This is what all the Web 2.0 hype is really about: the seamless integration of our personas into a discrete, "meta-network" made up of Web enabled devices. http://www.readwriteweb.com puts it this way while talking about why Googles will merge its orkut.com and dodgeball.com properties..

There is also the trend of meta-social networks, like Marc Canter's PeopleAggregator. It was actually the latest New Scientist magazine which rang a little bell in my mind about this. An article called Living Online: This is your space (full article not online yet unfortunately) concluded by saying that an individual's identity will be managed by a meta-network, which we will carry with us "in small wireless devices so that our virtual identities become seamlessly integrated with the real world." That online/offline balance is one of the main things mobile Web has going for it. So meta-SNS + Mobile is another trend I think we'll see emerge...

Meanwhile C|net news is speculating that Internet darling YouTube is going down soon as the result of inevitable law suites. Why? All of those video streams belong to someone and they are not being compensated.

Lawsuits will trigger a chain reaction, according to the analysts, in which YouTube will be forced to remove all copyrighted material--and that means excising most of the professionally made content. What's left will leave YouTube with videos that are "a lot less interesting," said the Forrester analysts.

I am not sure I agree with their analysis. The content I watch on YouTube is generated from the NetRoots and is placed there freely for the specific purpose of sharing. the viral buzz around the service is not about accessing the latest episode of Desperate Housewives, is it?

And finally, for those of you who have completely immersed yourself into your online identity, the Victoria Times Colonist (...read more...)