Community Building On the Web

Epilogue

In this book, you’ve gotten an overview of what’s happening in Web communities circa 2000. But the Internet is a dynamic and rapidly evolving environment—Web communities will look and operate quite differently in 2001, and even more so in 2010. In fact, I’ll bet that by then people won’t even speak of “Web communities” anymore—the ubiquity and bandwidth of online communications and the standardization of online protocols will make the Web as pervasive as the telephone or television. We’ll come to view online communities less as isolated destinations and more as just another way to meet people, stay in touch with loved ones, and conduct ...