I read an article online today. If you care to do the same: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/opinion/06mathias.html It made me think: Do we really communicate when we use Facebook or MySpace? It seems like we do. It would appear that there's a dialogue between people, that it is conversational. On person posts a wall post, then someone else does the same back. But is there real interaction?

I was thinking today. Scary, right? I was thinking about what it would have been like to be the town crier way back when. The bearer of news, both good and bad, for the people of your town. Now he was really a 'citizen journalist', to use a popular phrase. Walking the beat, ringing the bell, shouting out the days news: "Stanford upsets No. 2 USC 24-23; king declares rematch." "Monks protest in Myanmar; Marco Polo commissioned to find Burma." "Halo 3 released; X-BOX 360 found guilty of witchcraft and burned at the stake." Now those are some headlines.

Does anyone remember what Facebook used to be like? I do. There weren't a bazillion add-ons that required your social security number, address, and blood type in order to use them. There also weren't pages sponsored by Apple, the CW (formerly the WB), the NBA, and Hillary Clinton. Most importantly, no one but COLLEGE STUDENTS was allowed to use it. It was so cool. We were all in a special little group. "Hey, are you on Facebook?" "Why, yes, I am."

Man, how great would it be if I could get the news while I was playing video games. Sure, some people are trying this already. There are games out there where you play the news or something. In fact, I think some of last year's Knight News Challenge winners did this stuff. Like Paul Grabowicz from Berkeley. He is making a game where you play through jazz era Oakland. But I'm not really talking about this kind of game. I'm talking about mainstream games. I'm thinking something like this: