Towers of people
The moment the planes hit the World Trade Center it was immediately transformed from America's icon of commerce to two towers filled with people. In an instant our Government's Pentagon was turned on it's head. Our national psyche was shattered and an entire generation shared in horror and disbelief. Everything we had taken for granted was re-evaluated. While our government locked down, we more than ever before, reached out to each other.
The pivot after the tragedy
This isn't a post about 9/11. It's about what happened afterwards and the longer term effect on us. In the weeks, months and years after the tragedy, we desperately reached out. We turned to our computers. We emailed, we poured over the thousands of stories on blogs. We searched for the people who had been there or who were sharing their personal stories. We commented, we connected, we asked why. News broke faster over blogs and email than traditional media. At the same time our government quickly learned that their systems weren't built to connect the dots the way we really needed them to.
Cutting the red tape
Getting to who and what we needed faster was critical in this time of need. The companies didn't matter, the people did. The "Government" didn't matter, we wanted to know why we didn't know and weren't protected. The media didn't matter, it was the experts who could share and who we could talk to directly. We wanted transparency, speed and connection.
Rise of social connection
In the years since then, we've kept this trend going. We know that connecting people online is critical. We can get much more done more quickly this way. We also know that having content locked into disparate systems can have horrible effects. We no longer turn to "the company," we turn to the people in these companies. We turn to the experts. We want to add our voice to the places we care about and find others who share our desire. We don't turn to ABC or CBS or any other company that's supposed to be "the" resource. We look for people who know. This change has transformed an entire generation who expect to do business with the same people-centric values born from this tragedy. This level of interaction and transparency still has it's effects on us today.