The Interactive Age

There is no ques­tion that the inter­net is chang­ing every­thing. #

From mar­ket­ing to enter­tain­ment to sim­ply com­mu­ni­cat­ing and work­ing, every­one is flood­ing online, and there is seem­ingly no end to the num­ber of pro­grams, types of con­tent and ways of doing things that are find­ing a ‘net-​based incar­na­tion. #

But while all this is hap­pen­ing, there’s a whole other trans­for­ma­tion at play. Actually, because this is hap­pen­ing, there’s a whole other trans­for­ma­tion at play. #

The inter­net is becom­ing our new dom­i­nant medium. And if you’ve been pay­ing atten­tion, you’ll know by now that the medium is the metaphor. What that ulti­mately means is that the inter­net is becom­ing the lens that we look at the world through. #

It also means a lot more than just get­ting your self, your prod­uct, your what­ever online. It means that every other form of media is going to have to find ways to be more like the inter­net in order to sur­vive. #

It means your com­pany, your orga­ni­za­tion, your prod­ucts, your store are all going to have to adopt a more internet-​like way of doing things. #

I believe that there are four main prin­ci­ples in the way the inter­net is chang­ing things: #

Interactivity– this is at the core of any suc­cess­ful online ven­ture, and the more inter­ac­tive offline ven­tures can become, the bet­ter. #

Collaboration– the inter­net is inher­ently collabor­ative, and col­lab­o­ra­tion is quickly becom­ing the hall­mark of suc­cess­ful ven­tures and projects in all kinds orga­ni­za­tions. #

Links– the hum­ble hyper­link is the back­bone of the web, build­ing con­nec­tions, com­bi­na­tions and access that never existed before. Think the print news­pa­per is dead? Think again. It may not have got off the ground, but iA’s attempt at mak­ing a more inter­ac­tive news­pa­per is a step in the right direc­tion. TV didn’t kill news­pa­pers, it rad­i­cally altered them. Find ways to cre­ate links, mashups and intercon­nections in every offline ven­ture. #

Openness– the inter­net is built on open stand­ards, open infor­ma­tion and open tech­nolo­gies. Proprietary sys­tems rise and fall, but the long-​term, steady and sta­ble growth of the net is built on the abil­ity to build on what came before because of open­ness. The more you open up, the stronger you will become. #

Welcome to the inter­ac­tive age, where every­thing needs to be more open, more intercon­nected and more col­lab­o­ra­tive. #