I have been up to my eyeballs in online social networks for over a decade and am excited that the industry has really exploded into the mainstream media, ignited by political blogging and kept aflame through interests in text messaging (SMS and IM), social networks (Friendster and Flickr), wikis (Wikipedia), online communities (The Well), and of course the blogosphere.
If you want to look beyond the hype and see what is really emerging in this space, please go give OSN2005 a look-see.
Virtual communities are real communities that support real relationships. Whether they are synchronous or asynchronous discussions, they are authentic and powerful experiences.
My earliest USENET posts are from 1994 and I joined the Well in 1996. By 1994 I was moderating conferences, and in 1997 I taught creating writing to one of the first accredited high school online writing programs, Education for the Arts (EFA) with Dr. Virginia Little.
In 1999 I joined Caucus Systems, Metasystems Design Group’s (MDG) foray into the .COM world. All along the way, I have worked with Lisa Kimball, Howard Rheingold, and loosely with Joi Ito, and the gang that has coalesced into Group Jazz and Rheingold Associates.
And this was all way before Social Networks, Virtual Communities, Communities of Practice, and Virtual Teaming really meant anything to anyone outside of us.
My dear friend Scott Burns calls this year’s OSN2005 an “echo chamber” because we are having the same sorts of conversations in 2005 as we were back in 1995.
Only now, it means something. With the sudden importance and influence of blogs in politics and the media and with an acceptance of virtual communities as real community, this echo chamber has gone from an open office at 2000 15th Street North to what might be more like the Grand Canyon.
