Top 10 amazing ways the Web has changed the world

Innovation

Top 10 amazing ways the Web has changed the world

6 Comments 22 September 2007

… So here’s the question. What are the top 10 amazing ways the web has changed the world?

Free access to knowledge for everyone who has access to the Internet
Connecting friends and family all over the world
Promoting the rise of startup entrepreneurs
Increased awareness and Increased responsibility, especially amongst the youth
Power to the people. More people creating, joiningÃ‚Â and participating in worthy causes.
Greater Freedom of Expression.
Job Creation
Increased Innovation, with the ability to brainstorm with people across the globe and right next door with increasing ease and effectiveness.
More engaging entertainment. Rather than one way TV and Radio, Internet provides us with ways to give feedback, participate and engage with others.
Making the world a smaller place where my next door neighbour could be next door, or across the world.

Have you read these yet?

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Miguel dos Santos

Miguel dos Santos - who has written 148 posts on Web AddiCT(s);.

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Interesting stuff.
http://thinkingmachine.blogsome.com warren
‘for everyone who has access’. Thats the most important point on your list. So you title should read something like, ‘Top 10 amazing ways the Web has changed the parts of world’
The web has had an incredible influence on the world, but it’s important to be realistic when considering the scope of it’s impact. Take a look at UNESCO’s World Communication and Information Report and you’ll see just how deep the digital divide still runs.
These are 10 really cool points, but ask yourself, for who? who is ‘everyone’? power to which ‘people’?
http://www.miguel.co.za Miguel dos Santos
I know what you mean. According to Internet World Stats the highest Internet penetration in Europe, North America and Australia. Asia is the top Internet users in the world mostly because of China’s vast population and Japans advanced technology.
Anyway, the point is that the Internet has mostly benefited them so far, but Internet penetration will only grow.
17.8 % World Internet penetration currently growing at a rate of 225.0 %.
I’m realistic, I know that even with all the attention Africa has been getting it, together with Asia and the Middle East, still has the lowest Internet penetration in the world, and it will take time to build that infrastructure. But things are moving forward, and we need to be grateful and celebrate what has been achieved so far.
http://thinkingmachine.blogsome.com warren
i hear you, but it’s worth remembering that some of the celebrated changes brought about by the internet, were the very same change introduced by technolgies like the telegraph and the telephone
“Within 29 years of its first installation at Euston Station, the telegraph network crossed the oceans to every continent, making instant global communication possible for the first time. Its development allowed newspapers to cover significant world events in near real-time, revolutionized business, particularly trading businesses, and allowed huge fortunes to be won and lost in a flurry of investment in research and infrastructure building”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph
sound vaguely familiar? so while the web is unique in many ways, some of it’s effects aren’t.
this is just me playing devils advocate. we need to be able to tell the difference and at least be away of the failings of the past so that the enormous benifits of the internet can be reallised.
http://www.miguel.co.za Miguel dos Santos
Then again the Internet hasn’t reached it’s full potential yet and will form the foundation for further innovations to come, like mobile telecommunications, which is basis enough to celebrate it as a world changing innovation in my opinion.
Innovations that can’t be built upon sucks, and the Internet is the best platform innovation to date in my opinion. That and perhaps TV, as it gave rise to the whole film industry, by which so many people live their live by nowadays.
http://thinkingmachine.blogsome.com warren
yeah, totally. the internet is unrivalled as a platform for innovation. thats the really exciting thing about it. i agree with you there.
my arguement is just world changing for who? just take cape town for example. a short one hour drive will take you from an area with a pretty reasonable internet penetration to one with virtually none. all the innovation in the world is absolutely meaningless to folks who have no access to it…
thats why projects like OLPC are important, they’re a move in the right direction.
the internet is only a tool, not a panecea