Social Web

Solitary Confinement and the latest YouTube bans
I'm amazed at the web2.0 and social networking revolution. So are several governments and employers, but in a different way. Instead of jumping on board and seeing the realization of "We the People," governments have cracked down on the usage of social networks. Which makes sense if you're going for the totalitarian thing like Morocco or Tibet or China, but does not make sense if you're a soldier far from home 'fighting for freedom' in Iraq.

What crime did these soldiers commit that they must be cut off from their friends and families back home and be held in some sort of electronic solitary confinement? Seriously, these soldiers already have it bad enough. (Story at Washing Post)

I also find the reasons given by Navy Lt. Denver Applehans troubling: "The idea behind it is to have the bandwidth available to mission-critical areas." So you're telling me that our government -- which drops thousand dollar bombs and flies million dollar fighter jets -- doesn't have the resources to get enough bandwidth?


Famous For 15 People
Oh, and speaking of the social networking revolution, David Cushman at Faster Future has an interesting piece called Famous for 15 People. (link) He contrasts this with the idea of being famous for 15 minutes. This previous paradigm set forth by Andy Warhol supposes that the world will pay attention to each person in the world for 15 minutes.

With social networking sites, people are famous to each other. I can be on my friends' "Top 8," but not on the world's top 8,096. I recognize members of my favorite bands riding the NYC subway, while fellow passengers sit obliviously. Saxon Shore is famous to me and a relatively small number of fans.

Cushman's insight helps make sense of the deluge of information and music and blogs and videos on the web. As a reader, there is so much content worth my time but only the stuff that interests me will retain my attention. As a writer, only a few people will find any of this meaningful. But as Cushman points out, "The community of readers of this post are small in number. But they are absolutely the right ones. This post is not intended to be famous for 15 minutes. That would have little value to you or I. If it becomes famous to 15 people, 15 people who are willing to contribute to it, share it, change it ENGAGE with it, own it... then we 15 may discover value we never knew we could share."


Cheers. And may technology aid your social nature.