Web 2.0 Makes the World Small

I had a regular old Profy topic for my article this weekend; a site review or a commentary on a news piece. It'll wait. This one is a little bit more personal.

A few months back, I wanted to interview my husband's best friend for a piece. He was running bulletin boards before I even know what a modem was, and was instrumental in helping to build what now makes up the various entities in the MyCoke community. I didn't pursue the article, and now I wish that I had. I'd have loved to have known what he thought had changed in the past 20 years or so when it came to online communities, and what hadn't. What was better now and what was worse as technology made more things possible.

I wasn't able to travel for the funeral, but my husband did, and the one thing that he's told me is that posted at the funeral was a series of emails about his friend. Many, if not most, of the people who were emailing probably didn't even meet him in person. I'm sure that there were many who didn't know any personal information other than his userid: debaser. And these people heard about his death, and were able to send emails to his family to let them know the impact he had on an entire online community.

My husband's friend wasn't married, and had no children. I had the initial impression that it sounded very lonely. But I write about online communities and social networking all the time. I belong to several online communities, at least one of which has been together for over 10 years. I should have known better.

I read commentary all the time that Web 2.0 is dead. That it's meaningless. That it's a bunch of flashy apps and pretty colors and no substance. Many times, depending on what piece of Web 2.0 had led up to that commentary, I may have even agreed. Neither my husband nor I knew that his friend had such an impact on an online community. And I'm not sure that an online community can known what an impact they can have on a person. But we are no longer limited by geographic location or time zones or travel feasibility. Web 2.0 has connected all of us to a much larger global community in ways that my grandparents could never have imagined. And a bunch of emails from people that debaser's friends and family never met have provided more comfort than those people may ever know.

It may be many things, but meaningless? No way.