The Validators: A short story on the Net as a world-changer
Sometimes fiction can go beyond fact in truth-telling. Remember Richard Stallman’s The Right to Read—about copyright-crazed, Big Brotherish society? The Kindle just might be one more step along the way.
Now my friend Andy Oram (photo), an O’Reilly editor, has written a timely piece of speculative fiction on how the Internet will change news, media, and the ways people interact in the civic realm. If you’re interested in such buzzwordy topics as citizen journalism and the wisdom of crowds, spend a few minutes on “The Validators.” It also touches on trends in democracy, privatization, broadband penetration, etc. Love or hate the story? Post your comments below.
Technorati Tags: Andy Oram,Richard Stallman,The Right to Read,1984,Big Brother,fiction,short stories,short story,Kindle,Amazon
December 26th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
A dystopian view of the future, which is only too plausible. The notion that travel restrictions resulting from efforts to combat global warming would inevitably lead us all to spend most of our time online (which is happening anyway) hadn’t occurred to me. The potential consequences of such societal changes are brought out very nicely (if frighteningly!) in the story.
Overall, it’s a good read, though I’m not sure where it ended up (the conclusion left me scratching my head, as it were).