Journal: News & Comment

Dave Winer on the future of stuff at Gnomedex

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Blogging, RSS, and podcasting pioneer Dave Winer talks about the past, the future, and the state of the industry...

• The photo of John Edwards with Chris Pirillo looming is a frightening picture of the future!
• Let's talk about the future.
• Two simple ideas: how to make money on the Internet, and is monoculture as an artifact of the 20th century?
• It's easier for a user to become a manufacturer than for a manufacturer to become a user.
• The model of manufacturers as wise developers coming down from on high has never worked in my lifetime.
• Look at what Michael Dell did: have we learned anything about that model of coming from your garage in the past 20 years?
• Creativity is now distributed, rather than only the best people being able to be creative.
• Dave got a lot of pushback when he first started blogging.
• Desktop publishing moved to blogging, and now it's free to publish for nearly anyone.
• The travel industry used to be centralized, but it isn't anymore.
• How much information could I get on Seattle before I came here?
• I could find out yesterday's temperature, but that's about it.
• We have greater expectations, and we're not disappointed.
• It's hard to remember how much has changed in such a short time.
• How did that happen as the newspaper industry is shrinking?
• The end of centralization in many industries.
• At conferences, trying to move the conversations into the room from the hallways.
• Bill Gates didn't have the encumbrances of the behemoths of his day.
• Today, ads on websites are vestigial of the 20th century.
• Our websites are ads for ourselves, should represent our best thinking and share our ideas with other.
• We can make gadgets for each other.
• Engadget is figuring out what the products should be before the manufacturers do.
• Current manufacturers will be fulfillment houses for users with smart ideas.
• What would happen if a blogger who's *already* a blogger decides to turn themselves into a product and run for president?
• Of course big companies will still be around: billion-dollar companies don't go away.
• Getting rid of "rankism": breakingranks.net.
• How do users get physical products made?
• Business creation doesn't become easy, it still requires great ideas, persistence, and luck.
• But different people can create businesses and products now.
• "Edwards courts tech community" was also accurate.
• We need to learn how to flex our political muscles, and decide whether we want to be effective in that context.
• Why invest in the system we have now? There must be a big change coming.
• Why is Dave quitting blogging? It's not a bad thing, but he doesn't want to blog forever—he needs new things to do in his personal life, and that's all.

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