I’m big on the idea that the Internet isn’t really about commerce or information reference, but mainly about community and conversation (which of course include things like commerce and knowledge — but only as facets of the larger social drive).

In Wired last month, (We Are the Web) Kevin Kelly evidently agrees:

What we all failed to see was how much of this new world would be manufactured by users, not corporate interests.

I was saying this back in 2002: The real killer app is people. But it didn’t start with me, alas… I seem to remember even in 1999 Whole Earth and other places were discussing the “highways of the mind” as social spheres, and the “WELL” as the prototype of sorts. So, I don’t know that Mr. Kelly is quite right in “we all failed to see” … I think many of us just forgot in the mad rush to make a killing in the tech bubble, perhaps?

Still, I’m glad this meme is propogating … it helps keep us aware of the real human context of all this technology.