Views and examples on hyper-connectivity

Abstract

This chapter investigates the influences of hyper–connectivity on our society. To do this, it first shows that the analysis of social networks cannot be reduced to a study of the topology of connections, but has to take into account the social processes and their reciprocal dependences, e.g. their synchronicity or precedence relations. To approach the social dynamic, it proposes to view institutions as processors that have tasks at their disposal. Then, it draws a parallel between the states of the social dynamics and the classical classes of parallel machine architectures. In particular, it shows that the present state of the society corresponds to a grid computing architecture and not at all to a digital Agora that is SISD. After this general introduction, this paper presents three concrete examples of hyper–connectivity. The first explores the way common knowledge is built in a collaborative encyclopedia, namely Wikipedia, which greatly leverages on the properties of hyper–connectivity of the network. The second illustrates the new forms of solidarity that emerge in a networked society, with a very particular example, which is the surprising evolution of patients’ associations due to the improvements in communication technologies. Lastly, we deal with social recognition, which is the ultimate hope of humans, in a society where the abundance of information blurs the contributions and merits of all kinds. We show how the notion of digital halo, which is similar to the Benjamin’s aura, helps to approach the phenomena of social recognition in a hyper–connected world.