From BBS to Facebook

Posted on January 18, 2008 
Filed Under Weblosophy

In the beginning was a modem and the modem was good. With this modem, many unrelated people could all call a single computer and this computer could serve their requests and allow them to exchange information. In the beginning was a BBS.

BBS soon evolved into popular services for the masses that went by the names of AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve.

The core concept of these entities was not that much different than a BBS, however they put a graphical skin on it to make easy for the general population to use. On these self contained services, users could chat with each other, share information and so forth.

Soon man became restless with being trapped within a pre-defined playground and began to look to the outer reaches of space.

Man thought that if a big company could make a little world of information for people to play in, then why couldn’t common man do this as well.

Here we have the beginnings of the World Wide Web.

  1. Pick a subject
  2. Get a Domain or host
  3. Write or host discussion on this subject and look you have thousands of people every day visiting your home made web page

From this point most of it is history and standard exponential growth. AOL and the Fishtanks died in the face of the great ocean, 1999 came and people began to realize that the web was going to eventually replace TV and Tradional Media as the prime source for peoples entertainment and information.

Here came gold rush 1.0

There was alot of wasted ideas, but some survived

What made these companies survive with the lions share while thousands more failed in IPO dreams?

What they probably had in common was the people behind them. The founders of these new media companies were not constrained by the old ways of thinking. They understood that they were clearly in uncharted waters and that the only answers to their questions would come from themselves.

In this way, most would fail and follow, while some would prosper.

Fastforward to the 2005-2008.

The idea is that these 2.0 goldrush sites are going to become the permanent replacement for CBS and the New York Times. That within a certain amount of years, all people will go to these sites for their socializing and entertainment. That traditional TV and Media will become obsolete.

The ‘powers that be’ recognize this and are hot on the tails to create the new dominating media empire.

Did you know that Google is the 5th most wealthy company in the world?

That means that in the space of ten years and with no physical inventory and bunch of servers in Mountain View, Google has manged to out value auto manufacturers, telecommunications and oil and gas incumbents.

I think we all know where this is all going.

The world is changing and so is the web. People worry about the Web 2.0 Bubble, that it will come and burst like the 1.0 bubble. But I for one agree earnestly with Peter Thiel when he says “There is absolutely no Technology Bubble.”

Web 1.0 broke because we were not ready, but more importantly because we were trying to apply Old world business to a new world entity. In Web 1.0 bubble there were old ladies losing their life savings in over inflated IPOs. There was no purpose expect to get as much money out as fast as possible.

In Web 2.0 we have something that was missing in 1999.

Purpose and Meaning.

We are out to evolve the Web into the perfect source of information. A hard coded version of universal consciousness.

now shall we begin?

Comments

One Response to “From BBS to Facebook”

  1. prawkanda on August 14th, 2008 4:05 am

    I’m new here, just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

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