Dialog squared

Organizations tend to see conversations as bi-directional. By that I mean, either it's a group of people communicating, or it's someone in a position of authority - an "expert," boss  or leader of some sort - doing the talking.

I agree with Chris Anderson that thinking of business blogging as "executive blogging," betrays those thought processes. Similarly, dismissing the masses of bloggers because many of them keep online accounts of lives and events and thoughts that may not interest you or me, is likewise bi-directional.

In my view, professionals in the newspaper and television news business frequently make that mistake. They might agree that "markets are conversations," but not when it comes to the news. We're still in a world of black and white set tops.

Let me be clear, good writing and reporting still matters. It matters a lot. But for many people in the media business, one producer and two consumers, for example, are communicating if the two consumers can tell the producer what they liked or disliked, or if they offer news tips, thus creating a dialog.

But even that is limiting. Because in reality it's not a dialog or even a three-way conversation these three people are having. In reality, free to talk with anyone they choose, these three people could be engaged in a nine-way conversation, or "nonalog."

Dialog squared is a big development.