The Rise of Small Businesses Online:

    Hey everyone, it’s Monday and some Mondays are particularly rougher than other Mondays (this is one of those Mondays). Today for the sake of it being a rough Monday I decided to tackle one of Cairncross’s theories I believe she hit the most spot on. #3 on the list The Irrelevance of Size.

    The rise of the internet has surprisingly enough been also the rise of a multitude of small businesses. No longer do customers need to run all over town for a specific product they need. All they have to do now is jump on their laptops or smart phone, a few clicks later and the product is on its way to your front door. Not only has the internet helped with the rise of small businesses but it has really helped with the rise of very specific niche markets to expand. For example, Etsy, everyone knows what Etsy is, it that hipster online marketplace where you can find anything from spoons with your name engraved in them to pillows with a picture of your pet on them. Before the internet there was no place for strange novelty items like this unless you were at an art festival. The internet has made it possible for creative people to grow and expand their own business enough to have a fighting chance against the monopolies that typically dominate every market place. “Individuals with valuable ideas, initiative, and strong business plans will attract global venture capital and convert their ideas into viable businesses. ” Cairncross was really spot on with this prediction.

    I have seen first-hand how the internet has allowed for the creation of small creative marketplace since I myself run a small online store. I create jewelry that before I had an Esty store for the only way I sold it was at a little booth outside my house. Since I have created my Etsy store back in 2014 I have been able to expand my market to a size I never been thought to be possible. I have gone from selling to girls I went to high school with to shipping internationally.

 According to Theweek.com small online market places like Esty have been such a success because “They want to bring intimacy and individualism back to commerce.”. That is exactly what the rise of small businesses on the internet has done. It allows individuals to remain individuals by finding unique and special items on the internet that they could never find in stores. I find this prediction so interesting because it amazes me just how in-tune Cairncross was with how she saw the future playing out.

    Don’t forget to check back in next week when I go in yet again to examine some of the major trends Cairncross missed.

Work Cited:

"How to Make a Living on Etsy." The Week - All You Need to Know about Everything That Matters. N.p., 02 Mar. 2015. Web. 26 June 2017.

The necessary evil of internet regulation and why Cairncross was wrong:

Post two:

     Hi guys! Last time we were here I was talking a lot about Frances Cairncross and specifically how he so eerily predicted the future of technologies place in our world. He was basically a trend setter way before the time of trendsetters. Last time we talked about how specifically Cairncross predicted the was that web portals and blogs would transform into parts of our lives and in turn transform the way the internet is used. He was pretty spot on with these, so this week I wanted to see if he didn’t exactly hit the mark on all his predictions.

      This week I want to hit on Cairncross’ bullet #20 The Shift from Government Policing to Self-Policing “Governments will find national legislation and censorship inadequate for regulating the global flow of information.” (Cairncross) It is easy to see how so early on Cairncross predicted that the internet would be something that should be left free for the people to govern on their own. Perhaps he did not realize the magnitude the internet would grow to. In the article Four Phases of Internet Regulation by John Palfrey it is said that we have now entered the fourth phase of internet regulation. In this phase “States too, have come to recognize that activities mediated by digital technologies are deeply important in economic, political, and cultural ways as a critical mass of their citizens, businesses, and nongovernmental organizations online.”

        The government has realized that the internet has become too much a part of the way the world is now ran to not be regulated in at least some way shape or form. I do not think Cairncross realized all the negative aspects that would come from the internet being an un policed entity. In my own opinion, it is a necessary evil that the internet is regulated by the government. The internet is a dark place full of many horrors if you dig deep enough. It is already easy enough for people to find illegal substances, counterfeit goods, and weapons on the internet. Not to mention the endless forums which go into details about how to create bombs, child pornography, you name it. Cairncross touched on how he believed the government would not be able to control things like this because the internet would be such a vast cyberspace, but luckily in recent years the government has been able to gain more control over these internet portals.

     Not all of you might agree with me, you might believe that the government should back down in its control of the internet. Some of you might agree with Cairncross that cyberspace is too vast to be regulated by the government. But in my eyes, I believe that the government does police the internet and that the need to continue so it doesn’t turn into the wild west of the web.

Sources:

Palfrey, J. (2010). Four Phases of Internet Regulation. Social Research, 77(3), 981-996. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40972303