October 15th, 2005

A Social Revolution by Modeling Human Behavior

It’s easy to assume that Web 2.0 is a technological revolution, with acronyms like RSS, APIs, Ajax, and XML floating around. However, I think though technology has a central role to play, the real revolution isn’t technological, it’s people-based. Web 2.0 is a social revolution.

A common view is that technology drastically changes the way that we live. It does to an extent, but upon deeper inspection we observe that most of that change is actually gains in efficiency concerning things we already do and not really a change to our core activities: communicating, listening, watching, learning, comparing, contrasting. Our bodies haven’t changed much at all. But our expectations have. We want more, more, more. More of what we already have.

Software Models Human Behavior

Similarly, the most innovative software doesn’t give humans something new to do, it models something we already do better. Look at the most popular software of the moment:

Skype models phone conversations.
iTunes models music listening.
Google Search models the way we value content.
Flickr models the way we share and view photos.
Amazon models the way that we talk about books.
Del.icio.us models the way we save things.

The innovation in these applications is not that they let us do something new, but that they allow us to do what we already do better, more often, in more places, and more quickly. It’s in how they model human behavior. Some aggregate selfish human activities, like Del.icio.us does with bookmarking and Google Search does with links. Some aggregate public human activities, like Amazon does with reviews. Some simply give tools to communicate more efficiently, like Skype does.

Enablers and the Real Innovation

The terms being thrown around concerning Web 2.0: web as platform, architecture of participation, web as OS, these are not the real innovations. These are enablers of the real innovation: a social revolution brought on by an incredible leap in the creation of software that allows humans to be, well, more human.

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Comments ( 21 Responses so far )

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1. Alex Barnett on October 15th, 2005 (Comment) #

One thought…you wrote:

“Google Search models the way we value content.”

Shouldn’t this be:

“Google Search models the way we look for things”

If not, I’d be interested to hear why you think so.

thanks,

Alex.

2. peterme on October 15th, 2005 (Comment) #

This is very much what I was getting at in a recent sandbox post.

3. Saleh EG on October 16th, 2005 (Comment) #

It’s a social revolution, but it doesn’t have to necessarily be a 2.0 all these apps have been there for a while. I agree it’s a new era for web and web development but, not to the extent of the exaggerations that we see on all the web2.0 and other blogs. Specialy 37Signals products–really exaggerated when compared with Google or Microsoft.

It’s a new era, but most of the promoting marketing gigs are just not to the point atleast misleading the users and web-new entrants however, Acronyms such as RSS, XML, and AJAX along with the social software are forming the new era in the web.

4. David on December 1st, 2006 (Comment) #

Your post certainly rings true, but I’m not convinced that web 2.0 has been the revelation that it was hailed as and is not going to effect human behaviour in a massive way - other than to make us all learn new acronyms!

All new technology shapes human behaviour and human expectations - imagine having to travel accross the country without sat nav these days - the thought of using a standard map is unthinkable, but only three years ago it was the only way most of us managed to get from a to b.

You conclude with, “the creation of software that allows humans to be, well, more human”. I would alter that slightly, “the creation of software that allows humans to be lazier!”

5. Thomas Solar on January 6th, 2007 (Comment) #

web 2.0 is a new and i think already bullshitted term.
everybody i talking about it and nobody knows exactelly what it is. but this post describes it really good. wiil soon write a german article about this and will mention your site. thx very much

6. Pozycjonowanie on March 20th, 2007 (Comment) #

Thanks for A Social Revolution by Modeling Human Behavior Your right it’s really one of the best articles here. Greetings

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7. Thomas on April 4th, 2007 (Comment) #

Very useful stuff and nice article thank you.

8. Markus on April 6th, 2007 (Comment) #

Thank you and keep up the great work

9. New Articles on April 13th, 2007 (Comment) #

Very interresting article. Can I translate it and insert into my webpage?

10. Ed Garcia on April 24th, 2007 (Comment) #

It had passed more than a year since this article was post.
It seems that many of this things change from then. Will be?
I have to agree with David in almost all his points.
In fact, technology has just the potential to allow human to be more human. And much more potential to allow humans lazier. Just to say, with the same brain our ancestries had much better memory than us.
The thru is that communication globalization amplifies human fanciful realism trend a lot, taking us to the time that the powers o hypes forego the real powers and scope of new technologies, a lot.
Great David.

11. Ed Garcia on April 24th, 2007 (Comment) #

It had passed more than a year since this article was post.
It seems that many of this things change from then. Will be?
I have to agree with David in almost all his points.
In fact, technology has just the potential to allow human to be more human. And much more potential to allow humans lazier. Just to say, with the same brain our ancestries had best memory than us.
The truth is that, communication globalization amplifies human fanciful realism trend a lot, taking us to the time that the powers o hypes forego the real powers and scope of new technologies, a lot.
Great David.

12. Ty Graham on June 9th, 2007 (Comment) #

Simply put: Well Said! This is one beauty of an article. A lot of revolutions don’t go noticed or assisted for growth to be useful. I have had first hand experience of how a revolution I once created could dramatically help blind people. I mean they’ve cried over the technology and wondered why the government was stuck. Revolutions are definitely the ones that help us be more human. Like the car, the plane, the book, e-mail, tts, etc… I am a pioneer which will have a great legacy in the future but at this very moment only a few of us know this is no accident, because soon, everyone will get blipd. WHY? Because Blip’d models conversation.

Awesome thinking here…

13. Andre on June 13th, 2007 (Comment) #

Very interesting article thank you

14. Chris on June 28th, 2007 (Comment) #

That’s a great post for one who searches for a new business plan in the Internet area. And it’s a not so obvious perception of the currently glorious web-applications.
Hope it leads me to my billions now

15. Anton on July 13th, 2007 (Comment) #

A great post thank you.

16. Argentina Sohrweide on August 11th, 2007 (Comment) #

gratulation es ist ein guter atikel und gleichfalls gute kommentare doch so ganz kann ich nicht alles nachvollzien

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A Social Revolution by Modeling Human Behavior

Software Models Human Behavior

Enablers and the Real Innovation

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