Userland Philosophy 102: Internet-Centered Authoring

Amateurs rule.

I asked in Userland Philosophy 101 why Dave Winer focused so early on the Internet in his quest to build writing tools. Though not quite so awful as it was in 1995, the Web remains a generally horrible writing environment.

On the other hand, the Web is a world-class communication environment.

It is also the first medium that facilitates writing and collaboration unfiltered by cultural controllers and gatekeepers - or at least not yet easily controlled by them.

Consequently, while professionals write to the Web, they do not dominate the Web.

Amateurs (cf amtor, “lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective") rule.

Style, Timeliness, Integrity

While 'amateur' takes a pejorative context in our culture, the Internet softens and modifies that obsolete presupposition.

The Userland blogging community (and others under the banners of Blogger, the Wikis, Slashdot et al) has demonstrated how amateur weblogs outstrip mainstream technical publications in style, timeliness and, above all, integrity.

(No, not in all cases but in enough cases to reframe the nature of journalism, for starters.

Despite the whining of the professionals over weblog junk, what is far more remarkable are the many hundreds of outstanding weblogs extant. The percentage of top-notch weblogs to junk exceeds the percentage of top-notch professional - that is, paid - media to professional media junk).

Radio's inherent design support not only for publishing but for subscriptions and collaboration converge neatly with the Web's nature as a public transmitter and amplifier of personal and interpersonal dialogue.

Non-Techno Communities Wanted

I regret, though understand, why Frontier and Radio have fostered a techno community.

I understand because Userland still relies heavily on the shared bootstrapping ability and willingness of its users and supporters to raise the online authoring experience to the 'no brainer' level.

Until the tools become nearly transparent to writers (Radio has not yet reached this point), too much friction remains for ordinary folks. (Like what the heck is upstreaming? Categories? Tools? And so it goes ...).

I regret tihs because the best argument for Radio will be the development of non-techno communities of teachers, musicians, doctors, lawyers, gamers, golfers and candlestick makers.

Imagine a community of teachers making hash of the NEA.

A community of doctors taking it to the HMOs.

A community of lawyers attacking the irrational litigiousness of our culture.

A community of candlestick makers restoring craft and quality to their work.

These communities will emerge over the next five years. They can't be rushed. They emerge two weblogs at a time.

Public Citizens

Am I being romantic? Not me. Forget utopia.

The Web amplifies the stuff you like (and I don't) as well as the stuff I like (and you don't).

But by allowing amateurs like us to get in the game of shaping a micro-world in the public square - that is, the stuff in life for which we have a passion - the Web (and companies like Userland) are still plowing a revolutionary furrow.

Will it last or will it (we) be sucked into the borg of a super-branded, commoditized, consumer-based global knowledge (sic) culture?

No one knows. Certainly, many hope that the voices of the amateurs will simply cancel one another out and become the Web's white noise.

Meanwhile, and perhaps longer if we are fortunate, you and I have a chance to be 'public' again in much the same way our ancestors were in local cultures around the world. That is decidedly - thankfully - an amateur activity. It used to be termed citizenship in the days before we were the passive objects of polls.

I do not believe writing the Web is a civic duty (sheesh) but there is an element of civitas to the sheer act of participation. Civility is another matter!

Sure. Internet-centric authoring has barely reached the Model-T stage but at least we're driving something. (Don't forget that Radio integrates authoring with a full-blown scripting language, object-friendly databases and, now web services. I restrict myself here only to authoring.) By comparison with a product like Radio, Microsoft Word is not even a horse with respect to the Internet. It's more like a mule.

This is true not only of authoring products but of much else created during the horse-and-buggy days of 20th-century software. Microsoft, IBM, Oracle et al will still mint money for years to come with Office, Lotus Notes, Oracle and descendants. So? Boring. We have moved on.

But that is a tale for another philosophy course ...

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