Vive la révolution - steem is here (or why I haven't been so excite...

I started working in the internet in 1994. I guess I was an early adopter.

It came about by chance.

At the end of the 80's and early 90's I had been working for Friends of the Earth in London. There I got my first taste of computing.

As the Local Groups Communications Officer I had the use of a PC with a 10MB hard drive and a dot matrix printer which I used to print out address labels for the monthly newsletter.

More importantly I had access to GreenNet, a 'private' network that an increasing number of the Friends of the Earth local groups were using to communicate with each other and the head office in London.

Then one day a couple of years after leaving Friends of the Earth the IT manager there, who had previously volunteered for me when I worked there, gave me a call out of the blue.

"You've got to come and see this new thing - it's amazing" he implored me.

Within a few days I was on a train to London and in his office.

Then he showed me the internet. All of it. Early in 1994 it wasn't big but I could see the potential.

Back home I quickly got an internet account with Demon, some webspace with Hiway, and I learnt how to make websites.

The first thing I did was to make a website for the network of local environmental organisations I was involved in. The monthly printed newsletter I produced went on the web.

I did a demonstration at a local shopping centre. People were fascinated. Other groups wanted to join in.

A fully fledged online community network was born - one of the very, very first in Britain.

Within months other similar community networks began to pop up around Britain. A conference was organised at the University of Sheffield to help share experiences and ideas.

I went to one talk that changed my life. I cannot remember the speaker but I do remember his words :

"Don't complain about the media - become the media."

I knew I had the tools at hand to do this.

With a supporting income from commercial website work I began to expand the local community network. I took on first a part-time freelance journalist, then a full time journalist, then another until eventually we had a staff of five. We were reporting local news, covering local sport and events and putting out dozens of pages of content every week. The site expanded its coverage to the surrounding county and its user numbers grew and grew and grew.

At its peak it had over 300,000 users a month.

They were exciting times. I was at the leading edge of local community journalism. We turned down a buy offer from a major national newspaper group. Then a 6 figure offer from a leading UK web company. We stayed independent and proud. We had something special going on. We had become the local media.

But then the rest became history. It just became business. We built websites.

I had my fingertips on the edge of a revolution but I didn't grasp it with both hands.

Now I see a new revolution stirring.

It is the blockchain. It is steem and steemit.

Every day as I level up a little further I see the potential of steemit revealing itself before my very eyes.

For some, perhaps many, steemit can be a handsome source of income.

But for me it is a source of wonder. A source of fascination. Can history repeat itself.

Do once in a lifetime chances come twice?

Every day I see another way the steem blockchain could help change the world.

It can put power, and money, back in the hands of people. No governments needed.

As @lyndsaybowes said in a recent post Fuck Basic Income.

Steemit is a leveller, it is an equaliser. In Venuezuela it can feed the hungry, in Bangladesh it can build a school.

In a developing country a good post on steemit can feed a family for a week.

With the coming of the 'add-ons' like DTube the steem blockchain has the chance to free content creators from the tyranny of YouTube.

And coming soon to a blockchain near you are SMTs - what new opportunities will these provide for the revolutionistas amongst us.

The potential to use steem for business and exchange is massive. We must be brave and take every opportunity.

I have not been so excited about the potential of a new technology since I employed that first journalist back in the 1990's.

The revolution is here, let's grasp it with all our steem.

You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

[ image from pixabay - Creative Commons CC0 ]

Vive la révolution - steem is here (or why I haven't been so excited for over 20 years)