Google Government

Reading the article, The Next Net 25, I wondered about the next form of web communication, web 3.0. It seems like the key words are mobile, IMs, friend tracking, and global. I think web 3.0 is ubiquitous computing environment where anyone can be communicated, and located regardless of physical proximity instantly.

My image here is a girl talking on her cell-phone with her boyfriend in another country as she locates him on Google Earth, and sees him walking down the street as he waving at her. Hre, you can be tracked by your friend so easily because computing system is ubiquitous, and it is mobile. You have no excuse anymore to be late on a date because your partner can locate you on the map. It is kind of scary, but what is scarier is that society has the capability to create such a system.

However, if we use it right, web 3.0 would be so useful in a way it makes everyone closer, and there would be no concept of physical proximity. You would have better understanding on people from other countries, and to contact someone would be much easier. World becomes smaller, and more secure under one integrated system.

Now, goes back to the downside, if you think about all the complex implementation behind the system to run a system such as database, and GPS, etc, it goes beyond our expectation. It is not just usefulness. It is like you are managed by the database, and monitored by Google Earth. World would become smaller, secure, but also tighter under one government of our cyber world: Google.

However, the future of web3.0 is on our hand. All the predictions that academics make is based on our need and interest. So, to predict web 3.0 should not be too hard, but just to ask ourselves what we really want.

Shrunk Cyber World

Facebook has teamed up with Jobster Inc., hoping to integrate college social-networking site with recruitment functions. These days, the trend seems to be social networking being connected with bunch of other social networking sites and additional functions. It was Metcalfe who stated that “the value of network increases as the size of network increases”. True, facebook with no friends means nothing. However, too many strategically different networks crossing over one SNS is noisy and it has cost: the loss of direction and segmentation. The mergers are as if, integrating kid’s favorite 3D game function, and businessman’s financial calculator function into the same cell-phone, and try to market to everyone. …anyways, even now, students are concerned about their private pictures being exposed to non-friends, after the integration of Jobster, Facebook would probably loose a lot of silly shared pictures.

Also for the employer side, the partnering with social networking does not have such a dramatic effect as it seems. Sure, it will make easier for employer to find the passive candidates, and as technology has always made, it will be useful and easy. Employers can tag candidate’s skill and bookmark them. However, the easiness of use would generate overload of information while number of candidates exist on the earth would stay constant. It means you would get 500 hits out of million instead of 1 hit out of 10. If it is easier to tag people, it is also easier to untag them, too.

Soon, it will be: you know million people to hire, but you have one to trust. As “The Power of Weak Ties” argues, the referral is becoming the most effective recruitment method. It is interesting trend despites all the effort of social networking. Social networking connection after all shrunk the world down to the referral networks. Maybe the value of network decreases as the strategic purpose within the network increases or entropy within the network increases.

Bypassing a Man

For all past years, the computer technology has developed to catch up with those of man. Word Processing Software was only the replacement of a man writing on piece of paper, without having a paper. Email was only the replacement of man sending letter, without physically delivery. However, SN is little different. What it has replaced with is not the tangible assets like paper, but rather interaction. The example is corporate blog where customers can interact with the company without being at the same place or same time. This completely ignores the formal organization structure, social norm, and social structure of how formal parties are interacting. It gave a man new ability and function to network with people. Therefore, yes, of course, it will change the way business interact with customers, by bringing customers closer to the company. It will change the norm of Customer Relation Management, and also other social norms such as “friending”, or “relations”.

The trend of such software seems to have two characteristics: improvement of GUI, and web based open system. The improvement of GUI gave superpower to users that users do not have to know anything about implementation and still be able to access to the privilege of technology. Also, the web-based open software is becoming so popular that you do not need software installed to your computer. Maybe in few years, even our desktop would be web-based that we can login from any computer to access our personal desktop.

Such improvement seems great but many bypassed man’s ability of interaction. Sure it is great, but such development is not based on human nature like developing to build house or cook food. The technology is totally man-made yet bypasses his ability. I am very excited to see how the nature of human interaction would change, but nothing really seems ordered or complete enough as our traditional means of communication: face-to-face.

Isolation Connectivity

Bernie DeKoven, in his article, pointed out how our age dislikes to be taught or involve in any office politics. Yes, Indeed… Our generation was born with computer and cell-phone. I prefer not to ask questions, but to google, I prefer not to read manuals for my cell-phone, but to explore and learn from MY mistakes. If anything wrong happens, I go to web forum where people share their mistakes and success. It is quicker and does not require any human interaction which in most cases, slows down the process.

However, in some cases, you really need someone who knows the subject, and there is collaborative communicating tool which allows you to interact with people without meeting them. Now, with information overload environment of web and all the collaborative software, there is no excuse for one to be an ignorant. If you don’t know how, you contact someone who knows or search online. To keep up with the quicker operation cycle and rapid changes in business environment, web-based communication is critical.

Now there is another problem. “teamwork, supercharged” mentioned that “No matter how good the collaboration tool, you may have to knock some heads to force people out of old habits.” Yes, the switching to new technology creates lot of stress especially those who are not familiar with the technologies like my parents… However, this is not the technology causing them stress, but it is our generation pushing them forward. Technology has been waiting for the market to be matured, and here we are with all the potential and technology.

However, I also am concerned about the technology and communication as I type the posting at 2:00am alone in the living room, waiting for my friends in Japan to be online on my skype. It seems rather ironic that technology made everything so connected that you can totally operate business in isolation. It is efficient, but I just wonder what our kids would get born with…