In the past decade, we've seen the rise of powerful social networks of unprecedented scale, connecting millions or even billions of people who can now communicate almost instantaneously. But many of the promises that were made by the creators of the earliest social networking technologies have gone unfulfilled. We'll take a look at some of the unexamined costs, both cultural and social, of the way the web has evolved.
Anil Dash is an entrepreneur, technologist and writer acknolwedged as a "blogging pioneer" by the New Yorker for having started his site Dashes.com in 1999 as one of the earliest and most influential blogs on the Internet. Today his work focuses on applying the techniques and technologies of the startup world to the transformation the major institutions of society and culture.
Dash is cofounder of Activate, the strategy consulting firm which helps the world's major media and technology companies reinvent their businesses, and cofounder and CEO of ThinkUp, a new app which helps people get more meaning out of the time they spend on social networking. In addition, Dash is an active advisor to several of the most prominent and innovative technology startups and non-profit organizations and has been a columnist for Wired magazine.