For years, I only knew of George Lucas’ 1977 cinematic sci-fi breakthrough as “Star Wars.”  Then I found out that it was part of a trilogy. But wait, Lucas had a plan all along; this tale of an oppressed rag-tag alliance looking to overturn a hierarchical, monopolistic political system (aka “The Empire”) was always meant to be “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.”

Of course, in a multi-part saga, if the good guys get their way initially, the Empire is always going to have to Strike Back to make it a good story. When I read Groundswell co-author Josh Bernoff’s The Splinternet Means the End of the Web’s Golden Age, that’s what immediately came to mind.

We’ve been declaring an end to media monopolies for a while now, thanks to networked communities who no longer require institutional intermediaries to share, collaborate or take collective action.  This ability to produce and consume media for almost free threatened the very economic model that media moguls had taken to the bank for over a century. As I made my own transition from corporate media journalist to independent content creator, I took advantage of new, inexpensive tools that we saw as the great democratizer of production.

Apple was part of this rebellion, helping us to crash through the barriers to entry with the digital weaponry of firewire, USB, Final Cut Pro, iDVD — this filmmaker’s “secret plans to the Death Star,” so to speak.  As digital content proliferated, The Empire writhed in agony, from The New York Times to Conde Nast to NBC, desperately in search of new business models.  Now, with renewed focus on pay walls and walled gardens, Bernoff sees Apple’s new iPad as the turning point as we leave the Web’s hopeful first age of universality and openness:

…[M]ore and more of the interesting stuff on the Web is hidden behind a login and password. Take Facebook for example. Not only do its applications not work anywhere else, Google can’t see most of it. And News Corp. and the New York Times are talking about putting more and more content behind a login…Each new device has its own ad networks, format, and technology. Each new social site has its login and many hide content from search engines. Read more…

MCDM Web Presentation January 2009 from Hanson Hosein on Vimeo.

Kathy Gill and I successfully presented the State of the Master of Communication in Digital Media to the University of Washington’s Department of Communication Faculty yesterday.  We’re doing great: record applications, financially healthy, and about to launch a sister center now formally known as the “Media Space @ the University of Washington.”

Here’s the YouTube version if you like to share: Read more…

Social Media “is not about controlling the message, but enabling relationships.” This was one of the biggest take away from our Skype session with Groundswell’s author, Charlene Li. Charlene was just like her book: accessible, practical and upbeat! The class zeroed in wanting to know how Charlene ‘convinces’ companies to engage in social media. Here’s the full 1-hr session or keep reading for a quick summary.

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A little context …

Our reading this week is Groundswell, Chapter 4 “Listening to the Groundswell.” The first section is a case study of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s private community for cancer patients using Communispace.

Full disclosure: I work at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, one of 21 comprehensive cancer centers. The Hutchinson Center declined to become a part of this program, because we no longer offer treatment. All treatment is held at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), a organization formed by the partnership of the Hutchinson Center, the University of Washington, and Seattle Children’s.

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Whether you are a fan of Wal-mart’s “always low prices” shelves, or vilify them for their labor practices and effects on small-town America, Josh Bernoff’s blog post on Wal-Mart’s embrace of social applications will lead you to see them in a different light than you might normally.

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I first came across this “technographic ladder” idea in a AMA web workshop in New York. Charlene Li explained that not all of us interact with website in the same manner, nor we can expect all of our users to be engaged in the same way. In her book, Groundswell there’s a whole chapter dedicated to this concept: “The Social Technographics Profile.”

There are two big implications from this concept that I’ve been applying:

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“…we can’t control the people.  It’s like trying to take the “p” out of swimming-pool.” 

The above statement was part of Charlene Li’s catchy introduction at the Microsoft Breakfast Series event this morning, which Carrie, Mark and I attended.  She is referring to the effect social media is having on businesses around the world.     Read more…