Suppose all the information stored on computers everywhere were linked, I thought. Suppose I could program my computer to create a space in which anything could be linked to anything.” — Tim Berners-Lee, “Weaving the Web”.

It all started with a simple link.

Contrary to popular belief, Tim Berners-Lee didn’t invent the concept of “hypertext”. There were guys like Ted Nelson and Doug Englebart toying with the concept back in the 1960′s. But Berners-Lee was the guy that did something remarkable with that concept. His vision, that any piece of information could be linked to any other piece of information, gave birth to what we know today as the World Wide Web. Not since the invention of the telephone has there been such a fundamental shift in the way human beings communicate.

And it’s kind of throwing us for a loop, don’t you think?

I’m a firm believer that in order to know where we are going, we must know where we have come from. That’s why Berners-Lee’s book, “Weaving the Web”, sits beside me while I work away on my computers every day, exploring and creating and expanding my understanding of what is really going on in this new medium. I reference it often, for I find that for all the time we spend trying to figure out what all this Web 2.0 business is about, much of it has already been put forth by guys like Berners-Lee.

Though we originally took the Web to be a simply a means of presenting information, Berners-Lee actually invented the Web as a means of communication and collaboration. 12 years after its rise in popularity, we are finally figuring that part out. It’s not wrong that we didn’t get it right away. It was necessary for it to evolve to that point.

When Alexander Graham Bell first invented the telephone, he had spend a lot of time convincing the rest of the world of its usefulness. It wasn’t immediately apparent. After all, if I wanted to talk to someone far away, I could just mail them a letter, and if I wanted to talk to my neighbour down the street, I could just go over to them. Why would I ever need to call them on a telephone?

Nearly 20 years passed from the time Bell invented the telephone until it was mainstream. The Web is no different. You see, the Web, like the telephone, was not something we knew we needed. That means we need to figure out what to do with it now that we’ve got it. It’s a process.

So here we are, at the end of 2008, and we are still on the journey that started with one little hyperlink. Everyday, millions and millions of new links are being made, and they aren’t just text on a page. The links are with real people, doing real things. As a result, movements are starting. 12for12k.org is one of them. There are many others. People are realizing that social media is about much, much more than just chatting till all hours of the night with a bunch of people you’ve never met in person. It’s even about more than just promoting your business. It’s about finding ways that we can help one another to learn, to grow, to succeed, in whatever it is we set out to do.

So how are you going to make more links in 2009?

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Way back in 1999, the man who invented the World Wide Web, Al Gore Tim Berners-Lee, wrote a book about how he created the Web, called “Weaving the Web: The Ulitmate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor“. I have the original, hard cover edition of this book. I’m not sure if it’s been updated in the newer editions or not. Here’s the most striking quote from the whole thing:

The Web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect – to help people work together – and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner. What we believe, endorse, agree with, and depend on is representable and, increasingly represented on the Web. We all have to ensure that the society we build with the Web is of the sort we intend.

– Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web

Wow.

Berners-Lee wrote this in ’99, and if you read the book, it turns out he’s been thinking about this concept of a worldwide social web since sometime in the 1970′s.

1999. It was the infancy of Google. It was pre-Wordpress blogs. Definitely pre-Twitter, podcasting, Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon, and any of the other many tools that we use in this space we call “social media”. Back in a time when a web page was not much more than plain text on a screen and even before that, Berners-Lee had incredible foresight. It’s a common misconception that Berners-Lee invented the Web for computer programmers and scientists. In fact, he invented it for everyone.

He actually had to jump through a lot of hoops at CERN where he worked. He snuck around, trying out his project on people, all while making it “look” like he was building something that only physicists could make use of. All the while, he was building a tool that would allow for sharing, communication and collaboration by everyone, anywhere in the world.

Skip forward to 2008 and we now have what many consider a real innovation called “social media”.  Well, I’ve got news for you. Social media is not an innovation. It’s the raison d’etre for the Web. Social media is merely the buzzword we’ve decided to attach to what was the original point of Berners-Lee’s invention. It’s the evolution of what he described as the ultimate goal, “to support and improve our weblike existence in the world”.

Case in point: Imagine if suddenly, Twitter was gone. Vanished. A permanent Fail Whale sort of gone. Imagine if suddenly, your blog disappeared, or the blog of your favourite blogger ceased to exist. Imagine a world with no Stumbleupon, or Digg, or YouTube, or Delicious. Whatever would we do?

I know what we’d do. We’d find another way to connect. Someone would build another tool, and we’d all head over there. Or maybe we’d actually meet in person where feasible, and connect that way. What I do know is, resourceful as we are, we’d find a way to still carry on the conversation that we’ve started here. We’d still have our weblike existence, because that’s how the Web is set up.

In the end, whether something is labeled as “social media” or not might be a moot point. This has become more and more apparent to me in recent weeks. There’s a shift happening. Maybe you’ve felt it too, depending on how involved you are in your networks and what you’ve been reading. The focus is starting to move away from the latest new tools, gadgets and technical creations, and more towards what Berners-Lee envisioned as a “social creation”.

More and more of the conversations I’m reading and having are about the social marvel that is the Web itself …not the marvel that is “social media”. This is a really, really good thing. It means that we are starting to move beyond the latest craze/gadget/guru phase. The environment is maturing. Communication, collaboration and communities are starting to become the mainstream ways in which people are using the Web. The social Web is no longer just for the “social media crowd”. I suspect, over the next 6 months, that this is going to become even more prevalent. I also suspect, that over the next little while, our label of “social media” is going to, if not go away, at least change.

10 years ago, people saw the Web was a place to get information. Today, more and more people are seeing it as a place to connect. Therein lies the difference. The shift to this thinking in the mainstream is going to be the next big revolution on the Web. It’s going to be the realization of Berners-Lees’  incredible vision. As he says, the “Web society” is forming before our eyes. We are ultimately all responsible for how this new society takes shape.

How do you think things will shape up?

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