Last week, Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the WWW (with no due respect to Al G.), wrote an insightful, if not predictably esoteric, post about the "graph" entitled "Giant Global Graph." For those of you who missed it, the graph concept was recently thrust into our consciousness after Google announced open social. While he doesn't openly claim ownership in his post, Tim already brought this concept forward years ago, but he called it the "semantic web."

What resonated with me most about Tim's post was the following excerpt:

"The less inviting side of sharing is losing some control. Indeed, at each layer --- Net, Web, or Graph --- we have ceded some control for greater benefits.

People running Internet systems had to let their computer be used for forwarding other people's packets, and connecting new applications they had no control over. People making web sites sometimes tried to legally prevent others from linking into the site, as they wanted complete control of the user experience, and they would not link out as they did not want people to escape. Until after a few months they realized how the web works. And the re-use kicked in. And the payoff started blowing people's minds.

Letting your data connect to other people's data is a bit about letting go in that sense. It is still not about giving to people data which they don't have a right to. It is about letting it be connected to data from peer sites. It is about letting it be joined to data from other applications.

It is about getting excited about connections, rather than nervous."

"Ceding control for greater benefits," is what makes today's Web challenging, confounding, exciting and dangerous. Which one depends on your content, your audience and your perspective. While Tim doesn't necessarily speak to marketers, he should. His Web "street cred" might count for something.

Today, marketers are playing on a different field - the graph/semantic web - but treating it as if they are still operating down at Tim's "net" or "web" layers. That's a big mistake. We can debate all we want about the impending "social media bubble" burst, but even if this happens it doesn't mean we go backwards. It really only means the fittest have survived and that the species (the modern marketer) has evolved accordingly. Are you among the fit or are you about to be "naturally selected out?"