Web watch: Networks that are changing our world
By Ken Roulston
27 March 2006
If you are part of the generation that did not grow up with the internet, you may still have difficulty in seeing it as part of the fabric of everyday life.
Unlike a shop, or a phone, or a newspaper, it is still a little mysterious. It still has a certain other-worldly quality about it, as if it exists only in a place called cyberspace.
If so, prepare yourself for a rude awakening.
The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) has announced that in future it will become a largely online newspaper - the first in this country to take what many would regard as a bold step. It already boasts one of the most comprehensive media sites on the web, with a job market, a blog and a dating service complementing its news content.
But the thought of a newspaper that has existed in print form since 1821 shifting to this new medium has surprised some of those who believe that if it exists only in cyberspace it doesn't really exist at all.
Among those who are not surprised is the 75-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch. His view - aired in the Independent (www.independent.co.uk) last week - is that we are living in the second great age of discovery, and that long-established companies will have to adapt or die.
In a sense Mr Murdoch and others are playing a game of catch-up. Young people have taken the internet and transformed it into a vast social network transcending national boundaries and bridging the link between the online and offline world.
Teenagers who have lived with the technology for half their lives or more don't distinguish between phone conversations, face-to-face meetings and contact via the internet. To them it is all part of the same thing.
Similarly the idea of having to read your news from a printed piece of paper is so old-fashioned as to be absurd. The big media brands are no more trusted than the news blogs that have mushroomed on the web in recent months and years.
Little surprise then that wily media baron Murdoch has spent more than a billion dollars on web acquisitions. Among them has been Intermix (www.intermix.com), an entertainment group that also happens to be the parent company of a site called Myspace (www.myspace.com).
If you are of a certain age you may not have heard of Myspace, but your children almost certainly will have. By the end of 2005 it had 40 million members, up from 10 million only a few months earlier. It was the 15th biggest website in the US in terms of visits, and is now one of the most popular destinations for young people in the UK.
Myspace contains information on new bands, videos, blogs, and the opportunity to make friends. It also provides an outlet for young filmmakers. But it is just one of a huge number of social networks springing up all over the web.
Another popular one is Bebo (www.bebo.com). It has further blurred the lines between traditional forms of communication by integrating the internet phone system Skype (www.skype.com) into its offering.
More sites unknown to most of us include www.buzzoven.com, which is for music fans in Texas; www.facebook.com, for college students; and www.xanga.com, a community of diaries and journals.
When some of these networks first approached big-name brands for advertising they were turned away because there was no proof that they would be a success. Now the boot is on the other foot, with the networks deciding if the brands are 'cool' enough to advertise on their sites. More proof, if it were needed, that traditional businesses need to keep up with the times.
Networking is also at the heart of www.thefatmanwalking.com and, yes, you did read that web address correctly. It is the home site of Steve Vaught, a man who was morbidly obese and decided to do something about it by walking across the USA.
What began as one man's solo trek has turned into a weight loss forum, a blog and, more importantly, a magnet for advertising. Businesses, including film studios and newspapers, are battling for a slice of the pie, if you'll excuse the pun.
Essentially there is nothing new about these online communities. They are developing in the same way as town centres and social clubs once did. But they are doing so at a much faster pace, and subverting the standard rules and regulations of traditional business, media and communication as they do so. They take internet use into a new realm - one which is already challenging our assumptions about the way commerce operates in the modern world.
Ken Roulston is managing director of Finisco Business Solutions, a leading provider of web-based and client server solutions (www.finisco.com).
27 March 2006
If you are part of the generation that did not grow up with the internet, you may still have difficulty in seeing it as part of the fabric of everyday life.
Unlike a shop, or a phone, or a newspaper, it is still a little mysterious. It still has a certain other-worldly quality about it, as if it exists only in a place called cyberspace.
If so, prepare yourself for a rude awakening.
The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) has announced that in future it will become a largely online newspaper - the first in this country to take what many would regard as a bold step. It already boasts one of the most comprehensive media sites on the web, with a job market, a blog and a dating service complementing its news content.
But the thought of a newspaper that has existed in print form since 1821 shifting to this new medium has surprised some of those who believe that if it exists only in cyberspace it doesn't really exist at all.
Among those who are not surprised is the 75-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch. His view - aired in the Independent (www.independent.co.uk) last week - is that we are living in the second great age of discovery, and that long-established companies will have to adapt or die.
In a sense Mr Murdoch and others are playing a game of catch-up. Young people have taken the internet and transformed it into a vast social network transcending national boundaries and bridging the link between the online and offline world.
Teenagers who have lived with the technology for half their lives or more don't distinguish between phone conversations, face-to-face meetings and contact via the internet. To them it is all part of the same thing.
Similarly the idea of having to read your news from a printed piece of paper is so old-fashioned as to be absurd. The big media brands are no more trusted than the news blogs that have mushroomed on the web in recent months and years.
Little surprise then that wily media baron Murdoch has spent more than a billion dollars on web acquisitions. Among them has been Intermix (www.intermix.com), an entertainment group that also happens to be the parent company of a site called Myspace (www.myspace.com).
If you are of a certain age you may not have heard of Myspace, but your children almost certainly will have. By the end of 2005 it had 40 million members, up from 10 million only a few months earlier. It was the 15th biggest website in the US in terms of visits, and is now one of the most popular destinations for young people in the UK.
Myspace contains information on new bands, videos, blogs, and the opportunity to make friends. It also provides an outlet for young filmmakers. But it is just one of a huge number of social networks springing up all over the web.
Another popular one is Bebo (www.bebo.com). It has further blurred the lines between traditional forms of communication by integrating the internet phone system Skype (www.skype.com) into its offering.
More sites unknown to most of us include www.buzzoven.com, which is for music fans in Texas; www.facebook.com, for college students; and www.xanga.com, a community of diaries and journals.
When some of these networks first approached big-name brands for advertising they were turned away because there was no proof that they would be a success. Now the boot is on the other foot, with the networks deciding if the brands are 'cool' enough to advertise on their sites. More proof, if it were needed, that traditional businesses need to keep up with the times.
Networking is also at the heart of www.thefatmanwalking.com and, yes, you did read that web address correctly. It is the home site of Steve Vaught, a man who was morbidly obese and decided to do something about it by walking across the USA.
What began as one man's solo trek has turned into a weight loss forum, a blog and, more importantly, a magnet for advertising. Businesses, including film studios and newspapers, are battling for a slice of the pie, if you'll excuse the pun.
Essentially there is nothing new about these online communities. They are developing in the same way as town centres and social clubs once did. But they are doing so at a much faster pace, and subverting the standard rules and regulations of traditional business, media and communication as they do so. They take internet use into a new realm - one which is already challenging our assumptions about the way commerce operates in the modern world.
Ken Roulston is managing director of Finisco Business Solutions, a leading provider of web-based and client server solutions (www.finisco.com).
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