What is the ‘live web’?
You didn’t realize it, but just about everything you do online is asynchronous.
Craigslist ads run on Thursday and you see them on Friday and get the job on Monday.
Email gets sent at 2 and you read it at 3 and write back at 4.
eBay listings run for a week.
You’re reading this post later than I wrote it (for your sake, I hope that’s true).
There are a few reasons for this. The biggest one is this: TV works as a live medium because millions watch just a few channels. The web needs to be asynchronous because there are too many channels! If you had to be ‘tuned in’ to see a blog post or read an email (the way you need to be tuned in to catch a live phone call or hear something on a police scanner) you’d miss too much.
Technology in the form of fast enough bandwidth is combining with a bigger audience to create live pockets online now. This blog feed, for example. This post was on it at 7:36 EST, but you missed it.
Watch for more live stuff. It’ll probably happen in places where there are clearly defined and very motivated audiences, and in pockets where there is so much value to be gained by monitoring the live feed on the web or your phone (like stock news or leftover tickets) that it’s worth your attention.