While I was reading through 
Are they glasses clinking or eyes crying in the graphic?
I am really looking forward to the community roll-out, as I have been for almost exactly 3 years now....
Don't get me wrong, I think that at inception communities are going to be quite clumsy, but I believe that in time they will come together and evolve into a dynamic space for content creator and consumer alike. One of the major value propositions of Steem is ownership, and while the token is one part of the equation, communities bring in the ownership of experience side, and I believe that there is a great deal of value in this.
What Steem is currently doing is redefining the way the internet works and while others are focusing on the "attention" component of the attention economy, Steem is looking at heavily affecting the "economy" component.
The world is rapidly changing and many factors are coming to a head, with global economic frailty, social challenges, polarization of communities, censorship of contributors, technological replacement of employment, artificial intelligence, 5G, mobile devices and wearables, social platforms, entertainment focus and a host of other areas converging. As I see it, the time for blockchain and socially driven earnings through consumption is on us, and we are only just beginning the journey.
The amount of interest in what we are doing here and the possibility of it to expand our individual daily experiences at a global is going to ramp up rapidly. While "rapidly" might not be fast enough for many of the impatient early adopters, we are at the start of the next instance of technological revolution in industry, and it is going to impact all facets of our daily lives.
Once upon a time, people said the internet wouldn't last and no one would carry a phone around in their pocket. What they didn't see is that those two very things would combine to change the way we function and interact in life. They might have been right though, no one carries a phone around these days - they have a camera, computer, gaming console, social platform and many other things - and it just happens to have a phone app included. Not that anyone calls anymore.
As said, the first instances of communities are going to be a bit clunky, but in time the edges will be knocked away and more developers will create a widening range of use cases that can attract, engage and empower users from all walks of life in many ways. Add the SMT layer on top and the possibility for innovation and expansion are endless. I know there is a lot happening on Steem right now that creates a lot of uncertainty and potentially stress, but take some wins.
Steem is changing the economy of attention in the attention economy.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
