Archive for the ‘Web 2.0’ Category

Irving Wladawsky-Berger has a basic definition of open source (thanks to Ross for the link):

Now, when you collaborate with your colleagues, they have to be able to read and understand what you say, whether you use a natural language like English, or mathematical notation, or tables of numbers. Likewise, if the collaboration involves software, then you would expect to be able to read, modify and generally share the source code of the software on which you are jointly working. Thus, in my opinion, open source software is just a by-product of, or rather a necessary precondition for, collaborative innovation involving software. Nothing more, nothing less.

It’s much the same in Participatory Communications where software is replaced by language. As Ross points out, language lowers the barrier to participation. To which I would add technology as an enabler and precondition.

Replacement Obsessiveness Disorder (ROD) struck again today. There seems to be a continuing base need for blogs to replace something – and for us to be subjected to news based on replacement theories. And so we have today the stunning news that… are you ready for it… Blogs haven’t displaced media. What, they needed a study to figure that out?

Then we have: "The study dispels the notion that blogs are replacing traditional media
as the public’s primary source of information, said Michael Cornfield,
a senior research consultant at Pew." So, let me get this straight – you form a ludicrous notion, prove it with some "interesting" research and bingo, you’ve got news that warrants reporting. Spare me.

And this. "Bloggers follow buzz as much as they make it," said Cornfield. "Our
research uncovered a complicated dynamic in which a hot topic of
conversation could originate with the blogs or it could originate with
the media or it could originate with the campaigns." Ok – so anything could originate anywhere. That is complicated? (And why couldn’t the use of "blogs" in either of these remarks be replaced by "media".)

Did this study actually reveal anything that merits reporting or is it simply fuel for a defensive and skeptical media machine on what must have been a slow news day?

Oh, then we have:   The study also found bloggers act as guides for the mainstream media to the rest of the Internet … Echoing that finding, a University of Connecticut poll released on Monday showed eight in 10 journalists read blogs.

So blogs aren’t influential then – or only in influencing he influencers? This would seem to counter the prior comments in the report.

Blogs are part of a new Cascade of Influence – they influence dialog and set the agenda. And the sphere of influence is just getting started. "The Report" would appear to give no credence to the power of the Blogosphere as an echo chamber of sorts in which media comment is amplified and dissected – and the power of that dialog to influence communities of interest. Or, as said well at Pennie Wallie…

The blogs are clearly a product of “emergent behavior”. When a non-trivial number of people start posting and cross posting stories on the Internet, the phenomena that arises is infinitely more than the sum of the individual components. As the number of participants in the blogs increases, the resulting phenomena assumes properties that were not forseen. The blogs are a self-correcting, multi-tasking, multi-threaded, massively multi-participant, online, real-time application…

What really gets me though is the notion that one form of media must die for another to rise – it is flawed and tiresome. First, it assumes that’s what we want and that’s why blogs are important. Wrong on both counts. Second, it assumes that’s what happens. It doesn’t. TV didn’t kill Radio. Radio didn’t kill newspapers. Each technology inflection point drove a new form of communication. We’re simply at that point. Can’t we revel in the richness of this rather that engaging in another day of ROD?

Dan has an interesting perspective on this.

Stephens got an interesting view on this one. We do disagree (I think they do matter) – as he suggests we might – but not by that much. I view the press release as a technical device for notifying media of news from publicly traded companies. That’s about it.

They are of less and less value (think steeply declining curve) as communications tools due to the ubiquity of email, Internet, wire services, blogs, RSS… And, the era of authenticity we’ve entered into questions their tone – and resulting credibility. But the era of transparency we’re in also demands their utility. In my posts below on the Web vs. the Blogosphere you can pretty much replace the Web column with Press Releases.

What Stephen points to though is the need for all communicators to listen to their constituents. How many communicators take the time to ask those constituents how they want to receive news? One of the challenges for any communicator is reaching the full spectrum of buyers, influencers and messengers that make up an audience set. Stephen is a sophisticated influencer and messenger in the upper quadrant of connectivity and engagement. Others will be at in the lower left quadrant – not connected big-time and engaged on an adhoc basis. Technical requirements aside, blogs and press releases represent optimal solutions for different constituent profiles.

Participatory Communications is about just that, participation. I suspect Southwest Airlines effort to raise the visibility of its issues with regard to the Wright Amendment will be much better served by the Internet than by any press release. I love the fact they are inviting their community to engage in their efforts – especially given we have as much of a vested interest in them succeeding as they do. (What a great URL as well!)

Where I also agree with Stephen is that most press releases are crap. Yes, crap. But lets not burn the release just because they aren’t being executed well. Bad writing. Terrible legal intervention. Risk and conflict averse communicators. And no news angle/hook are doing as much to destroy the value of news releases as anything.

And here is where Stephen and I violently agree – language and framing matters – until communicators upgrade their efforts in this area then the relevance of the press release is the least of their worries. The real issue is their own relevance. Their relevance to their constituents. And their relevance to the business.

Some great additions to my little list from Pegasus News…

Web = Organized                             Blogosphere = Chaotic
Web = Predictable                            Blogosphere = Unpredictable
Web = Find                                       Blogosphere = Browse
Web = Comprehensively shallow     Blogosphere = Incompletely deep
Web = Broad                                     Blogosphere = Niche
Web = Slow/Web-time                   Blogosphere = Instant/Blog-time**

See comments… as soon as the P/news site tracked me back, I updated my blog. Instant publishing. Mike’s point is a good one. Blogs are the real, real-time web.

A month ago I spoke at Educause – I was impressed and delighted at how forward thinking the education profession was with regards to blogs, wikis and the like. I sat and listened to keynote after keynote of educators doing remarkable things with technology – many of them recognizing the dramatic shift participatory communications is going to bring to education.

Reinforcing the rule that for every revolutionary there is a reactionary, along comes Blaise:

"One wonders for whom these hapless souls blog. Why do they choose to expose their unremarkable opinions, sententious drivel and unedifying private lives to the potential gaze of total strangers? What prompts this particular kind of digital exhibitionism? The present generation of bloggers seems to imagine that such crassly egotistical behavior is socially acceptable and that time-honored editorial and filtering functions have no place in cyberspace. Undoubtedly, these are the same individuals who believe that the free-for-all, communitarian approach of Wikipedia is the way forward. Librarians, of course, know better. – Indiana University Dean and Rudy Professor of Information Science Blaise Cronin