How to Tell People Who Won’t Be Told?

I do well at ghost writing and at acting because I have room for many points of view. I can stretch my head around a variety of scenarios and motivations. That same trait, skill set — choose the label, it doesn’t matter — makes me unable to invest heavily in political causes. I’m the consummate centrist. Could be the archetype.

I have a tendency to balance folks who have a cause, by seeing the other side of their argument. I don’t argue with them. I want to understand their points, but as they talk I also hear the falacies in what they’re saying–whether I choose to give voice to them or not.

Knowing this about myself, I rarely share less than the most important of my own ideas. I find few things worth debating or arguing over. I like to meet in the center, where we agree. Most things in life don’t really matter nearly as much as people act like they do.

That being said . . . I took that approach to the Internet. I sure didn’t want to listen to folks promising tales of doom. Hey, folks have been promising tales of doom for as long as there have been folks. Then Brian Clark, a friend and a man I respect, asked me to read something written by Doc Searls. I did. I wrote about it in a piece called Saving the Net–Doc Searls & Walter Cronkite.

I began that piece talking about the media hype around y2K and ended that piece saying

I think that I might have found the person I can believe.
Doc Searls is my Walter Cronkite.

I still feel that way.

Yesterday on his personal weblog, Doc again pointed out that people are running ads and making rules that will affect all of us. They are people who own media, telephone, and cable companies–people who own the pipes over which the bits and bytes that you’re reading right now are traveling.

Doc says it all in so few words.

. . . ads are influencing Congress and governments around the World as they write the rules that will shape the future of the Internet and communications. . . .

where is the voice and message of the Internet community — the Internet innovators, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts — in this world-changing discussion? . . .

If we do not participate in the debate, if we do not transform the messaging, the rules will not be written with our best interests at heart.

He’s announcing Jeff Pulver’s Viral Marketing Contest and now so am I. Here are the contest rules.

If you read the piece I wrote called Doc Searls and Walter Cronkite, you’ll know why this is important. If you don’t have time, I understand. For the longest time, neither did I.

But would you have time to pass this on?

Liz Strauss