I'm an Application

An email correspondent said I'd gone off on a Gillmor-esque moment (minus the wit) when writing about My Abstraction yesterday. He asked if I could condense my ramblings into a single sentence, "please and thank you!" Sure I said -

"I'm an Application."

MyBlog traditionally conceptualizes me as a book. It sees me as content. But the evolution of MySpace, MyStartPage, etc and the emergence of widgets points to a convergence of those platforms towards a conceptualization of me as an Application.

I'm a collection of inputs and outputs with some processing (not enough according to my critic!) in between. I'm not a book. People don't read me, they interact with me. My digital-self should reflect that interactive nature.

Jason Kolb has been teeming with ideas in this area lately but it's his description of a Digital Utopia in particular that resonates with me -

"I see social networks as the stepping stone to online identity.  They are the modern equivalent of people understanding the use for electricity for the first time and wanting it wired to their houses.  I know people who own computers and use the Internet JUST to use MySpace, which I can hardly even fathom since I hate the site.  But people understand social networks, they serve a purpose besides identifying you. They are you online."

Absolutely. Social networking is turning the web inside out but we're slow to dump our metaphoric baggage. We've got to stop thinking in terms of visiting webpage destinations and using online applications. MyBlog will evolve into MyAvatar, a digital reflection of me, my online automaton. We're becoming the applications and the web will use us.

Technorati Tags: social networking

Comments

[walter]

I read this and all I can think of is Mike TV in the chocolate factory.
Atomized into a million bits of phosphor.
It didn't end too well for poor little Mikey.