As we've commented on many times here on this blog, the future of Internet publishing is all about community building: the purpose of your media is to build a community. This is the path to maximizing both value (i.e. user experience) and profits. And it applies to all forms of media -- film, text, music, etc.

To compete effectively on the dimension of community building, though, requires the business of publishing to change a bit. In addition to publishing content, you have to have the foundation for building a community, and need to be prepared to manage the community.

Which leads me to TechCrunch.


TechCrunch recently had its own election within its community regarding what candidates they wanted to see get the nomination for the 2008 US election.

On the GOP side, Ron Paul won the poll by a wide margin.

TechCrunch went ahead and made John McCain their official endorsement, ignoring the community.

Now, here's the thing: TechCrunch can do whatever they want to do. TechCrunch caters to the web/technology crowd, this is a crowd that gets their information from the Internet and thus is far more informed. Anyone who is informed supports Ron Paul, simply because they know he is the only honest guy up there, and that any candidates that are endorsed by the mainstream/corporate media are essentially puppets that will support the New World Order agenda. McCain is a completely ridiculous candidate, the guy wrote the foreward to Popular Mechanics' hit piece on 9/11 Truth and has a pro-war agenda that is the reason this country's economy is collapsing (they print excess money to finance the war, this devalues your currency, leaving you poorer -- essentially imposing upon you an inflation tax). The pro-war agenda is also an anti-freedom agenda, because it is an ideology that justifies civil liberties violations in the name of protecting the greater good from Al Qaeda, that almighty group of cave dwellers capable of getting past the world's most powerful military, for whom the only defense is to allow yourself to be surveilled at all times and strip searched at airports (while leaving the national borders wide open). Such ridiculous policies naturally lend themselves to Internet regulation -- in the name of protecting you from Al Qaeda, of course. This is a nightmare for the web/tech crowd.

So, TechCrunch's endorsement of McCain is fairly ridiculous.

TechCrunch probably supported McCain so they could get more ad money and fit it -- so that they could comply to the unspoken demands of the matrix.

What TechCrunch doesn't realize, though, is that all the opportunities -- both in creating value and in maximizing profits -- are in empowering the community. Instead of ignoring the user poll, TechCrunch needs to operate in a more governmental role, ensuring that the poll has integrity. The bloggers need to serve as mouthpieces of the community, and as shapers of the community's culture.

TechCrunch is obviously free to sell out to the matrix. The point, though, is that the matrix is collapsing, and in the new world, there is no matrix to sell out to; instead, you have to sell out to your community.

So it's not even a profit-maximizing move.