Rees' Pieces: Join the digital revolution

(Originally published January 2007)

I must admit when I first saw Time Magazine’s cover for its annual Person of the Year issue, I was a bit skeptical. With its glimmering square front and center reflecting my own distorted image back at me, it was eye catching, if not a bit odd. Time Magazine’s person of the year for 2006 was ... “You.”

I scoffed. Wait ... me? No, everybody.

Upon closer investigation, I found the magazine was actually talking about Internet users. Apparently, according to the magazine, large scale collaborations such as YouTube, Wikipedia, and MySpace is revolutionizing the world — finally providing voice to the citizens in an unprecedented way.

Time editor Lev Grossman wrote, “It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.”

It’s not the first time Time Magazine has gone this route. In 1966, the 25-and-under generation was cited; in 1975, American women were named; and in 1982, the computer was chosen.

For the un-tech savvy who have no idea what I am talking about when I toss about such terms as “Wikipedia,” I sadly inform you that you are technically not Person of the Year. I will, however, offer this mini-glossary for your benefit:

• YouTube is a popular free video sharing Web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Under the tagline of “Broadcast yourself,” YouTube has gained massive popularity over the past year and has also enabled people to humiliate themselves more quickly and efficiently than ever before, but more on that later.

• Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. Here’s the catch: Visitors are allowed to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change its content to help build the encyclopedia.

• MySpace is a social networking Web site offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg, folks.

The magazine profiles some 15 people who are involved in some way or another in the cyber “revolution.”

Congressman Mark Foley’s scandalous wrong doings were exposed by a man named Lane Hudson through his Web log (AKA blog. Definition: a user-generated Web site where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order).

Another blogger, Capt. Lee Kelley, 35, shares a soldier’s eye view of Iraq and the war effort through his blog, “Wordsmith At War,” at http://wordsmithatwar.blog-city.com/

Amateur photographer Ali Khurshid shares images of his native Pakistan — a place not normally thought of for its beauty — on Flickr, a Web site where anyone can post his photos, view another’s and swap comments and critiques.

Husband and wife duo Warren Murray, 34, and Leanne White, 32, have sprung into fame with a video podcast called “Crash Test Kitchen.” — a Web version of a TV show. They are not chefs and they make mistakes. Lots of them. They can be seen at www.crashtestkitchen.com

However, it seems for every one of these people above, there are a thousand people uploading videos of themselves on YouTube playing a flute with their nose or dancing in their underwear.

With everything that has happened in 2006 and all the movers and shakers — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and North Korea’s Kim Jong-il were front runners — it is tempting to dismiss Time’s decision as an awfully silly choice. I did. Remember, Time bases its decision on who (or what) it believes most affects the news and our lives.

But the more I think about it … the more I like it.

The Web allows us to do more things — and to be more things — than was ever thought possible a mere five years ago. The possibilities are truly endless.

The Internet allows you to become involved in small, more subtle ways. At the Lansing Community Newspapers and Lansing State Journal, we enable you to have a voice. On our Web site at www.dewittbathreview.com you will notice at the end of each online story, there is feature called “story chat.” Clicking on it allows you to post a comment about the story. This allows you to provide feedback on your community’s top issues and maybe even engage in some friendly debate with fellow readers.

Take, for instance, this week’s story on DeWitt’s library board rejecting a proposal to put a new library in a Bridge Street office building. Do you agree with their decision? Do you believe building a new library is even necessary? Go online this week and let us know.

Oh yeah, and congratulations.