Networks

I've been thinking a lot about networks over the past week. Reading the trade press, you would think networks were a terribly new thing, invented circa 2004 and called Facebook.

Actually, networks have been part of the human condition for a long, long time. I imagine stories, tales and sagas were passed on from person to person through networks, long before the written word. Footpaths and roads have always existed, latticing the country in a network.

I think, given the current topicality of digital networks, it is important to remember that the word 'network' has a wider meaning that just Bebo, My Space and Facebook. The really interesting thing is not that digital networks exist, but how they differ (or otherwise) from more traditional networks.