AT SXSW, Henry Jenkins, in a wonderful conversation with friend Steven Johnson, says that one of the great untapped resources in reporting on our communities are our young people: high-school students whose papers suck and whose principals are trying to limit their speech while they are creating more and more media.
Right. Put the right tools in their hands and see what can happen.
Jenkins says that we are in a new society built on collective, collaborative information.
That, I believe, is the key to Google: it is the platform that enables that. And things that are built, in turn, on top of Google, enable and exploit that.
Jenkins said that what separates Obama is that it is a campaign run in first person plural rather than first person singular. I buy that. It’s the look of a movement. But I still don’t think the movement is defined. It is an empty vessel. And I do believe there’s danger there.
Jason Fried is a great presenter. His shtick years ago about the things he didn’t do is legend. Today he’s talking about what he’s learned: “Be successful and make money helping other people be successful and make money. Spot the chain reactions. Be the catalyst.” Be a platform, in short.
