Michael Wurzer Twenty years from now we will look back at this period of the early twenty-first century as a critical turning point in economic and social history. We will understand that we entered a new age, one based on new principles, worldviews, and business models where the nature of the game changed.
— Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
The other day, I was cooking dinner and my kids were watching Hannah Montana or Suite Life or some other Disney show on the computer in our kitchen. I asked them why they were watching on the computer with a relatively small screen when they could watch it on the bigger television. Without hesitation, they responded, “because we get to choose the episode we want to watch.” That’s what the web is instilling in our lives in ever new ways: choice, individual choice, control, freedom, creativity, joy.
Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams have it right, this is a special time in history and we’re privileged to be living and participating in it. I think it’s sort of like watching people like Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods at the top of their game; you know that you’re witnessing something special. Even more so, though, the revolution of the web involves us all individually and gives us an opportunity to participate in the revolution. We’re not just on the sidelines or the bleachers watching greatness, we’re a part of it. Every day, I’m thrilled with the possibilities, because I know we’re living history.
I treasure the thought that I’ll be cooking dinner again years from now, with my grandkids nearby, and they’ll be doing something that today would seem unfathomable, but it will have everything to do with the web. I’ll then be able to enthrall (or bore) them with a story that starts, “I remember when . . .”