Let me put some perspective on things first.
Nobody knows how a new technology will lead us. Heck often times, the darn thing is invented without a specific purpose in mind. It just is. When Arthur Fry the Post-It (TM), he had to distribute massive amounts of them to coworkers, friends and family so that they would find uses for it!
Every time something new comes along,
the only point of reference is what came before it.
When Bell invented the telephone, he thought it would be a great way for people to listen to music at home. The phone as a one way device. When radio was invented, decades later, they saw it as a wireless telephone and, except for the army, emergency services and HAM radio geeks, radio ended up pretty much the way Bell envisioned his telephone — as a device that allows people to listen to music at home.
Every time something new comes along, the only point of reference is what came before it. Why do you think they coined the term “Motion Pictures”? Because at first, movies were nothing more than photographs – pictures — shown in rapid succession so as to give them the illusion of motion.
When a means of communications finds its own language,
then it can become an art form.
For a while, like it was the case for photography, movies were basically used mainly for showing news events and travel scenes. Some thought that maybe they could be used to record classic stage plays. Then, film makers found that they could use moving cameras, framing, cutting, camera angles to create a unique language impossible to reproduce by any other form of communication. When “cinema” found its language that made it achieve what nothing else could, that is what made it transcend into being more than just a series of still pictures set in motion.
What goes for the forms of communication, such as dance; literature; music, also goes for medium of communication, such as newspapers; telephone; radio; or television. Each medium must find its own specific “thing” that makes it unique, the “thing” that makes it transcend above and beyond whatever came before it.
Then came teh Internet
The newspaper became a fast and efficient way of spreading information. Much faster than books that took weeks or months to print. When radio came along, news events could be broadcast as they happened and to a very large audience. The simple action of being instantaneous, of being able to hear the voice — with all the subtleties of the tonality — of the people at the microphone brought that medium above what could be achieved by print alone. When television came along, people were already used to seeing the weekly newsreels while going to the movies. Television was nothing more than radio combined with movie newsreels.
Then, came the Internet. The Internet, more particularly the World Wide Web part of it, combines all of what a newspaper, a magazine, a reference book can offer. Moreover, it does all of what radio can do. All of what television can do. On top of that, it can be used as a phone, a fax, a telegraph. That is fantastic. Sure combining all those features into one single application is convenient but it does not produce synergy. As of yet, the Internet is not more than the sum of all of its parts. It has yet to find its ” thing”.
When it comes to using the power of that amazing tool, we have barely scratched the surface of what it can do. We are just like Bell, seeing one use when in fact there may be something totally different waiting around the corner. We are like the early motion picture pioneers, just happy to see moving images of a landscape passing by as the train the camera is on moves across the valley.
Marketing is a two headed beast
Scientists and engineers are already talking about Web 3.0, which promises a more extensive use of 3D, semantics, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. It’s in the labs ready for its first commercial applications.
But what will we do with it?
What will be the social implications of such a technology?
Let me hazard a guess here:
To know what we could do with that upcoming toolbox, we have to look at those who have consistently made the most use out of all of what Web technology had to offer. Those who consistently push the envelope. Those who strive to communicate a message, grab the attention, raise awareness onto the most people they can reach.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am referring to marketers who use the Internet. They are the ones most likely to seek out new technologies to better connect with their target market.
Marketers always see new opportunities to use innovative ways of communicating and changing the rules. By trying to “game” search engines, marketers forced Google to build better algorithms so that only quality, relevant content shows up at the top of its search results.
Marketing is a two headed beast: It can push bad products and services just as well as good ones. In the wrong hands, marketing becomes propaganda, r even worse, brainwashing. The messages communicated can enlighten us, inform us or just overwhelm us with useless drivel.
Walk a mile . . .
What the best marketers, the most enlightened, the most ethical amongst them should do is to push towards what the true promise of the Internet will be. The “thing” that will bring synergy to it.
There is an old well known Chinese proverb “Walk a mile in another man’s shoe . . .” –Or walk a thousand miles, depending on the source, your mileage may vary 
Well, guess what, that is the promise of the Internet.
With all this technology, with that virtual reality, that instantaneous global communication accessible to all, for the first time, in human history, it will be possible for one human being to transfer to a second human being enough information so that the second human will be able to live the reality of that one human being.
Let’s pause for a second and ponder at the implications: Let’s just imagine two very different cultures, at odds, being able to understand, — truly understand — the other culture’s point of view.
Let us just imagine how fast and easy it would be to resolve conflicts. From global conflicts all the way down to conflicts between spouses, business partners, various individuals.
Could that be?
Surely, marketers would be the first to jump at the chance of being able to influence their potential clients. A powerful tool indeed.
When Edward Murrow made his famous speech in October of 1958 about the then new tool that was television, he said:
“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”
Unfortunately, for the most part, since then, television has become the cesspool of human creativity, and a propaganda tool for large corporations.
As an excuse, we can say that the world of the 1950s was comparatively primitive: There was still segregation in the southern United States, France and Britain were letting go of their last colonies, “women’s lib” was a yet uncoined expression.
Now, as we move towards the second decade of the 21st century, we are enlightened — Aren’t we?
We have all those high profile Gurus preaching high ethics and moral values, popular books such as “A new earth”, movies like “The secret” and the upcoming “The shift”.
It is the responsibility of those who will be the first to use those new technologies to balance financial and selfish gains with ethical and selfless (charitable) pursuits.
The responsibility is huge.
We have messed up in the past. We have got one more chance to make it right. Do we, as a society, as a “civilized species”, have the maturity and wisdom to pull it off or will we just make more realistic porn, and better mind control tools for political gains?
Could progressive marketers help show the rest of us how to use the new tools and as such bring about an enlightened society less likely to pollute itself out of existence?
P.S. Total immersive virtual reality for the Web will be available within the next five years.
P.P.S. The choice is ours, let’s not mess this one up.
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