Over the River

Much has been written and said about the emergence of a new class of influencer. These people may use traditional communication channels to share their ideas and opinions; but more often than not – and increasingly so - these people are using new social and community-based media.

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a few people about how identity and transparency relates to the new influencer and to potential research being planned by the SNCR. Some of the questions that I think need to be considered and answered include:

• How do we make sure that everyone has access to new communication tools?
• How do we gage the presence of an agenda in what we read online?
• How do we preserve the value of anonymity without giving people and organizations free reign to obfuscate, attack or misrepresent?
• How can we judge or merits of arguments if we know nothing about who is behind the claims?

I’ll be working on developing my answers to these questions, coming up with related questions and talking about the issues and ideas behind the questions and the answers with as many people as I can.

These are nascent ideas and I’d appreciate any thoughts, feedback or suggested reading that anyone has to offer.

Technorati Tags: Social media, identity, transparency, persistence, influence, SNCR