Next versions of HTTP, URI and HTML will be even more important.

“Just as many of the practices and ideas subsumed under the ‘Web 2.0’ label in fact preceded the term in important ways, so too have they outlasted it. Though use of the term itself has waxed and waned, its fundamental (if sometimes conflicting) ideals have spread outwards — winding their way through cultural and social shifts as well as subtle technological and economic reconfigurations — and continue to inform contemporary discussions of new platforms and practices.”

Michael Zimmer and Anna Lauren Hoffmann ~ First Monday 21.6 ★

The user (a.k.a. the person) is only an entity in a network of relations, connections, and bi-directional arrows. Outside the network, it’s just a nobody.

“The user has become central to the way technology is conceptualized, designed, and studied in sociotechnical research and human-computer interaction; recently, non-users have also become productive foci of scholarly analysis. This paper argues that a focus on individualized users and non-users is incomplete, and conflates multiple modes of complex relation among people, institutions, and technologies. Rather than the use/non-use conception, I argue for conceptualizing users as networks: as constellations of power relations and institutional entanglements, mediated through technologies.”

Karen E.C. Levy a.k.a. @karen_ec_levy ~ First Monday 20.11 ★

“We always lived in a connected world, except we were not so much aware of it. We were aware of it down the line, that we’re not independent from our environment, that we’re not independent of the people around us. We are not independent of the many economic and other forces. But for decades we never perceived connectedness as being quantifiable, as being something that we can describe, that we can measure, that we have ways of quantifying the process. That has changed drastically in the last decade, at many, many different levels.”

(A Conversation with Albert-László Barabási ~ EDGE)

“Today, the Web and the digital landscape looks dramatically different compared to the Internet’s frontier years.”

(David Armano)

“Back in 2008 we started working with some projects involving interaction design for large networks of connected products and services. Not Internet of Things-ish stuff, but in that direction. The challenge was to come up with a graphical user interface which was both scalable and very easy to understand. Or that was what we thought the challenge was to begin with.”

(Ericsson User Experience Lab Blog) ~ courtesy of markvanderbeeken

“(…) social media now seems to be touching everything within our organizations. Everything is going social. Whether it’s merely the addition of sharing buttons on content within an existing app, or if it’s a fundamental reworking of a customer support system to be powered by mass community participation instead of trouble tickets, social is infusing our work environment in ways too numerous to count. I now hear from our clients on a regular basis that they are starting to feel ‘surrounded by social.’ Many of them want to regain intellectual control of the changes taking place. They want to know what all the moving parts are and how they are connected. This done, they can then reason and plan about their future social landscape and better support the changes required.”

(Dion Hinchcliffe a.k.a. @dhinchcliffe ~ Dachis Group)

“As humans we are fundamentally social creatures. For most people an ordinary day is filled with social interaction. We converse with our family and friends. We talk with our co-workers as we carry out our work. We engage in routine exchanges with familiar strangers at the bus stop and in the grocery store. This social interaction is not just talk: we make eye contact, nod our heads, wave our hands, and adjust our positions. Not only are we busy interacting, we are also remarkably sensitive to the behaviors of those around us. Our world is filled with social cues that provide grist for inferences, planning and action. We grow curious about a crowd that has gathered down the street. We decide not to stop at the store because the parking lot is jammed. We join in a standing ovation even though we didn’t enjoy the performance that much. Social interactions like these contribute to the meaning, interest and richness of our daily life.”

(Tom Erickson ~ Interaction-Design.org)

“We can’t look back at historical data. We can’t search for patterns in the data. We can’t build predictive models. All because we just don’t have the data. And until we have consistent, reliable data, these things just aren’t going to happen. If only we had the data. Well now we do.”

(The Connected Company)