I stumbled on this very cool Elon University website: Imagining the Internet: A History and Forecast this past weekend.
"The Imagining the Internet Center's mission is to explore and provide insights into emerging network innovations, global development, dynamics, diffusion and governance. Its research holds a mirror to humanity's use of communications technologies, informs policy development, exposes potential futures and provides a historic record. It works to illuminate issues in order to serve the greater good, making its work public, free and open."
I especially enjoyed reading the 2008 Survey. Air-typing, ever evolving mobile platforms, and virtual integrity and forgiveness? (Read the survey.) We still have a lot of work to do to produce the 2008 Survey's anticipated results by 2020.
Communications professionals have been circling around virtual conversations for over a decade and three elements remain constant: To communicate successfully online requires independent thinking, thoughtful action and the ability to write well.
On Twitter, I observe a ton of folks who seem to automatically Re-tweet posts and suspect they don't investigate the linked content contained therein. Readers often click through those links to a sales/marketing landing page with an introduction to the article and another link that directs the reader to the actual article or web page.
I'm still forming my opinion of "content aggregators" and will Re-tweet posts from a variety of news sites because they offer free valuable resources for readers. That said, several "content aggregator" sites seem to be managed by folks whose main focus is to filter readers through a website designed to sell something/anything and I do have an issue with *that* as my time - like yours, no doubt - is precious. I often wonder how others feel about being manipulated in this way?
I guess this leads us back to Elon University's prediction of virtual integrity and forgiveness : )
