Human network

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The human network is the social structure composed of individuals, friends, collaborators or other organizations connected through technology using a variety of devices - personal computers, mobile phones, gaming consoles and PDAs. In many instances the term is described synonymously with the Architecture of participation. It is the intersection of communications networks and social networks - a telecommunications network where people are the endpoints.

[edit] History

Although the term was first popularized by Cisco in late 2006 as part of their new marketing initiative, the concept of the human network draws heavily on the rise of Social software and Web 2.0 technologies. It follows a series of similar themed philosophies such as Sun Microsystems' Participation age [1], Time Magazine's Person of the Year being, well, 'You' this past 2006, as well as a series of news articles on the phenomena culminating with Business Week's 20 June 2005 cover story "The Power of Us" [2]. Forrester Research concluded in a 2006 report[3] on participatory architectures that increasing person to person communication is impacting the global economy. It is said that your power is in the people you know, not the product you sell. Person to person communication is bringing this a new reality, and companies are realizing that you need to have a 'People_Ready' business (Microsoft), no matter what you promote, sell, or produce. It is changing society as people depend less on cultural intermediaries - media, businesses, and other mass cultural groups.

[edit] Related Research

The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence is engaged in research on how information technology is enabling new organizational paradigms of interaction. Their core research question is:

How can people and computers be connected so that-collectively-they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before? [4]