A new perspective for the individual

In 127 AD, the Greek astronomer, Ptolemy, developed a theory of the earth being at the centre of the universe with all the stars and planets moving around it. For hundreds of years this was assumed to be correct, but, it caused much head scratching when it came to working out the movements of the planets. These appeared to take bizarre paths through the heavens, which defied all logical explanation.

Then, in 1543, a book by Nicolaus Copernicus,a Polish church official, revived an ancient theory that the earth and the planets were moving around the sun. This repositioning of the centre of rotation threw a whole new perspective on the way in which the planets moved. It made much more sense and led to the German theorist, Johannes Keppler, being able to accurately describe the exact elliptical motion of planets which in turn allowed Isaac Newton to deduce the laws of gravity.

A somewhat similar effect occurs in the transition from the world of bricks and mortar to the world of the Internet. In the Industrial Age, the company is at the center of a business system. The group is at the center of its members. Individual people circle around the group and the groups circle around the company. In the environment of the Internet, the perspective is quite different: individuals are at the centre of there own universes and can function quite independently of any particular group or company. Thus, as far as any particular individual is concerned, the world is circling around them.

This change in perspective puts the onus on each individual to make their own connections to the rest of the world. If they want to benefit from the freedom that the Internet provides, they must be able to make their own contacts. In other words, the downside of freedom is that the normal social and business contacts provided automatically in a restricted environment, are not present in the free environment of the Internet. Each individual in this environment of free choice has to make the effort to create their own circle of friends and contacts.

This is a very different state of affairs for anyone used to being in a managed team. They'll find it is not an easy or natural transition from the world of bricks and mortar to the world of the Internet. There are many adjustments that will have to be made; there are communication techniques to be learned. Making contact on the Internet requires positive action necessitating a purposeful and sensible strategy.

In the world of bricks and mortar, a limited variety of contacts are nearly always at hand. From the day everyone is born they are placed into a ready made group of contacts: a fixed family circle: a local neighbourhood. They will go to a school where there is a ready made group of people of their own age to become friends with. Leaving school to go to university, the armed forces, a job of work; all provide a ready made social scene. Most people can go through the whole of their lives without having to start from scratch to create their own contacts to form a social or business environment of their own making. On the Internet, this is the first thing you have to do.

When social and work environments provide a ready made group of people to mix with, the emphasis is on fitting in, accommodating other people. The environment of the Internet is the exact opposite of this: nobody is forced to fit in with people they don't care for because they can just move on. They don't have to tolerate people or accommodate their foibles or behavior because there is an almost infinite choice of other people and groups to associate with.

Moving on is easy because finding new friends and contacts in the connected world of the Internet is many orders of magnitude easier. It is also far less stressful, because, anyone making an error of judgement in their social behavior, can learn from the experience and start again. In many ways, the environment of the Internet is much like going to a new place for a vacation: people are a bit nervous at first because they may not be used to making new friends, but, as everyone is in the same boat, they are highly receptive to establishing new associations and the social atmosphere is far less closed or guarded than in long established communities.

The key to understanding the communication environment of the Internet is to realise that the rules of social interaction are different from those in the world of bricks and mortar. Then, it is simply a matter of devising a suitable personal strategy for communication. It is to this area we go now.