Sometimes it feels like I’m watching society evolve as I read about new social networks built by online activities. Many of these experiments flourish and fade like Friendster but with every experiment, we learn more about ourselves and what new connections we can achieve. One of the best ways to follow the trends is to read the Corante group web log Many to Many. I also enjoy reading danah boyd’s blog apophenia.

And I highly recommend a new article by MIT literature professor Henry Jenkins. He examines the results of a online marketing campaign for the new software game Halo 2. This campaign took the form of an alternate reality game (ARG) called "ilovebees."

These ARGs teach participants how to navigate complex information environments and how to pool their knowledge to solve problems. …Jane McGonigal, the primary community leader for ilovebees and Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, said that ARGs are generating "players who feel more capable, more confident, more expressive, more engaged and more connected in their everyday lives."