And That's The Way It Is

There's always this temptation to say the internet changes everything. I don't know why in the year 2005 anyone is still saying that, but there are those who do. Particularly the old-timers (like me) who keep trying to redefine the internet in terms of all that came before, to redefine the new in terms of the old, calling internet auctions the new "marketplace" or blogs are the new "journalism", etc..., as if one has anything to do with other.

And they just don't get it.

The fact is the internet is entirely new. With the internet we now have a means by which anyone in the world can have a one-on-one connection with any other person in the world whether for commercial, personal or political reasons, and the challenge of somehow organizing the chaos of billions of voices all talking to each other at the same time into something cohesive and usable. That's all an internet auction or a blog or any other internet enterprise is, a means of organizing the chaos, and even though a journalist may publish a blog, to label all blogs as "journalism" is patently absurd. It's just one voice speaking out and if it finds an audience then so be it, and if it doesn't then that's ok too. Either way, it isn't the "new" anything nor does it "change everything".

(I also hate it when they call the internet a "community". Geez, 3 drunks passed out in a bar can be a community - that doesn't mean their accomplishing anything useful or significant.)

Anyways, that's the way I've always felt, but you know every now and then something comes along on the net that can almost change my mind. Podcasting for one, and that's what I really want to talk about tonight. In particular I want to tell the tale of 2 podcasts. One that showed how the internet can change everything, and one that showed how the internet has changed nothing.

The first podcast was the Daily Source Code for June 6, 2005. For those unfamiliar with the podcasting world, the Daily Source Code show is really the primal seed from which all podcasting has propogated and spread, and although it certainly wasn't the first downloadable audio on the net, Adam Curry has to be credited with creating the concept of the podcast (audio over RSS) and of promoting and nurturing it's growth over the past 10 months or so. He's a pretty interesting fellow too, and way ahead of many in the podcasting community in espousing the notion that podcasting is going to have to become more than just a hobby or a dalliance before it can ever succeed in "changing everything." No doubt he's taken some heat for some of his more businesslike pursuits in this regards, but like the philospher said, "So long as others praise you, you can only be sure that you don't walk your own true path but somebody elses." Ok, maybe that's a bit of an overtatement. He's not God or anything, but perhaps "if others can't see it's only because they lack his vision".

Anyways, the reason I bring this up is not to suck-up to the guy but to talk about the June 6 show and how it relates to the potential of podcasting and the internet, and in particular to talk about a song he played that was written and recorded by some soldiers serving overseas in Iraq. Now that might not seem very remarkable at first, but when you stop to think about it it's very remarkable, isn't it?

I mean just stop and think of how we usually get our war news. A reporter is sent over and does some interviews, a camerman shoots some footage, some commentary is added, and then it is all sent to be cut down and packaged and put on the evening news or in the morning paper. And that's not to say it can't be very well done. The reporting can be good, the footage compelling, and the editing concise and to the point, and yet there's something missing. Somehow the viewer or reader isn't really sure he's getting the whole story, or the important story, or even the unbiased truth for that matter. In the end it's just a secondhand version of the truth.

Now compare that with this song these soldiers recorded. This was not pictures or summaries or secondhand accounts, this was not some windbag or pundit spouting off into a microphone or camera about what was happening and what we should be doing and all that. This was a firsthand, primary account from soldiers actually fighting the war. Soldiers who weren't just talking to a reporter, but rather giving us their actual unfiltered and uncensored emotions and relating a little of what it's like living with this war day and night. It might not have been the definitive summing up of everything that is happening over there, but it was a perspective you don't get from the MSM (Mainstream Media) and yet as worthy and compelling as anything you'd find on the evening news.

Could the MSM bring you stories like this? I suppose they could, but they don't, do they? That's what's so different about the internet and podcasting - the fact that there are no barriers, no rules of what you can do and can't do and still sell a 15 second commercial. The fact that raw information can come straight from the mouths of these soldiers, over these wires and cables, and directly into my ear, without any intereference or reinterpretation to muddy the waters. The fact that even as anonymous as they are, they can still get their message out and find an audience who'll listen. I tell you, listening to that song made me think that just maybe the internet can change everything.

And then I heard the other podcast. This one was the May 13, 2005 show from Larry's World, a podcast put out by longtime technology writer Larry Magid who happens to be a very fine writer and a much wiser man than me when it comes to the internet and new technologies. His podcast is mainly interviews with the movers and shakers of the computer world and although he talks kind of funny his interviews are some of the best to be found anywhere on the podcast dial.

On the May 13 show he interviewed Rob Chandhok of Qualcomm, a leading player in the telecommunications business, and this is where it starts to get really depressing. Chandhok, it seems, is leading Qualcomm's push towards bringing you and me television shows over our mobile phones, a curious concept to be sure but one that could play out someday if the spectrum and the high speed networks necessary to make it work ever become widely available in this country.

So here was this guy Chandhok talking to Magid and you know what is his vision for the future is? Why good 'ol network TV on your cell phone of course. But what about some of these newer developments Magid asked him, things like blogging and podcasting? Will we be able to get this kind of grassroots programming on our phones? Well no, Chandhok said, I don't think that's what people really want. They want quality network-type programming, not these narrowcast type of shows that will only appeal to a handful of people.

In other words (and is anyone really suprised by this), according to Qualcomm what the people really want is a world where a few big media companies and a few big telecommunication companies have complete control over what we can watch and enjoy. Yeah, I was thinking, that's what the people want. That's why we're going to subscribe to their services - just so we can watch the same crap on our phones that we see in our living rooms every night. Geez, who wouldn't want that.

But that's how the internet looks to the people in Hollywood and over on Madison Avenue. TV is just this stuff they sell and the internet is just the new "online marketplace". Same goes for newspapers and magazines and music and radio. It's just what they sell, and they can't imagine anyone wanting anything different. And as long as they control the infrastructure and pay the salaries and sell the advertising space, that's the way it's gonna be.

So you see, the internet changes nothing.

And just one more quick thought while I'm on this technology topic. The folks over at KenRadio have been discussing this idea of mobile phones on airplanes and dreading what this is going to mean for the travelling public who find themselves stuck in a middle seat between a couple of idiots blabbing on their cell phones for 5 or 6 hours. The consensus over at KenRadio seems to be that the airlines should designate a special area of the plane, preferably in the rear next the bathrooms, where these people can go and blab to their hearts content without annoying the rest of the passengers. I'm in complete agreement, but I think a better place for the blabbers would probably be down in the cargo hold, or maybe out out on the wing somewhere? Yeah, you need to make that important call? Ok, just strap on these bungie cords and go stand out there by the left aileron. And don't forget to knock when you're ready to come back in.

Funny thing is, I bet there would be people who'd do it.