Living in San Francisco, I find myself with geeks for friends. They are developers and web designers, PR and marketers in the web 2.0 space. We all work on the 2nd Street corridor or in and around South Park. We grab beers after work, ride bikes on the weekend and do business with one another during the week.

We are all connected through social networks, and with a quick ping from the office, I am navigated to the appropriate person for evaluation. There was no email required to an anonymous info@company.com, nor did I have to call and ask to be put through to the marketing department. With the validation of my friend, there was very little pretense, and I quickly found the results I was after. I am amazed.

As the web becomes social, business has begun to transcend into my personal life. I am not only connected to my friends, but to my professional peers as well.

That’s all well and good – but I can’t help but wonder – why do I want to connect with these people? Isn’t email and telephony enough? Why do I want to put a face to the email signature and to the voice on the phone? Is business becoming more personal because the work force is evolving, or because technology is evolving?

I asked my boss what she thought about this shift. The reason she gave for the desire to connect in more personal ways is painfully simple: Because We Can.