Today I attended the IBM Academy of Technology’s annual meeting and saw Prof. Barry Wellman’s keynote talk entitled “Networked: The New Social Operating System”. Wellman’s talk (based on his soon to be released book of the same title) was centred around pervasive social networks and their effect on society, culture and everyday life. In this post I am going to summarize some of Wellman’s talking points and add some of the thoughts I took away from the lecture.
A quick note on Barry – as you might have guessed based on his research, Prof. Wellman is well connected and posts a lot of interesting information and papers. Check out his website, or follow him on twitter.
Wellman pulled data from a number of sources and much of it came from the Telus 2009 “Canadians & Technology” survey. From these sources, Wellman gleaned a number of interesting insights. Together with Lee Rainie (PEW Internet Project), Prof. Wellman identify what they have coined the “triple revolution”.
The triple revolution
The triple revolution refers the intersection of three recent phenomena:
- The proliferation and differentiation of the personal internet – the internet is not generic, it is personal and tailored to the needs of the individual. Everyone’s experience online is different
- A continuous presence – the always-available information and communication afforded by laptops, smart phones and high speed wireless networks. Time and space are no longer as important as they once were.
- The change from social groups to social networks – Wellman & Rainie refer to this as “networked individualism”.
The triple revolution forms the basis of what Wellman & Rainie have identified as the social network operating system.
The social network revolution
This revolutions provides us with a new perspective for understanding social behaviour. People now reside in a number of fragmented, partial networks as opposed to residing in a single community. These loosely coupled networks are permeable, with edge members traversing boundaries and joining adjacent networks.
Glossary of terms
Normally a glossary would follow the body of work, however in this case I will define some of the terms that will be used in the next section ahead of time so you don’t have to guess at their meaning.
Networked individualism: Although it seems like an oxymoron, this refers to person to person communication within a network of people. In this state, individuals have little or no awareness of context: online it is very hard to have context when talking with someone who could be around the corner or around the world. Unlike social gatherings of years past, households or groups of people do not meet up in social networks, the majority of interactions happen one on one. Networked individualism leads to public sharing of what used to be considered private information (facebook relation status, sexual preference and religious views, loud conversations on cell phones in public places).
Networked individualism also has an effect on family life and intrafamily interactions. Families tend to function more like networks than groups. Although there is more contact with family members than ever before (email, cell phone, twitter), families spend much less time with each other. An unintended side effect of this is the implicit transparency of our actions and wherabouts.
Glocalization: Ability to be globally connected yet act locally. “Local” becomes one of many interests rathe than the only information available. An interesting side effect is the fact that the number of migratory friends (online only friends becoming friends you meet face to face) is on the rise.
Post-triple revolution interactions
Wellman stated that he and Rainie have identified 12 important points about the triple revolution and explained eight of them in detail. The following eight points were presented by Prof. Wellman as the most important:
- People now function as individuals rather than as group members. A person’s network is self-administered and often a great deal of time is spent managing and growing the network rather than interacting in a group.
- People used to communicate door to door, you only knew the people who lived in your village. With the advent of glocalization (no, that’s not a typo) communication became place to place. Finally, post-triple revolution communication happens person to person rather than in a group setting. This is networked individualism at work.
The three models of interpersonal interaction are: Groups: door to door communication, GloCalization: place to place, Networked individualism: person to person. Source: Wellman, 2009 "Networked: The New Social Operating System"
- Networked individuals are in many loosely-knit networks. We now have multiple groups of people we interact with and no real home community. We have separate networks for our social, economic and emotional support systems (Wellman uses the example of friends, parents and sisters respectively).
- The size of our social networks grow generation over generation. Technology allows us to effectively manage larger and more complex networks of people than our ancestors could.
- Rather than full membership in some groups, we have partial membership in many groups. Many small investments rather than a few large investments. We have diversified our network portfolio.
- As a result of glocalization and the triple revolution, we have new methods to form communities. Community synthesis happens around shared interests rather than physical proximity.
- Work is becoming more like social networking. People reporting to several bosses and belonging to multiple teams. Colleagues communicate rapidly and cheaply using multiple mediums. Jobs created around creative effort rather than manufacturing or standardization.
- Blurring of public and private interactions. With social networks more and more people are comfortable sharing their innermost thoughts and daily routines with a large group of people. When asked, young people today have few concerns for their privacy.
In closing
As we become more and more connected we become more and more individualized. Content is personalized, interactions are person to person and our families act as social networks rather than socially supportive groups. How will this new breed of individualized individuals change the way business happens around the world? Perhaps we are already seeing some of the effects today as more and more people work remotely sometimes telecommuting to offices around the world. Contractors advertise their skills online and solicit jobs in multiple networks. Help desks and software development is outsourced around the world.
Be sure to check out Wellman & Rainie’s book when it comes out – I highly doubt you will be disappointed. If you have a chance to see Prof. Wellman speak try not to miss it – he is insightful, funny and doesn’t waste time on obtuse questions or comments.
