I’m been slowly becoming acutely aware of something lately. The fact is there are so many exciting things happening with media lately: social, mobile, HTML5, semantic markup, open-data movements, users as content creators, etc. and many people out there are starting to get that all of these new fun tools that people get to work with are not what is important, but rather the message that delivered over them and the experiences people have because of them are what are important. This is very exciting because the face of advertising and communication is changing very fast. The digital network that surrounds us (difficult to call it the internet or digital or anything specific because it is becoming so pervasive and so ill-defined) is starting to mature in a way that no longer feels like an experiment, but rather something familiar and more natural.
So what is bothering me then? I think the problem is two-fold. First, I still haven’t seen anything (or very few examples) where someone has done something truly revolutionary with all of these new and meaningful tools. And second, I haven’t done anything or thought of anything truly exciting or revolutionary despite being completely aware of what is now possible.
I think the reality is that I have sat on the sidelines, doing my job, for a long time and I haven’t contributed anything personal in a very long time. I think it’s time for that to end. I need to stop being a critic and start being a creator.
