So Time magazine went and decided that — 2006 being the Year of User-Generated Content ™, aka the Year of YouTube Being Acquired By Google, and also the year that big corporate media companies began to see the rot in their financial foundations — its person of the year is “you.”
Dan Gillmor points out that the very nature of this choice presupposes a rapidly obsolescing notion that the magazine’s own editors are still on the other side of the barricades from the teeming content-generating masses. Jeff Jarvis asks what the fuss is all about, “this is nothing new.” Dave Winer says that Time is still too focused on the value created in the “wisdom of the crowd” aggregation of a multitude of voices, when the really important value lies with each individual voice.
I would add that, if Time’s editors put real stock in their choice and believed in the notion they are now promoting, then, having chosen “You” as the “Person of the Year,” they would announce that this is the very last time they will meet in solemn conclave to anoint a Person of the Year. Gatekeeper, retire thyself! No more bogus end-of-year popularity contests!
Except they do seem very effective at sparking conversations online.
[tags]time magazine, person of the year, youtube, dave winer, jeff jarvis, dan gillmor[/tags]
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