Groups from Usenet

Usenet was indeed the beginning. Groups aren't that new either I joined my first Yahoo! Group in 1999, New Nordic Folk. I could keep up with new music and find out about the next Nordic music festival in Minneapolis. I've been known to make pilgrimages so joining a group isn't far out of line for me. However, if you look at the Ning Networks and all the different groups there you can discover the next development of the idea of places to share ideas.

I admit that Virtual Worlds are likely to be the next step in this progression. Although I have had singularly bad luck with it, Second Life is the next step. Librarians are gathering on Info Island and sharing there. I just wish I could get past getting an avatar. For some reason they keep saying I already have a character on the island but I never got past the signup and I've even tried new emails that I created jsut for that. Grrr!!! Yes, even I can meet my technological barriers. I will beat it though just not tomight.

LiveMocha

This has a lot of potential but is still a bit new. I did start learning German but I hope they continue to add new languages. I can't wait to begin Norwegian or Swedish. I suspect my daughter would enjoy the chance to keep up her Norwegian and Finnish too. Of course they are still in Beta but I hope they keep going.