Today, we wonder how newspapers survive. Today, we wonder how the music industry will survive. Today, we wonder how GM and Ford and the rest of the US auto industry will survive. We worry about a lot of larger scale creations.
We used to worry about larger computers. We no longer do. We used to worry about sharing information. We no longer do. We used to worry about small voices being lost in the shuffle. We used to worry about a lot of things.
Tomorrow (and I mean the day after you read this), we already are equipped with the most robust and least expensive toolset for communications that the world has ever seen. We possess massive distribution networks for free. We are all Gutenberg. We are all Murdock. We are all available and ready.
Why do we seem scared? Because the money didn’t follow the distribution lines the same way as it did with the other media (news, radio, TV, movies). But maybe that’s not where we need to get our money from this next time.
Tomorrow (and I mean the day after you read this), we are modular. We are fighting smaller wars. We are reporting smaller news. We are having simpler conversations. We are the dial tone. We are the movie theater.
Yes, bigger things will still loom. Yes, there will be those stories and issues that need the largest stage possible. This cannot and should not change.
But as for you and me, it becomes our job to atomize everything. Make components. Break it all down. From your text to your video, share and make share-able. Point out the good things. Give every piece a network. Deliver every piece to the outposts. Forget the home base. Forget the fleet. Make and launch pirate ships in all directions and seek out the gold (=goal, =whatever you think is worth sailing for).
Stay with the old at your own risk. All tomorrow’s armies are equipped and ready to embed. We don’t need to gather. We have our own dial tone. We connect and disband the way waves shape the beach.
Or not.
Photo credit, Dade