Consider how the internet has progressed. To think about it, the fundamental motivation for the development of the World Wide Web and the Internet was to put some emphasis on the community rather than keeping it all consolidated at particular centralised bodies.
While the early iteration of the web broke down important communication barriers, it did not do the same for information sharing.
This was a significant achievement for the community because knowledge was no longer limited to a single location and communication was no longer limited to a single portion of the globe.
Web 2.0, the second edition of the web, has significantly advanced in diversifying the ways in which information is both created and consumed.
Platforms like Facebook, Blogger, and YouTube have helped to drive this change. We must give some credit to the development in Internet speeds as well as the the hardware, particularly mobile hardware, grew throughout this time.
Even the average person could now shoot and edit high quality videos… and easily post them to platforms like YouTube.
Again, the community witnessed something unprecedented. The community was no longer just a consumer of information; it was also a provider of information.
This created a strong and vibrant brand of independent creators who knew that they had the power to reach even the remotest of the people on the planet with the Internet connectivity being the only factor required.
The catch in Web 2.0, however, was that the commercial elements were still centralized.
Allow me to explain it more!
The creativity would reach everyone, and the centralised platforms would boost interaction by presenting these works.
However, the developer only received a little percentage of the centralised platform’s advertising money generated by the engagement.
It is also worth noting that, in most cases, consent to use personal data for advertising purposes has been quite implicit and passive, and these centralised platforms have capitalised on consumers’ gullibility to coax them into accepting the conditions that would open up their valuable personal data for advertising purposes.
Now it is high time we thought about giving complete and true powers to the community in terms of commercial interests and data privacy.
Web3 has, with utmost strength and solidity, emphasized the importance of the community in every possible dimension.
Now, the community has complete command over the future course of certain organizations and games, fittingly referred to as decentralized autonomous organizations or DAOs.
Even on platforms that are semi-centralized, the community has a voice, thanks to channels like Discord where the organization takes active note of community feedback and engages in interactive sessions periodically, so they can understand the pulse of the community.
