One of the things about the internet that has always appealed to me is the powerful independent spirit that drives so much of the creative work being produced. When I first learned HTML it was a revelation to me that you could learn to make a webpage by visiting sites on the web for free. No books, classes, or anything proprietary involved. Amazing — especially in the field of graphic design where $1000 software packages are the norm. But on the web I could make a website using Windows Notepad.
Today the web is much different in many ways as massive data-driven websites deliver millions of pages of dynamically generated content distributed via XML streams and server sockets. Information moves seamlessly between mobile phones, desktop browsers, and database servers. But the things I learned in 1996 still apply today. I can still build a website from start to finish by myself with little to no cost save for my time. What’s more, in this day and age anyone can publish on the web. The rise of blogs and content management systems have ushered in an age where nearly anyone with the desire and basic computer or word-processing skills can create and maintain their own website. From high school students on MySpace.com to business owners everywhere, people are publishing on the web. And it is this leveling of the playing field where anyone can be a newspaper publisher, a sports reporter, a writer, an entertainer, or editorialist and have instant access to a worldwide audience no matter who they are that gives anyone the opportunity to really do something great. Technology levels the playing field.
A great example of this is My Date With Drew by filmmaker Brian Herzlinger who stars in his own documentary of his quest to score a date with actress Drew Barrymore. The film is a pretty entertaining exercise in the “six rules of separation” idea as an everyman tries to use his personal network (my friend has a friend, who has a friend, who…) to propose a date to his boyhood crush. But what really appealed to me was the inspirational story of a regular guy who did something amazing fueled only by his creativity and independent spirit. You see, the hitch is that Brian doesn’t really know anyone famous and only has an $1100 budget and a 30 day deadline to make his film. Yes, 30 days because he purchased a video camera on a credit card and needed to return it within the store’s 30 day return policy. And of course if he fails to score the date, he really doesn’t have a film. Without giving away too much, he is met with remarkable luck in his search but eventually reaches the limits of his network without reaching his goal.
That is where the internet comes in. Late in the process Brian sets up a website detailing his quest. Within days the site is overwhelmed with traffic as the link is passed from person to person across the web. Suddenly his personal network is worldwide. That is how he reaches Drew. That is how he made it happen. Weeks of phone calls and meetings and rejections were instantly forgotten as the power of the web took over. Without his website, Brain would have most certainly failed. But he wasn’t a geek or a programmer just a normal guy with an idea. In today’s internet anyone with an idea has the power to make it happen. Anyone with even a moderately priced computer and video camera can be a film maker or a publisher. Thanks to technology and the web any of us has a place on a worldwide stage. I think that is really fascinating. So where is your website?