Watering sod + listening to Fred Wilson = view of Web 3.0
I recently listened to two interviews that @fredwilson (Fred Wilson: avc.com) did with Robert Scoble and John Battelle. Each are worth watching (or in my case, listening to) if you feel like learning something. All three of those guys are pretty savvy when it comes to understanding this thing we call the web. And I personally find Fred Wilson to be as dialed in as anyone and I try to absorb all that he throws out there. One day hopefully I’ll get a chance to meet him.
Watering sod, listening to Fred Wilson
So yesterday I was out watering the new sod in my yard and I was listening to those two interviews and something that Fred was talking about really struck me. He was discussing what shape the Internet will take over the next several years and he talked about the trend of content decentralization: taking content from where it is created and seeing that content permeate all over the Internet, take different forms and grow into something new. Unlike five years ago, people will consume content in new places and in new ways.
Two things struck me as I was watering that sod. And by the way, when you have new sod, you have to water the mess out of it. I’m out there about 40 minutes EVERY MORNING doing this. Try fitting THAT into your schedule!
The first thing that struck me was that I was, at that moment, exhibiting this trend that Fred was identifying. I had found the interviews a few weeks ago on a website, downloaded them into iTunes, synced them with my iPhone (mentally flagging them to listen to when I had time) and was now listening to them while watering the sod in my backyard. That may have been possible a few years ago, but it wasn’t nearly as easy as it is today. And it will only get easier.
The second thing that hit me was that new sod is not that different from the web that we see materializing. Sod is layed in squares that start off completely seperate and grow together over time. When its done, it forms a new picture, and without each individual piece you’d have an incomplete picture.
Content starts the same way. Something happens and 50 people Tweet about it and five different news sources report on it (in that order, mind you). Then 25 people blog about it, then 1,500 people comment on it, then 3,500 people retweet it on Twitter…and it grows and grows. Ultimately a new picture is formed and this story or idea is now part of the fabric of the Internet.
There’s really no denying that this is what is happening with the web today. I personally use Posterous and Tumblr to grab content and throw it into my blog, my Friendfeed profile and distribute it via Twitter. Granted, I’m a digital nerd but you see the same thing happening on Facebook accounts, sharing via YouTube, etc. In fact, hopefully this content finds its way across the web soon so I can prove the concept out ;)
Now if it were only easy to track…
