A few posts back, I made reference to what I call the "new" Internet. A buddy of mine asked me what I meant, so I thought I'd try and explain in more detail.
Back in the early days--and by that I mean early days of today's ubiquity, i.e., mid-90s--the Internet was a really neat place. Yes, we were stuck with dialup speeds for the most part, and there wasn't that much content, but everything was free, and there was a sense of community, or so it seemed to me. Then around the end of the decade and in the early part of the new millennium, things started getting silly. Everyone was out to make a fortune; every second site was subscription based. Then the dotcom bubble burst, and we all know what happened.
But today, the Internet seems to be regaining some of the old sense of community. AND bandwidth we didn't dare to dream about 10 years ago is now as cheap as water in Canada (well, maybe not quite that cheap, but you get my picture). Part of what makes the "new" Internet so appealing and interesting is the tonne of resources and applications that are available to "Internautes" (as they say in French) today. So I thought I'd make a list, in no particular order, of what I feel make the Internet a fun place to hang.
Back in the early days--and by that I mean early days of today's ubiquity, i.e., mid-90s--the Internet was a really neat place. Yes, we were stuck with dialup speeds for the most part, and there wasn't that much content, but everything was free, and there was a sense of community, or so it seemed to me. Then around the end of the decade and in the early part of the new millennium, things started getting silly. Everyone was out to make a fortune; every second site was subscription based. Then the dotcom bubble burst, and we all know what happened.
But today, the Internet seems to be regaining some of the old sense of community. AND bandwidth we didn't dare to dream about 10 years ago is now as cheap as water in Canada (well, maybe not quite that cheap, but you get my picture). Part of what makes the "new" Internet so appealing and interesting is the tonne of resources and applications that are available to "Internautes" (as they say in French) today. So I thought I'd make a list, in no particular order, of what I feel make the Internet a fun place to hang.
- Wikipedia
- Podcasts and podcasting (even if I dont have one myself)
- Blogs and Blogging
- Open source software and freeware in all its guts and glory (and yes, I'm posting this using Bleezer)
- del.icio.us and Digg
- Flickr
- RSS/Atom/XML and on-line news in general (if anyone has a spare subscription to newsvine, I'd be eternally grateful)
- iTunes and the iTunes Music Store
- IM, Skype, and video chatting
- Wifi (especially free wifi)
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