Its been a few days since I have had the time to post. Luckily Carl was in the mood to kick up some dust while I have been swamped with other work.

While riding the subway today and shooting the shit breeze with someone, the conversation turned to tech (as it usually does). It was at this time that I came to the realization that I tend to dig more communal tech. That is, I like the idea of tech fostering a sense of community.

During the early years of the World Wide Web (which is 15 years old this month), many worried that the intarweb and its associated technologies (e.g. email, online gaming) were making people less social. The debate still rages concerning this; however, there are changes occuring to the landscape of the web.

I like the idea of the web as a community builder, not as a network of independent private pages. Many of the sites I frequent now employ technologies that encourage its visitors to take part in the content creation. Digg is a great example of a site I like to visit. It is similar to Slashdot, except that there isn’t a gatekeeper to content creation. When you want to post an article to Slashdot, it has to be approved… a gatekeeper must open the gate and allow the content on the site. In the case of Digg, any member has the ability to add content to the site. In addition to posting articles, members can digg articles that others post. Digging is a way to voice approval for an article. The more diggs an article gets, the more prominence on the site it (and also the poster) receives. Each member has their own profile page that allows other members see articles that have been dugg. Rather than list all of the features available, it is probably best for you to just check it out.

Another site out there that fosters similar community building is del.icio.us. Delicious is a bookmarking site at its core. It allows members to add bookmarks to their profile page. The bookmarks are tagged, which has become a popular way of adding contextual information to items on the web. Tagging of bookmarks allows other members of the community to find bookmarks (and related bookmarks). Once an bookmark has been added, you have the ability to see all the other members who have bookmarked the same page. This gives members the opportunity to find other members of the community who have similar interests. Speaking of other members, the site allows you to leave bookmarks for other members. Again, lots of cool features, definitely worth checking out.

There are lots of other sites and technologies out there that are worth a look: StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, Last.fm, and the Flock Social Web Browser. Probably many that I have yet to find (send me a link). Because for me, talking about the latest CPU innovations from Intel or the latest gadgets from Motorola is lots of fun, but thinking about how technology will change how people interact and engage each other is where its at.