The human being is a social animal; its full potential is achieved when working with others. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons that we have become so numerous on the planet: cooperation leads to increased efficiency. From the early humans who first started living together in settlements, they found that they could get more done by sharing work. Specialising in certain tasks meant new developments and higher production.
In this regard, the internet is a fundamental step forward in the way that humans can cooperate. Instantly it speeds up communication, sharing ideas. Before, communication between humans was limited to small, isolated social/geographical groups meaning ideas and information were shared slowly. But now, the internet has revealed itself as the portal by which theoretically any human on the planet could talk to another. The potential applications are as wide as your imagination can stretch.
So far the Internet as an entity has passed through two main stages. The first was the popularisation of the net; people began to get connected and access content at the click of a mouse. Email and Instant Messaging facilitated communication between people, and websites increased communication of products from companies to consumers. The "dot com bubble" of the late nineties crashed when optimism about the Web collapsed, due to expectations racing ahead of what was actually occurring. Money had been flooding into web companies but usage patterns and technological development meant that the incoming revenue was way below the investment and share price levels. The theme of the early Internet was Communication.
Since the dot com bubble burst, technology and usage patterns have caught up. Connection speeds are significantly faster and cheaper now due to Broadband. Far from being a novelty, the internet has become an absolute necessity in the Western world; daily use starting with just reading news or checking emails has driven user numbers sky high and meant that it is no longer a tool for youngsters [1]: many sections of the population in developed nations use the internet. The initially cautious attitudes shown by many towards financial transactions over the Web has rapidly thawed out in recent years: meaning cyberbusinesses are now actually viable compared to the late '90s (prime examples being eBay and Amazon). Rocketing user numbers has now meant that advertising has a huge presence and provides another possible means of generating revenue (the most obvious being the world's most successful Internet company to date, Google).
The early to mid Naughties has seen a marked change in usage patterns. In addition to increased economic activity over the net, the public has begun to shape the landscape of cyberspace by adding content. Dubbed by technowags "Internet 2.0", the main characteristic change in usage has been the rapid rise in Interactivity. Now the average internet user is no longer a pure consumer, entirely passive in the process of information exchange. Now the majority of users have some sort of online presence: they actually contribute to the content of the Internet in various ways.
The entirely new concept of blogging is an example of user-generated content. Sites such as Blogger allow people to have a blog effectively an e-diary) posting on the web their ideas, stories and pretty much anything that be expressed by the written word, like the very thing you are reading now! Also, social interaction sites such as Facebook and MySpace have sprung up, allotting each user a small presence of the Web through which they can interact with others. Facebook also allows users to share photos, along with other sites such as Flickr and MySpace allows people to post their own music. YouTube, recently acquired by Google for a whopping $1.65bn (£883m) [2], allows users to contribute their videos to the cyber-community. The interaction boom is growing and the Internet is no longer spoon-feeding idle users content.
One of the more radical ways of having a cyber-presence is that of SecondLife. Developed by Linden Labs, it is an online 3D rendered universe where the user controls an electronic character (an "avatar") and can interact fully with the environment and other users. It has over 6.3 million current users worldwide and a fully functioning economy using the in-game Linden Dollar that can be transferred into US$ on various market exchanges [3]. This online cyberworld is actually becoming a business for many and its market base is set to grow extensively in the future as people become accustomed to having a cyber-persona [4].
The Internet 2.0 phenomenon is widely established in the behaviour of Internet users. However, I have noticed very recently there seems to be a new pattern emerging and I predict shall become a major trend in the next five years. I shall refer to it as Internet 3.0, with its main characteristic being Collaboration.
As mentioned earlier, the human being is a highly social creature: indeed our ability to cooperate is one of the main factors for out success. Our usage of the Internet is maturing, and people are starting to realise how it can be used to enable us to act collaboratively and thus achieve things that would not normally be possible.
On the website
http://www.myfootballclub.co.uk/, there is a group trying to mobilise 50,000 football fans in a revolutionary way. Each paying £35, they will pool resources and together buy a football club and behave as a collective unit, sharing decisions on the club's financial matters, staffing and even team selection! And on
http://www.winthishome.org.uk/, 25,000 people will pay £60 to enter a competition for a house worth £650,000.
I personally believe that the future of the Internet will allow such group collaborations to exist and flourish on a wide scale. I also believe it will, in time, allow current democratic political system to become truly representative of the views of the people, with online polls allowing politicians to start to gain accurate indications of the views of their constituents. Political entities may even be able to get started and gain support.
In short, it is my belief that with time, the Internet will start to allow humans to cooperate in ways never thought possible. The sky is the limit.
Sources:
In January I bought a Hercules MP3 controller for my laptop which came with some DJing software and have been trying my hand since then. Thursday was the first time I tried in public and although I still have a lot to learn, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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