The web is filled with sites explaining why your business needs to have an online presence. I think by now everyone has figured out that the web is a wonderful, powerful advertising medium. It’s the marketplace of the world and if you own a business or provide a service and you’re not online you are already behind the curve. So, there.
But, is that it? Is the Internet just a business model? I guess you could point out that it is also a seemingly bottomless reference source. Everything anybody wanted to know about anything (but was afraid to ask) is on the Internet somewhere. If you have access to new or unique information on anything, please post it…the world is waiting.
So? Is that it? No room for the everyman to participate other than as a buyer of goods and services? Take heart, because there is change in the air. A new Internet paradigm is forming, something people are calling Web 2.0. There is a lot of discussion about new business models, new ways to advertise, new application platforms, etc., but the most important part is often overlooked. Web 2.0 almost unwittingly describes a new social phenomenon in which an older, wiser Internet community begins to change the nature of the web to conform to the needs of a distributed community.
Contrary to the early fears our parents expressed about an alienated youth living virtual lives alone in their rooms, experiencing human contact only via electronic intermediaries, in this new society people are more connected across a wider spectrum of experiences than ever. The youth of today are in near constant contact with each other. Through IM, online gaming, cell phones, blogs, chat rooms, etc. we are developing a new culture that encompasses all of the connected world, and the world is becoming more connected every day. It’s not unusual in the least to meet with friends at the coffee shop in the morning and have a chat with friends in four different countries in the evening.
The Internet is becoming bound up in our societal structure and vice versa. Too often, people focus on the technology and miss the larger picture of what it enables, like focusing on the houses in a neighborhood and neglecting the people that live in them. Like a neighborhood, the character of the Internet was initially determined by the architects that created it. Since then, people have moved in and gradually changed the nature of the neighborhood in ways unimagined by the original builders.
Should you have your own website? In the near future, I think that question will be like asking, “Should you have your own phone?” Websites are so easy to create, so inexpensive to maintain and have so many uses that just about everyone will have one and most will have several. Family sites for sharing with family and friends, work sites for keeping in touch with your peers, sites to announce upcoming events from yard sales to weddings, resumes, accomplishments, hobbies, sports, etc., etc., etc.
The Internet provides the perfect medium to retain the old sense of leaning on a fence to chat with neighbors even when your “neighbors” now live a thousand miles away. Once again, passing an evening in quiet conversation sitting in the “parlor” can be a regular occurrence. Even sharing your toddler’s latest refrigerator masterpiece with remote family members can be easily accomplished. And, this new structure applies equally as well to meeting new people. The number of people that have met online is growing exponentially and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Join the new global community and build a website.