New technologies are built on both the foundations and the tattered remnants of previous technologies. For example, social media did not suddenly appear one day. Rather, pioneering work started in the 1960s on reorganizing both societies and information have provided the learnings that have been used to development many of the learning technologies that we are experimenting with today.
One person who has chronicled and participated in the social movement that changed how we deal with information is Howard Rheingold, who has contributed to over 70 books since 1970. Howard is interviewed by Shel Israel, the author of a new book called Twitterville: How Businesses can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods.
Howard talks about the importance of the Whole Earth Catalog, an amazing publication started by Stewart Brand in 1968. Shel writes in his introduction, “A young hippie fruitarian of that time named Steve Jobs would later describe the Catalog as both the forerunner to the Worldwide Web and Google.” (I still have several editions of the Catalog on my bookshelves).
Howard was an early member of the “Well”, one of the first computer bulletin boards. In his 2000 book The Virtual Community, Howard “introduced a great number of people to the vision of social media for the first time.”
The interview is in two parts – Part one (Oct. 25) is a history and discussion of the present, while Part 2, due today (Oct. 26) looks at the future. (GW)
SM Global Report: Howard Rheingold – Part 1 | Global Neighbourhoods | Shel Israel | 15 October 2009
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