You! Apparently.
As the year comes to an end, many publications create their lists of best and worst and hippest and lamest and what else you can cram into lists.
TIME Magazine is doing the same, as they’ve been doing for a while (I don’t know for how long exactly…finding that out would mean I’d have to do research, and frankly, that’s not what this here is all about…most of the time). Anyway, this year’s person of the year is “You”, the guy reading this blog while at work, or the web 2.0 fanatic who reads everything any blog ever published even remotely connected to the phrase (any blog would include this blog, in case you’re wondering).
From an article from the BBC:
“It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes,” Time magazine’s Lev Grossman writes.
And:
Time praised the tool that made such broad collaboration possible - the web.
“It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter,” Mr Grossman said.
So, time to give yourself a pat on the back…and then please resume uploading those funny cat-pictures you took yesterday while drunk off your socks. Or whatever phrase you choose to wish in connection with being inebriated.
(image copyright:Time Magazine)
Just like thebeststuffintheworld, Standpedia gives random people with no real claim to expertship except for the fact that they know how to connect to the Internet the ability to leave their opinion on whatever they please.
While this surely is the apex of Internet democracy, I do wonder how long these sites will last.
See, both of them are nicely implemented. Thebeststuff is more like a collection of lists of what people think is the greatest stuff in the world. Well, the name really is quite straightforward. I has all the features of a social network type site, and it’s a fun way to kill time.
Standpedia is a bit more complex, they offer a more or less live discussion of various topics, giving people the option to add their comments and challenge other people’s views. They group these views and comments in a clean organigram-like interface. If I had a screenshot tool at my disposal right now (on Windows, so no KSnapshot), I’d show you, but alas, you’ll have to go there yourself to see.
Now, here’s what I think will happen to these sites. Well, nothing really. They’ll keep being fun places to check out once in a while, but more due to their obscurity than for their inherent value to the opinion seeker. Why? Because you’ve basically got a page that lets everyone add little comments about whatever they please, resulting in messy communication taken totally out of context, with no real information value to it. In the end, these sites will be fun for people who like watching micro-feuds on any kind of issue. Social network voyeurism, if you will.
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