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You (Time Person of the Year)
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In 2006 Time Magazine chose the millions of anonymous contributors of user-generated content to Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Second Life, the Linux Operating System, and other providers, as Person of the Year, personified simply as You.[1]
In a break from selecting one of the great people of the year, Time Magazine chose instead to highlight the rise in the sharing of online content, the importance of the emerging online community and its democratising effect on global media, and its influence over elections. The cover of the magazine featured a computer monitor with a metallized PET film strip appearing as the window of a YouTube-like webpage, intended to reflect as online content the visage of whoever picks up the magazine. Stories on this new dynamic were provided by NBC editor Brian Williams and Time Magazine editors Lev Grossman and Richard Stengel. As Grossman describes, "It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."
The choice was criticized by many for being a short-sighted gimmick which ignored other newsmakers of the year, such as Kim Jong-il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Pundit Paul Kedrosky called it an "incredible cop-out", and speculated that the selection marked "some sort of near-term market top for user-generated content."[2] Writer Nicholas Carr questioned Time Magazine's celebration of the common blogger when the issue nevertheless ran articles on the entrepreneurs who established content providers, such as YouTube tycoons Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.[3]
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