Designing for the Rise of Social Networks of Devices

There is no question that social networking has significantly impacted the nature of the on-line experience, from an experiential and economic point of view. My sense is that the impact of those changes are going to be matched, and perhaps even exceeded, by the social networks that are going to emerge amongst the diverse range of devices with which we connect to, and interact with, the web. As I have said for years, the diversity of web browsers tomorrow will match the diversity of ink browsers (a.k.a. paper) today. Likewise our expectations and experiences with them – collectively as well as alone. The presumption of this talk is that, working backwards from such a future, we can make better decisions around planning today. If nothing else, the narrative will hopefully help us frame a discussion around doing so.