Comments on: Organisational communication 2020

By: Reg Lewin

Reg Lewin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:41:31 +0000

Great post, Sharon.
First I’ve heard of David Gallipeau and, given his role and profile, I was kind of surprised at the language of his blog, especially his use of ominously scary titles such as ‘darkchannels’, ‘whitehats’, ‘darkhats’ and ‘darknet’, and alarmist language like

“This is not new – this is not the beginning – this is not a conspiracy theory – this is real and it is certainly is not the end.”

BTW I tried searching “miltary onint intint & nn programs” but unfortunately the only result returned was his blog.

Most of all though I loved his hammily portentous sign-off:
” Their call to action on February 10th will be successful and this meme will not pass.”

UN role and obvious social informatics credentials aside, his choice of language and apparent fearmongering leaves me unsure of how serious one is meant take this person.

By: Adam Hibbert

Adam Hibbert — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:22:14 +0000

I shared your intense dubiousness, Sharon. But then I also like a contrarian, and Galipeau certainly has plenty of that good stuff going on.

The thing with the Shirkey thesis is it seems to suggest that politics adapts to technology, when in practice most of us experience the opposite happening. Check Peter Senge’s great quote about collaboration technology, in The Fifth Discipline, for example: “in a culture where what I know determines my status and pay, it is naïve to suppose that a new [system] will lead people to start collaborating.” On the contrary, he goes on, the new system will tend to get bent out of shape to fit the existing power structures.

I agree we should definitely bankroll a full-on debate between the two (with Seconds, preferably, and a voting audience). We should also try to take open minds, in case Galipeau manages to get specific about this alleged research.

By: Matt O'Neill

Matt O'Neill — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:59:06 +0000

Possibly because D and I have spoken at length about this topic, i’m not entirely convinced that his view is as dystopian as might seem on the surface. My sense is that control will likely wrestle back and forth between institutions and individuals. There’s still a lot more to play out. To use the analogy of radio. When first invented, it was absolutely two way. Only over time did its dominant use become to broadcast ‘one to many’. We haven’t even begun to understand what the Cloud means yet!

The planned debate between Smythe and Galipeau will come to fruition. Plans are afoot. Keep your eyes open!

Thanks for writing such a reflective and thoughtful piece!