One of my favorite books about community is a work by Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti called Crowds and Power. It’s a beautiful and thoroughly insightful study on people assembled in different ways and for a kaleidoscopic set of reasons. I turn to the book often when thinking about how social media both separate and connect us, using it as an imaginary frontier of sorts for what mediated crowds might or could do. … »

The last few years the Internet has changed from a monologue into a dialogue. People have started blogging, discussing, responding, commenting, etc. This resulted in a digital version of ‘Power to the consumer’, where we decide what to do and buy upon the opinion of other consumers. But where were the companies? Until now they stood at the sideline, not sure what to do. In 2009 this will change, it’s time for Feedback 3.0. … »