graceified

The key with a network search is to not make it too broad by trying to search an entire network and not make it too narrow by using too many parameters. Experimentally it has been shown that two or three parameters is enough to perform an efficient search. Any more than that and we will most probably exclude valuable network paths that could lead us to our destination efficiently. (See Social Search) This issue will come to the fore as digital marketing becomes more pervasive.

Just because we can exclude people doesn’t mean we should. We’ll need to be careful not to over-target.

Robert McChesney:

The problem with the Internet is that there is no evidence yet that there’s going to be, through the marketplace, anywhere near the resources to generate the number of paid journalists that comes remotely close to what we’ve expected in this country in the past and what we need to make self-government journalism work. The number of paid journalists who make their income today through Internet journalism probably could fit into a small room. It’s simply an almost nonexistent number: the number that earn it through the marketplace and are not bankrolled by some foundation. And if you add in the ones who are bankrolled by foundations, the number goes up to maybe 50 people. The idea that this number is going to expand to 100,000 people in our lifetimes is preposterous. All these organizations are scrambling for money. The truth of the matter is that journalism is a public good. It’s one of those things that the market cannot satisfy. And the fact that advertising came along and supported it for 100 years and provided all its resources gave us the illusion that it was a market-driven phenomenon. Advertisers don’t need journalism. They’ve jumped ship, and they’re not coming back. So, if it’s a public good, we can’t count on the market, any more than the market will give us national parks, or national defense, or public education.