The cover of the September 2010 issue of Wired declared that “The Web is dead”. The duelling cover stories discuss the internet’s transformation from a democratized medium centered around gathering and sharing information to one that is powered by apps and devices created by a few companies. Chris Anderson’s article/commentary aligned the evolution of the internet with that of railroads and telephones, citing that the 186 railroad companies existed in 1920 have dwinded down to seven today. So too has the internet evolved from being powered by countless little companies, people and organizations down to being powered by a few key organizations like Facebook, Google, and Apple.
Wired‘s cover story may have a grain of truth to it, and in recent years, I have embraced and utilized these technologies for my own benefit. They have opened up my world in ways I would’ve never imagined in college, when I used to surf fansites (and Ain’t It Cool News) and use AOL instant messenger. Being at the point in my life of Saturn’s Return, I find myself regressing a little and I have the desire to utilize the web to do something more rewarding as opposed to self-promoting.
And so I have decided to create Screen Dialogic. The word “dialogic” is a superficial appropriation of Mikhail Bakhtin’s word meaning a literary work that carries on a conversation with previous literary works. Which is what a lot of blogs do. Blogs like HTMLGiant and This Recording carry on the spirit of “Web 1.0″, and are a reminder to me that there is still an audience interested in reading other people’s writing. Maybe it’s not a TMZ audience, but it’s life-affirming.
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