I don't think the term 'virtual private neighbourhoods' is helpful, because the abbreviation - VPN - is the same as that for the much wider technical concept of the 'virtual private network', which is a type of software security system. But the concept being discussed, whereby "people are increasingly hanging out in small, private communities," is a useful one. "Global timelines and newsfeeds won't come back," argues Matt Webb. What we will get instead is "private Discords, private Slack channels, and a flurry of spatial interfaces in development," to which I would add distributed communities like Mastodon and decentralized web such as indieweb. It feels, in a way, almost like going back to the days of MUDs and discussion boards. Maybe that's nostalgia talking, or maybe it's a genuine rejection of the influence of - and the values of - large commercial media. (p.s. the original title of this article was 'Dunbar Spaces', and I think that's a pretty good name for the concept generally). (Image: Vancouver Public Library, Dunbar branch, which is what I got when I looked up 'Dunbar spaces').
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