Hats Off to 'You'

In 1982, Time Magazine shocked many by naming

"computer" as its 'Person of the Year'. At that time, computers

were transmuting from a bulky monster to a friendlier desktop; IBM had

introduced the successful range of personal computers, Apple was coming out with

its own version and so were a few other players.

Now, more than two decades later, the fabled Time person has

been announced again-and this time it is "you". This "you"

is not really the you. It is more to do with the you in the Youtube. Youtube is

a place where people post home-made videos which anyone can view. Launched last

year by three Paypal employees, Youtube has taken the online world by storm.

Almost immediately, millions of people were swapping movies, starring their pet

iguana or darling child taking the first tender steps. In November, Time

magazine named Youtube as the 'Invention of the Year'.

Meanwhile, the search giant at Mountain View was having troubles

with its video ventures. Google Videos had not really turned out to be as

amazing as they sounded. So, the moneybags at Google decided to acquire Youtube

for a whopping $1.6 bn.

That's as much as history goes. Coming back to Time magazine

award, it is not the first time that Time is talking about technology; in 1997

it was Andy Grove, in 1999 it was Jeff Bezos, and last year it was the Good

Samartians, Bill & Melinda Gates and Bono. While Youtube may be the awardee,

the real winner is the idea behind the enterprise, the idea of collaboration,

the concept we all refer to as Web 2.0. Through 2006, in almost every sphere of

the Internet, there is a distinct shift to collaboration. Call it

democratization if you will. Indeed the ivory towers are breaking up and on

those ruins a new age is forming-an age where everyone is a contributor as

well as a consumer. "It's a story about community and collaboration on a

scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge

Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online

metropolis MySpace," reads the article of Time.

For so many years, we have been hearing about how Internet will

break the shackles of hardware and intelligence, and become a part of our

day-to-day life. In many ways, this is happening and the semantic web that Tim

Berners-Lee spoke about a few years ago is becoming a reality. Thus, in many

ways the award is for all those millions who make a point to be heard, share,

criticize, lament, congratulate, exult or cry. It is for all the millions on

Orkut, Flickr, Myspace, Facebook and others.

"Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any

experiment worth trying, it also could fail...This is an opportunity to build a

new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man

to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It's a chance for

people to look at a computer screen and really, genuinely wonder who's out

there looking back at them," reads the article.

Where are we now? We fortunate mortals are at that turning point

in history, witnessing how the world of the future will shape. A glorious world

of brilliant possibilities lies ahead of us, within our very grasp. All we need

is a mere belief in "yourself". Here's saluting the you.

Shashwat Chaturvedi,

CyberMedia News



maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in