Monday, February 11, 2008
Where Social Networking Came From
Back in 1999, Andrew L. Shapiro wrote a book called The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know. In it he talked a good deal about disintermediation--how the Internet and particularly the Web was getting rid of the middle man.
When the Shapiro book came out, some of us starting thinking about the next step in intermediation. It seemed as if the world was changing and that it wasn't so much disintermediation as it was about reintermediation with a new cast of characters (Amazon, anyone?). And, in addition to the new cast of characters, we threw some new technologies into the stew (basically what are referred to as Web 2.0) and stirred briskly to come up with automated reintermediation.
All that automated reintermediation means is that, for example, when someone clicks an event (or idea, song, brand of shoes) from a list and adds it to a favorites list, everything then flows automatically from that mouse click. Depending on the site, you may wind up with a Facebook news feed story, an addition to your friends' lists of their friends' favorites, and even some kind of interaction (invitation/request/notification).
The entire intermediation process is now automated. And that's where Social Networking came from.
When the Shapiro book came out, some of us starting thinking about the next step in intermediation. It seemed as if the world was changing and that it wasn't so much disintermediation as it was about reintermediation with a new cast of characters (Amazon, anyone?). And, in addition to the new cast of characters, we threw some new technologies into the stew (basically what are referred to as Web 2.0) and stirred briskly to come up with automated reintermediation.
All that automated reintermediation means is that, for example, when someone clicks an event (or idea, song, brand of shoes) from a list and adds it to a favorites list, everything then flows automatically from that mouse click. Depending on the site, you may wind up with a Facebook news feed story, an addition to your friends' lists of their friends' favorites, and even some kind of interaction (invitation/request/notification).
The entire intermediation process is now automated. And that's where Social Networking came from.
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