Link: How we read online. - By Michael Agger - Slate Magazine. The answer appears to be yes. I recently participated in panel discussion at RealComm entitled: "The Future of IT: Social Networking & Beyond." The question that I took the lead on was "How should an organization get started with social networking?" The answers had to be brief given the amount of time we had and the space that we wanted to cover. I suggested the following four strategies (
to be done in no particular order):
- Have a clearly defined business objective
- Get in the game
- Fail Fast
- Have Some Fun
Obviously there was brief commentary provided to support each bullet but perhaps I should have added "learn to write for the online reader" as a fifth? What often gets lost is that the Internet is both a new medium and a new community to the uninitiated. To participate effectively is akin to learning a foreign language and a foreign culture. Both are non-trivial tasks. Just because you know how to "surf" does not mean you "grok" the Internet.
Articles such as the one in the link provide anecdotal (and some empirical) evidence that indeed the "foreign language" analogy is not such a stretch. It is a brave new world out there on these Internet(s). One final thought, keep in mind that you are writing not only for the online reader, but also for the machine.
The singularity happens while you are planning for the future...
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