Technological advancements have made it is easier to connect people and things.

Forging connections has always been a priority for people. Connections allow for the sharing of ideas, thoughts and interests over time and space. As society has developed and technology has improved, new ways of communicating have emerged. The emergence of each new communication technology has meant that the social conventions that surround and support it must be learnt, both on a collective and personal level. People must learn how to use them, their functions, strengths and weaknesses. When these applications are understood, new forms of communication can become established forms of connecting with others. They will then find a suitable place in the wider topology of connections. This topology represents the range of connections at the disposal of an individual at any given time.

Getting connected

Emerging technologies are empowering communities across the world with the ability to connect with others.

The rapid rise of digital communication channels is being felt more in the developing world than in the developed world where these technologies are reaching ubiquity. The developed world has had landline telephones for nearly a century, whereas the developing world has had no such luxury. However, with mobile phones now reaching close to total penetration in the developed world, business is turning to less developed markets for growth. The difference between these two experiences is that the developed world has integrated mobile communication into the same paradigm as landline communication whereas the developing and under-developed world is leapfrogging straight to the mobile platform.

Mobile connections are radically changing the lives of people who have access to them. In many rural locations, particularly in India, mobile phones are community-shared. In these cases the phones not only form links with the outside world, which means prices on crops can be negotiated, they have also become community focal points in that they represent a common desire to relate to the rest of the world. The One Laptop Per Child initiative is one such organisation campaigning to get the developing and under-developed world connected via the internet.

Same text, different purpose.

Most forms of connection derive from pre-established modes of communication, but their uses can be manipulated to satisfy different purposes.

The differences between seemingly similar communication tools can cause teething problems in terms of levels of miscommunication, misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Email and text messaging are text-based ways of communicating, but their applications differ. Email has more rational functions and text messaging has more emotional ones. Email is primarily used for notification, while text messages are used on a more regular basis to bond friendships, as well as to inform. Emails can come from complete strangers whereas text messages from strangers are less common and treated with more suspicion. Understanding the differences between the two is a key factor in the success of emerging communication tools.

Instant messaging ‘chat’ services exemplify the way a new communication service has to develop quickly in order to survive. However, because of the nature of instant messaging the ability to express emotion clearly and quickly is often forfeited, resulting in miscommunication. People have adapted their communication by creating a code of expression using pre-established combinations of text characters, such as ;-) to indicate a smiley face and :-( to indicate a sad face. These symbols denoting emotions add a level of emotional richness to the experience of instant messaging. The industry soon caught on and introduced predefined ‘emoticons’, such as and . These emoticons can now be user-generated as users make personalised emoticons to symbolise how they are feeling via images and symbols of their own choice. Therefore, friends now communicate in their own pictographic language built on common signifiers.

Media and the connected world

Today, media can be cross-channelled and repurposed to fit a variety of consumer wants and needs, including communication.

Rich media, including video clips, music tracks and high-resolution images, has become a primary vehicle for initiating and facilitating conversation. Much of this media is the intellectual property of others, but appropriating it as a method of communication has become normalised and is not considered to be wrong, never mind illegal. The owners and managers of this repurposed material have been slow to adapt to this development, often reacting by suing their target audiences. However this is slowly changing. Media companies are now starting to realise the potential of repurposing media content for communication purposes. This is most obviously seen in the commercial explosion of ringtones, but is also penetrating other areas of the connected world. Companies now allow users to ‘share’ professionally produced music, video clips and pictures often with a price attached if the user retains the media.

At the same time, legitimate user-generated content has become a cheap, easy and fun way of connecting with people. Online channels such as YouTube and Flickr allow people to exhibit their personal lives, thereby ‘sharing’ themselves and being exposed to comment and criticism.

Games – the new conversation

Much like traditional board games, computer games are becoming a catalyst for communicating with others.

Until recently, the majority of one-player computer games were no more than complex, sometimes visually appealing, versions of solitaire. Modern games consoles are changing this. The so-called ‘next generation’ consoles are networked in a variety of ways, using WiFi, Bluetooth and Internet connections. By using digital connections, people can play with, or against, each other irrespective of distance or familiarity. Gender, race and age are of secondary importance to the gaming task in hand, whether it be collectively conquering a beast or building a simulated town model.

Trailblazing developers have started to blur the lines between gaming, communication and participation. Second Life allows users to create virtual replicas of every element of the world from cars and houses to underwater ship wrecks and parachutes, and all the content is user-generated. Though billed as a game, Second Life is as much a complex ‘chat’ environment where people can connect with the community at large. Advanced users can even programme their avatar with gesticulations so that they can better express themselves. Connecting through the online world is becoming not only easier, but also a richer experience.

Money to be made in connections

The connected world has resulted in new business models that thrive off individuals communicating with each other

Retail markets are increasingly using the myriad of connections available to them for profitable purposes. Ebay and Amazon have both shown that there is money to be made in allowing customers to talk to other customers. The use of digital communication services to make money is now moving into other sectors of the online world. Google Mail scans email conversations of its users and matches key words in the content to target users with relevant adverts.

Business is also using ‘connections’ to understand markets better. A seemingly obsessive interest in collecting personal information (name, age, address, credit card details) is now a standard request for even the most superficial enquires. This is causing consumers confusion, which is having a negative effect on the sharing and submission of user-generated information that represents the interconnected structure of what many are calling Web 2.0.

Connections of the future

Mobile phones are increasingly being hailed as the tool for the connected world of the future.

Unlike computers, mobile phones have always been devices for forming connections. The mobile phone is inherently personal and is therefore more conducive to facilitating personal connections. Mobile phones offer a solution for connecting the digital world with the real world. Electronic business cards, which have been tried and tested to varying success, represent the beginning of digital person-to-person connections. Just as email revolutionised the office space, emerging mobile connections have a similar potential to revolutionise the domestic space. How these services will manifest themselves remains to be seen. They must be compelling and offer users a viable communication model that benefits them.