My colleague Rob Paterson just shared with us how online social networking has changed the way students interact with their established and new communities.

Perhaps there’s a warm and fuzzy feeling we’re all getting from the connections and networks that are now accessible to us on a daily basis.

Tim Bray, a founder of XML and Web 2.0/Web services/SOA luminary, says that many of today’s social networking experiences are overrated. Yet, he is able to step back and marvel on how the Internet has changed our sense of community.

Interestingly, the global community fostered by the Internet has begun to take on the warm feel of a friendly, busy cafe, he says:

“The Net’s killer app has always been other people. There are side benefits, like access to all the world’s information. But the links that matter aren’t between pages but people, and they’re strong and rich and subtle. Multiply the infinite flavors in human relationships by a thickening bundle of means-to-connect; that product is what’s new and what’s good and what’s exciting.”

“It feels pleasant to step into my local on the way to the office (double latte in my own cup). Yeah, it’s warm when cold outside, shady when sunny, smells of coffee and baking. But that’s background; what matters is the faces I recognize and others I don’t, and always, always, the buzz of conversation. That’s what the Net’s starting to feel like.”

From a workplace perspective, this is the gist of what has been called the “personal outsourcing” phenomenon. When we turn to others for information, or to collaborate and share, we call upon a community of associates or experts that spans the entire global, versus simply running to an associate that has an office down the hall. The global community has become our community of peers, friends, and potential acquaintances.

Not every needs all the bells and whistles, however. Bray admits, for example, that he can live without some highly hyped sites, such as Facebook. “For me, the value is in promoting intimacy, seeing what my friends are doing. And Twitter hits that 80/20 point, bringing me that news without all the Facebook bull*** and lame groups and dorky apps and stupid ads and data lock-in. So recently I don’t Facebook much.”