The Machine is using us

A message “The Web is us” keeps lingering on me after my viewing of the YouTube video “The Machine is Us/ing us”. The machine, of course, refers to the Web. No matter how absurd it may sound, but there is actually truth in saying that we are the Web. The core and the most impressive element of the Web is hyperlinking, an organized means to access all possible related knowledge on the same theme. This embedded structure of webpages is indeed a demonstration of human’s brilliant knowledge extended across time, territories, and topics. After XML has replaced HTML, composing e-texts is no longer a privilege of the computing codes professionals. With the unbundling of content and format, almost everyone can start a webpage and upload their views to the Web with ease. With billions of bloggers and browsers using the Web every day around the world, humans are literally feeding new knowledge to the Web and telling it what information is sought or considered significant by the mankind. Through participating on the Web, whether creating, downloading or interacting, humans are connected, in both the perspectives of human to human, and human to computer exchanges. In fact, to generations like us who grow up with the Internet, the Web is never a ‘virtual space’ but a part of reality. Online communication is not only natural, but is even more intense and efficient than the conventional in-person interchange. Via the Internet, we make friends, receive online education, and collaborate in work. It is common for us to get entertainment from the Web, to trade, and even start or break a romance there. The Web is our shared memories after we have uploaded so many of our photos and experiences to the Internet. The Web is more than a tool to us; it is part of our life. We are so used to its being around and we are more and more addicted to it. We have so merged with it that we can be considered half human-half machine. With our vast extent of devotion and contribution, I think it is justifiable to acknowledge ourselves the Web.

Erik Hanberg’s visit

2019 marks the 10 th year of Erik Hanberg’s self-publishing venture online. Following his interpretation, this selling of e-books is a way of getting paid without trading time for money, as the income in years after a book is completed needs no time investment at all. The work is already done, and any sales in later years would only render the time previously spent on writing more and more prized. Now, Hanberg has authored more than ten books in e-book, paperback, or audiobook formats, and sold more than 52,000 copies, an accomplishment that an author can be proud of. . Surely, Hanberg’s success reflects a good blending of his writing interest and business sense. Yet, it is also a verification of the unlimited opportunities that the Internet can offer in accumulating capital and relation linkage. Hanberg’s entrepreneurial vision of the Internet is shown in two ways. First, he is able to take advantage on the early days of Kindle publishing. He gets a free ride, succeeds to self-publish his works at a low cost, and starts to collect readers. According to Hanberg, to go self-publishing is far more lucrative than utilizing services from a conventional publisher. An author can retain a larger portion, around 70%, of profit from sales through self-publishing. Moreover, the process of write and publish is a convenient takeaway for authors like him who write fast. Second and more importantly, Hanberg can make use of the Internet to get marketing benefits. He enrolls his book The Marinara Murders in Amazon’s KDP Select to offer the book free for 5 days. With a rise of free downloads, and the information revealed by the website EReaderNewsToday.com, Hanberg successfully uses the ranking algorithm of the website to place his novels at a higher popularity rank than works that affiliate with the major publisher Amazon. To me, Erik Hanberg’s success is definitely a tale of “Internet people” at the New Age of Virtual World.