Last week's supposedly cool viral campaigns inviting female facebook users to reveal the color of their bras (to surprising success - I certainly didn't want to know my best friend's penchant for "electric pink with lace"), only reinforces the fact that pretty much anything is "cool" as long as its online. (Facebook's Bra Color Story)
Unhappily, it also means that we accept the decline of institutions that we perhaps should be fighting harder to protect - long form writing, investigative journalism, newspapers, research, informed opinion - these are just a few of the mainstays of thought that look as if they might bite the dust soon, casualties of the shapeshifting, design heavy, limited attention span online audience.
Seth Godin's blog today deals with the decline of yet another beloved insitution - Libraries. I fully endorse his view that we need to take the initiative to build places where you come to find expertise. Being an eternal optimist, go a step further in saying that the libraries of the future will not only survive, but thrive. Cut to 2040 - you walk across to your neighbourhood library to catch the lecture on how the human race saved earth from extinction through strategic initiatives taken in the early 21st century. After the audiovisual, you browse references online and in hard copy as you sit on a comfortable couch and drink fair trade coffee. Sounds fun? Hell yeah.
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