I was thinking about the popularity of Facebook, and what it reminded me of.  Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, before graphical web browsing, there were BBS.  What is a BBS?  It is a Bulletin Board System, a place for people to dial in with their modems and connect to a larger world.  It was text based, allowed you to message other users, share files, play games, and most importantly, it was localized.

This is where Facebook really reminds me of BBS.  It is very local, and a very small part of the Internet.  The problem with the Internet is that it is too global and too large to really understand.  You have a hard time connecting with people in your area.  I love in Facebook, when you are searching for someone, they return the people who are physically closest to you first.  So, Facebook is just old BBS reborn.  Still mostly text, still a place to meet, play games, and like BBS, it is not dependent on real time.  You can post something on your wall (Hmm, sounds like a Bulletin Board), and someone else can comment on it when they have time.  It proves that the BBS system was valid, and people liked how it worked.  Now we have something that does almost the same thing, just with updated hardware and new protocols.