10,000 Brainiacs: Let’s Write a Social Computing Story, Socially!

Web-based software accessible from mobile devices is making us smarter, capturing our social interactions, and ushering us into a world of ‘continuous computing.’

That’s the contention of an article I’m writing for the August issue of Technology Review. Jason Pontin and I conceived the new Continuous Computing Blog as a place to preview the article, invite comment, and stimulate debate. (The blog will also live on after the article has been published, and hopefully will become a center of discussion about the social implications of the latest Web and mobile technologies.)

I’ve finished a first draft of the article, and I’ve just published Part 1 over at the new blog. Parts 2, 3, and 4 will follow over the next few days.

But wait – there’s more! This is an experiment in participatory journalism. Jason and I want you to comment on the story and add your own wisdom. Tell me what’s right, tell me what’s wrong. Tell me what I missed. Rip my analysis to shreds if you feel that’s appropriate. I’ll build your comments back into the story in the form of pop-up notes that everyone can see. (To see how pop-up notes work, go read the draft.)

Here’s how we’ll do it. To leave a comment, a correction, an insertion, or whatever, you can either use the comment box at the bottom of the story, or send me e-mail at wade.roush@technologyreview.com. Tell me who you are and where in the story you’d like the comment to appear, and every night (for the next few weeks, anyway) I’ll build your latest comments back into the story. We’ll take all of the comments into consideration as we revise the draft and get it ready for print publication.

There’s a catch, of course: Your should make your comments concise, constructive, and clever. Not “ha-ha” clever – I mean insightful. Share your special expertise with us. This is our story. I’m having fun with it, and I want you to too.

Okay, here we go…

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