Refuting a Dvorak Polemic

Dear John C. Dvorak,

Something’s been bugging me for a while now. Having heard you rant on This Week in Tech and your new-ish IPTV development, Cranky Geeks, over the past several weeks, I must say, I’ve come around to your humbug nature. It was tolerable at first, and later quite irritating, but I stuck it out through thick and thin. And I was just starting to like your stalwart no-nonsense moodiness, until I came down with anti-Dvorak syndrome once again – and it’s got nothing to do with the crabby guise you’ve been sporting since the start of the podcasting revolution.

As it so happens, it’s right down Profy’s lane. It’s your disregard for Web 2.0. Now, many are aware of your diatribes on this “fabled” topic, how this new “movement” is just some new paint on an old façade, but here’s the thing: You see where you are? You know, the whole TWiT gig and the IPTV venture, shows on which you’re regularly backing up or tearing down web gurus, tech junkies, or just the computerized world in general? That is precisely what you’ve slapped a ‘phony’ sticker to. That’s right, you’re part of it, yet you’re blasting it. Aren’t you exhausted? I would be.

I’m not sure exactly when you mentioned this bit, but you were right when you said audio via the web was nothing new, and online applications did exist, but you know that point in time when an invention sprouts up, and it’s not all it could be, but it was the best that could be done on first try? Well, that scenario works in the virtual world too. Yessiree, John, it sure does. There’s been, what, half a dozen iterations of Windows since 1.0 arrived for public consumption? Let’s see: 1.0; 2.0; 3.0; 95; 98; NT, 2000, XP. Okay, NT and 2000 were basically the same item rebadged, so 6 major bumps so far. (Actually, now it is seven, what with Vista’s emergence late last month. And, yes, that’s a Dvorak article I’m linking to.) Using your logic, XP might as well just be a prettified ’95. That’s quite a stretch of the imagination, wouldn’t you think?

Web 2.0 isn’t here to reinvent the game, John. The game’s been in play for dozens of years. Only, sometimes it needs a swift kick to put a spring in its step. Even though dial-up was losing ground fast at the peak of the Bubble, the web was stale. Everyone knew it, and it took some collective intelligence to show it still needed progress if a recovery from the inevitable market bust was to be attained. See, it’s just here to improve on the foundation laid decades ago and the explosion affordable access created some 15 years back. That simple.

No demolition need be done. No start from square one. It’s just a better version of a great thing. Collaboration between entities around the world was possible, but now it’s easier. We had IM back in the day, but now we get to feed video to one another, sharing it privately, or even publicly on server farms like YouTube’s. Web 2.0 is allowing us to migrate from a desktop office to one filed remotely. It means that you don’t have to visit Blockbuster anymore to get your movies. It means that you click a few buttons to get your music rather than drive a few miles. What it comes down to is: easier, cheaper, and, I hate to say it again, but, better.

Web 2.0 isn’t a hoax propagated by slick marketers. It’s a reality created by a small chunk of enterprising folks with the help of hundreds of millions of connected peoples. It’s bringing more people together, and hopefully, making some things easier in the process. And Web 2.0 won’t be the be-all, end-all of the virtual realm. There’ll be a moment for v3.0 to shine, when we’re watching television on-demand from our living spaces without any thought that it’s coming by way of IP, and lots more. Come to think of it, nearly all information will travel by way of WiMax or a similarly superlative technology to us. And we’ll look back on the times we tracked down goodies on Bittorrent, had to Skype someone from a PC, had to store media locally, and had to choose between home-based and mobile high-speed networking. What will we think of these “old days” we’re in at present? I’ll leave it to you, John, to conjure up your own images of Web 2.0 from a futurist perspective. You can bet that it’s real and happening this very moment, though. That goes for the rest of the naysayers too, and even those on board with the terms and treats that come with these innovations we see year in and year out.

Web 2.0 does exist, John. It’s happening. You’re it for goodness sake. Maybe think things over a little more carefully before your time for a tangential tirade comes up again? You’ll need time to adjust, but you’ll finally see Web two-oh for what it is: progress.