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• Wednesday, November 9, 2005 11:19 AM

  The Information Revolution

  As an ex-executive for an internet company, there�s a paradox that strikes me every day. On the one hand, the internet has changed virtually everything we do in a shockingly short period of time (think about it, and you�ll realize that, at best, you�ve been using it for 5-10 years, at least in anything like it�s current form) and yet, on the other hand, we�ve taken it for granted in record time. I can�t remember how I functioned without IMDB, Salon, and MapQuest, let alone Amazon and Google, and yet self-professed business experts everywhere are quick to tell you they knew about the dotCom bust all along and pretend as if the internet was some sort of short-lived fad.

  The simple truth is that we have barely touched the surface of the Information Age. Just like the Industrial Revolution before it, which we often forget happened over the course of decades, the Information Revolution will gradually but fundamentally change the way we do virtually everything. Copyrights are the tiniest subset of this change, and they only serve to demonstrate how lacking in vision we are and how little we see past the clouds and into the coming storm.

  I certainly can�t attack artists for wanting to protect what they�ve worked hard to create, but I think that visionaries recognize that inevitable changes are coming and are looking for ways to embrace those changes. Products like the Google �library� and iTunes represent a new way of looking at information distribution, while recognizing that there is still money to be made. Meanwhile, the recording and publishing industry executives who want to spend all of their time and money on lawsuits, hiding their heads in the sand until the storm passes, are guaranteeing their own obsolescence.

  —Peter M. Read Peter M.'s other letters
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