I was digging around for articles on client-side transformation of XML documents, and stumbled across Molly Holzschlag's article "There Goes the Neighborhood" from the June 2000 issue of Web Technique. The first two paragraphs really caught my eye...
I'm so tired of the terms "venture capital" and "angel investors." What happened to the Web I loved�that strange, diverse place where human expression, information, and global community were as important as commerce?Once a place for information exchange and personal expression, the Web is now driven by commercial endeavors. While this has been great for technological innovation, which is exciting, human issues have been relegated to the Web's alleys and back roads in the rush to develop Web "properties." In essence, the Web is undergoing gentrification�a virtual urban renewal.
[...]
For home-page enthusiasts and small businesses, attraction to the Web's resources is being tempered by a raised bar of access. Technologists must develop sites based on commercial rather than personal values. In our rush to embrace and define technology that ultimately belongs to us, we must examine how we're developing our properties�philosophically and technologically.
What a difference a couple of years--and a few blogs can make, eh?
classic!