Connected? Has the Net been Darwinian in its brief evolution, and are the characteristics of a networked society akin to different genus/ nationalities, seemingly different people within a network sharing common characteristics or ideals? I ask this with regard to the tell tale signs that may be staring at us and what will probably emerge […]

Florian Brody asks: Should we wait for a random start-up to come up with some new web technology to find out about the next major change of the media that defines our society? From Florian’s discussion leading up to that question, he seems to really be asking “What’s missing, what holes are there, what opportunities […]

Thank you for the invitation to weigh in. Trust is as old as the human race, as is its opposite, betrayal. Why? You can get what you want through authority – “he or she who has the gold makes the rules” – or you can solicit what you want through trusted relationships. Trust is a […]

Last week, we talked about Trust in the Media (as well as trust generally). This week we have been talking about connectedness. Is there a relationship between the two? Karen Stephenson, a social-network business consultant and friend of the Media Center (I first met Karen at a Media Center sponsored Symposium last year) would argue […]

Judging from our own information-age society (vs. Sub-Saharan Africa for example), we are technologically over-connected. Especially now, with 33 million blogs on top of the splintered news stand, digital TV, and, well, you name it. Florian makes some great points which in some way include the thought of “are we better off today than we […]

In the comments of this week’s discussion starter, William Smale asks, “Who is connected and the corollary of who is not connected? Is the northern hemisphere more connected then the southern hemisphere? Is the so-called developed world more connected than the developing worlds?” William’s understanding of connectedness, at least in this instance, is about technology […]

Should we wait for a random start-up to come up with some new Web technology to find out about the next major change of the media that defines our society? In a connected society, media are the shared stories modulated over the diverse connections available to its participants. Every well-connected society shares a diversity of […]

I want to thank everyone who participated in the discussion this week about Trust in the Media. Its just about time to wind down this part of the discussion and for me to pass the moderator baton to one of my colleagues. The next area of focus as we lead up to the We Media […]

The Latinobarometer regularly meaures in which institutions do Latin Americans hold the most “confianza” (confidence, trust). In 2005, the top three institutions, and only ones above 50%, were the fire department, the (Catholic) Church and radio (in that order). The next two are newspapers and television. Predictably, the bottom three institutions with the lowest amount […]

Trust you? Yeah, right. That’s what I used to say to anti-abortion demonstrators when I was writing for mainstream media. I meant it at at the time, but they were wrong to trust me. Because the story that got printed ended up showing them in a somewhat skewed light. Not because I meant to do […]