FOWA Notes: The changing face of online communities and communication - Edwin Aoki

Edwin Aoki - Chief Architect AOL

Where it all began.

  • Commnuity was a a key promise of the web

Webmail is the leading driver of page views.
Email 9.32% of all page views

Chat and IM take to the web.
All the sucessful sites Mike mentioned are based around some kind of commmunity
Blogging messageboards, Reference (Wikipedia), Auctions (Ebay), Commerce (Amazon)

Predecessor of the modern mashup?
Web rings - WebRing

Disaggregation and Syndication

users seek out what they are interested in.
Allows for focussed and tailored experiences. The long tail

Content and service providers can't control the content.

Can be a boon but also a challenge.
YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket

YouTube is facing questions.

Web apps too will become syndicated
For content it's embedding for apps it's mashups.

Embedding community tools will enhance the site in situ.

Community goes mobile. content and community will follow the community whereever they go.

Sometime second life comes first. People are spending more and more time on the web.
Real world brands are trying to establish a presence in virtual worlds, BBS, AOL Toyota etc.

Last night total residents in second life was 3,769,447!

Second life is a poster child.

Out shared responsibility. With great power comes great responsibility.

We must make sure the tools and services that we build can be used safely.
Most users don't know or care about the implications of being online.

Decentralisation is disruptive for the trad trust model of apps.
Who to trust?
services such as openID complicate this even further.

Bridging the digital divide.
Apps must be accessible to all.
visually audbly or motion impared
older generations
different social backgrounds.

The future is in the balance.
Power and Ease of use
Social benefits
online and offline interactions

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