"We need to believe in the impossible"

By Sona Hathi, Assistant Editor, Melcrum

This week on Melcrum's comms network listserv, Jason Buck, a web, digital and communications expert shared a fascinating video about the evolution of the web, both past and future.

The video features a talk by Kevin Kelly on the first 5,000 and next 5,000 days of the web. As Jason said in his message to the network, it's worth watching for those of you "labouring under organizations who still think that digital or the web is still just a bit of a fad invented by those funny people in IT...".

Before you watch it, I thought I'd share some of the most interesting points Kevin makes.

• A few years ago, we all thought that it would be impossible to do what we do on the web now - the web is going to get even more phenomenal. We need to get better at believing in the impossible.

• The web is similar to the human brain. But, while your brain is not getting bigger every two years - the web is.

• We're going to become completely co-dependent on the web. We won't bother remembering stuff.  But this isn't a bad thing - think about how dependent we are on the alphabet?

• Finally, and most interestingly, the web will be totally personalized - however this will require total transparency. 

On this last point, my thoughts matched exactly those of another member on the network, in order to be totally transparent, we have to trust that others will be too... scary! Is this realistic? Is this possible? Ah but of course, I must train myself to believe in the impossible.

Comments

[Annie Waite]

Great post, Sona.

You mentioned the point made that in order to be totally transparent, we have to trust that others will be too... Is this realistic or possible, you asked. I'd say it's definitely both, judging by what one web expert has predicted.

A few months ago I attended a PRSA event in Chicago (http://www.melcrumblog.com/2008/06/mommy-bloggers.html) and one of the panelists at the event, Dick Costolo, group project manager, Google, (former CEO of Feedburner) was absolutely certain that "In 2 years, most people will have a 'Commenter I.D' for leaving messages on blogs or other online sites."

But for this to happen, I think what he was saying was that we'll have to give up our web nicknames, such as the ones we use on Second Life (Melcrum Antfarm, at your service) and also a lot, if not all, of our web anonymity.

So what you might say quite comfortably at the moment on an internet forum, for example, in the future you might want to think again. The reason being that all of your web comments, purchases and activities will be traceable back to your one I.D.

Isn't it all a bit 1984? As I understand it (which may only be one side of the story), the benefits are supposed to be that instead of having to contend with your own memory and the multiple logins/passwords etc you've used over the years, this commenter I.D would simplify the process and you'd only need one set of details for all your web transactions and activities.