since when did "intermediary" become a bad word?

i think i already waxed poetic about how productive i can be when waiting to pick up a kid from afterschool activities....but you'll hear it again today. with the sound of the pool lapping at my back, i caught up on yet another pile of "to do" work that had grown dusty on my desk.

yesterday's reading was insightful because the article was talking about the whole rise of the internet, blah blah blah....but that those who were intermediaries were finding themselves displaced......the analogy: when otis made self service elevators, all of the elevator doorman jobs were suddenly gone! libraries, too, have been perceived as intermediaries....come to us...we have good information....we have knowledgeable people......but what happened? search engines became better and better and people increasingly are happy with the "good enough" they find in their searches. i am reminded of how my kids used to want to go to the neighborhoods with the big houses to get better (or more!) treats on halloween. are we trying to be the bigger house with our "we are better" motto and large L branded across our chests as our visible defense?

instead of trying to defend ourselves as better and why we're better, maybe we should redirect and instead play in other (internet) sandboxes....... we can entice people to our website with information that is relevant but let them find the content that's relevant to them from those who are experts in their field. i think we have come to the realization that we're not the only (or best) lemonade stand on the block - let's figure out how to shine where we're the experts! ideas, anyone?