A very relevant email below and much to do with racing officials not understanding and being scared of this thing called social media.
With great power, comes great irresponsibility and terminal dumbness.
It can also lead to an almost Orwellian “1984” Big Brother is watching you mentality.
Is this good for racing?
Of course not as racing will lose consumers, it will become insular and an entirely new generation will fob it off as being an Old Boys Club and where one plays within Old School Rules.
Here’s the rub: In the online world, there are no rules and there are no laws.
As Elton John sang rather prophetically, “It’s lonely out in space.”
In fact, it’s so lonely, no one knows what to do with everything “out there” in cyberspace and where the tail is wagging the dog.
As we have said, it’s an online Wild West and which the music industry has had to face and take the consequences the hard way.
Again, as we keep banging on and on about, the racing industry can learn from the mistakes made by those running music companies whose solution to everything was only one: Sue the bastards! And then what?
Has this stopped anything? Of course not.
And it’s here where those in charge of the racing world- and not only in Oz- must understand the power of technology, the relevance of social media and how common sense must rule.
If not, like ring-around-the-rosies, we’ll all fall down in a heap and all the kings horses and all the king’s men won’t be able to put Humpty Back together again.
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