If it wasn't for Tim Berners-Lee, you wouldn't be reading this blog the way you are doing now. Since the time it was created in 1989, and later released in 1992, the World Wide Web has grown leaps and bounds to what it is today. It is simply amazing to know that the www reaches far and wide and has over time evolved to be one of the most simplest tools that one uses for just about anything imaginable.
In keeping with this trend, it is interesting to note the significant role played by the internet in the very recent US elections. BBC reports that one quarter of the voters received election news and updates online and a remarkable one in five internet users accessed election news everyday. Now, considering that the US forms only a few hundred millions of the world population, this is a sizeable reach. This undoubtedly helped increase the popularity votes President Obama gained, among other payoffs.
The Democrats had used the internet advantage during the 2004 elections too, when it was primarily used for fund raising. But the Republicans outsmarted them by developing a highly effective electronic database that enabled them to reach out to individual voters and address their issues, in the long run, gaining their support. The Republican victory by a narrow margin in that year is just another example of how complacency and innovation on the internet, when put to test, can bring about incredible results.
Fastforward 4 years and the trend hasn't changed. Only, this term, the Democrats were more innovative and exploited the internet to come up with Telephone canvassing. I call this innovation, because telephone canvassing per se, does not guarantee voter confidence in the candidate. Gaining new voter confidence was the idea and effective mode of communication in the canvass was the key to achieving this goal. It also won the Democrats the popularity of many more citizens who untill then were reluctant to vote, but were now willing to try the Democrats in office.
Winning though innovation is definitely the icing on the cake. It doesn't take a scholar to see the way internet has made life easier for the larger mass. It has for me too, if not for all. If it wasn't for online transaction process, I would still be standing in those long queues to pay my telephone and electricity bills. If it wasn't for e-commerce, I'd still be crowding that prized mall to make a purchase on a discount sale. If it wasn't for e-books, I'd still be spending considerable time, browzing newspapers or frequenting the library for new releases. Not to forget the spared days and months of my parents' efforts to scout for my better half. Online dating is the trend that is here to stay. ;-)
Last but not the least, imagine the amount of time I would have wasted writing copies of this scrap and posting it to individual mail addresses. With innovative internet, the planet had definitely become very accessible. It's now a small world..... unless you have to paint it... Well, this too could be reality in the years to come...
