For me there were three phases: - pre-web: experts concentrated on Usenet - early-web: Usenet decline and counter-productive decentralization - SO (and other

For me there were three phases: - pre-web: experts concentrated on Usenet - early-web: Usenet decline and counter-productive decentralization - SO (and others): recentralization I think the SO guys just had a good-enough formula at exactly the right time and everybody jumped on fast enough