Electronic Anthropology and Skype

The beauty of the Internet is many fold, but it’s the “electronic anthropology” that has interested me most, ever since I came up with the idea of the “Book of Mankind Project” (which is not meant to be sexist; just to have the acronym BOMP). I’ve written about BOMP elsewhere, but essentially, the idea I had has not been realized by me, but is essentially an aggregate of the blogosphere, social networks, streaming video, and video calling. It’s all of those things taken as a collective, about the ability of humankind to communicate. Basically, a form of social networking that incorporates as many senses as possible.

So this (graphical) analysis of social intercourse that started in the blogosphere and moved to Skype conversations fascinates me. Actually, the link is to Phil Wolff’s Skype Journal post, which discusses the ongoing conversation of two bloggers and its metamorphosis from blog comments up to Skype conversations.