This question didn’t need Steem. The Internet has democratized creation and (self) publication since more than a decade already.

Around 10-12 years ago, which was years after the popularity of Tripod, GeoCities and later MySpace, the Web 2.0 era truly kicked off and combined with ever cheaper Internet access, platforms like Blogger (blogspot), Flickr, Odeo (podcast platform pre-Twitter by Twitter founder Ev Williams), as well as the early days of YouTube made the UGC (User Generated Content) a reality for everyone. Even to those who didn’t want to invest in hosting their own site. In that same era WordPress.com also launched and allowed everyone to operate an own blog with without needing to use the then popular Blogger. Soon after Tumblr would also launch.

Obviously, the platforms mentioned are but the most popular ones and blogging was much older already. Before blogging it was already rather easy for forum operators to start a forum, most would use the excellent phpBB open source package, others would resort to the more platform/CMS focused open source PostNuke, while others would opt for paid platforms like vBulletin which came with a built-in CMS option.

It was around 2005-2007 though that faster Internet became more accessible and affordable to anyone. Combined with always more, and simpler to install platforms, the era of User Generated Content kicked off and everyone had options to become a creator.

Little later came Facebook, Twitter, YouTube went viral, and SoundCloud also became a mainstay.

Technically, the Internet is recursive and the Steem-ecosystem has started to replicate the history of the Internet. We are just past the MySpace era now, somewhere 2006-2007. We just had our own ‘Million Dollar Page’, SteemPixels some months ago.

Online... everyone can be a creator.