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Time Magazine Person of the Year: You

In 1982, Time named the computer "Machine of the Year". Now they've gotten it right -- its importance is not about the tool but how it is used. The Person of the Year is You.

Timemanofyearpc  Timemanof7ear_2006

The two covers make an interesting contrast: In 1982, the computer is the focal point  and the screen shows a bunch of numbers, in a Visicalc-like application. The person is a generic, de-humanized plaster-like statue. The 1982 article raises concerns of computers increasing unemployment, dehumanizing society, and, with the inevitable reference to HAL the computer that runs amok in "2001: A Space Odyssey", how computers would generally mess things up. Little mention is make of networks, none of the Internet, and none of the potential for the computer as a communication device.

Now, it is all about how MySpace, YouTube, and other Web 2.0 applications are changing how people communicate, organize, elect their leaders, protest, and express their will. What a difference 24 years makes.

Clearly, predicting the future is hazardous business. But I'll make this prediction: This acknowledgement will put to rest the notion that Web 2.0 is a technology fad. It is now firmly established as a bona fide societal force.

Posted by Jim Nail on December 17, 2006 at 05:31 PM | Email this post Permalink

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Comments

So, it really is all about me. I mean, us.

Posted by: Rhea | Dec 17, 2006 8:49:13 PM

I think Time Magazine nailed it this time when the magazine named YOU as the "Person of the Year" for 2006. Time's Lev Grossman calls the democratization of the web nothing short of a revolution --- and I could not agree more.

The changes impact everyone from consumers who now have options to aggregate their information from any sources they want and to view it in any format they want --- to publishers that are learning what it means to adapt to this change in control. Looking back years from now, we'll remember 2006 as the year that forever changed the way information on the web was created, delivered, and received.

Posted by: Joe Lichtenberg | Dec 18, 2006 11:44:09 AM

How this prediction?...in another 24 years your prediction that Web 2.0 was societal force and the current Time cover and endorsement that *we* are the Person of the Year, will both sound just as ludicrous as how we view that 1982 cover story now ;)

Posted by: P-Air | Dec 19, 2006 1:49:27 PM

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