Ok, bit of a tangent, but I was discussing this the other day with a friend...
Sometime around the late 70's/early 80's something happened in America. People started working longer hours, watching more TV, and generally socializing less. Membership in the Elks, Scouts, Rotary Club, Shriners, Knights of Columbus, etc., etc. all declined. The statistic that I think sums it up the best is this: The average number of picnics attended by Americans has dropped 60% since 1975!
What does this have to do with anything? Well, it used to be that social groups formed primarily based on proximity, and secondarily based on similar interests. What I see happening now, with social networks and such, is that being flipped on it's head a bit. Still, I think we're beginning to see an upswing in the picnic rate, as it were. (The Obama campaign was, I think, a potent indicator of this...)
This is one of the reasons that I love GitHub so much. Forget the git vs. hg vs. bzr vs. etc arguments. GitHub is a coder's social network! It seems only natural that someone should start formally organizing around this idea...
It sounds like your friend may have heard of and/or read this book: "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community". It's on my ever-growing to-read queue.
"In a groundbreaking book based on vast new data, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures-- and how we may reconnect.
Putnam warns that our stock of social capital - the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities.
Putnam draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over the last quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often. We're even bowling alone. More Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are not bowling in leagues."
Ok, bit of a tangent, but I was discussing this the other day with a friend...
Sometime around the late 70's/early 80's something happened in America. People started working longer hours, watching more TV, and generally socializing less. Membership in the Elks, Scouts, Rotary Club, Shriners, Knights of Columbus, etc., etc. all declined. The statistic that I think sums it up the best is this: The average number of picnics attended by Americans has dropped 60% since 1975!
What does this have to do with anything? Well, it used to be that social groups formed primarily based on proximity, and secondarily based on similar interests. What I see happening now, with social networks and such, is that being flipped on it's head a bit. Still, I think we're beginning to see an upswing in the picnic rate, as it were. (The Obama campaign was, I think, a potent indicator of this...)
This is one of the reasons that I love GitHub so much. Forget the git vs. hg vs. bzr vs. etc arguments. GitHub is a coder's social network! It seems only natural that someone should start formally organizing around this idea...
(also, see Zed's http://freehackersunion.org/ for more of the same idea)