Is the internet going read-write?

[zulufox]

I was poking around Jay Campbell's Bayosphere and he mentioned an interested idea: that the next step in the internet is its transformation from a "read" format (long formal articles by professional authors) to a "read-write" format (a collection blogs and community sites populated with hobbyists and semi-professional authors).

This is an interesting idea, especially since it is becoming more and more apparent (helped by the blogosphere's nack at investigation) that professional journalism does not neccessarily means high quality.

This has immediate consequences for me because I can deciding between a traditional "read" cms (articlelive) or a "read-write" cms (drupal).

I was just wondering what everyone's opinions/predictions are.

Thanks!

[treeline]

In between.

While it's fun to see what lots of people are thinking, especially in areas where you are knowledgeable (which blogs are great for), there are lots of times you want accurate, carefully researched info from a source you have some faith in. Established publications and authors are good for this.

[karmov]

I think that as much as people have visions of it going read/write, there are only a limited number of people willing to sit down and really work at writing good content. Since the majority of the audience on the web tends to be seeking information, I think the web will largely remain read only.

That being said there are notable exceptions such as WebmasterWorld. WW is already read/write in a sense as are all forums. There's room for both, but many just want answers when the go to the web. Engaging in a read/write medium is deffinitely more engaging and interesting, but fundamentally most can't/won't engage it fully. Just ask any forum operator as to how many lurkers they have compared to contributing members.

[victor]

The Web was always intended to be a read/write medium.

The first HTML viewers were viewer/editors.

The emergence of browsers (viewers that do not permit editing and immediate republishing of the HTML) was an attempt by the commercial world to hijack the Web and force it into a publishers vs consumers model.

That hijacking has been so successful that a return to the basics of the web sounds to some like a radical change. It's not -- it's just a chance to fix a temporary aberration.

[zulufox]

The emergence of browsers (viewers that do not permit editing and immediate republishing of the HTML) was an attempt by the commercial world to hijack the Web and force it into a publishers vs consumers model.

"The Man" getting you down victor?

[trillianjedi]

In many "niches" the web is a community. The success of Wiki's is a good example of this.

TJ

[victor]

"The Man" getting you down victor?

Not at all, thanks.

The man -- TBL himself -- wrote the first browser and it was a browser-editor:

[w3.org...]

If only everyone had followed his lead, we'd be in a quite different World wide web today.

[zulufox]

Congratz on your 1000th post :)