Currently I am writing a book about 'online networking'. While writing it (and probably with all the grammar mistakes), I would like to share some parts of it with you, because it is all about You.. (From Chapter 2) Tools & widgets Earlier, I already mentioned the importance of tools and widgets in the web 2.0 networking arena. All the major players, such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are moving towards a ‘widget’ oriented internet.So what are these widgets and why are they so important that all these companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in them? Imagine an online world that is there for you instantly. You don’t have to startup your computer anymore, instead your phone, your TV, car or other piece of hardware is directly enabling your personal information. Your ‘hardware’ has become smart, it knows exactly who your are, want you want and where you are. It is instantly combining these variables into an outcome that adds value to your personal hobbies or passion. That probably still is a bit unclear, so let me give you an example:You are driving down the road, following the instructions of your GPS enabled Google-phone that you have just purchased. All of the sudden the phone’s voice comes to life and tells you that: ‘..after 300 yards you will pass company X on your right. Do you know they have a vacancy there that exactly matches your profile..?’ . What has happened? Your profile online is known to Google, they know who you are where you are and what you want and added commercial messages to that information. Scary isn’t it? Sounds like George Orwell’ best seller and it probably will be worse. Google is realizing that and has been the first to call out for standards to ensure the safety of our online personal information.It is not a matter of ‘if’ this scenario will happen, but ‘when’ it will happen. It is a trade-off for being able to call people for free and using the internet for free using the Google-phone. Somewhere they have to make their money and you can be sure they will this way. So your content is important, it will be reused in a flexible way anywhere in ways you cannot even begin to imagine. If you are a frequent internet user, you have probably noticed the orange little buttons representing ‘RSS-feeds’ on many websites. They are sprouting up anywhere and for good reason. RSS feeds enable that your texts and other content can be shown on other, decentralized places online. It is just a ‘button’ which you can click but which enables a hyperlink that you can add to any tool that can read the hyperlink. It dynamically pulls new news-items from the website where you have found the RSS feed and adds it to your RSS reader anywhere. And anywhere truly is anywhere, not only on any place, website, blog or profile online, but also on different devices such as the Google-phone I just mentioned. The best strategy to use these tools is not to follow the Facebook nor the Google OpenSocial example I mentioned. That will result in adding applications to your profile which will enable uncontrollable content to your profile. If that profile is used to act upon by targeted information, it could be a long way off and be very dangerous indeed. Take e.g. Facebook where widgets could enable a ‘spammer’ to add some semi-pornographic material to your profile. The next time you are driving with your family through town you don’t want to be reminded of certain very personal services in the red light district by your Google-phone, don’t you? Naturally you can remove the widget from your profile but it is much easier for the average internet user to add one than to remove one.Facebook users like the little widgets and tools and want to keep the tool itself in place but to remove the ‘bad’ content. That means that you’ll have to check your profile all the time, something most of us don’t want to do. Keeping profiles ‘personal’ and ‘clean’ is essential in order not to create real life problems. Widgets and tools should only be an enabler for decentralizing ‘clean’ content to the internet, not as a publication tool for others on your profile. Only then it can be an enabler instead of a potential danger to your online and offline personality. Widgets and tools therefore should be for communication, information retrieval and interaction based upon ‘clean’, unchangeable information and profiles. Naturally you should be enabled to choose for yourself ‘what’ and ‘If’ you want to enable your content that way. There should always be a possibility not to use it and that you can just pay for certain services which are otherwise ‘given’ for you for free (free mobile calling and GPS services).Your widgets will come in all shapes and sizes. The simpler ones will be RSS based, creating decentralized content, maps and profiles. In a second phase more complex widgets will arise combining functionalities such as Matchmaking widgets, Speech & GPS functionalities. These will still just ‘inform’ you. In a third phase the widgets will grow to little virtual robots, also enabling ‘actions’. For example: your Google –phone will make a direct appointment for you related to the feedback you gave about the Job-opportunity you just passed on the road… Symbioses of online and offline Worlds Online and offline worlds and experiences will therefore merge together. Tools that will enable that in the most human, natural way will become the best-practices in this emerging networked society.When I talk about this people always ask me what I think about Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world in which people can create their own reality and take part in that.People who have used Second Life often regard it as being a ‘game’ because it is unreal, a fantasy. In order to be successful as a networking portal, people need a reflection towards the real world around them. On Second Life you can see that as well. The ‘Islands’ on Second Life where there is a reflection to real life are the most popular (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin).Second Life came 5 years too early, it eats server capacity by the tons and you’ll have to have very up to date hardware (no more than 3 years old) in your computer to have a chance to use it successfully. Other Second Life-like worlds are being worked on, like Google-life. Google-life will be the successor to Google Earth. Just imagine a Google Earth where you can zoom in on a geographical location as normal, but instead that you are able to participate with your avatar (your virtual ‘puppet’ representing you) in a close copy of the real world. It will enable you to check out your hotel room online effectively because it is a one-on-one copy of the real hotel room you will be staying in during your holidays. It will be just as second Life is today, but more ‘real’.The more real it is, the more genuine can be (and will be) your online personality. On Second Life everyone is beautiful, young and a superman / woman. On Google-life you will just be you, and that is what we prefer (!). It will be more effective as well. If we add ‘clean’ profiles to our virtualization, it will enable real business instead of virtual dollars.All about You The new online world is all about who we really are. Not about who we think we are or what we represent, but about Us. If you are assessing how online networkers behave online you can already see that happening. There is a vast interest in networked websites which enable us to add rich content to our profile such as Facebook and Myspace. Without realizing it, we are all in the process of rediscovering ourselves because online, we can. In Real Life you just have to take what you get in meeting someone. There is no or limited choice because we are physically limited to a geographical location. Online there are no such limits. We can choose from an internet population of hundreds of millions of people. The moment you realize that, you will be more conscious in you profiling behavior. You will use it as it was intended: to show something of yourself and if the other person likes that, he’ll interact with you. We all still have to get used to that. For now we are still behaving towards a believe that our quantity in our online network gives us ‘status’. We are feeding our Ego in a way that is normal to Real Life where our looks and appearances seem to tell most people something about our success as a human being. Most people measure each other and themselves that way using all the status symbols to underline that. It was the way our society worked, and it worked quite well with that for centuries. We are all conditioned more or less towards behaving in a materialistic environment where the environmental perception rules over the individual being. A few years ago I came in contact with Eckhart Tolle’s work, The Power of Now, which opened up my eyes. Tolle’s work is full of spiritual interpretations and relations which can be a bit annoying for someone like me who tends to think and act rationally. Yet being ‘Now’ is a tool to explore what you really want in life, who you really are. You will notice the difference once you realize that and once you do you will truly become self-consciousness, explore your passion and life towards it. Being online is also about You, being truly self-consciousness. Only then you will be able to truly make a good representation online of yourself. Ask yourself if you have a profile online: Is this really me? Or is this just a mere summarization of what I have done in the past. Am I (e.g.) really a sales-man or was that just a ‘label’ which was created for me in order that people understood what my working status was? Online there are a great many active networkers who are in the transition from ‘status’ to ‘self-consciousness’. That isn’t an easy way, because we have been so comfortable in the doing things the way we were used to. Our status and materializations gave us a sense of being there, being important. What are you if you are just You? Well ‘You’ are what matters, you are everything and now you have the chance to explore that, Be yourself online and ultimately offline. You will notice that if you dare to make the choices towards who you really are that and claim that space in real life, things will start working for you. In 2 years time I changed my life from being just another specialist towards starting my own vision in online networking and communication. It led me to a quantity network first and from there on to a quality network which I started myself (The Open Networkers) and which now has over 25.000 followers worldwide. For the first time I am experiencing what some call 'The Flow' which is so energetic that i am convinced that there must be a greater structure of 'Life' behind it. Life gave me new jobs and projects in which I could exactly (!) do where my passion drove me, building the Open Networkers and it's vision of quality Open Networking. People started listening, noticing, asking me but more important I became Me in the process... The current changes online are far more important than just a change in technology. It is a true revolution of an unprecedented scale. It will transform the World and it is happening today. You are all part of it, you will all start to think about your Profile. There is no escaping it, you’ll have to if you want it to happen or not. Just let it happen and be open-minded towards it and you will notice that it will be an enabler, but off and online..