The Sixth Leg

The advent of the Internet was akin to the octopus growing a sixth leg! It was a new branch of the old media. From the very beginning, the five legs plotted to control and devour the sixth by merging with it, buying it, and throwing money at it. That's what led to the Internet boom ”and bust! Before leaping headlong into new media, it would have been prudent of the old media to ask (and answer) what they were buying into. What was the Internet?

The hallmark of the Internet is convergence. Take the telephone, an ancient technology that predated the media business. The lowly telephone was the technological catalyst that drove the Internet explosion! After all, without modems and landlines, there could be no Internet. The Internet has the power to merge old technologies with new ones by morphing them. For years computers and telephones sat next to each other but had no connection. Overnight, the telephone became the link that connected millions of isolated computers. The nerds emerged from their caves into the light. Suddenly technology was chic!