Taking Back the Web | CNET News.com

C|NET is running a week-long series of articles on how a new generation and new technologies are returning the Internet to its social roots ... and manages to completely miss the big picture.

(You might have heard me rant on this before ... bear with me ...)

All of these new technologies are catering to what I like to call the "Customization Generation". There is this drive in all of us to be unique in a world where we're often reduced to ones and zeros, account numbers and credit scores. Blogs are allowing us to speak out about what interests us, excites us, infuriates us. Wikis, tags, etc ... it's all a way to put our own spin on things. Hell, even "tuner" culture is a way for us to get noticed in the most anonymous place that isn't in front of a computer ... traffic.

Ringtones, DVRs, even Microsoft is cashing in on it with themes and gamer identity pictures in the Xbox 360 version of their Live service.

This generation has had a taste of control, and we like it. We're now demanding that when we purchase something, that we get control over it. Get a movie on DVD ... we want to rip it to our hard drive and watch it on any device that we want. But that's not enough, we also want to be the director, pull the video into a program like Adobe Premiere and make our own "director's cut". Then we want to upload it back onto the net for everyone to enjoy.

Apple clued into this with the iPod. Rip. Mix. Burn. It wasn't about the device, it was about the music, and making a soundtrack for your life.

Some of the most popular games are ones where you can either compete against other people, or where you are basically dumped into what game developers call a "sandbox" and told to "go play". You make the game what you want it to be. The Sims is a perfect example of a game with no real structure, and where people can customize it to their liking. One of the best selling PC games of all time, Half-Life, was a success largely due to the after-market mods (Counterstrike, Day of Defeat) that were made for the game.

The corporate world (I'm no longer using the phrase "corporate America", since it's no longer accurate) needs to assess pretty much any product they release now. If you can add customization options without compromising the purpose of the product, do it ... because if we can't customize it, we won't buy it. Or we might, but we'll complain when we realize that we've been "had".

Even car manufacturers are figuring it out (most of them, anyway). Fold 'n' Go seating, infinitely configurable cargo space, change the car to fit your stuff. The few things in my new car that really bug me are things like not being able to add an aftermarket stereo easily. The things I can't change.

The meme going around lately is "user generated content", and is the latest get-rich-quick scheme. Open up the gates, let the users make your service what they want it to be, and then make money on ads placed throughout the service. That'll work right up until a better service comes along ... because when the price is free, and the content is ours, we can take it anywhere we want.

It's been said that there are no more markets, just conversations. Facilitating communication between people will always be a huge business ... but get this. Kids don't use e-mail anymore, it's too slow. They're using IM. But even that study is wrong. Kids use IM when they need to talk to you immediately. Mostly, they're moving to blogs, where we can all read about our friends when WE want to, not when that friend happens to contact us. Teens are having entire conversations through their blogs, with one person posting on one, and the response posted on another. People are using Skype, but they're also using Xbox Live, TeamSpeak, and other technolgies to chat with people while they're doing something else. I'm contantly stunned that voice chat hasn't been added to the Nintendo DS or PSP yet. They've both shown off demos, but you'd think they'd make that a priority.

Object lesson: I thought wireless keyboards were a fad. What kind of utility to you get from having a wireless keyboard, when it's just going to sit on your desk anyway? Then came the day when I got one, and just a week later, picked it up and stuck it on a shelf to make more desk space while I worked on a project. Then it struck me ... it's not a matter of if you're going to want to move the keyboard, but when. You only use the option once you have it. Now I want everything wireless. I want to be able to reconfigure my workspace based on what I have to do that day.

C|NET called it "Taking Back the Web". I call it "Taking Back Our Stuff". That's why Sony caught such a huge backlash. I didn't spend weeks building and configuring my computer to have you pollute it with crap. Companies need to clue in now ... if you're going to put a product in a consumer's hands, expect that they're going to do things with/to it that you hadn't thought of. Don't be afraid of that. Embrace it. And if you encourage and facilitate it, you'll build an even bigger market.