What place does the web take?
Ok, not taking a holiday then. Thanks Fidji! No, I’m kidding. There are no rules on this blog, and if I or others feel like posting, that is simply what we do. I expect things to get back to normal in a few weeks.
In the Starbucks-book, which I wrote about a little while ago, Howard Schultz discusses the “third place.” This is a term, originally coined by Ray Oldenburg, in his book ‘The great, good place‘, and refers to “anchors of community life which facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.” It follows the first place (home and personal life) and the second place (work).
I suppose that in many ways you can say that places are merging; a significant number of people work remotely, at home or at a Starbucks. But with any trend, there is a counter-movement of people who don’t like the status-quo and clearly want to define boundaries. This was made clear to me by a great article in the latest Harvard Business Review, on how generations are shaped over the ages and what the consequences of this are for their future and for next generations. Interesting, but perhaps too philosophical for this blog.
Back to the topic. Howard Schultz created Starbucks, with the idea of setting up a third place for Americans, who were feeling to stressed with work and needed a place to relax, to hear nice music, see a great smile, smell a great coffee, and basically take a quality break. This trend is not slowing down, the stress-levels at work are increasing… up to a point, where I expect it to go down, or at least change. But still, this means that the need for a third place is greater than ever before.
The web is nearly as often called a productivity-booster, as it is called a productivity-killer. That is, I believe, because it is one big grey area. On your work-station, you have Internet Explorer next to Word, just like on the web, you have Facebook.com next to Salesforce.com. And within these sites, purposes are also merging; plenty of people using Facebook for keeping track of friends and business-aquaintances, together. And take something like iGoogle or search, which Matthias wrote about a short while ago, where both your search-results and widgets can easily be a mix between work and play.
Is there a clear place for the web? My generational feeling is that there should optimally be one, but realistically it is impossible. The web is the epitome of a free economy, perhaps even an anarchy. “Not seeing the forest through the trees” is an analogy that fits quite well here. There is no unilateral definition of being connected, except as having near-unlimited access to information, except that this data can be both fun- and professionally orientated.
I suppose that to some degree, you can segment it into places, just like the real world. And I know website-creators are certainly trying. You split it up into user and producer, just like sites like Last.fm are made up of listeners and artists. And you can try to limit the use to singular purposes, just like LinkedIn is really no place for developing friendship and Hototnot is no place to find your next accountant. But is the web something like a Third Place, can it ever be? I wonder, as I sip my coffee at my first place, am getting ready to be productive in my second place, and am already dreaming about my third place.
Further reading:
HBR -article: The Next 20 Years: How Customer and Workforce Attitudes Will Evolve (first page only)
HBR-podcast: What makes Gen-X’s tick
Vincent is a Gen-X co-author on Tech IT Easy. Read more about him on this blog’s innitial announcement and his site. The graph is courtesy of Michael Habib’s blog. (updated to new blog-address!)
LikeRelated posts:
Books, Entertainment, Facebook, Friends, Globalization, Internet, Networks, USA, media, user-generated content
Yeah, no rule on this blog, it’s a big fuckin’ Far West. Love it! You articles are everytime more amazing: you’re now linking your series on Starbucks with Web 2.0: this is smart man. But I’m getting used to reading great stuff from you now
Anyways, although, like you, I haven’t started to look for my next accountant on HotorNot, I don’t think the web is “the epitome of a free economy”. Nothing’s free on the Internet, unless you consider advertising as something that doesn’t pollute users. Actually, nothing’s free, nowhere. And take a look at the very best online services like Salesforce or Basecamp or Office Live: it’s free of use once you have paid a monthly fee. That is to say it’s not free.
Actually I meant “free” as in free market / no trade-barriers, but I completely agree with your view that nothing is free (as in cost), not even beer. And thanks for the compliment, I hope I can continue with bringing good, unique, and relevant content.
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