¡Chapeau!

Hugh Macleod, el conocido humorista gráfico que plasma su ingenio en el reverso de tarjetas de visita, acaba de anunciar que ha decidido dejar de publicar sus dibujos en su blog.

Sus razones son contundentes, y muy a tener en cuenta por todos los que utilizamos la Red de manera habitual:

“But like a lot of the folk who have been blogging for a long time, I’ve started to feel that over the last few years, that the blogosphere has just gotten too big, noisy and anonymous. I’ve started longing for the days when things were ’smaller’, ‘clubbier’, intimate and, well, human. When the people I met were truly like-minded. This was one of the reasons why I originally started the “CDF” newsletter last year. I wanted that feeling back”.

Para Hugh Macleod – igual que para otros muchos entre los que me incluyo – la Red cobra todo su sentido cuando nos facilita localizar personas y grupos que comparten nuestros intereses y aficiones. Es lo que se llama encontrabilidad (findability).

Como bien apunta Hugh MacLeod, parece que últimamente la tendencia dominante en la Red es la contraria. Cada vez hay más ruido, más masificación, menos relación personal, menos confianza, más ego y menos ganas de compartir. Cada vez más monólogos y menos diálogo.

El alegato de Hugh MacLeod se dirige a combatir la inercia hacia la impersonalización.

La Red cobra pleno sentido cuando se articula en forma de pequeños círculos de personas que comparten intereses y que se divierten, trabajan y colaboran de forma distribuida utilizando los medios digitales.

Esto no significa poner puertas o echar cerrojos; la Red, por su propia estructura, se caracteriza por favorecer la encontrabilidad generando la creación de grupos de forma dinámica y abierta.

Pasar tiempo en la Red es valioso en la media que nos facilita nuevas oportunidades.

Por eso considero que cualquier iniciativa que incida en la “encontrabilidad” tiene muchas probabilidades de triunfar porque será bien recibida por los usuarios de la Red.

El resto de iniciativas, todas aquellas dirigidas a convertir la Red en una inmensa masa de gente anónima, está avocado al fracaso.

Estamos en el tiempo de los Social Media. Los Mass Media desaparecieron con el cambio de siglo.

Hugh Mcleod, el conocido humorista gráfico que plasma su ingenio en el reverso de tarjetas de visita, acaba de anunciar que ha decidido dejar de publicar sus dibujos en su blog.

Su argumento es contundente, y muy a tener en cuenta…

gapingvoid 2.0: Why I’ll no longer be blogging new cartoons.

1. In May, 2001, I blogged my first cartoon on gapingvoid.com. This is my TENTH year doing it.

Back then, it was like the dawn of a new era. The idea that I could doodle at night, and have the entire world see the work the next morning, was amazing and liberating to me. Cheap, Easy, Global Media.

Blogging changed my life. It also allowed me to share my work with people who understood and valued it. For the longest time, I felt as if gapingvoid was almost a “club” of like-minded, passionate, smart people. And wherever I traveled, blogging allowed me to meet lovely, smart, fun people who shared the same worldview. The blogosphere felt like a group who were going to change the world. And you know what? In our own way, we did.

2. But like a lot of the folk who have been blogging for a long time, I’ve started to feel that over the last few years, that the blogosphere has just gotten too big, noisy and anonymous. I’ve started longing for the days when things were ’smaller’, ‘clubbier’, intimate and, well, human. When the people I met were truly like-minded. This was one of the reasons why I originally started the “CDF” newsletter last year. I wanted that feeling back.

Though I’ve not emailed you guys consistently, we consistently get new sign-ups and I get emails daily that reinforce the idea that we are into the same stuff, whether we’re “artists” or not. We understand that what is gibberish to most people, is actually cool, powerful stuff to us- and somehow fits into the weird, existential angst of work, AND relationships, AND 21st Century life.

3. So, I’ve decided that I really only want to share my new work (cartoons) with ‘us’ i.e. Y’all. The folks that really dig and support what I do. Call it “Getting back to my roots” or whatever. But starting immediately, my new cartoons will be going out first to this email list, which will really be “Hugh’s Daily Cartoon”- a new cartoon emailed first thing out every day, so y’all can start with a bit of a chuckle when you open your Inbox. Simple. Easy.

Also, by making the cartoons available by sign-up, I hope that we can build this group and maybe do more together- Tweetups, conferences, geek dinners, drunken nights out, whatever.

4. These are still early days- there’s still a lot to figure out. But “Phase Two” of gapingvoid is now beginning, and it’s all very, very exciting stuff!

5. Feel free to blog, tweet, forward along these new e-mail cartoons at your leisure, make a friend smile etc…. and yeah, if you find something that inspires you enough to want it hanging on your wall, you can buy the print (Yes, every cartoon will come with a link to the gapingvoid gallery, where you can buy the print version if you wish). Regardless, the same Creative Commons terms still apply.

6. Feel free to opt out and unsubscribe at any time. I think it would be cool if one day there were 100,00 like-minded people who get the cartoons every morning. So again, feel free to share etc.

Wish me luck with gapingvoid 2.0,

Thanks for your support
Godspeed,
Hugh