Comments on: We have great tools to create – are we creating great things?

By: What does the phrase “open social web” mean? – Andy Sylvester's Web

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 02:43:05 +0000

[…] In all of this, it is important to remember that different people use tools in different ways for different purposes. For some people, the “open” part of “open social web” is the most important. For many people, having the ability to have “social” interactions with many people and to do it in an easy way is the most important. Finally, as Doc Searls righteously points out about podcasting (but also applies to the Web): “Nobody owns it, Everybody can use it and Anybody can improve it. That means anybody and everybody can do wherever they want with it. It’s theirs—and nobody’s—for the taking.” I think people should keep this in mind when starting to find fault or criticize how people or groups are innovating in web technologies. Let’s work on making great things! […]

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 15 May 2024 01:34:52 +0000

In 2017, I wrote a post with the title “We have great tools to create – are we creating great things?”. It was in reference…

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 19:50:19 +0000

This week, a Substack newsletter was posted about problems that podcasts from former podcast studio Gimlet Media were experiencing (getting cancelled). In 2019, Spotify purchased Gimlet Media for $230 million dollars (more here on other Spotify podcast acquisitions). Why did people think being acquired by a big company was going to allow them to keep their artistic freedom and continue to do things the way they had done them? Demonstration of control of the channel (a la CBS/NBC/ABC of the 60s/70s/80s – you had to convince them to approve your show to get on the air) – maybe go back to producing podcasts yourself? After all, you must have a lot of money after that acquisition. Chapter 57 of this story discusses the Joe Rogan move to Spotify, and I wrote in 2019 about how to avoid the corporate takeover of podcasting. As Joel Grey and Liza Minelli sang in the musical “Cabaret“, money makes the world go around. If people want to produce podcasts to make money, there are ways to innovate, but the best place to start is to make great podcasts.

By: Doc Searls

Doc Searls — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 14:29:54 +0000

Thanks, Andy.
I believe a video of the conference will be published soon by the Tow Center (http://towcenter.org/). Much of it was slide-free, including the opening session with Chris Lydon and Dave Winer. (Hmm, maybe they should turn the audio into a series of podcasts.)