Right now, the world economy might be going through turbulent times, but what is the Internet landscape going to look like when all of this dies down? The only thing that is certain is that there will be uncertainty — the only thing that will remain constant shall be the pace of change — business will proceed at the speed of thought (as per Bill Gates) — how many more clichés do you want?
I’m looking at the Internet, and constantly asking three questions — 1) if the methodology that made Flightmapping.com successful two years ago is no longer relevant, how do we change to adapt? 2) how can I use the Internet to discover new opportunities, especially in the field of architecture, where my real passion lies, and 3) how will the concept of social networking evolve, and will that genuinely create new opportunities to find like-minded contacts, or will it just be a way of keeping in shallow contact with people who I don’t really have much in common with anyway?
Ultimately, all of these questions are irrelevant if they aren’t considered in the context of the real world that is out there beyond cyberspace. I have seen a number of Internet commentators try to draw up maps of the so-called Web 2.0 environment, based on Tube maps of one city or another, but cyberspace extends well beyond the boundaries of any city walls. Again, there is the oft quoted cliché of the global village, but what does this really mean, when most of us don’t even know our actual neighbours?
Last night, I was looking at a blog post about how to get 2000 followers on twitter, but I was repeatedly asking myself what the point of that would be? On the other hand, there are still some similarities between the thinking behind Flightmapping and the basic concept of twitter. Twitter is all about condensing messages into 140 characters or less, and they perhaps most famously gave an acceptance speech at an Internet awards dinner in twitter format by saying ‘we’d like to say thank you in 140 characters or less, and we have just done so’. Mapping flights is all about looking at two cities, and the links between them. So in Flightmapping language, LHR-JFK-BA (eight characters and two spaces) would represent a flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK with British Airways. Twitter might condense a whole speech into 140 characters, but just three letters of an IATA code can represent an entire city.
Unfortunately, in the real world, we are actually moving backwards in many ways — following the demise of Concorde, the quickest flight time between London and New York has doubled, whereas many cities around the world are becoming increasingly difficult to get around due to road congestion. There is also the prospect that people will actually physically move less as they seek to shrink their carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, London commuters stuff themselves into crowded trains, but instead of being able to enjoy any kind of social atmosphere (thanks for the alcohol ban Boris), people are more likely to blather on twitter to users who might be thousands of miles away, rather than speak to the person sitting next to them.
This brings me on to the two words I put in the headline to try and describe where I think the Internet is heading. They are both taken from the Japanese word Shinkansen, which means bullet train:
Thinkansen
This is simply the idea that in today’s world of constant media overload, the mind can be distracted into thinking about anything at any time, and that there are no physical barriers to the speed at which the thought process might jump from one activity to another. This creates huge opportunities for digital marketers to draw attention to the products they are trying to push, but how does the individual person make him or herself heard above all the noise? In terms of travel, and urban planning, how can a city ever keep up with the constant fluctuations in interest which are taking place on the Internet?
Linkansen
This is the Internet response to the concept of 6 degrees of separation, and the combined effects of millions of people interacting with websites due to ‘Thinkansen’. Random Internet surfing, especially on social networking websites, can lead the user all over the place within the space of a few short seconds. Does that mean that it is best for websites which have built themselves up over a period of time to continue to invest in traditional content, or is it better to look for that holy grail of viral marketing? Can you ever formulate a business plan based on viral marketing?
What does this mean?
Where does that take us over the next few years? Who knows, but right now I feel that there are a lot more questions out there than answers. We might keep on hearing on the news about the impact of the credit crunch, but I still think that many websites in the affiliate industry will owe their success or failure far more to Google, and their ability or otherwise to benefit from social networking, than they will to surviving the credit crunch and other economic challenges the country may be facing.
So jump on, and get ready for the ride of your life. There will be many more ups and downs, and you may well have to change train many times before you find yourself moving towards the right destination. But one thing is for certain - nothing will ever stand still.
