David Weinberger has a nice essay at Salon about the “echo chamber” meme that seems to be pervading analysis of Howard Dean’s fall and the supposed insularity of the internet.
Behind the echo chamber controversy lies the question of whether the Internet causes people to solidify their beliefs or to diversify them. Does it open people up or shut them down?
This is a really tough question, and not just because it’s hard to quantify.
Intriguing speculations on major issues facing the internet in 2004. “2004: The Turning Point: An overview of some of the issues that will change the way we use the Internet.” A list that parallels my own interests.
Email Redux - end of spam, probably end of SMTP to be replaced with authentication A Population in Search of a Community - blogging is too individual, current community tools are plagued by spam, need a way to be heard through blogging Blogging without Writing - interesting one tenth of one percent reply rule, that only 1 in 1000 people participate in online communities for the number of people who read.
Tom Coates of plasticbag has a new weblog called “Everything in Moderation.” Its opening manifesto begins:
Online community development is one of my passions, and I have designed and/or managed social software “solutions” for organisations like UpMyStreet, EMAP and the BBC (often alongside Cal Henderson and/or Denise Wilton. Moderation systems are a particular subpassion of mine. In the abstract, people can think they sound bland, technical or intimidating, but fundamentally moderation is really about all those parts of an online community that stop it just being a place where people stand and shout randomly at each other.
Matt Jones at blackbelt jones is collecting examples of timelines from around the internet.
I’ve been toying with the idea of changing my home page to include a collection of biographical snippets or essays. I’d like to have the page display a single snippet in the center, have a menu to navigate between snippets on the side, and a timeline at the top. I think I could make the timeline at the top dynamically respond to what snippet you were viewing by using javascript to manipulate the background colors of a table.
From Danny O’Brien I find a link to a new weblog by Jonathan Moore which contained this jem on the amount of work it takes to find new communities on the internet.
The Fans and Fetishists problem is the desire to create partitions of the social network so that diversity can exist. Take for example two groups of Britney Spears devotees: fans and fetishists. The fans are mostly young people who actually enjoy the singer’s music.