publishable ideas

This blog is about publishable ideas, that is, ideas that are good enough to be worth me posting on the internet. Given that Blogger is free, and so is my time (basically), just about anything qualifies. Sorry to you.

If you have any publishable ideas, please post them. You can publish them here, or on your own blog, or another one of the millions of other blogs out there. It doesn't really matter where, eventually your ideas will enter the hive mind, and if they are good enough, and created at the right time, they will spread.

Of course there are many intervening factors, like the size of your audience, and their relative connectedness to other established nodes or communities. Sometimes the right message must be delivered by the right person before reaching a tipping point.

Combine this observation with "art is everywhere" and you see the internet for what it really is. It is not a marketplace of ideas-- it's much better than that. It's a marketplace of ideas surrounded by a greater knowledge-sphere where all facts and records and media sit dormant waiting to be recycled and remixed. The artist does not depend on money to provide his work, and similarly the blogging world produces for little or no money. The internet enables the ideas generated through internet communication to gain world-wide appeal very quickly, and allows anyone with an internet connection to participate.

The internet does seem to be devoted to the fringes, and perhaps this is inherent to a point. One can survive perfectly well without the internet, or without using it for political action or debate. Only those motivated to change the world need apply. So this may emphasize the extremes. As access improves, the number of ideas will increase, as will potential for noise. Noise is managed through thoughtful design and vigilance over the development of communities. Noise could undoubtedly be a worse problem for those that cater to the fringes, where opposition may be as strong as support, but even apolitical sites must manage noise.