The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.
-Eric Schmidt
Liquid, dynamic, mysterious and full-of-opportunity – the internet (since its inception) has summoned forth a new epoch in the day-to-day human experience. Albeit a relatively new dimension, the worldwide web provides something unique to each user; each user’s interaction with it continuously shapes their individual life while their input helps to frame the near real-time interface others encounter. Google Local guides take this ether and craft it. Taking on the responsibility, accountability and information sharing pleasures, Local Guides [LG] are a self-appointed van guard hammering out cybernetic transparency politic.
For the global witness and the local information-seeker alike, Local Guides transmute the metaphysical into forthright data which bridges conceptual divides. On a voluntary basis, each LG risks the safety and comfort of silent non-participation with each submission. Each photo, review, question and edit however put forth the micro details which form a more well-versed web. When an LG submits a contribution, they open themselves not only to Google corporate review but more dauntingly to the skepticism and scrutiny of millions potential viewers. Thus, may the brave embrace their role as harbingers of the ‘real’ into digital expose.
Web-craft is both a functional as well as expressive art form. The ongoing process inherent in evolutionary projects requires an attention to the way thing are ‘on the ground’ and a willingness to translate this to the best of one’s ability for others in a common forum. An LG is both subject to and informant of transparency as they conduct the research of daily life and communicate it as they see fit. This is a political role granted untraditional and informal. Whether taken begrudgingly or in delight, the polis (body of citizens) of LGs comprise a charter of artisans globally invaluable.
Unlike organized politics, the LG platform is self-monitoring, self-chosen, and universally creative. There is opportunity for all to spawn an avatar which may elect to participate in any way chosen. There is no budget. There is little glam. The reward is self-satisfaction and ego herein is oriented to something altruistic and humanitarian. Help comes in anecdotes, in views, in experiences shared, in perspectives… Businesses and employees are subject to the politic of potential review which incentivizes a better service to their communities. Natural places may be magnified for would-be travelers – and celebrated with those who may never have the chance to be there in person. Grand establishments and hideaways alike are open to a view – a verse in the symphony of ‘what is.’
Transparency politic, for an LG, is a balancing force. It is a counter-weight to hyperbolic exaggeration when composing. It is an incentive in and of itself for those who understand its importance for culture. For those concerned with a web which serves reality, being an LG is a means to apply transparency politic to one’s local community while magnifying that same local community into the holistic documentation of this wonderful marble called Earth. An LG is both organizer and anarchist for the medium of information systems. With honor and dignity the LG applies transparency politic tooth and nail, a wonderful however thankless endeavor.