I feel differences in quality are differences in kind.

While I don’t deify my favorite Berkeley cafe, I do ask what’s missing, from both places. The web in particular. :-)

By variety I meant to convey “a different form” rather than lots of choices =) One could argue that suburban restaurants, bars, and cafes lack some critical features of a true “third place”, but I suspect they serve the same fundamental purpose. Or put another way, it isn’t the lack of places to meet that is the problem, but the physical distance between people of like mind. Which is exactly what the internet addresses, and much better than the weeks it would take to deliver a letter from Britain to Italy during the Enlightement!

That’s not to say the internet is a replacement for your Berkeley coffee shop =) You’re absolutely right that the quality is low, and there is an extreme lack of social cues. And perhaps the very speed of communication makes people less thoughtful in their responses. Yet look, you have caught a number of eyes already! Eyes that may well be 10,000 miles away. I lack an avatar, or a link to my homepage, but I dare say we wouldn’t have had this conversation, virtual though it may be, if we happened to sit in the same cafe. Unless you happen to wear a button saying “I enjoy discussing sociology, philosophy, and urban planning with strangers”? I don’t! But maybe I can make one on CafePress… =D

-Will

You are so on the mark about the online-life, and technology in general, essentially numbing one’s humanity. There’s nothing tangible living online. I move frequently and I always seek out a community, not just a place to live. While community is very hard to define, I always know it when I feel it. That common place where I may not know everyone, but we recognize each other and acknowledge each other’s existence. It breeds familiarity with the world at large and ultimately makes me feel more connected.

Thanks for the post. It’s wonderfully written.

Thanks for the compliments, and the link! Yes, MyBlogLog does seem like a good example of bringing some interactivity of the physical space to the web.

I didn’t meant to summarize though. I mostly wanted to open the question. The ideas I’ll suggest as answers: that will come later. ^.^

You’re quite right, suburbs do have *variety*, in the sense that people are presented with many choices. Frap or mocha? Spicy or Honey Garlic? SUV or Minivan? Perhaps the depth and diversity of said choices aren’t terrific, but there are certainly a lot of them.

It’s true that chance interactions between vaguely related people are drastically reduced, and it’s also true that the web, as it stands, has helped allievate this. There are more chance encounters, though statistically you’re (probably) far more likely to bump into someone at a favorite third place than online. The chemistry is likely to be more interesting two: one thing that won’t really work is to randomly pair off people on line in the hopes that it might promote diversity. ;-)

Yet much is still missing. The quality of many online spaces is low. Lurkers outnumber participants a hundredfold. And personality is rarely communicated by more than an avatar, a handle, a profile, or someone’s collected works.

Compare that to a real life bustling street: on many dimensions, in seconds you can tell more about someone by the way they move, than by reading the typical online self description.

Don’t believe me? Take note of the diffs between real life and a profile the next time you try online dating. :-)

Thanks! Urban environments and social interaction have long been an interest of mine, ever since I started playing Simcity. At two, I had already found reason to monopolize the computer. I used to want to be an urban planner.

Times have changed, and yet I’m still reading Christopher Alexander (A Pattern Language), still thinking about building great places, and still playing Simcity =D

You might be interested in MyBlogLog and it’s new api. It has great potential for allowing people to see who else is in that same space and fostering a community

-Peter