VirtuKnowHow: InterWeb Group Existence Brings Life to the Screedosphere

First it was information being packaged for convenience. Now it is humanics, which might be the form we take as we morph from being real live computer users to online graphic interconnectors. Just what the difference is between the "Internet" and the "Web" gets wrapped up in this way of thinking to reflect the collections of people who use these resources in ways that are bigger than their personal reach. Groups working together begin to overpower what can be done or even noticed by individual contributors. And then the results form their own living entity, a whole new sphere of influence one might say. The "Interweb" becomes more than the sum of its parts, one could say, as personal importance becomes a secondary reality to "Group Existence" within that rather evolving "Screedosphere." The game of terminological change has begun!

Okay … so I made up the humanics (sort of like robot-ics!), but the rest are real ideas as the virtual world begins to think and act in a group fashion. So fast is this happening that its evolutionary appeal is surfacing as fast as its substantive reach, CGI or otherwise, giving it a rather sexual excitement former tagged on computer geeks and their obessions. "Computerotic technolust" is just one collective description that uses two new slangs to indulge the personalized joy individuals have begun to receive from getting too much personal pleasure from their hard- and software. Now, however, it is the Interweb that is being weaved into a whole new screedosphere where everyone believes he or she is the intimate connection point between thousands of likeminded souls trying seeking their place.

Here's a bit more about the terms themselves:

INTERWEB: A combination of the two concepts that are often mistakenly used interchangeably. (I first found the term on UrbanDictionary.com.) But its existence is more than just passing as we begin to realize that the hardware infrastructure that was first built for convenience (the Internet) is becoming entwined in so many parts of our working and pleasure lives (the Web). The concept is offered here mostly as a heads up for language that quickly catches us up with what is already in the making. But it is rather cute, too.

GROUP EXISTENCE: Many web sites emerged for more or less a single purpose, besides selling ads. Their creators and visitors often view them as a place where visitors of a like mind could be together with their related passions, such as writers who likes to write about timely issues of significance. The intent wasn't necessarily to create a new beast; rather, it was to give the existing ones a place of comfort of their own. This is what happened on an uncountable number of places like Gather.com and AssociatedContent.com where wouldbe/couldbe/wannabe Citizen Journalists and writers settled to deposit their thoughts. However, these places have learned that their cyber space has a reverse limitation of sorts. There is such a thing as too many people of similar inclinations trying to get noticed and paid for the same talents. Thousands and thousands of individual writers acting alone can overwhelm the value of a single written piece striving to get noticed. And so is born the togetherness mentality that is Group Existence. Associated Content forces contributors to do this from the beginning, while GatherGroups © have evolved of their own, somewhat painful making. It no longer pays to be alone in the virtual world when acceptance depends on being within the sphere of influence of others.

SCREEDOSPHERE: First used in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on February 25, 2005, this term has found a home among those seeking to make sense of all kinds of activity forums that often occur simultaneously within the cable, blog, podcasting, news and other interwoven elements of the Interweb. While initiated to capture the breadth of political discussions, screedosphere's relevance is growing as Group Existence takes on a life of its own and the term morphs itself out of existence into more creative conceptualizations of the life that is bigger an its component players. (See Webopedia for the term.) Technolese is alive and kicking, waiting for its own group of supporters to find a way to encapsulate the gathering challenges of so many doing so much together in their own virtual worlds.

For more information, send me a message (singularly or as a group) to me.