Dec. 31, 2006 - 20:43 MST

THE CHANGING SCENE

Time passes as we all know, but little by little changes occur - often somewhat unnoticed by us, but they do over time amount to quite a bit.

There is an article in today's The Denver Post Perspective section that points up that fact. It is by Thomas Frey who is the executive director and senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute in Louisville (Colorado). Here is the article in full:

GATEKEEPERS ON INFO HIGHWAY DISAPPEARING

"In the not too distant past, every creative work -- whether it was a song, a movie, artwork, poetry or an article for publication -- had to be approved by at least one other person before the public could see it. Often the work had to be screened by layer upon layer of reviewers so only the very best accomplishments would rise to the top."

"Throughout history, the gatekeepers kept us safe. They saved us from the bad people. But they also tried to save us from thje boring and uninteresting, the radical and the off-balanced, the rumors and lies, and from the people who had a different opinion or, heaven forbid, a different agenda."

"For businesses, the gatekeeper system was all about quality control, maintaining the image or brand of the company and producing the highest-quality products."

"But the gatekeeper chokepoints for society are beginning to erode as people figure out ways to circumvent them. And they are finding great power in these emerging new forms of self-control."

"Enterprising people have begun to find the keys to unlocking their future that doesn't include the barriers provided by gatekeepers. Publishing an article no longer requres the approval of an editor. Articles can easily be published on blogs or Web pages without ever needing someone's approval. Videos and podcasts can be posted on i-Tunes or You-tube 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The true impact is far more significant than any of us can imagine."

"The no-gatekeeper lifestyle means you can create whatever product you want and sell it to people around world without ever having to get someone's blessing."

"When a gatekeeper goes away, it doesn't mean there are no controls. Instead of an individual saying "yes" or "no," either a market or a community will decide. For most, these market forces are viewed as being more democratic and by default, fairer."

"In essence, the true shape of a demand curve can be revealed once the gatekeepers are gone."

"While people from generations past still believe we can't live without gatekeepers, a new generation of freedom-loving entrepreneurs have made it their mission to find ways to circumvent controls. In their minds a system with a gatekeeper is an opportunity waiting to happen: Kill the need for gatekeepers, free the world and make money in the process."

"Most important, the employment gatekeepers are going away. More and more people are beginning to find ways to create income without ever having to be employed. Bloggers, podcasters, writers, graphiuc artists, musicians, photographers, videographers and thousands of other micro-business entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to generate revenue without having an employer control the paycheck.

"Making money online, either as a part-time or full-time Internet entrepreneur, is becoming more and more appealing. New websites are springing to life on a regular basis with wealth-sharing mechanisms for the contributors."

"Here are a few of the best-known sites for making money online:

## "eBay now enables more than 750,000 people to make their living off the online auction each year."

## "Google AdSense: While a reported 8 percent of Internet users have created their own blog sites, only a fraction of that number are able to carve out a full-time living splitting ad revenues on their site. But the number is growing rapidly. Google's AdSense and Yahoo's Publisher Network are leading the pack in this area."

## "Revver: Upload a video and Revver will attach a short ad to the end of your video and you get paid every time someone watches it -- a 50/50split."

## "YouTube: With Google's recent purchase of YouTube, an announcement followed saying they would be offering a revenue-sharing arrangement similar to Revver's."

## "Craigslist: The Internet's best known classified ad site is becoming a great source for income."

## Scoopt: Scoopt is a site that pays you to send in your photos. Sign up for a free account, snap a few pictures of anything interesting and newsworthy, send it in to Scoopt, and if they make a sale, the proceeds are split with you 50/50."

"Each of these sites allows you to do what you enjoy while they take care of sales and distribution. Other entrepreneurs have begun finding micro-markets for seemingly insignificant online things like sound effects, generic video clilps, ringtones, and MySpace personalities."

"It's not realistic to expect that all gatekeepers will go away. However it is entirely reasonabler to expect that all gatekeeping systems will go through a period of tremendous change."

"Look for old-fashioned monopolies like electric, gas and water utilities to be dismantled. High-pain taxation systems like income tax are doomed and will be replaced with more efficient tax systems. Higher education continues to cling to its ivory towers, but towers are destined to topple."

"We live in a global marketplace and every iondustry if fighting for new efficiencies and a distinct competetive edge. Since national economies are dependent upon revenue streams created in the bussiness world, governments will be forced to keep pace witht he new tempo of business."

"In the end, the comptetition between busineesses will boil down to performance efficiencies and the freedom a business has to create its own efficiencies. Governments with the least impediments will flouprish as the businesses that support them come out the winners."

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I don't know the whole story about things, but do believe that the man has a point or two.

To my mind he might be overdrawing the picture a tad, but defines the trends to may way of thinking.

Quite a few of computer literate people work from their home now and I expect more will do so in the future. I can imagine offices without chairs, desks and computers. The only folks there are timekeepers, who check on the times claimed, sales folks (who probably will be able to work from home too) and a boss or two.

And, just thinking, those of us who have web pages, journals, diaries and blogs are selling our line of thought, and we get paid by the eyes that are reading what we are writing.

One thing Mr. Frey should make clear though -- in my mind, is that entrepreneurship requires a lot of time, thought and ingenuity, and you can't buy that on eBay.

Perhaps we all should do a bit of physical and mental therapy/rehab in order to keep up with THE CHANGING SCENE . . . . . . . . . . . .

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