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Q. What is jumping the shark?
A. It’s a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on… it’s all downhill…
The aforementioned expression refers to the telltale sign of the demise of Happy Days, our favorite example, when Fonzie actually “jumped the shark.” The rest is history.
Jumping the shark applies not only to TV, but also music, film, even everyday life. “Did you see her boyfriend? She definitely jumped the shark.” You get the idea.
— The ‘Jump the Shark’ Web site <www.jumptheshark.com/about.htm>
While we were putting this book together, some of our more emotionally wizened peers remarked that our overall prospectus for a commonspace-dominated Internet was, um, well, a little optimistic. Optimism is not a quality usually associated with us card-carrying Generation Xers. Kurt Cobain wasn’t an optimist. Douglas Coupland isn’t an optimist. Nor is Damien Hirst.
But go ahead: call us optimists. We don’t mind. Optimists are statistically more resistant to infectious illness and are better at fending off chronic diseases <www.globalideasbank.org/1993/1993-38.HTML> than gloomy goth types. (When it comes right down to it, we have to ask: has goth really accomplished anything other than producing a generation of men that can apply their eyeliner without smudging it? Come on, people: relax. Buy a Beatles album. Wave your pale arms in the sun.) Actually, optimism is completely in sync with the commonspace notion of mutual self-interest. You either, for that matter. (We’re optimists, but we’re not stupid.) People who have a set of self-serving illusions are generally able to maintain high levels of health and happiness, even in the face of an indifferent and occasionally openly hostile cosmos.
But self-serving illusions aside, there really is good reason to be optimistic about the future of the Internet and commonspace. The Internet has had a bigger, more positive impact on our society than any communications technology since the printing press. It has made it easier and cheaper to set up our own businesses — especially information-based businesses — than any time in the past hundred years. It has encouraged pinstriped CEOs to tear off their ties and walk around with open collars, even occasionally to wear their ties around their heads in a weak imitation of samurai warriors (don’t tell them they look silly… that kind of entertainment value is hard to find). Most importantly, it has provided an environment that makes it easy to collaborate and connect to others at work and play.
While from time to time it may seem like the fantasy of a freshman anarchist, the shift towards a more collective way of working is very real. Online communities are proving to be a useful and enduring element in our lives. The global group mind is producing collectively written software that is powering the bulk of the world’s e-commerce transactions. Politics and community organizin