Some time ago, I wrote a post titled The Blogosphere Jungle in which I described the truly uncivil nature of the blogosphere in which respect for opposing views and dispassionate discourse were out and ad hominem attacks and demonization were in.
Yet, as I have followed and responded to many comments to my own blog posts and read many other blogs, I have come to see the “commentariat” in a very different light. Contrary to my earlier belief, it is not another indication of the end of civilization as we know it. Instead, I now see it as a vital force in our democracy that, though not exactly leveling the playing field altogether, it at least flattens it some so that it is not tilted so steeply in favor of the all-powerful ruling class.
To paraphrase Bill Shakespeare, today I come to praise the commentariat, not to bury it.
Ever since watching the release event for Windows Phone 7 Series we’ve been internally discussing what this all means. And the more I think about it, the more I see this as a huge leap forward for the platform. I know that some people are already upset that there aren’t going to be UI replacements and it seems like there’s limited backwards compatibility, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. And I say that with a Fuze running constantly cooked software that I love to use and yet I’d give it up in a heartbeat. Why? Well let’s think about the phones we’re using. Yes, it has a super sexy and new 6.5.5 core running with Sense 2.5 with landscape support. But what’s that all come down to? The core itself is MS. The UI is Sense. That’s an HTC addition. Photos are viewed using HTC Album. The web browser default is set to Opera, but I sometimes fire up Skyfire if I want to go to a real heavy site. Facebook integration is again a part of Sense, as is Twitter. Sure there are alternative like Twikini to get Tweets and there’s a stand alone FB app (which MS actually did develop) but then there’s no integration into your contacts that way. The ability to flick to scroll first came from HTC, not MS. Even the onscreen keyboard most of us rely on is from HTC. Music is played by Media Player but of course, I have Core Player for some music and videos that WMP can’t handle. And a lot of you use Kimona or Resco for your music and streaming needs. SMS is part of HTC messaging. The phone dialer is HTC’s dialer. And my location features (like weather updates) are courtesy of Google’s location awareness. Now of course you can sub in any number of replacement apps and if you have a Samsung, Sony, or Toshiba phone then instead of Sense you’ll have their UI and their photo viewer. But you see where this is going, right? The core is Microsoft but the experience is not.
