Internet Evolution gets it
Since its debut and addition to my reading list a few months ago, I have been a follower of Internet Evolution (IE). Bill St. Arnaud introduced me to the list (for grid and cloud computing considerations), and he and the founders have kept me reading.
A picture of the founding and contributing editors is emerging that I can get on board with: a sense of charming contrarianism, or perhaps better yet, a sense of Keepin’ It Real. Many posts are good and informative, but some clearly shine through, beaming the values of the founders. It started with Stephen Saunders’s Tokelau eulogy, seconded by his note on Facebook’s time-sink culture and Web2.0 sites that really matter, compounded by Nicole Ferraro’s irreverent account of how officially difficult it is to speak with the man who invented the web, and wraps recently with a vote for humans over the machine in a piece by Andrew Keen. What I most admire about these posts and authors is that they make thoughtful, sensible points without being mean, without being snarky.
Like a great many knowledge workers, I, too, have dozens of feeds in my bloglines reader that I dutifully read each morning. Internet Evolution is shaping up to be one of the most refreshing. Somewhere in the water at IE is a Mencken-like antidote to the cult thinking that the Internet is all there is to life, that digital relationships trump their wet chemistry counterparts, that the Internet makes us happy, that the Internet fulfills our every need. This from someone who lives on the Internet every day, making a good living thereon, and loves it as much as the next guy. But let’s keep it all in perspective, shall we? The Internet serves us – not the other way around. And thanks to IE for reminding us of it in their small corner of the world.
