Stephen Downes

So I think everything Anil Dash says here is right, but it's wrong. What's right? Like I said, everything: he's describing how to create a message that will reach everyone it needs to reach, with enough fidelity that they can understand it and act on it. This means (among other things) that the people who receive the message will have to be able to talk about you without you. You know - they way I'm talking about Anil Dash right now. He has no input; it's all on me, but it's his message being spread. So where is it wrong? Well - if everybody does this, we'll just drown in clearly communicated messages that everyone can understand. The very idea of sending a message to 'everybody' doesn't scale. Despite what Dash says, if enough people are doing it, it is impossible to spread a message at scale without the resources. That's why even today with a global communications system anyone can use we're still drowning is corporate slop and advertising.