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June 16, 2009 / Filed under: Browsers, Opera, Internet, Social Networking

Most people don't realize it, but the web was not created, nor is it maintained by Facebook, Internet Explorer, AOL, Google, Yahoo, or any one corporation or service. The web is simply a means to connect. Yet how we connect has always made it seem like such corporations or services control it. Turns out those companies or services simply help facilitate our interaction with centralized servers - the act of browsing the web, uploading and downloading files - all made possible by software or applications that present the web to us in their own way.

But who are they to say the web should look like this, or act like that? Why must we adapt to their way of doing things, when the web is an open platform - a connection can be made by any client computer, and received likewise? Along the way, our content is filtered through web hosts, corporate services, with their own rules and regulations on how our content and ideas are stored, displayed, and shared.

This filtering limits the true meaning of the web - and that is to connect, freely, to anyone, anywhere.

Opera Unite aims to push the web in this direction, by returning the power to the user, and not the large software/internet company.

Real vs. virtual friends

In recent years, it's become clear the web is an excellent source for meeting new people and establishing life-long relationships. Who would've thought sitting in front of a computer could open up our world so much?

Yet, the internet is almost too vast to comprehend. Our social network friend counts are off the charts - how many of those friends do we actually keep in touch with regularly? How many are a real part of our lives - an influential source?

What used to be friends in the physical world are now just another digit higher on our friend counts. We "accept" friendships on social networks with people, then fail to explore who each person really is. Friendships on social networks rarely progress - instead, many friends shift to the background of our immediate, day-to-day lives, and rarely re-surface in some form to help us regain the connection that brought us together in the first place.

Why is this? It's because the rate of entry to new friends on social networks far surpasses our ability to establish and maintain those friendships. It's easy to request and accept friendships on social networks - all you have to do is click a button.

But real friendships and connections take work, compromise, and sacrafice. Many social network users are casual "friends" with a lot of people, but only true friends with a few.

Shrinking the web to those around us

We need to focus more on our real, practical world of friends, and not our virtual, superficial friends. Who is around us daily and weekly that we'd like to know more? Who is in our neighborhoods, workplaces, commutes, that we can harnass for knowledge, comfort, and inspiration?

These are the people we need to be social networking with - the ones we can meet online and offline - on a regular basis, so the connection grows and progresses.

The web has illustrated how easy it is to reach far, but what it hasn't taught us is how to leverage that distance with a capability to truly grow, adapt, and learn from others.

Example: Facebook without Facebook

How many real, physical neighbors do you know? If you use social networks a lot, I bet you're more familiar with a person across the globe than you are with your neighbor five houses down.

What if you could get to know the people around you physically, a lot better, and still use the web as your primary means to communicate and interact? What if, instead of Facebook for the entire world, you had Facebook for your neighborhood? Only your neighborhood sees what you post, and shares in various activities. You'd still have the ability to expand your neighborhood, but your content is seen by those physically around you, and friendships can be enhanced in person whenever possible.

Your world has just become smaller, sure, but it's more refined, focused, and real.

Most importantly, you have the ability to choose how you connect to your neighborhood, how your content is displayed and accessed, and many other facets that are otherwise controlled by web services and internet companies.

In other words, it'd be "Facebook without Facebook."

There's no longer a "middle man," controlling your content and forcing rules and regulations down your throat. These are your neighbors, after all! Why should one service claim to know or understand how you want to interact with your neighbors?

For example, let's say you're walking your dog down the street, and you neighbor is out washing their car. If you want to say hello, and start a conversation, does some third-party person come crashing in between you and your neighbor, spewing out how you didn't say "hello" properly, or that you didn't do this or that? You'd probably say, "Excuse me. I was trying to have a conversation with this person, and you come in spitting out protocols."

Openness

The idea is openness with your content - the freedom to choose how you want to connect with those in the world around you. The freedom to access and store your data how you wish. No more waiting for API's to be available that let you get at your own data. No more being at the mercy of someone else.

Applications for Opera Unite would be written by independent developers, instead of just one company.

The ideas are endless on how we want to connect with one another.