All In One Place

Check out Alltop. I came across it reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog, How To Change The World. Alltop is a one stop shop for “all the top” news stories from “all the top” sites on the web. The site is very well organized with categories for Work, Living, People, Interests, Culture, Geekery, Good and News. Within each of those categories are a variety of topics. Very cool. Because of my work in brand experience marketing I tend to spend time reading Social Media stories, and because of my role at Premier Studios I end up in the Small Business section. Since I’ve never owned a computer other than a Macintosh you can count on me spending some of my time here. Check it out! 

People to People

So, if the internet is the center of the universe what used to be? Well, when we talk about the center of the universe I think what we’re really talking about is the core, and I don’t think the core of the universe has changed. What has changed over time is the delivery system. I think the core of the universe has always been, and always will be community. Since time began people have had relationships and developed communities. When humanity first appeared I don’t think they always stayed in their caves. At some point they came out and began to develop relationships. I can imagine there was some courageous developer who decided to create entire neighborhoods complete with cave cul-de-sacs.

Think about this; as humanity continued to evolve they went from singular caves to cave communities to some other form of shelters. Then there were villages where they had a village green or common area for the community (I guess you could call them the village people — sorry) to gather. Then there were towns with town squares and town halls, pubs or taverns — again, places for community. At some point those towns grew into larger cities and the communal areas continued to expand so people were gathering around points of common interest like churches and schools. It doesn’t take you too long before you go from the roadside diner to Starbucks, and from telephones to internet and from snail mail to email.

The internet has allowed community to expand exponentially. When I think about the changes the internet has brought to community two things (there are way more but these are primary) come to mind; immediacy and global. Humanity used to only have community with the few people around them, and I doubt there were many who wandered too far from their cave of origin. As technology has evolved so have communities, allowing people to develop communities further and further from home. We’re now at a point where many of us communicate with, and share friendships with people all around the globe. Sometimes these are people we’ve never met face to face, yet we call them friends and in some cases speak to them almost daily and keep track of them through things like Linked In, FaceBook or Twitter.

The immediacy factor is so common place that it’s become the expectation. People not only want community but they want it now. The internet gives you that. You can even have a virtual community like Second Life and not know real people if that’s your preference. So, while we may refer to the internet as the center of the universe we can’t forget the human connection that is at the core. The thing that’s really driving all of this isn’t the technology but community. It’s people connecting with other people. From a marketing perspective I can’t imagine a more fertile playground.

The Internet: Center of the Universe

Have you seen the monster.com commercial with the ginormous-legged man pedaling the gyroscope at the center of the earth? That’s one of the first things I thought of when I first heard someone say the internet is the center of the universe. Then in my mind I began seeing someone deep in the earth’s core making all of these connections — kind of antique switchboard style. Then as I allowed my mind to expand and catch up with reality I realized how undeniably true that statement is. 

How many things do you do in your daily life that have nothing to do with the internet?  For me that’s a short list. I practically live online and I’m not all that young anymore. My kids and the young kids I’m surrounded by at work live their lives more immersed in the digital world than I, which is a little hard to believe. And it just keeps expanding and people continue to dream up new ways of being connected. Just a few days ago I read a brief update in Fast Company that told how we’re not that far away from our appliances being connected to the digital space. Can you imagine having your refrigerator sending you a text message that your milk is going bad and you’d better pick up a fresh gallon?

This past weekend I decided to experiment with Twitter so I went online and created my account and began twitting (you can follow me here but it’s not that exciting). Very quickly I discovered my 21 year old son twitting with some of our creative staff at Premier Studios. So being a good dad I signed up to follow him (that could have been very handy when he was younger). I found out he was sitting in a Saturday class wishing he were sleeping instead. I immediately jumped on iChat and before the program could fully open a window opened with the words, “sup Dad,” and Ryan and I began a chat while he was in class in Idaho and I was sitting in a hotel room more than 1500 miles away.

 

And yes, I told him to get offline and pay attention to the lecture — I may be connected but I’m still a dad.