Brave New World

As the dissenting voices in the community step up to be heard, across in the USA, courses like "JMC163: New Media in Journalism" are being run at San Jose State University (syllabus). They have speakers like Robert Scoble and Steve Sergeant of The Wildebeat.

The class blog led me to "The Cluetrain Manifesto". This 95-point may illuminate people as to the link between social networking and changes in eCommerce:

Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.

Like it or not, the world is changing. Comments on blogs, podcasts or forums are being hyperlinked to. We can make a difference. We can be heard. Organisations can have a conversation with customers instead of broadcasting en masse. Perhaps some form of democracy may arise. Some organisations in Canada are doing this, using new media for social communication.

A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark. ("Annie Hall")