THE ONE

I had an intriguing interchange with Derek Rey on his blog, Beyond Banner, here .  Derek paraphrased an interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday with Tim O’Reilly. Tim is known for coining “Web 2.0,” when referring to the second coming of the web after the dot-com bust. The discussion looked back on social media in 2008, and Tim shared some predictions.  Tim describes Web 2.0 as “designing systems that get better with the more people who use them.”

The underlying premise behind the interview, Derek’s post, and our interchange, is that second-wave companies are all about human connection. They provide and derive value out of that connectivity. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, even Wikipedia all provide value implicitly or explicitly. Data is compiled from what users specifically share, or implicit data is mined through studying behavior such as link history. Example: “other Amazon users who purchased this book also purchased . . .

In the interview, O’Reilly also emphasized “ambient intimacy” via Twitter and Flickr use, citing how he can be up to date on virtually anyone via their posts.  He therefore can maintain connection with them without traditional forms of interaction.   O’Reilly doesn’t feel obligated to keep up with his thousands of followers, though. He sees Twitter as a “river flowing by and you can dip in when you want.”

O’Reilly predicts the future of the web rests in collaboration and platform. The One platform will be the platform, and, according to O’Reilly, the mobile device will sense and drive application development. This happened on Twitter during the Mumbai hostage incident, and with the Motrin mommy kerfluffle. This spells the end of the personal computer.

Derek wanted feedback:

• Do we see Twitter as a “river” to dip in and out at will?
• What did we think about The ONE network, and
• How would mobile devices evolve to replace the computer?
• What did we think about implicit equity?
• How did we see this transition playing out?

My thoughts:

Twitter is to the surface as The ONE would be the depth, or layers, perhaps. The space limitation on Twitter confines, and breaking out via links is necessary to get more information. So, if Twitter is a river, then The ONE would be an ocean. A user could feasibly play in bays, inlets and harbors (much as we self-group now) or choose to dive more deeply. The vastness of The ONE network could be intimidating, inaccessible, or self-limiting. The breadth of knowledge and accessibility could be exhilarating, foster commonalities, and remove barriers.

If The ONE is the ocean, then what about The Cloud? Will we jump out of the ocean like porpoises or breaching whales to bite off or park our personal data in The Cloud, and then resume our swim? Are we already doing this with multiple platforms? Would you want to be a storage drive manufacturer with this looming? If you are providing archive storage and retrieval services, what does The One mean to your business model?

Does ambient intimacy preclude real intimacy within nuclear relationships? Could it actually improve relationships by providing insight? Just think, as a mom, I wouldn’t have been bothered by hearing “Nothing” in response to my asking what happened at school today! When I look at my kids’ Facebook pages, am I really making an ambient intimacy deposit in our relationship instead of spying?  On the other hand, I want to tell Pete my thoughts, and I don’t want to have to look for his reactions in a tweet. The cliché is about partners instant messaging or emailing each other when they’re sitting right next to each other, right?

What kinds of capitalization are going to occur with this value? There is already considerable discussion at stops like HarvardBusiness.org about valuing things that are currently non-products and capitalizing on their exchange. Will our society and economy continue to move along the continuum of product – information – relationship?

Derek pointed out that ambient intimacy might be a good way to share a massive amount of information with a large group, and then create more nuclear relationships from that group. How many nuclear relationships can an individual have? He’s thinking about connecting brands and the relationships around brands, forming new communities and conversations. Is this redefining macro relationships into a more micro perception, or the reverse? I don’t want someone appropriating my ambient intimacy for evil purpose (like subliminal advertising, etc). So, how do we layer permission into ambient intimacy?  What protective measures are necessary?

Improved and optimized mobile devices fit in with Pete’s and my goal to be able to work from anywhere even better than notebook computers and smartphones. I reminded Derek that we old folks would like bigger screens on our phones, if you please. Already, the desktop computer is a dinosaur, no?

I also think that we can look to history to confirm Tim O’Reilly’s predictions. Historically, humans have “circled the wagons” in times of economic threat (the Great Depression), climate change (post-Renaissance, the 19th century cold wave), or conflict to retreat to their familiars. The craving for “small’ is already manifesting itself in micro-economic solutions. (Seth Godin, Small is the New Big).

We mistrust complicated organizations and bemoan the problems encountered in dealing with “too big” corporations. We’d rather go to the neighborhood hardware store than Home Depot. We want our entrepreneurial endeavors to be impervious to failure by operating lean and unencumbered with layers of management. (Howard Lindzon, Too Small to Fail). Underground economies in barter and cash payments under the table are on the rise.  Society and the economy is re-forming.

The paradigm evolves when we think of the connectivity and intimacy we crave unrestrained by physical proximity.  No longer may someone be “geographically undesirable.”  Commenters on this blog are from all parts of the globe, yet our connections are real and satisfying.

What if The ONE blows the possibilities of even more satisfying collaboration and relationship-building right out of the analogical water? We think it’s already happening. What say you?

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Tagged as: ambient intimacy, Beyond Banner, Facebook, Flickr, NPR, On the Web, Seth Godin, Social network, The One, Tim O'Reilly, Twitter, Web 2.0, YouTube