Next Big "Thing"?

Just thinking out loud. I've been posting a little about what the big "thing" recently...

Community seems to be big. Everyone wants to be part of a community. Humans are social animals (well most are) and it seems to me that most of our recent killer apps have been community related. BBS's, newsgroups, web sites, blogs, forums, P2P, IM, online gaming, etc all seem to be "community" related.

To date, casual users have had a technology barrier to be active in their extended online communities. Blogs are, or are becoming, the current method of choice. But even those can be a hard and are pretty much one way. Email/IM is still the king of community (can I say community just a FEW more times? :| ). And email causes almost as many problems as it solves, with spam, the lack of visual/emotional clues, volume, etc.

The real community app/service isn't here. Yet. I'm betting that the next "thing" will be a real community application. A step or two beyond RSS/blogging, with email/IM/P2P, voice, video and more all thrown in. Take all these cool apps, throw them together and mix in some tech that's just on the drawing boards and we'll have our next killer app.


Here's what I'm thinking the features need to be:

Security
   Has to be secure. Both in what's running on our systems and how the any data is transmitted, etc. People need to feel safe when they take part.

On demand/on need
   I need to be able to join when I need to, take part when I can and ignore it when I have too.

We need easy two way communication
   Like email, but better threaded and related, but not so structured. Something like OneNote but connected to others. Mix OneNote, together with IM, newgroups, email, and Lookout and you're getting close.

Freeform
   Like a party or gathering of friends. How many parties do you go to that have a strict agenda? Or discussion topic? No artificial mold that everyone has to be forced into.

Adaptive
   Has be to able to morph into different things based on how people are using it, what they are doing, etc. For example, if those in the community start posting a lot of pictures, then things should better adapt to support pictures (posting, viewing, commenting on, finding, etc). Demand drives capability, dynamically.

Everyone to their own abilities (or system's abilities).
   Scaleable to fit the individual's want to or ability to take part. No one should be forced to have a Cam, or cell, or broadband connection. Or have to be sighted to take part.

It has to be easy
   Can my parents join in and be active?

There must be feedback
   Everyone likes to know that they are being read, listened to, etc. I know I like seeing that my blog is read.

Audio (including voice) a natural part. Pictures and video too.
   Channel9 is close in this respect, but still too one way.

And above all, Natural to use
   Part of being easy, but also it has to be second nature to use or be part of. A mouse isn't natural. I want to point with my finger. I want to talk @ the app, to others in the group. I want my facial expression to be recognized (but not have to have everyone see my ugly mug). [i.e. build in a way to communicate emotional cues]


LOL. So pretty much what you get when you meet with a group of people you know at Starbucks... People have been doing this for how many years? Now we just need an app so we can do the same with people around the world, while adding all the cool things computers and tech lets us do...