The Democratization of Technology

Technology used to be for geeks and IT managers in big companies looking to save money or drive enterprise productivity. The entire technology industry grew up trying to satisfy the computing and productivity needs of enterprises. Big companies, and entire sectors, formed around their needs.

But in the 90s, a funny thing happened. Actually it was a whole set of things. The Web emerged as a distribution channel for information, media, and entertainment. Email became the dominant mechanism of communication, the proverbial killer app. Cell phones became small enough, light enough, and cheap enough for virtually everyone to carry one. Mobile phone usage exploded. Laptops and WiFi became prevalent. Digital camera usage similarly exploded. Massive adoption of technology by consumers continued even as the tech bubble burst in 2001-2003. In fact it accelerated.

However, it wasn’t just adoption, it was participation. Consumers didn’t just accept technology, they didn’t even embrace it, they pushed it. This democratization of technology involved active participation in the technology industry. You could even call it a movement. Massive file sharing of MP3s, illegal at first, occurred because consumers wanted it, and interacted with each other to create it. This spawned the iPod and iTunes. Apple created these because record companies could not get their act together to work out a legal system for music downloads. But it wasn’t enough just to get your music mobile, the iPod wave spawned podcasting, another method of participating with technology and interacting.

This wave of democratization, of participation, is just beginning.

Proliferation:

Email
Cell phones
Laptops
WiFi
Blackberry, Treo
Online Banking, bill pay, insurance, mortgages
Digital cameras

Democratization:

Tivo- the ability to time shift, to interact, with your television programming
eBay- the ultimate participatory marketplace
Paypal- really grew from people using eBay
MP3s, iPods
Photo sharing
IMing
Blogs- "listen to what I have to say"
podcasts- "I am a DJ or a commentator"

Open Source Software- the ultimate example, the geeks version of democratization. Worldwide contribution to software development for a number of reasons, none of them monetary. The most important of which seem to be an expression of creativity and a desire for belonging to something larger.