Hi there. I’ve recently joined 76design as a Senior Consultant and this is my first post to our blog, Shift + Control. First of all I want to say how glad I am to be here. Not only have we got a terrific design team but as we all know this is a very exciting time to be in the communications business. Those of us who were saying (long before the dot-bomb) that the web wasn’t about pushing content but about creating conversations are now in the driver’s seat and the future is rich with possibilities.

I’ve been talking about the web as a conversational medium for a long time. In fact, I wrote a book about the ‘oral’ nature of the web (published by The Banff Centre Press in 2002) called Digitopia Blues – Race, Technology and the American Voice. Happily it got a lot of good reviews. The Midwest Book Review wrote “Digitopia Blues is a cutting edge, highly recommended look at an American popular culture of the future.” And Vancouver’s Georgia Straight wrote, “Briskly paced and superbly written, Digitopia Blues…begs to be read, and what’s more, it begs to be discussed.”

Over the past decade I also learned how to put my ideas about the conversational and participatory nature of the web into practice in a corporate communications context. For several years my former partner Freddy Nyiti and I ran a company called Globalhood that offered ‘digital adventures’ to everyone from street kids to CEOs. This was back in the late 20th century, an era when blogs were more or less nonexistent, but our aims were consistent with those of today’s business bloggers. Here’s a link to a feature article in the Globe and Mail about our work, which was certainly ahead of its time:

Firm Tunes Up Corporate Harmony

Fortunately, the wheels of web culture spin mighty fast, and if Globalhood was once ahead of it’s time I’m excited to report that 76design is right on time in the here and now. We’re putting the pedal to the metal and finding exciting new ways to help drive the social media revolution.

Need a ride?

John Sobol
sobol@76design.com