Inspired by Mike Arrington’s hand wringing about a new Internet bubble, suddenly everyone is coming out of the woodwork as a war weary Internet veteran crowing about the good old days. This prompted me to think back to the beginning of the Web 1.0 dot com bust, and the supposed end of the “good old days.” I was in the middle of it, and towards the end I remember thinking that the phrase "dot com bloodbath" was not only overused, but frighteningly accurate. I rank 2001 as one of the worst years of my business life, and I know many fellow digital veterans who would say the same.
What were you doing in the year 2000? Back then, this is what I wrote on my personal blog, “Now dot coms have been reduced to trying to make a profit and building businesses that fill underserved niches just like everyone else. In the end, this may turn out to be a good thing.”
Since then I’ve experienced a great deal of change on the Internet and in my views on multimedia, but I still believe what I wrote many years ago. Any romantic notions about the past that we might have about Web 1.0 are just that—romantic notions.
The truth is, the current state of affairs involves far less excess, only a fraction of the wild speculation and entrepreneurial self-delusion and a much larger crop of innovators actually interested in providing a real service that will add something to our lives beyond a cool logo.
I logged on to my first IRC chat back in 1993 and I’ve been having a ball ever since. But for others, being around the Internet game so long has fostered a jaded outlook. Nevertheless, the beauty of the
Internet is that it reinvents itself at least every six months. In that same time span, we are all given the opportunity to reinvent ourselves, as well as our attitudes towards the ever-shifting landscape of the
Web. As a native New Yorker, I’m a natural born cynic. But when I look at what’s going on now in Silicon Valley, Austin, Hollywood, New York,
Boston, London and Asia, I’m inspired.
My point being: Silicon Valley doesn’t suck.
But having the wrong circle of associates does. In every industry there are closed insider circles and the hangers-on that hover around such circles. If by chance one finds oneself within such a circle, the air will certainly become stale and every new voice (or startup) will sound like another squealing chick begging for the worm of attention. Some people love occupying this role as one of the graybeards at the grand table. Others like to think of themselves as mavericks, constantly at odds with the zeitgeist. Unfortunately, for would-be Internet iconoclasts, the time for self-styled outsiders in Silicon Valley has definitely passed, for now.
The good news is, if you really have a solid Internet idea and the discipline to be consistent and follow through, at this point you can launch from Alaska and you’ll get a decent look from the people who matter most—the users.
To paraphrase the immortal bard: The suckiness, dear Arrington, lies not within our Silicon Valley, but within ourselves.
Photo: DMBFreakNo41
