Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let you know about a blog entry I just wrote in
response to a C|NET News article that debated whether or not online
social networks are a fad. In it, I look at the history of online
community building, from the earliest bulletin board systems and email
lists to community networks and online social networks.
Here's a snippet from the blog:
In a June 14 article for C|NET News, Stephanie Olsen examines whether
online social networks like MySpace are here to stay or are a passing
fad. The article, which looks at the issue mostly from a business
perspective, suggests the jury is still out. But from a human
perspective, history suggests otherwise.
The Internet has always been about community. Sure, when it was
developed in the late 60s, the idea was to have a decentralized computer
network that could survive a nuclear holocaust. But even when the very
first computer network was set up, there was at least one person behind
each of those computers. And when you connect two people together, you
have the minimal requirements for forming a new community. And in this
case, the more the merrier: as Metcalfe’s Law suggests, the value of a
network is intrinsically connected to the number of people communicating
over it. More people, bigger network. Bigger network, bigger community.
Bigger doesn’t always mean better, of course, but it does help you reach
critical mass.
Of course, for many years the Internet didn’t seem like a community
because it was so research-oriented, but that didn’t stop people from
using the technology to forge bonds with each other. As Ethan Zuckerman
recently pointed out in his lightning-fast history of the Internet at
the Harvard Beyond Broadcast conference, the first email discussion list
was created more than 30 years ago, in 1975. By the late 70s, we had
USENET bulletin board discussions, which continue today in the form of
Google Groups. And in 1982, France introduced the Minitel interactive TV
system - which just happened to have a chat feature, presaging the
development of instant messaging.
<snip>
Now, of course, you can barely turn on the TV news (or check your RSS
feed) without hearing about an online social network. They’re certainly
the “big thing” in many circles, which is why venture capitalists are
debating their future, as is the case in the aforementioned C|NET
article. Whether or not they continue to be the darling of investors
remains to be seen. But their fundamental purpose - giving people a
platform for congregating, interacting and creating new things - isn’t
going to go away when the fad is over. That’s because congregating,
interacting and creating new things is what the Internet is all about.
It’s what communities are all about. And pioneering educators, like
always, are right in the middle of it. The question, though, remains
whether the rest of the K12 community will embrace these tools or shun
them....
<snip>
http://www.pbs.org/learningnow
permalink:
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/learning.now/2006/06/are_online_social_networks_a_f.html
thanks,
ac
--
------------------------------
Andy Carvin
acarvin (at) edc . org
andycarvin (at) yahoo . com
http://www.andycarvin.com
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.pbs.org/learningnow
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org
http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide
To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE
in the body of the message.
