- Usually we ourselves notify about new offers. But you will hear an almost complete study. The author himself, Yves Jan, will inform you of material for responsible reflection.
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 color of foliage characteristic of ancient forms of terrestrial plants. As shown by a study of the vegetation of other planets, blue foliage is characteristic of more transparent than the earth, atmospheres, or occurs when the ultraviolet radiation of the sun is more rigid than that of the Sun.
- Our Sun, steady in its red radiation, is unstable in blue and ultraviolet and about two million years ago experienced a dramatic change in violet radiation that lasted a long time.
...

Yves Jan stopped the movement of drawings and symbols, and, bowing her head, left the podium. Listeners looked at each other and whispered. Having exchanged inconspicuous gestures with Thunder Orme, a young expedition leader on Pluto appeared on the podium.
...

From a group of Pluto researchers, I propose to transfer the issue to the world information for discussion. Rotation of the planet about the axis will reduce energy consumption for heating the polar regions, even more smooth out the polar fronts, increase the water balance of the continents.
- Is the question clear for voting? Grom Orme asked.
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, Andromeda Nebula (1957) 

I think a lot about the future of the information society, about the form in which communication will take place between people to solve pressing problems, about how, what, and on what basis social links will be established between them. It's no secret that now the end (and with the advent of Google+, we can assume that it is over) the period when social networks developed according to the principle “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's article I will try to set forth my vision for the future development of our society, formed on the basis of observation of current trends and an idealistic outlook on personal considerations about the future in which I would like to live.

There are well-defined reasons why I chose this particular passage from the Andromeda Nebula as an epigraph to the article. Its whole meaning can be expressed by a simple sentence: "a group of people worked through a pressing problem and came to the conclusion that it is worthy of a public discussion ." Let's try to figure out what concepts can be derived from here and what they mean, 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 mistresses . 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 connections 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 are not cool. About hamsters, we'll talk again, but for now let's get back to the people.

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

People like Mark Zuckerberg or Pavel Durov realized that here and now the bifurcation point is coming - a unique opportunity to “ride the wave” and give the mass user the habitual habitat embodied in the virtual world. So there were social networks in the form to which we are all accustomed. Today a new period begins - the transition of quantity to quality.

Billion hamsters are not cool

What happens if you watch hamsters for a very long time? I think nothing but the fact that you just get tired of looking at mating, carrying, giving birth, mating, bearing, giving birth, spa ... (see recursion ). Now, if a billion hamsters would be able to realize themselves and the world around them, then in all this there would be a meaning ...

My personal opinion is that it is necessary to 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 community of personal and professional interests and views on the world around. The social graph “turns outward”, and misunderstanding of this leads either to blurring the focus of the social network as a business (see for example 100,500 services that have appeared on Facebook lately), or to the emergence of such “initiatives” as the notorious privacy reform in the near VKontakte us. Both of these phenomena are a direct consequence of the ferment in the heads of their founders (I do not detract from their merits, they made the right choice at one time, but now they are either not flexible enough, or idealists , or ...) I envy these people, because in their hands a social lever that can change the world.

Are you nuts?

No, I am not. Names, photos, ages, marital status, place of study and work are all about people 1.0. Who cares what your name is and how old are you if you create something new 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 projects you are interested in? Who cares how many social media accounts you have if each virtual serves some purpose?

Pressing issues

There is such a startup Quora . This is a fairly advanced question and answer service, representing a single point of entry into a topic of interest to a person. This is a platform on which any person can either ask a pressing question, or propose some solution. This is the quintessence of forums, chats, wikis. This is a platform that could serve as a place in which people will discuss pressing problems and seek solutions for 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).

Come to a conclusion and bring to public discussion

Already there was Google Wave , which embodied the same idea - the collaborative interaction of people to solve a set of tasks. Unfortunately, for several reasons, Wave did not take off. He was too complicated for hamsters. And now, none of the mass services combines the capabilities of Quora and Wave, there is no technical opportunity available to a wide audience to solve problems together and come to conclusions.

And what happens?

It turns out a sad picture:

1. There is no single mass instrument.
2. There is no form-building thought - we observe the reproduction of hamsters, we cut coupons and earn money
3. There is no prominent leading company that would not be burdened by 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 was not called “The Perfect Social Network.”

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 cut of that information that meets his current needs. It is obvious that the needs in this context can be divided into two parallel data streams - updates from those people with whom there is constant contact and updates in those areas of civilization that are interesting to the user.

To form a new interest is very simple: the user simply asks his own question or writes some descriptive phrase. Even now, using a fuzzy search, it is already realistic to form a relevant sample. Armed with the search history, the network is able to specify the context of the query on its own. Search results are updated in real time right on the page. The user gets the opportunity to study the materials and connect to 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 social circle. The interlocutors see each other's activity in the context of overlapping interests. Private data do not play a role - in this network it is important who you are, what contribution you make to civilization, not how old your dog is and where you are at the moment.

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

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

_{Disclaimer: This is a Friday post. It is submuren and not analytic. This is my splash in the "world information."}