Blogs, Wikis & Expert Networks: I

Let me open by thanking all of those who deserve to be thanked, especially Constantin Basturea and Trevor Cook. All I know is that they are the guys who launched this vast collective enterprise and that I have been getting a ton of email from them lately.

Far from being any kind of expert on what many in the business seem to be calling the new “thin” media, I describe blogs and wikis to those who know even less than I do about them as narrow tube-like information channels.

Blogs and wikis enable people in small and large groups to freely converse about whatever happens to interest them. In this regard, blogs and wikis are direct extension of the Web “communities” concept that was the rage several years ago. (Now it's "social networking.")

The revolution that is swiftly engulfing us looks to me a lot like the email revolution of the early 1990s. The arrival of email listservs made the first Internet communities possible. Now -- with blogs and wikis -- we have listservs on steroids.

Consider:

· We have new browsers that enable us to filter incoming content with much greater subtlety and exactitude

· We have the ability to efficiently share comments with other community members

· We have collaborative workspaces where we can not only share information, but edit it and shape it in concert with others.

When you add all of these new functionalities to a network of 11,000 PR people and 70,000 reporters, you don't have to be Einstein to see that you have to start rethinking your business.

Which brings us to the fundamental purpose of this blog: To enlist ProfNet members, journalists and experts in the process of reinvention.

Here are two questions to start things off:

What will this network look like a year from now?

What should this network look like a year from now?

Please jump in at any time. I'll begin with the idea of shared spaces.

Author: Dan Forbush | Jul 12, 04 | Permalink | 0 comments
Category: @ Dan Forbush | Topic 1 PR and Participatory Journalism

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About: The Global PR Blog Week 1.0 is an online event that will engage PR, marketing and business bloggers from around the globe in a discussion about blogging and communications. The event is scheduled for July 12 - 16, 2004.

Links: The New PR Wiki

Recent Entries: Looking forward to 2.0; Site Statistics and Trends; A participant’s final thoughts; Traditional PR is dead - Long Live DIY PR; Quiet is the new loud

Recent Comments: Rick Barry on A Very Brief Look at Blogging for the Uninitiated Executive; George Mc Quade on The Battle Over PR; Duncan Adams on Robert Scoble interviewed on Corporate Blogging; Kevin O'Keefe on How to launch a corporate blog for a professional services organization; William Luu on Site Statistics and Trends