June 09. @kevin2kelly sees an “emerging collectivism” in Wikipedia, Flickr, & Twitter. He describes them as a new “cultural vanguard,” a “steady move toward a sort of socialism uniquely tuned for a networked world.”
Vintage Kelly optimism, at a key juncture. (1/x) #wiredarchive
Vintage Kelly optimism, at a key juncture. (1/x) #wiredarchive
This issue is three months after @WIRED's cover story grappling with the financial collapse. It's also six months into Obama's first term in office, and four months after the magazine devoted a full feature section to the "GPS revolution" (aka impacts of the iPhone/mobile web)
So we've got the optimism of the Obama yes-we-can moment, the doom-and-gloom of the economic crash, and the technological possibility of the dissolving barriers between offline and online.
In the same issue, Chris Anderson also outlines "the New New Economy" (a callback to a 1997 @WIRED cover story). He imagines that, out of the current financial wreckage, we'll finally see economic activity concentrate in startups, rather than mergers and acquisitions.
It's easy to cast a bitter stare at these predictions from today's vantage point. (Hell, it's hard NOT to!)
We've had almost a decade of big companies getting bigger. The model for Silicon Valley success is still basically burn-VC-cash-then-get-acquired.
We've had almost a decade of big companies getting bigger. The model for Silicon Valley success is still basically burn-VC-cash-then-get-acquired.
Today the big platforms look less like a communitarian vanguard and more like powerful information industries that monetize our attention.
Twitter isn't a budding collectivist vanguard. It's full of toxic trolls that the company somehow can't manage to kick off the site.
Twitter isn't a budding collectivist vanguard. It's full of toxic trolls that the company somehow can't manage to kick off the site.
Partially that's just because we live in a dystopia now. Rosy scenarios wilt when confronted with the reality of the-government-puts-migrant-children-in-camps, we-mostly-can-just-tweet-about-it.
But I think it's also evidence of two systematic errors: a failure to think about institutional power, and a failure to think about how money/revenue demands alter social phenomena over time.
Also, as an aside, anyone who has been following these threads from me should also read @nkulw's "The Internet Apologizes" series from a few months ago. It's fantastic. nymag.com/selectall/2018…
Final note for this thread: here is a side-by-side of Kelly’s “old socialism vs new socialism.”
Notice how little of the new socialism is still around today. HuffPo closed its contributor section. RSS feeds are gone. Creative Commons isn’t growing. Adhocracy fades over time.
Notice how little of the new socialism is still around today. HuffPo closed its contributor section. RSS feeds are gone. Creative Commons isn’t growing. Adhocracy fades over time.
The final line in the article reads "The force of online socialism is growing. Its dynamic is spreading beyond electrons--perhaps into elections."
Instead the next (US) election (2010) was the start of an online-nationalist backlash that continues today.
Instead the next (US) election (2010) was the start of an online-nationalist backlash that continues today.
