When I first began reading Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs, I was mystified by why professor Nicco Mele assigned a book that was published in 2002, and with the speed of technology development, grossly outdated. When I questioned Professor Mele about the relevance of this outdated book, he asked me to think more deeply about why he may have made this assignment. What themes in the book were present in other class readings? After thinking for a few minutes, I realized that what Rheingold was professing between his touting of texting, wearable computers and cooperative technologies were the communities that would be knitted together and mobilized through their use. As we read in Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s Naked Conversations, and in John Battelle’s The Search, blogging and the internet were created by computer geeks and academics who wanted to communicate more easily with one another. Communities linked by common interests were and are created by the use of these digital technologies such as blogging, mobile texting, and reputational systems.
In addition to creating and maintaining communities, there are some similar values present in these collaborative systems…. trust and openness being the two of the most cited values. As we read in Naked Conversations and in Smart Mobs, trust seems to develop through successful cooperative technology. Furthermore, as we read in Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and as reinforced by Rheingold, some of today’s most widely used technology was made possible by open source product development. In open source development, volunteer collaboration is key to the successful production of software. A community of researchers with similar interests and expertise come together for the common good. Again, trust is the basis for successful projects.
While it is terrific that technology provides a conduit for many people to come together in communities, there is something that bothers me. Since we can more easily communicate electronically with colleagues, friends and others who share our passions en masse, are we creating a society in which people no longer know how to communicate in person one-on-one? I think of the times when either I, or a colleague, have chosen to defend a course of action or try to resolve a conflict by using email. Are we developing a culture where people can hide behind the cloak of technology instead of resolving issues less comfortably by speaking in person with an individual?
I often look questionably at my own children who tell me they “spoke” to someone, which they meant they communicated by texting or through Facebook. While it is terrific that blogging and texting can have a viral effect in communicating with groups, what does that mean to our ability to communicate in person? I remember when my daughter met-in person- a future college classmate with whom she had developed an on-line relationship… While they had spent hours together as part of a college on-line community, their first in-person meeting was wrought with awkwardness and uneasiness.
So, as I learn more about collaborative digital communities, I hope that while technology can create and mobilize social networks, we don’t lose sight of the importance of being able to communicate as easily in person as we are through computers or mobile phones.
