Get Busy On The Internet … And The Bulldog

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We who are alive today have lived in two eras: the era before Internet – and the internet era. They are very very different in style and operation.

Before the internet, we had newspapers and bulletin boards – an open space on a wall – it could be almost anywhere – and there you could advertise for cats and dogs wanted, lost or for sale things, notices and well, almost anything you wanted people to know. These notices did not invite your opinion on anything.

And newspapers were more or less the same. You might get livid about something the editor or publisher did or said, or your local politicians were saying or doing, and you just might sit down and write a letter to the paper about it. The chances of that letter getting published were maybe 25-to-one. Likely less. Newspapers worked because advertisers advertised and readers paid subscriptions. They did not need or even necessarily want to know what you thought.

Then around 1970 the first version of the internet came into being. We saw the emergence of formal military and scientific on-line communications and endeavours on this new, and for the most part, private internet and also the emergence of very informal ragtag media called BBS – meaning bulletin board systems. Now those scientists and military people were using networks for work purposes and it was almost exclusively no-nonsense for quite decades. The BBS operators and users were something different.

These systems were hotbeds of dialogue and discontent. If someone had the notion that the moon was made of cheese – and posted something to that effect, in mere seconds there were several posts in agreement and dozens saying that the poster was an idiot.

Now while newspapers were married to their financial income, the BBS and Internet “newsgroups” were kept alive by activity. All of them thrived on action and reaction. Like all things there was of course a downside in all this and much of the content then – as now – was not at all beneficial.

What’s important is that a medium such as The Bulldog  lives when it is being read but it thrives when readers react. The editor of The Bulldog is very unlikely to shut down someone who interacts with the medium. And when someone reacts with that reaction, and we have a three way dialogue emerging, we know that we are engaging people and they are engaging each other. That’s a good thing.

An element of that good thing is that the builders and operators of The Bulldog, and media like it, live for learning, dialogue and discovery. Most are not making a living by publishing or writing in these media. Their energy and enthusiasm are maintained by knowing that they, with their readers and commentators, are helping move the planet ahead – even if it is only minute amounts daily.

When The Bulldog, the internet and BBS (yes they still exist) are part of advancing understanding  they are valuable elements in society.

When they speak and there are no reactions, they become just paper notices on a hallway bulletin board. And of little consequence. So it comes down to this.

Being a member of the community, you do have an obligation to react  with what the medium is, and what it is saying and doing if you want it to continue.

Circulation used to mean getting eyes on newspapers. Now, media circulation is more analogous to blood flow. It’s what keeps the media alive.

This is a heartfelt invitation to speak your mind. To be part of The Bulldog experiment.

D.G. Jones was a senior municipal manager and federal government executive.

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