I wonder if you, like me, have also felt a sense of communities fading away?  This is something I have always been kind of aware of, like background noise… when it stops you suddenly realise how loud it was?  Well, social networking is the same thing but in the opposite way.  I have spent years lamenting the lost sense of community and how difficult it is to just meet people who think like you.  Then social networking came along and I suddenly realise how quiet it’s been!  These youtube clips provide other people’s take on the subject:

If you look back, the most obvious communities were formed around churches and location.  These two factors have provided a sense of community for centuries.  However, as many of us become less religious and we travel more that loss has been felt by most of us in modern society.  Which is why I am excited about the potential of social networking online. 

So how does this work?  Well, my limited experiences so far tell me that purpose is the key.  Purpose gives rise to trust between me and others.  It provides me with a reason for contacting someone else in the network – we both have the same interest and want to help one another.  Maybe it’s not immediately obvious how we can help each other, but certainly it’s enough to start a dialogue.  That creates the community and allows the magic of strangers meeting and talking with one another, who otherwise would have never been able to enrich one anothers lives before web 2.0 came along.

To test this I did a social experiment and contacted someone randomly who was a member of a community.  He had left some information on what he was doing and his blog indicated he needed users to test his product.  We shared an interest in digital technology so I just dropped him a line on Facebook.  This was a total stranger who had never met me before.  A few days later “hi, would love you to help us test our product”.  He was more than happy to engage with me – OK, I am doing him a favour but a few years ago a random stranger contacting you might have evoked suspicion.  So without web 2.0 how would I have found him, communicated with him and been able to build enough trust?  It’s because he can see by my online profile (LinkedIn, Facebook and Blog) that I am for real – it helps build trust quickly.

Before web 2.0 this was not part of people’s psyche to connect in this way.  Web 1.0 if you like, was not about meeting random people and talking to them.  That’s the point, web 2.0 makes it so much easier to reach out and find people with the same purpose as you.  That means it’s less random and it feels more natural. 

As far as I am concered… Hurray for web 2.0!  It’s the beginnig of a new era in human existence, the re-creation of communities.  Something I have missed and judging by the number of people busy boosting their number of friends on Facebook, something we all needed. 

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Here is a link to a book about the loss of communities in America http://www.bowlingalone.com/