At DEMO last month, I attended a panel of world-class experts on the question, Where the Web is Going: Web 2.0, 3.0, and Beyond (video). Here, I want to draw your attention to a portion of the discussion that touched on a truly new type of network. It included a personal testimony to a form of thought networking, many years in the making, and a glimpse into a future where digital thoughts are liberated from documents and social networks.
Past: Connecting People
Jon Udell was addressing the social dimension of the Web and its powerful influence on knowledge acquisition. We don’t just interact with this “global encyclopaedia”, he explained. People discover each other through the intersections of documents they create. “As people expose aspects of their thought process in tangible form as documents, human connections are made.”
“Absolutely perfect,” replied Howard Bloom, but unfortunately, a terribly protracted process. “When we try to find each other, and try to find the knowledge we get from each other, these days it’s as difficult as getting from New York to California in 1848.”
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