tom willerer . com

The Internet is a Concept Car

I’ve been thinking about the auto industry lately (for obvious reasons), and one thing that struck me is their practice of introducing Concept Cars.  According to Wikipedia, the goal of the concept car is to “showcase a concept, new styling, technology and more.”

They can’t be built right away (and most likely ever) because of safety, regulatory, and monetary reasons, but they give a sense as to where the future of the auto industry may be heading, but not necessarily.

The Internet is basically one big concept car.  Because it is not heavily regulated and because there is a low cost of entry, experimentation and innovation are the standard, not the exception.  And that’s a good thing.   And something we should continue to fight for.

Internet Like Jazz

I was watching the Ken Burn’s documentary entitled Jazz the other night while trying to get my daughter to fall asleep and I was struck by how similar the Internet is to Jazz music. 

Wynton Marsalis is interviewed in the film and he lists out quite a few characteristics of Jazz music:

• improvised
• expressive
• collaborative
• entertaining
• creative
• unrestricted
• inventive
• experiential

Those characteristics sounds uniquely like the Internet (and no other medium).  The Internet is like Jazz music, and as bloggers, we are creating (and enjoying) the music of the Internet.