Where is Your Next Digital Public Square?
If you imagine a time before technology, people would hear news and gain knowledge in a town square, perhaps through a town crier who might ring his bell and shout loudly to gain an audience. That knowledge was one-way directional. The mass populous would passively receive information, which continued for thousands of years.
As humans evolved and became more educated, information and opinion began to be shared, not just from one source, but through many. As literacy rates increased through the middle ages, print media became a place to distribute a voice or opinion. But this voice remained tethered to the powerful or those with the most resources
With modern technology, not only has the distribution mechanism changed to allow mass-scale communication, there has also been a significant shift in freedom of speech. In plain English, there are many ways to get your voice out there or to have a discussion amongst many people across the world. Over the last 20 years, social networks have become spaces to consume and spread information. These have facilitated a step change in the communication of content, but they haven’t always been the best vehicles for maintaining privacy or sharing accurate content.
