Thanks for posting. I wonder about the bailout as well. But using another metaphor, if you’re too aggressive with the chemo, you wind up killing the patient. It all just goes to show how little we actually know about managing our economy.

“It’s too hard to keep up , and becomes non-productive” as one of the UXnet Board of Advisers said in a con-call earlier this week. Ideas like F-feed, Ping.fm, etc are going in the right direction, I think.

Technology needs to be smart enough to do the work understanding the ever-expanding conversations, but still make it increasingly easier for us humans to participate.

{Nice to virtually meet you, too. But, I’m a Canadian who used to live overseas. The beer is colder here (^:= And as per our conv offline, keep havin’ fun!}

I agree with you about the rising importance of social media. We’re grinding through a period of innovation that looks a lot like the late 90s. Things will start to settle down in terms of the basic tools, and we’ll start building new networks on top them. FriendFeed is a great example, watching how that leveraged the popularity of Twitter, but added more conversational depth to the experience. It’s going to be a fascinating few years ahead.

Pleased to make your acquaintance.

I love that sentence. I think that is the effect of the current climate that we can anticipate.

Living in Canada, as close allies & partners of the U.S. we are inevitably affected by the U.S. economy. Our financial system is structured quite differently (for better or worse), but we are so close in many ways, that U.S. waves do rock our boat.

An interesting effect of the current crisis is the reaction of those feeling the ripples further away. I lived in the UK for a decade, and still keep a finger on their pulse. It’s curious to me, how the British are pinning their future position on the U.S. bailout. Germany went further and called it a “pre-condition” to stability. I don’t think that’s fair, nor entirely accurate. Europe has their own environment which significantly contributes to their own financial conditions. As do Asia, Asia-Pac, Latin American, etc.

The end of your post has me in entire agreement – “Communication has returned to a higher level of democratization. And now we’re seeing the media bubble burst, right at the same time we’re seeing a more acute economic bubble burst along with it.”

First, the media and financial bubbles are different, as you point out. In terms of marketing, I think the financial climate will actually help bolster the importance of online efforts, as organizations look to ensure that whatever they spend money on, is measurable in one way or another. So, SocialRep is a good business to be in – keep the faith (^:=

Second, the financial crisis is very personal and immediate to billions of people. It is touching more people instantly, than any war, for example. Social media will increase in importance as a tool for those demanding that ‘fundamental change’. We will soon see a start to the era of Norm Chomsky 2.0.