Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Live/Cyber Intersections
This weekend represented some pretty interesting intersections between my real life and my cyber presence.
As many of you know, I met my wife on LambdaMOO over 11 years ago when there was only one experimental beta Web browser and 2000 Web sites total. It was a time when you could practically surf the whole Web in a few weeks. There were no worries regarding Net Neurality, viruses, spyware, and phishers. No one knew what a search engine was let alone conceptually that the “Network” would become a hotbed of laviciousness and crime. The Internet was a “place” that had great potential—it was a vacuum.
The Internet is finely woven into our daily lives ranging from how we watch TV, to use of our cell phones, to our choices for entertainment. I could go on and on.
Social networks have existed since the dawn of mankind. It was only natural that they would jump to the Web. Indeed the MOOs were/are social networks.
Where am I going with all of this?
1) This weekend my wife and I bought our daughter her Halloween costume. It is a very pretty little fairy costume that Paula found on eBay and I think our little Miss will be very cute in it.
So what?
Social networks were key to this puchase. A few days I received my first payout from Revver. That money was deposited into my Paypal account. My wife purchased the costume from eBay and we paid for it via Paypal funds earned because people have an interest in viewing 30 second clips of our home videos.
2) My next door neighbour is a car lover. He repairs cars, restores antique cars, and purchases them for resale. He asked if I would help him get some pictures to a guy in California of a 1958 Roadmaster that he picked up. I took the pictures and posted them to my account on Flickr. A few days later he tells me that the pictures sold the car. Interestingly, the car pictuers have received quite a few more views than many of my other pictures.
As many of you know, I met my wife on LambdaMOO over 11 years ago when there was only one experimental beta Web browser and 2000 Web sites total. It was a time when you could practically surf the whole Web in a few weeks. There were no worries regarding Net Neurality, viruses, spyware, and phishers. No one knew what a search engine was let alone conceptually that the “Network” would become a hotbed of laviciousness and crime. The Internet was a “place” that had great potential—it was a vacuum.
The Internet is finely woven into our daily lives ranging from how we watch TV, to use of our cell phones, to our choices for entertainment. I could go on and on.
Social networks have existed since the dawn of mankind. It was only natural that they would jump to the Web. Indeed the MOOs were/are social networks.
Where am I going with all of this?
1) This weekend my wife and I bought our daughter her Halloween costume. It is a very pretty little fairy costume that Paula found on eBay and I think our little Miss will be very cute in it.
So what?
Social networks were key to this puchase. A few days I received my first payout from Revver. That money was deposited into my Paypal account. My wife purchased the costume from eBay and we paid for it via Paypal funds earned because people have an interest in viewing 30 second clips of our home videos.
2) My next door neighbour is a car lover. He repairs cars, restores antique cars, and purchases them for resale. He asked if I would help him get some pictures to a guy in California of a 1958 Roadmaster that he picked up. I took the pictures and posted them to my account on Flickr. A few days later he tells me that the pictures sold the car. Interestingly, the car pictuers have received quite a few more views than many of my other pictures.
