Week 1 - A new decade & a look at progress
There's been a lot recaps (still) about the last ten years I've stumbled upon ending the new year. Many discussing how tech has changed society and our lives in ways we never imagined. Some I agree with, some I think it's too early to tell. One experiment I've been toying with (besides this newsletter) is to try and sketch out my thoughts in random/creative ways. Here's my first one where I thought: "What new user experiences / businesses / tech came about in the 2000s vs the 2010s?" It's not complete, but it's a rough attempt to try and understand progress we've witnessed. What prompted me was this oral history of Limewire.
For UX, the 2000s introduced a lot with p2p networking, bitorrents, apps with the iPhone in 2007, and the power browers (with the help of javascript) unlocked for internet users.
For businesses, we saw the rise of adtech, software-as-a-service offerings, aggregator services ala merchant type services, and marketplaces (eBay, etsy, etc)
For technology, so many things came to mind like cloud services, sms text (twitter started out this way remember), geolocation (foursquare checkin), to what HTTP continued to enable again.
Forward ten years, and changes continue that we rarely think about from a macro point-of-view.
Anyway, I'll leave you with two finds that really stick with this theme of progress. One of my favorite sites, Our World in Data, looking at how they got started.
History of Our World in Data - Our World in Data
The history of how we got started and how we’ve grown as a team.
And a helpful list/guide to think about not just the physical nature of the internet, but its origins which explain the internet.
