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A New Renaissance?

It's the end of another year.  Time to look back and then move forward. 

It was another good year for me.  Saw some more great places and met some more great people.  Next year, I hope to continue that pattern.

The biggest change for me in this past year has been this web site.  It started as a bit of an experiment.  "Learn a little html, digitize some pictures, and throw it out there," I thought.  Yeah, well, did that, and a bit more.

In the last few months, I've been a writer, a photographer, a graphic designer, a programmer, a marketer, a reader, and a researcher.  Wow, I thought.  I'm really doing a lot.  And I am.

Then, I realized that other webmasters are doing a lot more.  Besides my inventory, many web creators are doing animation, creating or manipulating music, painting, writing poetry, hosting chat rooms, giving advice to newbies, and presumably still finding time to eat and sleep.

Glenns' Wonderings

How do they do it?  Why do they do it?  Why do I do it?   Where is it all leading?

Dunno.

What I do know, is that if it continues, there are going to be a whole bunch of people out there who have a whole bunch of skills in a whole bunch of areas. 
If I'm correct, then it follows that these people will end up with a whole bunch of money and a whole bunch of power.

But that's not the cool part.  Every generation has it's group that catches the 'wave' and makes some bucks.  Remember the yuppies?

The cool thing about this group is that they are getting exposed to so much.  Have you, for example, noticed how much poetry is on the web?  Or graphic art?  Or midi music?  Some people are creating this, and others are viewing it, but everyone's getting exposed to it.  Willingly.  Not some bonehead school trip, or a bogus attempt at 'edutainment' (Did someone kill that yet?).

So, are we going to see a renaissance? A rebirth of arts, sciences, and humanity?  Hmmm.  It's possible.
I mean, people in Tokyo are talking to people in Nashville about Sailor Moon, a Japanese Animation series.  They practically talk in their own language.  I have to believe that those people are going to have a different view of the world than the Japanese and American students of the last 20 years had.  That has got to freak out some governments (and what could be cooler than that!).

I'd bet a long island iced tea (nectar of the gods), that we will see an exponential increase in hipness.  If you consider the difference between Seinfeld and whatever was hip in the 80's (Miami Vice?), that's probably nothing compared to the shows (and people) that'll be hip in 10 years.

The real question is whether this will just be a blip, a window of opportunity before Nike, Evian, Microsoft, Sony, and Disney figure out how to co-opt the net and dictate our habits.  Or can they even do it? Is this a new era?

Should be interesting times.

GH 12/97
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