We are the Web

I’m big on the idea that the Internet isn’t really about commerce or information reference, but mainly about community and conversation (which of course include things like commerce and knowledge — but only as facets of the larger social drive).

In Wired last month, (We Are the Web) Kevin Kelly evidently agrees:

What we all failed to see was how much of this new world would be manufactured by users, not corporate interests.

I was saying this back in 2002: The real killer app is people. But it didn’t start with me, alas… I seem to remember even in 1999 Whole Earth and other places were discussing the “highways of the mind” as social spheres, and the “WELL” as the prototype of sorts. So, I don’t know that Mr. Kelly is quite right in “we all failed to see” … I think many of us just forgot in the mad rush to make a killing in the tech bubble, perhaps?

Still, I’m glad this meme is propogating … it helps keep us aware of the real human context of all this technology.

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