- Usually we ourselves inform about new offers. But you will hear an almost complete study. The author Yves Jan will give you material for responsible thought.
The green-eyed woman began to speak in a voice choked with shyness. Willow began with the well-known fact that the vegetation of the southern continents is distinguished by the bluish foliage characteristic of ancient forms of terrestrial plants. As shown by a study of the vegetation of other planets, blue foliage is characteristic of atmospheres that are more transparent than terrestrial ones, or that arises when the sun is more rigid than the sun.
- Our Sun, stable in its red radiation, is unstable in blue and ultraviolet, and about two million years ago experienced a sharp change in violet radiation, which lasted a long time.
...

Iva Jan stopped the movement of drawings and symbols and, bowing her head, left the rostrum. Listeners animatedly exchanged glances and whispered. Having exchanged invisible gestures with Thunder Orme, a young expedition leader to Pluto appeared on the podium.
...

From a group of Pluto researchers, I propose to transfer the issue to world information for discussion. The rotation of the planet relative to the axis will reduce the energy consumption for heating the polar regions, will even more smooth the polar fronts, and increase the water balance of the continents.
- Is the question clear for voting? Asked Thunder Orme.
In response, many green lights flashed.
- Then let's start! - said the chairman and put his hand under the music stand of his chair.

Ivan Efremov, The Andromeda Nebula (1957)

I think a lot about the future of the information society, about the form in which communication between people will take place to solve pressing problems, about how, which, and by what principle social relations will be established between them. It's no secret that now ends (and with the advent of Google+ we can assume that it's over), the period when social networks developed on the principle of “we will transfer familiar relationships to the virtual world”, and the time begins to rethink the mechanisms of social interaction in the context of the Internet and socialization. In this Friday article I will try to state my vision of the further development of our society, formed on the basis of observing current trends and an idealistic worldview of personal considerations about the future in which I would like to live.

There are quite certain reasons why I chose this particular passage from the Andromeda Nebula as an epigraph to the article. Its whole meaning can be expressed in a simple sentence: "a group of people worked through an urgent problem and came to the conclusion that it is worthy of public discussion ." Let's try to figure out what concepts can be derived from here and what they mean by being attached to social networks.

People

The current implementation of social interaction is based on the principle of forming groups of predefined relationships - friends, classmates and classmates, colleagues, family, lovers and lovers . Despite the fact that it really worked before (the growth dynamics of Facebook is the only necessary confirmation of this fact), it simply cannot continue indefinitely. Sooner or later, all communications will be transferred from the real world to the social network, and the social graph will be completed. It would be foolish to continue quantitative growth without a strategic plan. In other words, a billion hamsters is not cool. We’ll talk about hamsters, but for now let’s get back to people.

At the turn of the century, many of you have seen the emergence and rapid growth of forums (what is called Web 1.0). People asked questions and received answers from other people whom they had not seen much in their eyes, so often they did not even know their real names, ages, marital status and other so-called private data. And this was not necessary: only the competence of a person in a certain area was important . Then the time came for Web 2.0 and ordinary people began to come to the Internet. They brought with them their cockroaches their stereotypes and patterns of behavior. In fact, the quantitative growth of an active Internet audience has begun.

People like Mark Zuckerberg or Pavel Durov realized that here and now there is a bifurcation point- a unique opportunity to "ride the wave" and give the mass user the familiar habitat embodied in the virtual world. So social networks appeared in the form that we are all used to. Today, a new period begins - the transition from quantity to quality.

A billion hamsters is not cool

What will happen if for a very long time watching how hamsters breed? I think nothing, except that you just get tired of looking at mating, bearing, giving birth, mating, bearing, giving birth, spa ... (see recursion ). Now, if a billion hamsters became able to realize themselves and the world around them, then this would make sense in everything ...

My personal opinion is that we must stop copying the existing structure of society. Now on the Internet, groups of people are formed not on the basis of social connections from real life, but on the basis of a commonality of personal and professional interests and views on the world. The social graph is “turning out”, and a misunderstanding of this leads either to blurring the focus of the social network as a business (see, for example, the 100,500 services that have appeared on Facebook recently), or to the emergence of such “initiatives” as the notorious privacy reform in the closer us VKontakte. Both of these phenomena are a direct result of the fermentation in the heads of their founders (I do not detract from their merits, they made the right choice in their time, but now they are either not flexible enough, or idealists, or ...) I envy these people, because in their hands is a social lever with which to change the world.

Are you nuts?

No, I am not. Names, photos, ages, marital status, place of study and work - it's all about people 1.0. Who cares what your name is and how old you are if you create a new one in this world, alone, or with like-minded people? What difference does it make where you studied if you contribute to the development of the whole civilization by participating in interesting projects for you ? What is the difference, how many accounts do you have on social networks, if each virtual serves for some purpose?

Pressing issues

There is such a startup Quora . This is a rather advanced service of questions and answers, representing a single point of entry into the problems of interest to a person. This is a platform where anyone can either ask a pressing question or propose a solution. This is the quintessence of forums, chats, wikis. This is a platform that could serve as a place where people will discuss pressing issues and seek solutions to them.

Why “could”? The answer is simple - because it is not the social network, it exists by itself. With all the attractiveness of the idea, this startup cannot become so massive that the second arrival of hamsters begins. It will not become a place of “world information” (see epigraph).

To come to a conclusion and submit it for public discussion

Already there was Google Wave , which embodied the same idea - the collaborative interaction of people in order to solve a complex of tasks. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, Wave did not take off. It was too hard for hamsters. And now, not one of the mass services combines the capabilities of Quora and Wave, there is no technical opportunity available for a wide audience to jointly solve problems and come to conclusions.

So what is it?

It turns out a sad picture:

1. There is no single mass instrument
2. There is no formative thought - we observe the reproduction of hamsters, shearing coupons we earn money
3. There is no clearly defined leader company that would not be burdened with either the idealistic worldview of the leadership or the upcoming IPO
4. There is no goal, there is an "increase in ARPU" and "market penetration"

And this could have been completed if the article had not been called “The Ideal Social Network”.

The perfect social network

Let's dream.
The home page of an ideal social network site is a “window” into a multidimensional information space. This “window” is focused in such a way as to provide a person with a slice of the information that meets his current needs. Obviously, the needs in this context can be divided into two parallel data streams - updates from those people with whom constant contact is maintained and updates in those areas of civilization that the user is interested in.

It is very simple to form a new interest: the user simply asks his own question or writes some descriptive phrase. Even now, using a fuzzy search, it is already possible to form a relevant sample. Armed with search history, the network is able to refine the query context on its own. Search results are updated in real time right on the page. The user gets the opportunity to study materials and join discussions, answer or ask questions. The difference between "post a new topic" and "respond to an existing topic" is erased.

New social connections? Easy. Each discussion forms a local circle of communication. The interlocutors see each other's activity in the context of overlapping interests. Private data does not matter - in this network it is important who you are, what contribution you make to civilization, and not how old your dog is, and where you are currently located.

There is no spam in principle - a self-moderated community very quickly takes spammers out of the scope of relevance of any request.

I would like to live in such a future. And you?

_{Disclaimer: This is a Friday post. He is submouth and not analytic. This is my splash into the “world information”.}