Hey there! Hope you’re all having a great day so far. Sorry I haven’t been posting so regular over the past week or so. It’s been pretty hectic here so as much as I’ve had plenty of things I want to write about, I’m finally getting the time to sit down and write all you lovely people. Today I just thought I’d talk about the awesome phenomenon that is the Internet Revolution, how it can affect us and also how we can get aboard the Online revolution, taking our part in it and using it to do good and hep shape our future.
The Online Revolution
I have always been a firm believer in the fact that Knowledge is everything and Ignorance is what keeps tyrants in power. For centuries and even millennia, we have been living in a world that has been controlled by geographicly based world leaders who have used religion as their main tool for controlling the people.
Keeping people in the dark about the truth has always been one of the most powerful methods of having their people within their grasp and this has allowed them to commend all sorts of acts from joining armies and giving your life right down to hating your next door neighbour soimply because they are different. Keeping the poor fighting the poor!
But this method of divide and rule has only been possible because those in power have had the ability to control what knowledge we as the people get to know, and for years, even the knowledge that was public had to be well hunted down. But no longer must we travel miles to the right library or use mail order to get the book or article we are looking for. This is also very time consuming and there’s only so many hours in a day and so many days in the year.
Then come the internet and it all changed!
The road so far
When Bill Gates created the Internet and built it back in 1995, he said back then that he wanted to make computers available for everyone and adffordable so that everyone could have one, because he beleived that everyone should have access to the Interneet. Now, 26 years later, we are at a stage where you can pick up a really basic computer for a few quid and often you can even pick them up Free from some of the online marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and many ore Freecycle sites. So Internet access has almost become standard for everyone.
This has also seen a massive influx of users online over the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many people who would have otherwise not bothered even looking at the internet before to start at least going online to get the shopping or services they need as it has often been the only option, especially at the height of the lockdowns.
This has resulted in many people discovering that the Internet isn’t actually all that bad at all. In fact, it’s actually quite good. Really good actually! So now that many of these shops are open again and perhaps they don’t actually need to get online now just to get by, they still love exploring this new found phenomenon and the wealth of knowledge that has come with it. This has also come with a whole range of life changing possibilities.
The Rising Stars
Due to this Influx of new internet users online all looking for shops or services, there has been born to it a whole range of vocational possibilities. This has coincided with the fact that many people have been put out of Jobs due to the pandemic destroying businesses. This has left many looking for a new source of Income and vocation and many have put their creative side to work and have stated making a living online.
However, this is by no means a new concept, and like myself, there has been many indiividuals working away on various online projects and businessed since the dawn of Internet time. Since the birth of the worldwide web, there have been people building and thats why it”s the size it is now.
The Big Autonmy
No longer must you wait for permission, confirmation and censorship from “The Man”, ie, the authorities or management, etc who have always had the position in the old heirarchy that let them dictate what is allowed and what is not. Often a hard fact for many to accept, but this power is now out of the hands of this old and decaying heirarchy. They can huff and puff and threaten to blow it all down, but the fact actually is, they cant! Why? Because a Ten Year old sitting in their bedroom has more power than they do because they have the ability, because they have the knowledge and savvy. Some of these kids are so running rings around the giants. It truly is an amazing revolutionary time we are living in.
This rather anarchic evolution of technology became quite apparent to me when the Hollywood Tycoons wanted the Pirate Bay website closed down, and the series of events that occurred in their pursuit of their wish. You see for those of you wo dont know, the Piratebay is a website that provides a list of links that allow users to connect to a swarm on a torrent internet stream and share files. These files can be anything from an eBook to a Hollywood Blockbuster, from a Brand New Music Alum to the 3D printer plans for a gun. You name it, they have it listed.
Well, Hollywood bosses, as you can well imagine didn’t like this did they? So they tracked down the pirate bay server to be based in Sweden and contacted the Swedish Authorities demanding that they take action and arrest these people. As the piratebay developers had not committed any crime in sweden nor were they any interest to the swedish authorties, they refused.
Anyway, as seen on the Pirratebays own docu-film “Steal this Movie”, shots were taken of Peter Mandelsen, the then European Parliament British MEP taking bribes on a Yacht with various Hollywood Big-wigs to get things fixed presumably.
The European Government all of a sudden started threatening Sweden with Tade Emargos should they fail to take action on Piratebay developers. So, the Swedish Police went round their apartment and nicked them. Little did they know what they were looking for aprt from some guys who are giving away Free Hollywood Movies and Hollywood dont want the doing that. So they turned up with about 17 massive riot wagons, Judge dredd attire and machine guns. Just about what you would need for a million VHS Movies.
Instead, they found a couple of \geeks and a laptop. “Wheres the movies?”.
“What Movies?”
“You’ve b”?een giving away loads of free hollywood movies and we’ve come to nick you for it! So where are they stashed?”
“You obviously actually know absolutely fukkawl about what you are looking for do you? We dont give away anything! We provide a list of links that allow one user to share a file with another. WE dont give anything away. We just give people a means of sharing. You know that word “Sharing”?. Is this the crime of the century is it?”
Anyway, this just freaked the Sweding authorities out and they ad no idea what to do. So they put them in Jail til they worked out something to do them for. In the Docu-Movie, you can see him at the end in his prison cell throwing a scrap of paper out reading “Hollywood, IOU n100 billion dollars!”
Haha. Absolutely Brilliant!
They actually went on to form The Pirate Party, a political party set up where he ran as a candidate for the European Elections with only One Sole Manifesto at the time which was to ‘Keep File Sharing Legal’ from his prison Cell. He won! They now actually are in power in Sweden, their manifestos obviously elaborated a little to suit the needs of running a country, but there you have it.
All of this made it apparent to me that the old system is going going gone! From the ashes of that system is rising a whole new age of empires. An age where guys like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and the likes are the big players and no longer Geographical based leaders. Zuckerberg has his own satellites in space and Facebook has its own App. Even if every country in the world wanted to ban Facebook, they cant switch him off without blowing him out of the sky or at least sabotaging his satellites. Then I’m sure if it came down to that sort of menacing, then he can probaly afford his own army or weapons. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here.
But that’s unlikely to happen cos everyone loves Facebook, even though many of the Facebook lovers actually hate it, or say they do at least. LOL But it means that Zuckerberg is quite a powerful guy, and albeit, he no doubt has pulled some shrewd business moves to get his business to where it is today, he was pretty much a nobody who made a mark, unlike the old class system of the old system.
Guys like Jeff Bezos, starting on par with sites such as Ebay, Bezos has gradually grown his online marketplace into a megastore, researching and outpricing the lowest sellers after they have forged a market for the product. Shrewd move Jeff.Now he’s worth Billions.
These are the guys who are fast becoming the new super powers. But they have by no means got the monpoly on the Internet. Not yet at least. So theres plenty scope for us all.
Where its going
The great thing about the worldwide web is that even 26 years on from its foundation and birth, it is still in its infancy and still being built. Every bit of knowledge there is to be found online all comes from individuals like you and I uploading and creating content for others to read. This is creating a vast pool of knowledge and like i’ve said before in previous posts, I would have not found my own true identity had it not been for others in similar places sharing with us all their own story.
Every word, picture, video, song is a contribution to the future. Our Future! Our children and Grandchildren’s Future!. Lets give them something good. Lets teach them as we would in every day life and let our teachings be free for all to benefit from Let us all create and contribute.
This is our legacy and its an oportunity that nobody has had before. Since the dawn of time, people have been writing things down in the hope that others may benefit from it, but there has never been the network that allows the whole world to benefit from it just like that by a few clicks on a mouse.
How you can take part
There are multiple ways you can take part in creating your own contribution to the worldwide web. You can make Videos, sing songs, Post regularly on social media, keep a blog or Vlog, have your own website. This is what I would recommend most because having your own website and domain gives you your very own space online that you can call your own. Just like your own little bit of ‘Internet Real Estate’.
You can always do any of the other methods at the same time, but whereas they are all dependent on that particular channel working ok, whether it be YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and so on, you’re own space is safely intact and nothing comes down unless you take it down. So even if you are predominantly using these platforms, its always good to have your own website too. It doesn’t have to be expensive either and you can even get a basic website completely Free.
As a matter of fact, the Online University that I am part of does a Free Starter Plan that gives you your own website and sub domain with WordPress hosting which is really good for creating anything you want for your website. It took me many years of designing my websites off line on a web builder to coming round to using WordPress. But nowadays I wouldn’t recommend anything ese. It really is the business.
As I am a content creator and web designer in my day to day, I use an online university called Wealthy Affiliate because it offers a really good deal on Webhosting as well as providing a whole load of other extras not least the massive network of affiliate marketers and online business folk. So its a great site for keeping your finger on the pulse so to speak. They also do some great training. If you are using the Starter Plan, you actually get a go at this training as it gives you the complete Phase One of the Online Entrepreneur Certification course which teaches you all you need to now on getting your website set up and how you can actually start making money from it. They also have some excellent Video classes up there too and many of them are also Free.
I have provided a link below if you want to start your own website. But whether you opt for creating your own website or just sticking to making videos, Podcasts, or writing articles on social media, etc (although, I’d still recommend having your own domain to link these too for the sake of your own copywriting ad keeping your content safe from deletion), keep going at it and teach the world what you want it to learn because right now, we are living amongst the biggest revolution ever known to humankind.
This truly is an amazing time and the boom of knowledge available in just over a couple of decades is phenomenal. It really is just amazing!
So don’t delay! Get writing today! Tell your story, write about your favourite hobby, your best recipes, even just your own blog like I have here. Just write because this is recording for the future. Teach the world as you would teach your own children and let the people learn and evolve, thus making the world a much more educated and tolerant place for us all to live. No God is going to come and make the world a better place for us. We must do that ourselves and here we have the tools. Tools that defy all geographic boundaries, Borders and class divisions.