I’m a member of an internet message board, and day after day, I’m astounded at the amount of collaboration and new ideas that sprout from people, seemingly random strangers, sharing their thoughts. One innovation that sticks out in my mind would be the idea of “userpics”, essentially a way for the message board users to host an image of themselves in order to make the message board feel more personal. The idea started from one person mentioning the idea of users having their photo next to their name. Pretty soon, a user who was a skilled programmer decided to try his hand at making a code for such an idea. With people giving all their ideas, the programmer made the idea into a program. Now, just about every user has downloaded the program and can see what everyone looks like, bringing everyone together a tad more.

Certain websites are used for nothing but the creation of new ideas like Nikolai’s Third Minds website. In particular, there is a website that lives on the idea of “if you can imagine it, we will make it”, with the medium being drawings and, sometimes, animations.If you use the internet, you can clearly see that it is a fantastic and developing means of expression. Having only been around for some 20 or so years, and having expanded so far, the creative content that will emerge from the internet in the next 20 years will be massive. The internet simply does not stifle creativity; it just provides a new medium of exchange and showcasing.