The Power Of Internet Is About The Network, The Interaction

The net is not about broadcasting but about the good stuff in life, interaction with people and community.

This from Ev Williams (@ev), co-founder of Twitter, speaking about the future of social publishing at the McCloskey Speaker Series in Aspen.

Coming from a small town in Nebraska, Ev co-founded and sold to Google one of the first widely used blog platforms in Blogger. Doing so, he came to truly understand what blogging and the net was about.

The big thing that I didn’t understand when I did Blogger was that the power of the Internet is really about the network, the interaction, the back and forth. Blogger was really a tool to build websites. I was always attracted to the idea that anybody could put their thoughts out there and somehow, the good stuff would be found. And at the very beginning of the Internet it was about community, but then it became a publishing medium. That was powerful, but it overlooked something more important and more powerful.

Somehow the good stuff would be found, and as a result, a community evolved. Man, is that so true, and man, do I respect Ev. I remember following Ev ten years ago when he blogged about the struggles he was experiencing with Odeo, a web-based podcast solution.

I don’t know how I found Ev and his blog when I needed a fellow entrepreneur to guide me as I was working on LexBlog out of my garage. But I did and I felt a real connection. If I went back, I bet I’d find an exchange with Ev via a comment or blog post or two. Wow.

The Internet and its interaction has enabled me to meet and get to know some incredible people, including the founders of FindLaw, the co-founder of WordPress, a VP of the New York Times and longtime CEO of ALM, and countless great lawyers across this country and the world.

During the time I practiced law, the net and its interaction enabled me to engage and assist countless people looking for help.

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If you’re a blogger and engaging others via your blog and ancillary social media, you know what I am talking about. If you look to the Internet solely as a medium for marketing, getting heard, or getting seen, you are missing out on a special experience.

Life is short. I urge you to reach for something more via the net. Interaction and community. It’s special and something that was not possible before the Internet.

Not to worry, as a lawyer or other professional what you’ll receive via such interaction. You’ll grow relationships and you’ll grow a name. You’ll grow a network of people you’ll lean on and who will lean on you.

If you are looking to grow your business, don’t worry. This interaction and the community which follows will bring it — in spades.

Believe me, I have as hard a time as anyone in not looking to the net as a way to push my agenda and tell everyone about what my company can do for them.

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Ev’s message is a good reminder for me that the net is not about broadcasting but about the good stuff in life, interaction with people and community.


Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder ofLexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlog’s help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. VisitLexBlog.com.

LexBlog also hosts LXBN, the world’s largest network of professional blogs. With more than 8,000 authors, LXBN is the only media source featuring the latest lawyer-generated commentary on news and issues from around the globe. Visit lxbn.com now.