What’s Behind The Name?

The eighteenth century is frequently referred to as the Age of Enlightenment and during this time there was a phenomenon taking place where philosophers, thinkers and intellectuals would correspond with one another by sending letters. They exchanged ideas and opinions through letters and thus a private network was created between these men of intellect. This private network eventually evolved into newspapers and journals where the masses would gain access to intellectual content.The private network created by these wonks is known as the Republic of Letters and is the phrase used to describe this phenomenon.

Fast forward some three hundred odd years and we are in the midst of a new phenomenon called Web 2.0 (a phrase first coined by O’Reilly media). Social networks, wikis, blogs and folksonomies are some of the web based services that are ubiquitous as your wireless router somewhere in a corner of your house gathering dust. The Internet is no longer a collection of websites that feeds you linear information created by their webmasters instead the on-line community generates, distributes and maintains its own web content with an emphasis on sharing and reusing the content with minimal control i.e webmaster.

So I chose the name Republic of Internets for my blog to pay homage to the old “network” and of course embrace the new phenomenon.

I have to also give credit where it’s due for I could not have come up with the name without the help of our Googler-in-Chief soon to be ex-Googler-in-Chief. Check out the video below. Enjoy !!