Cloud Culture

I wrote about the fascinating people over at Counterpoint a few months back when I thought about pursuing them to give me a job.  I just came across a video of a conference that they sponsored two years ago on Cloud Culture:



Besides the piercing Dr. Who noises every now and then, the ideas that they are discussing are fascinating.  However, I have to ask, when culture is suddenly opened up to the whole of humanity for them to contribute to, the world will become 'more knowable' as Catherine Fieschi put it, but whether it will become more 'richer' is based on what you think humanity is really like.

 If you think that humanity is ultimately good, or even that their creative impulses are ultimately good, then culture is going to become very rich and beneficial.  However, if you believe that humanity is beautiful yet fallen, then we will get a global Cloud Culture that is just as much of a mixed bag as the humanity that feeds into it.

Therefore, as culture-makers, I believe that we should encourage the parts that are good and beneficial because that is what will make Cloud Culture richer, not just standing back and wondering at what develops and praising the new movement for its newness.  The vast freedom and access that the internet allows now and will allow more in the future is incredible.  But whether it becomes something that is ultimately positive is up to us.