In response to my piece about Web 2.0 “fireflies” —

This passes for insight among the previously employed in big media set?

Yawn. It’s self-delusional, bordering on masturbatory. How Silicon Valley.

The “Internet” (proper noun) is not a pipe or series of tubes or anything remotely akin to an inanimate object. The “Internet” (second SERIOUS proper noun) is a party. It only happens because of those in attendance.

This is why a YouTube or a MySpace even exists. To ENTERTAIN those at the party. And they are easily replaced when they stop filling that role.

Having had a taste of creating its own “content”, the Herd Formerly Known As The Audience isn’t going back to the Inert Couch anytime soon. Nor is it sitting around listening to the same boorish speeches about how what it creates is crap by those who were previously paid a lot to “professionally” create…crap.

So, no. NBC will not return to its vaunted position as one of the three SOLE gatekeepers to the realm of entertainment. EVER. Script writers and other “professional” arbiters of what the Herd “should” be passively watching and adoring will have a place, but it will not be THE place, anymore.

Both will soldier on, as sources among many other sources, and if they proffer or produce something that is entertaining, maybe some will stop by and be entertained. But it will never return to the way it used to be. Just ask the record companies.