For example, the World Economic Forum this year said one of the world’s greatest global risks was what they called the digital wildfire, being hyper-connected. ((If Someone Writes A Book)) Our Chief Science Officer in January, John Beddington, who is the Chief Science Adviser to the government, did a big report on identity and the volatile nature of identities because of the pernicious influence of the social networking sites. So it’s not me sounding off. I mean there are reports out there, there’s people out there who I would trust, who actually do publish solid stuff that’s on — that you can download. And just to ignore all that just strikes me as people who want to live in la-la land, well let them live there, to be honest. Unless someone actually comes up with some clear arguments, I’m not going to start fretting if people are sounding off because that is the nature of the blogosphere. That is the nature of the web.

There’ll always be people who like sudden need to feel they have a platform that no one else would normally give them. ((Stanley Dusk)) It’s just like smoking in the 50s. ((Pipe Smoking, Real Musicians)) If you have a lot of people having fun, a lot of people making money out of it, how popular is someone going to be who comes along and spoils the party? And also, if it’s your lifestyle, which suddenly you have an audience that’s global, that suddenly you’re an important person on the web and you can be cool and people get lots of followers, so your status is improved. Yeah, of course, and then someone undermines that, how are you going to feel about them?