The Connecting Spaces Online

Our individual voices are creating networks of meaning. Through our passions and our participation in conversations online, we are creating value for ourselves and others. Interesting that it is human interactions and the visibility of these that create value for communities. And yet more interesting, that it is these visible conversations that have that critical "pull" factor that pulls audiences, authenticates opinions and builds or destroys reputations for companies or individuals. It seems to be that the persons who are passionate, really passionate about certain areas of interest, and who are pointing these areas outside to others in the visible spaces that connect, are the ones who are determining where opinions flow. Or at least creating catalysts for certain discussions to happen. These humanity are also the ones to become the most likely well connected and influential. An interesting dynamic! And the spaces where these conversations are happening - these conne
cting spaces, the interstices between us, are not only collecting our opinions, saving them and displaying them online for the whole sphere to view, they are also enabling, empowering and strengthening our ties to each other. We are, in aggregate, creating meaning. It is these connecting spaces that are giving our collective perceptions voice. I wanted to quiz Ross Dawson, futurist, author, keynote speaker, and Chairman of international consulting firm Future Exploration Network about these connecting spaces and about how our voices are playing gone online. Ross kindly agreed to be interviewed and gave me some very insightful perspectives into our collective behaviours, our connections, the lenghty tail etc, which I think you will also find interesting. Here is the interview: MO: First I"d like to state thank you very much. My particular interest for interviewing you today is to record up on something which I will entitle "connecting spaces"- something that you
know much more about than I do myself and I am therefore very interested in hearing your thoughts on how humans are connecting online and principally hearing your thoughts on future trends which pertain to the network that is growing, and how it might play out. And so, if I can request you to please, first of all tell me about yourself, and also your particular interest in the internet and its trends. RD: Well, as I"ve just mentioned, I"ve had a very diverse background, have lived in many countries, learnt a number of languages along the road and worked in many industries. It"s interesting - when I trace back, I"ve always had a very "network" perspective on the world. I can remember when I was a child, I was given a mini microscope kit with a worm in the kit, and I wanted to dissect its brain to see how its neurons were connected. And back in the days before the internet, I envisaged the telephone connections encompassing the planet as this extraordinary network
which connected us and which did and does, though at the age the cost of connection was so high. We humans are social animals; as such the internet is an extraordinary enabler of communication and is enabling many aspects to humanity which we haven"t yet explored. Full text: http://computerandtechnologies.com/computers-and-technology/news_2008-04-25-12-30-04-703.html