Is it possible that the nature of user's attention has changed, and continues to change in reaction to a change in communication brought about by social networks? I'm trying to dive into more in-depth, research backed positions about some of the key issues that have been bothering me. I'm using my background to find empirical information, rather than rely on anecdotal evidence. Most of the articles I read in other blogs on this subject rely on anecdotal evidence: increases in spam, increased search eliminating the need to know (when you can look up)  read more »

When users control the conversation, there is an interesting tendency for the elevation of users as experts based on contribution. If there is one thing I've learned about the Drupal community over the years, and in my years working around and in Open Source communities for years before that, it's this: contribution and presence are the basis of community capital; or, in short: contribution is social capital.  read more »