Specifically, I'm thinking about the individual as a brand and how toxic it is to free thought and exploration. I find that I've self-censored for years because of the pervasive self-promo around putting anything out on the web.

It didn't start out that way and it certainly doesn't have to remain. I'm a big fan of Mark Bernstein's Tinderbox and his book The Tinderbox Way. Mark is one of the early Hypertext scientists and discusses many alternative ways that Hypertext can exist beyond the www. Much of this thinking is encoded in Tinderbox, which is the single most remarkable piece of software that I've used over the years.

Mark talks of the Digital Garden, an idea that information should grow from a kernel of an idea and be cultivated over time. I think that's what I'm trying to explore here. Something a little more sane, a little less stable and polished, and something that grows gently without artificial influence.

I wonder how we'll get there?