The Internet of Us

Social Media and the Internet have catalyzed an unprecedented potential for exposure to human diversity in terms of demographics, language, culture, knowledge, opinions, talents and the like. Access to people’s diversity gives us the possibility of exploiting skills and competences that we do not have, that we may not even know they exist, some the so-called unknown unknowns , but which, however, could be exactly what we need when looking for help in the solution to the our current problem. However, this potential has not come with new, much needed, instruments and skills to harness the complications which rise when trying to exploit the diversity of people. This paper presents our vision of the “ Internet of Us ( IoU ),” a new type of online diversity-aware social interactions capable of promoting richer and deeper social relations. We discuss the multiple facets of diversity in social settings as well as the multidisciplinary work that is required to reap the benefits of the IoU , toward a IoU -enabled diversity-aware hybrid human–AI society.