In the wake of the bombings in London, there were several interesting essays at World Changing. One that I found particularly interesting was called: The Democratization of History. It talks about each of us carrying enough equipment (a cell phone) to be a historian, and perhaps history will come more out of these accounts rather than official records in the future. This is interesting, and is even more interesting with sites like Wikipedia where history is being written outside of mainstream academia. Our common definition of truth seems to be changing, though it's hard to say if it is becoming more or less accurate.

What I found most interesting is when you think that most of the pictures shown from the bombing in London are from people who were there, because they got there first. There is no way for a news team to respond faster than someone who is involved in the event itself. So, as we've looked for how blogs are going to destroy the main stream media, perhaps we've looked the wrong direction. Instead of changing how people get their news, perhaps they'll change how news is gathered. Instead of having reporters the evening news will send out lawyers to buy up content rights from the people there. Perhaps we're destroying Dan Rather instead of CBS.


posted Jul 11, 2005 | permanent link