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The difference between the printing press and the internet is that you and me could make a whole new Internet happen with just two $70 handheld computing device

The difference between the printing press and the internet is that you and me could make a whole new Internet happen with just two $70 handheld computing devices. The printing press needed a newsroom with typists and ad salesmen and a team of people wrestling with an ink belching mechanical beast. The minimum corporate interest required to feed such a beast is substantially more than the Internet business, the physical plant of which costs pennies a day in overhead to maintain (i.e. your cell phone and a few gigs of bandwidth.)

DenisM 10y ago
Money still buys you a lot of upgrades to your $70 internet. Ad campaigns, talented copy writers, data scientist, psychologists, computing resources for data analysis, large training datasets, cross-channel promotion (e.g. internet + billboards), astroturfers, community management, marketing, focus groups. The amateur hour will come to an end. Especially now that the presidential election campaign has shown us how it's done.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  I don't understand what your last sentence means, but it scared me for some reason. Like a threat?
  - DenisM 10y ago
    It means that all the viral news and memes stuff so far have been the work of amateurs. Now that the effectiveness of this approach was proven, well-funded professional teams will move in and drive out the amateurs. Same as it happened with newspapers. It seems you are afraid, but you shouldn't be. The professionals are funded by big businesses, they aren't looking to take your life, they want you buy their products, and they want you to be happy while doing it. It's really the same picture we've had for the last few decades, only the technology is a bit different. If you weren't upset back then, there is no reason to be upset now.
    - erikpukinskis 10y ago
      Big business needs both a healthy consumer class and a poverty/continuously violated class to act as a "this is what happens if you are a bad consumer/employee" example to scare people into various kinds of compliance, and maximize profit/minimize wages. It's comforting if you believe you can keep yourself and your friends out of that second category. I keep making new friends in low places so that's not the case for me.

DenisM 10y ago

Money still buys you a lot of upgrades to your $70 internet. Ad campaigns, talented copy writers, data scientist, psychologists, computing resources for data analysis, large training datasets, cross-channel promotion (e.g. internet + billboards), astroturfers, community management, marketing, focus groups. The amateur hour will come to an end. Especially now that the presidential election campaign has shown us how it's done.

erikpukinskis 10y ago
I don't understand what your last sentence means, but it scared me for some reason. Like a threat?
- DenisM 10y ago
  It means that all the viral news and memes stuff so far have been the work of amateurs. Now that the effectiveness of this approach was proven, well-funded professional teams will move in and drive out the amateurs. Same as it happened with newspapers. It seems you are afraid, but you shouldn't be. The professionals are funded by big businesses, they aren't looking to take your life, they want you buy their products, and they want you to be happy while doing it. It's really the same picture we've had for the last few decades, only the technology is a bit different. If you weren't upset back then, there is no reason to be upset now.
  - erikpukinskis 10y ago
    Big business needs both a healthy consumer class and a poverty/continuously violated class to act as a "this is what happens if you are a bad consumer/employee" example to scare people into various kinds of compliance, and maximize profit/minimize wages. It's comforting if you believe you can keep yourself and your friends out of that second category. I keep making new friends in low places so that's not the case for me.