Honestly, I was more of less unimpressed with the Web 2.0 article. It was surprising to me that people who specialize in storytelling and the modern internet could produce something that felt so scientific and drab. It was like, A Formal Treatise on the Social Foundations of Amusing Internet Memes. It did, however, make me think about how the Internet is treated and perceived by the people of today…

Imagine with me that it is the year 3000 CE.

Perhaps you write scientific articles about the internet, like the one we read for this class. In fact, let’s say that you are a web archaeologist. You specialize in browsing through ancient, forgotten pages on the Internet and trying to comprehend their intent. You are more familiar than most with the fascinating culture that is defined by archaic internet memes, but their original purpose still escapes you. What is the meaning of the pervasive lolcat? Rickrolls? What did people think about almost a thousand years ago? What did they like? How did they spend their time?

I know we ask those same sorts of questions today, about our own past. And I know people think that our own age will be better documented and knowledge and culture will not be so easily forgotten. But I’m not entirely convinced. What will the future of the internet be like, and how can we see it moving in that direction today?

Will it be used for professional and scientific purposes? To store information and share information?

Or will it remain the crazy jumble of creativity and chaos that it is today?

Creative Commons is an excellent way for us to hold onto the latter.

As an internet hippie, I am a huge fan of sharing information. Open source projects are awesome. But Creative Commons projects are alright too. It lets people claim their own ideas and projects, while exposing those ideas to the internet. I think the more we can share our knowledge with each other, the faster humans will advance, not only creatively, but scientifically, socially, and societally.