Keeping the Dream Alive

Extraordinary!

As YouTube gets purchased by Google for $1.6 billion, I'm reminded of how extraordinary technology is. Wow!

Most of the time, I go about my life simply expecting technology to deliver on its promise to keep me connected. I expect my email to come, my phone to work, my wireless access to be seamless. I routinely use digital video and photos to record and share information. Heck, I just emailed Santa some Mapquest directions to my home for a party. Seriously!

But when I stop and think of how technology -- especially tools like YouTube, Google and Blogger--have given ordinary people access to information and a voice they never had before, I am truly blown away. Technology can harness what's extraordinary in all of us and with a click, broadcast that to the world. With another click, I can tap that information. I'm speechless.

I'm no gadget junkie by any means. What I love is the idea and the possibility that technology has to impact lives and change the world. I love seeing how it already has. No wonder financial dreams are strapped to its back.

I'd better slow down; don't want to let too much of my dotcom passion out! I've been keeping it expertly hidden for quite some time as skeptics continue to point to the "crash." But the truth is, from the time I asked the question at Macromedia in 1992: "What's the difference between this (CD-ROM games) and television?" to the exit of Toyota at iStarSystems that resulted in the entire company being liquidated in 2001, I loved being a part of that industry, which harnesses imagination and passion to create something new. It allows two goofy guys like Chad and Steve to make a difference and be recognized for it.

I have a feeling that it hasn't seen its heyday just yet...

Business 2.0 writes that the YouTube/Google deal should scare us because it was about the future of advertising. They write that advertisers know more about individuals now than ever before and that customized advertising is in our future. Is that all bad? If I came across advertising I liked, maybe I wouldn't zap it. And heck, maybe I’d learn about something new (and buy it). I’m the eternal optimist, of course.

But for now, congratulations to Chad and Steve and those like them that keep the dream alive.