Web 2.0 and burgeoning communities

A couple of things happened today that really had me thinking about community, and they are connected with a pretty unusual tie-in--namely Catholicity and a coffee shop. Weird? Let me explain.

First of all, I got the news that a blogger and Rosary Army forum member passed away last night. I never met this woman, yet she has been a fixture in my life in one way or another, either by posting in a forum that I frequent, or through my occasional commentary on her blog. She had a lot of interesting things to say, and shared a bit of her life, too. It broke my heart to hear the bad news, but then again, she's really in a better place--sounds trite, but it's what we believe as Christians, no? God rest her soul.

Then there's the Kaiteur Coffee House, my most favoritest place around town. Check them out, they have a blog. If you have a keen eye and know who you're looking for, you'll catch me in a couple of the pictures posted in the Espresso Shots feature in the blog. How funny is that? I've even posted some comments over there.

So why are these two things together making me think of community? Well, the obvious one is the coffee house, because it's about real people interacting with each other in a comfortable setting. It's really about being civil and talking to human beings, instead of being a drone at a drive-thru window. Sadly, those drones really are human beings, we just tend to forget it. Sad.

The other thing is the sense of community in the various internet media--things such as blogs, facebook, myspace, forums--and other stuff like podcasts and videocasts. There's so much going on I can't wrap my mind around it. This isn't yesterday's stereotype of a creepy pervert in a chatroom [although I'm sure that still exists] but rather a fascinating way that communication is being exercised.

I am intrigued by it because it seems so fluid. It is at once anonymous and transparent.

So that's it. I probably haven't offered you anything new to think about. After all, if you're reading this you are either my mother, or somebody with a decent enough understanding of the internet to get what I'm saying. Still, I feel like there needs to be at least one moment every once in a while where we become aware of this discourse, if only to contemplate how far we've come since that first communication so many years ago, reputedly stated by Alexander Graham Bell, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you."