Text chatrooms and instant messengers were upgraded into audio conferences with (mind-numbing) presentations, and then swiftly moved into virtual meetings with video and the tools needed to manage large-scale participant interaction. These collaborative platforms, once reserved for serious business, have now found their place among many more occasions outside of the corporate boardrooms. Virtual tours, philosophical discussions, town meetings, and even just groups of pandemic socially starved friends have found the new platforms easy enough to use for more casual occasions.

The Internet quickly became the very thing we had all feared- anyone can say anything. Of course, this allowed the professional and insightful people to finally get the voice they deserve. However, it also allowed the ignorant and paranoid to have their say as well. We were wholly unprepared for the ensuing scope of damages  to credible sources of information caused by an inability to tell the difference between the two. How can we fix this?

I grew up in a time when people were respected for their education. College was considered an inevitable next step after High School, or your life will forever be relegated to part-time jobs and shift work. Today, those very same people tell me that advanced degrees are suddenly elitist and snobbish. Well, it's a good thing I have lots of experience with society so I can see that as the bullshit it is.

I know we think it would be better to start 2020 over again, or perhaps just forget this year ever happened. I don't want that. 2020 is not a year to regret or to forget. It is the year to expect better. I hope this time is a turning point in the collective vision of ourselves. 

It was not long ago that issue voters existed. They had a personal list of hot-button issues for themselves, and they used stances of politicians to determine their vote. The scoring was not always clear-cut, but they could generally get a decent feel for a politician based on their positions. Sadly, those voters would have a tough time in this political environment.

The democratization of the Internet held so much promise. The idea that free exchange of ideas was a good thing seemed so idyllic back in the day. That is, until it became a reality. Sure, certain platforms in the Social Media maelstrom have maintained their original purpose. However, the biggest platforms have been invaded by scammers, shills, and robots that have agendas all their own. Want to fake a grass-root movement? Social media is there for you. Want to spread disinformation among gullible followers? It has never been easier.

Meatspace. No, it is not that shallow drawer in the fridge where you keep your plastic enshrouded deli slices. This is the world where human bodies actually interact, often poorly, in social and public spaces. A person can speak directly to someone else in real-time, and there is no editing after it is put out there. People with differing opinions talk and interact everyday, and it is not a big thing. People of different ethnic backgrounds, religions and political parties get work done all day long without any incidents.

There is a lot of buzz going on right now about encryption boosts being implemented in Apple products. Specifically, app and text data stored on these personal devices will now be encrypted, and the user will be the only one able to decrypt it. Yes, it turns out those are two different features. At the minimum, this dramatically increases the security of the devices as a whole, and it provides more legal oversight surrounding the ownership rights and access to that content. Naturally, the investigative arms of government are flapping like chicken wings over the BETTER protection.

Amid the recent saber rattling of Internet Transit vs Internet Content providers, a long-time rumble is finally getting detected on the public press seismometers. This is mainly because of the entrance of the big name players that bear weight of their public consumers. Back about four months ago, Verizon actually won a Circuit court judgement that basically said the FCC is overstepping it's authority. They believed the FCC had no business telling them how to operate their network, and the court basically agreed.

I have a few attitudes about "angel investors" and "venture capital" leftover from the days of the early web explosion. It was the rich getting the opportunity to get richer. That was all fine and well, until the investors started asking for returns on their investments. All of this is still going on today, but not at the feverish pace it was a few years ago. I do find it a little ironic that a lot of the technologies and business methods those early investors created have come full circle to open the field for a much wider market for investors.