Only on the Internet

— Some things just wouldn't work offline would they?…”

Some things just wouldn’t work offline, would they?

Wikipedia would be no different to the Encyclopedia Britannica (actually without the key differentiator of connectivity, Wikipedia would have little going for it, if Britannica is to be believed).

Or why not imagine a Faceparty where you’re the only guest? MySpace where yours is the only profile, yours the only lonely mug pasted up, you the only one up there dressed in your finest Sir Philip Green, gormless and doped up on fast food.

If we didn’t have the Internet, we’d be stuck with television repeats of You’ve Been Framed or Tarrant on TV instead of glorious, cut-out-the-anchorman Google Video or YouTube (is that really Steve Ballmer?)

Should we breathe a sigh relief and admit that we can’t live without the Internet, just as we could never go back to a world without mobile phones, then? On the one hand, the Internet is more banal than telly, perfect for the 21st century attention span. On the other it still threatens, like a glimpse of sunshine in a dirty grey sky, to be a great leveller.

Blue Peter after Groom: never the same?

BP post Groom: never the same?

Talking of TV, people often laugh when I tell them I don’t own one. Once more for the kiddies, it’s because J and I really don’t need the advertising and we don’t do small talk at work. However, I must admit that I still have a fond recall for old shows and for the zenith of Internet-only ideas, this one’s a beauty: nichy, gauche but ultimately fascinating.

The gold medal goes to JumpTheShark.com, a repository of the moments when great TV shows started to go downhill. Everything from The A-Team (when the guys were no longer on the run) to Zorro (when they swapped the trusty black steed for a white one).

Absolutely riveting. For five minutes.

Comments

No responses yet to Only on the Internet

Why not give me your comments?

You can use these tags in your comment:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

(required)

See also:

(Mis)information society

Friendly talks?

What’s the real truth and does it matter? Doctoring Wikipedia articles and scamming the gullible is all the rage these days.

  • Originally published: 30 Sep 2007 in Editorial

Out of touch

Hiding your identity in a mugshot isn't easy

When it comes to the Internet, crime does pay. Shame so few of our public sector institutions understand it.

Flash is 10

Flash icon

Love it or hate it, after a decade of design Flash is still with us and with impressive video support, it’s still relevant.

Once upon a time there was an open brief…

Dr Gachet

Surf’s not up: web designers can no longer enjoy a rock-n-roll lifestyle now that clients expect concrete results.

Leave the Internet alone

Scissors

The day after some websites went dark in protest at proposed US laws on online intellectual property rights, the authorities shut down a file sharing service.

Who you gonna call?

Photo

Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.

I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.

I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.

Shameless self-promotion

Dopeology.org

Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.

I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.

RSS feeds