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Santa Monica's Public Electronic Network (PEN): Learning From the First Municipal Online Social Network

By Nate Riggs on December 02, 2009 |

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My brother, Nick, is pretty smart, and doing interesting work. He's currently chasing after his advanced degree in Applied Communications at the University of Tampa, researching the implications of the rise of social media, and what that means to human beings in terms of how we communicate with each other. Needless to say, he stays pretty busy.

For me, this works out. We share ideas and info as often as possible. Nick brings the academic side of the equation and I add practical business application of communication technology. There have been times when I've stood outside of one of my neighborhood pubs on the phone for hours - literally - talking with him about things like Frames Theory and other geeky communication concepts.

From his research, Nick pointed me to study up on PEN, a project in the early 90's in Santa Monica to create a municipal Public Electronic Network (hence the acronym).

This is really interesting stuff in terms of how an online network connected and impacted the Santa Monica community. You can read the transcripts on a presentation, delivered by Kevin McKowen, at the 99th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association at San Francisco in August of 1991.

You can also get the entire research paper from the Center for Advanced Study in Telecommunications, at The Ohio State University; reference CAST Working File 1994-001.

Wired Magazine also published an interesting article detailing the project way back in 1994, when things like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were even yet to be ideas on a whiteboard.

This is some of the most interesting reading I've done in a while. If you have time and any shred of curiosity, it's definitely worth your eyeballs. (Disclaimer: the full paper is 19 pages)

Not New
None of this is new. The concept of connecting people through technology has been around for a while. Empirical evidence as to the impact that online social networks can have has been around for a while.

So why, suddenly, in the last 18 months, has the trend finally caught on?

What do you think?

Social Media

Nate Riggs

Written by Nate Riggs

Nate Riggs is the Founder and CEO of NR Media Group, a Certified HubSpot Partner and inbound consulting firm. He leads a team of experienced strategists, content marketers, creatives and technologists that help organizations deploy and use HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service software to operate more efficiently and accelerate growth. Nate regularly presents keynotes and workshops at top industry conferences like INBOUND, Content Marketing World and Oracle’s Modern CX. In 2017, Nate was recognized by HubSpot for his contributions to the development of the HubSpot Education Partner Program. Nate regularly presents keynotes and workshops at top industry conferences like INBOUND, Content Marketing World and Oracle’s Modern CX. In 2017, Nate was recognized by HubSpot for his contributions to the development of the HubSpot Education Partner Program.
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