Creative thinking is still your job, and it's still hard work

Good read in yesterday's Chron ( Debate 2.0 - Weighing the merits of the new Webocracy), however abbreviated. My take: there is truth on both sides of the contrived debate. Despite the "tastes great" vs. "less filling" slant, to use the old beer slogan, Andrew Keen and Chris Anderson offer useful insights about the applicability and social impact of technology known by the shorthand of "Web 2.0". The applicability (read: relevance) of Web 2.0 to marketing and branding is simply this: technology is a relentless march into the future. The first time our ancestors noticed that round stones placed under a heavy bundle would result in an easier way to transport the load, the space shuttle was just a matter of time. The first time sparks were struck from those stones and a flame ensued, nuclear power was just a matter of time. BUT: technology and tools are no substitutes for the creations they enable. The creations are the fruit of the thinking and ideas and concepts bred in our brains and given shape by our tools. The Internet, like all tools and technologies, merely expedites. It does not create. To a writer on deadline, the scariest thing in the world is an empty sheet of paper or a blank computer screen. Neither one, by itself, will do the writing.