2002: The Carpetbaggers Go Home.

Cory Doctorow 5:54 pm Fri Dec 21, 2001

2002: The Carpetbaggers Go Home. I've written an editorial for O'Reilly about the coming golden age of Zen acceptance of online unreliability.

The first time many corporate silverbacks saw the Internet, they came to the conclusion that the way to commercialize the thing was to carve out managed pockets of sanity in the anarchy. Consumers have been bred to expect consistency, cultivated for it by generations of Madison Avenue Mafiosi, and changing the expectations of consumers back to unbranded chaos is not an option at this late date — it'd be like trying to breed chihuahuas back into wolves. Instead, you change the environment to meet consumer expectation, sit back, and open the checks.

After all, it's just a little order imposed in the chaos, right? How hard can it be?

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