So, I was reading through some of my old pondering posts tonight and I came across one that was as true today as on the day I wrote it, except for the fact that I think we as an industry have become so collectively tired of hearing about it that we've managed to begin to eliminate it. Did you hear that? I think it was a collective sigh of relief. I wrote this originally on August 16th 2007. See, i've held this utopian view of the internet and the business for a long time. I'm going to keep holding on to it.

The internet as I see it, is a vast happy cloud surrounded by rainbows and lightning bolts. (I’ve illustrated it here for you so that we’re on the same page. )

I’ve been making my living from making things online for a long time now and the internet has always been that happy smiling cloud to me. Even when the timelines are unreasonable, the people are sometimes so full of useless for the moment buzzwords that the cloud becomes sad and full of, well, let’s just say it. Bullshit. A little unhappy bullshit cloud. Unfortunately- I think it really comes with the territory. There’s two things people can BS themselves through, without knowing anything of real value. Online and Marketing - and it seems that unfortunately when those two things come together it creates some kind of terrible vortex in which snake oil salesmen can crawl out of the woodwork and pull the wool over unsuspecting eyes. That said, knowledge is power like anything else and asking questions is the best defense. Rather than being so afraid of “not knowing” or looking uninformed if something doesn’t add up. Ask questions, look things up, get informed. Be interested, be collaborative. People always ask me how it is that we produce such cool work. It’s easy. We Collaborate. There are far too many companies, consultants and contractors out there selling the cloud of bullshit to who ever wants to buy it and in the process spewing so much jargon and being such business prevention specialist that nothing good gets produced.  

In the meantime, logon to the information superhighway and upload some user generated content! consult your local SEO exper! podcast til dawn! experience web two point whatever!

So, that's where my head was at towards the end of 2007. Now here we are at the beginning of 2010 and though there are still business prevention specialists out there, and I'd probably use a different silly font to "brand" the internet. I feel like things, are changing. People are genuinely interested in having a dialogue. Especially in the Canadian market, I feel like we're looking forward, and taking chances. Hooray for that.

Who knew I'd be looking at old blog posts and comparing my theories and commentary. How Generation Next of me.

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So, I thought what better way to enter the world of FITC's blog, than to write a post about the thing I get asked about the most. Jump in with both feet, just like I always do. Of course I love the work, and there's tons of cool sites, and technologies and artists doing amazing stuff, but when Shawn asked me if I wanted to contribute to the FITC blog, I thought I'd alternate a bit. Article/Rant, Cool stuff, ... repeat. So that's where i'll start. So for my first post. It's all about The "V" Word. The single least important question I get asked.

 How to make something viral...
My question is - When did Viral become a genre? The last thing I remember what that viral content was either a) good, or b) bad. (I've posted countless rants on that before and I won't go into it again here). Now, it seems I get requests for "virals" as an execution. When did that happen? What happened to viral being symptomatic of a successful piece of content? I'm not sure, but it seems that we're starting to produce banner advertising that doesn't drive anywhere,  content hoping people will send it around like David after Dentist. Let's get honest, digital has become a wasteland of virals. Everything on digg is viral, viral isn't even relevant anymore. we've eliminated it. Our attention spans have become way too short. Viral is anything newsworthy now, it's Kanye and Tiger Woods, and one in a million times its advertising. Can't we start refering to "virals" as "videos", because most of the time that's what they are. There's usually nothing innovative around them, for "virals" the internet is just a vehicle. It's not there to do anything but be a CDN.  It's like using your iPhone as a phone. Single use for a multifaceted technology. Can we agree that the age of viral marketing is dead? Or will we kill it, and then zombify it, and have it take over the internet using vokens and expandable leaderboards. That, my friends is viral.

Next up from me,  a little bit about what I think makes the digital scene in Canada, so great. After over a decade, it's still one of the most solid and talented communities in the world. It's not an anomaly.