Damaged Goods

Last month, Cornelius Puschmann wrote in his blog, CorpBlawg, about the WSJ article "Moguls of New Media" that discusses how web content providers are changing the face of media. The gist of the article is that internet content creators are gaining celebrity status. Puschmann argues that this happens partly because people are more interested in interacting with individuals as brands rather than cold corporations as brands. From anecdotal observations over the years, it does appear that it's more interesting to individuals to consume what appears to be personally produced content instead of content clearly produced by a team at a company. The basic assumption seems to be that a single person will be more real or honest than something produced to further a company's goals or to sell advertising space.

Many science fiction writers paint a picture of the future where individuals live in a world dominated by the megacorp. Some others envision a more egalitarian society where technology brings everyone closer together via direct communication, much like what we see happening on the net today.

I suspect it will be a combination of the two, just like it is in the present.