the products or the companies themselves, but the experiences and stories that people tell about them.
The upshot of this is that if someone writes an informative or revelationary piece about their experience (good or bad) with a company's products or service, that piece will quite easily hit the front page of search results for that company. Let's not miss the significance of this: An interesting and authentic article written by you can have a bigger impact and more immediate effect than the entire marketing budget and efforts of a global organisation.
Now THAT is influence. And although the potential of weblogs may not be fully appreciated by bloggers themselves, it's certainly not lost on many a head honcho in industry, marketing, PR and big media who are bricking themselves right now.
Freedom
But, at least to me, it's not the power to disrupt the status quo that's most interesting or significant. It's the ability to allow good ideas to fly. Blogs, being frictionless, can be catalysts for quantum leaps in our understanding. This opens up completely new opportunities... particularly in the way we work together, organise ourselves and create things.
People talk about Enterprise 2.0 being the democratisation of the work place and the replacement for the old hierarchies and control models, but I don't think it's about democracy. It's far better than that. It's a new meritocracy. And not a meritocracy of people but of ideas.
When ideas can come from anywhere we let go of our dependency on leaders and experts. Without the pressure on a few to deliver for the many, everyone benefits. We all become responsible; and people get valued for what they bring to the table now, not their resume or position.
An enterprise is the sum of its people and, like all living systems, it thrives on energy. This energy is the flow of ideas, of inspiration and also of love. This flow is the life blood of any organisation. As we learn at school, energy cannot be created or destroyed, it's always there. We don't do anything to make energy flow - it does that already. What we need 'do' is simply remove the barriers -- the systems, the doors and policies that cause the friction... and then get out of the way. Living systems thrive, adapt and self-heal when they become self aware -- when the connections are open and free.
All I can say is, that's pretty cool! Thanks Tim! Keep rockin!!
No comments:
Post a Comment