"The Art of Immersion," Frank Rose.
The Art of Immersion, Chapter 6: “Open Worlds.”
By Frank Rose.
"When I examine issues of Wired from before the Netscape IPO (issues that I proudly edited), I am surprised to see them touting a future of high production-value content - 5,000 always-on channels and virtual reality, with a side order of email sprinkled with bits of the Library of Congress. In fact, Wired offered a vision nearly identical to taht of Internet wannabes in the broadcast, publishing, software and movie industries: basically, TV that worked. The question was who would program the box. Wired looks forward to a constellation of new media upstarts like Nintendo and Yahoo!, not old-media dinosaurs like ABC…
What we all failed to see was how much of this new world would be manufactured by users, not by corporate interests… Anyone could rustle up a link - which, it turns out is the most powerful invention of the decade. Linking unleashes involvement and interactivity at levels once though unfashionable or impossible. It transforms reading into navigating and enlarges small actions into powerful forces.”