Power of People in Tomorrow's Society

I am tackling the question of the meaning of web 2.0, and information society. Web 2.0 is the technology that connects people to each other. I repeat: People, not technology.

There are many people around the world, and technology applies a web-like and invisible links so that each individual is empowered to do much more.

"$10.8 billion that we don't have to spend to get an exceptionally robust operating system. $10.8 billion that we depend upon every day when using Google, Amazon, and a dizzying array of websites, as well as many of the applications we use within our own companies. There are countless companies and services enabled by this communal, multi-billion dollar investment, none of which you and I actually pay for." According to Matt Assay, VP of Alfresco, on Linux.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10072567-16.html?part=rss

Even before I am carving out the proofs in elegant, PhD standard English and format, publishing in respected journals, I am far into believing that this is the case across all areas of Technology and Society, Human and Computers Interaction. In World of Warcraft, we saw large scale, international, collaborative efforts in improving the game. Nerdy players turned into cool producers. Creativity is empowered on all with a computer, and minimal ability to program.

In anthropology, Social Network Analysis, a method for seeing structure and patterns of human relationship, is developing to supported traditional in-person observation methods. Which is another area of my investigation. If humans are being empowered by digital media to reach out, so do an Anthropologist, who is also a human being. Such power was first proposed by Douglas White, also an Anthropologist from UC Irvine.

In all, exciting things are happening, enabled by the Internet, that is slowly shaping our society. Together with it, every human activities are being shaped by it. I don't think there is a better time for humans to be creative.