Sunday, December 17, 2006

'You' beat Ahmadinejad


Time Magazine choose 'You' as Person of the Year, relegating Iranian President Ahmadinejad to an honorable second place. (Time: You)

I also would have chosen Ahmadinejad, because in the original list there was no 'You' only YouTube, which is a different matter altogether. While YouTube is part of the You revolution on the Internet, it's only one part, the video clip part.

Expression and collaboration on the Net is much wider than video clips: book reviews on Amazon, photos on Flickr, file sharing with BitTorrent, profiles on MySpace, blogs on BlogSpot, knowledge on Wikipedia, Linux on DistroWatch, podcasts, citizen journalists all over... 'You' are taking over control in the Information Age.

Yes, You made your mark on the world. Not statesmen and war criminals make this world turn around, the people do and that's you. The Net is empowering the people. Millions of people exchanging information, collaborating, getting to know each other, making friends, and yes, making love not war.

As Time noted "We are looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started." A new digital democracy is bubbling up. Warts and all. 

I think Time made a good choice. And yes, also a good second choice: Ahmadinejad.

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