The Long Tail metaphor helps old media people feel like they’re still
in charge. So does the idea of Citizen Media, because old media people
are cynics about citizens, they think we’re lazy couch potatoes who
have never had a good idea or a noble thought, they’re the smart people
living interesting lives. We’re like the Gammas and Deltas in Brave New World, there are a lot of us, and our job is to consume, consume, consume — what they tell us to.
Just the same, we can’t understand, in our old terms, what it means to
have publishing in the hands of everyone. But it’s no longer such a
theoretical thing. In 1995, it was ridiculous to predict the world we live in now. It’s just as ridiculous today to predict that (more) big, unprecedented change is coming.
- Dave Winer, Hate the ad, love the product
