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Can There Ever be “Too Many Notes?”

Is social media a wild-and-wooly (yet ultimately self-governing) marketplace of ideas? Or, can there ever be “too much” discussion of anything…including social media itself?

A proliferation of recent articles, blog posts and other communications seem to advance the idea that “There’s too much talk about ______ ,” wherein ______ is the particular technology, brand, personality or pop culture obsession du jour the individual opining personally finds most annoying.

While there’s no doubt that such statements frequently reflect a well-founded concern about reflexive groupthink, they’re also inherently problematical. Why? Because the quality and quantity of the content people create may speak volumes about them as individuals and perhaps society, but has nothing to do with social media itself. Is this blindingly obvious, or is there a greater insight to be gained here?

Marshall McCluhan’s gone. May he rest in peace. Now, the message is the medium, not the other way around. Blogs, Twitter streams, wiki entries, Facebook pages and FriendFeeds are simply a speculum vitae, a mirror of life that reflects what millions of people, in millions of places, are thinking about at any given point in time. No more, no less.

A Shopping Spree in the Marketplace of Ideas

In the ancient world, the Agora was the public marketplace in which all manner of goods and services were exchanged, and social contracts made. In the landmark 1990’s work, The Cluetrain Manifesto, a radical, new idea emerged: Markets are Conversations.

So, if conversations between free people are the new marketplaces — the agora of ideas, if you will, then –by definition– there can never be “too much” or “too little” discussion of Barack Obama, Britney Spears, theoretical physics, standard poodles, noodle kugel or anything else.

Rather, there’s exactly as much as the conversational marketplace wants there to be, regardless of whether you, I, or any other individual is interested in any given topic at any given point in time.

That’s the very nature of public discourse in a free society. Right now, there are millions of online conversations going on, ranging from the inspired to the inane, the generic to the stupefyingly specific, and all stops in between.

So, pick one. Or several. You’ll find the conversations that are right for you. You pays your money (or not, in most cases) and you takes your choice.

That’s the beauty of the human interaction that’s enabled by social media tools and technologies.

Conversations Just Want to be Free

So, can there ever be “too much” discussion of anything, then? The answer lies in the classic confrontation scene between the Emperor Joseph II and Mozart in the film and stageplay Amadeus

If conversations are the social “music” of free peoples, then, no, there can never be “too many notes.” There are as “just as many as are required.”

Besides, if someone’s going to just “cut a few” notes, the question then arises: Who’s going to do the cutting…and just which ones did you have in mind?

Tags: "too many notes", agora, Amadeus, Barack Obama, Clay Shirky, Cluetrain, Jeffrey Jones, Manifesto, Marshall, McLuhan, message is the medium, planetrussell, self governing, self organizing, Social Media, speculum vitae, Tom Hulce, twitter, wikis

AFCEA Global Intelligence Update: 1/19/09

About this post: Below is my edited summary of John McCreary’s immensely informative and valuable, unclassified NightWatch Global Intelligence Update. NightWatch is published by AFCEA, the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Assn., of which I am a member. Past editions of NightWatch are archived here in their entirety on AFCEA’s site.

Summary: A relatively light security news night, prior to the U.S. presidential inauguraton Tuesday. More on the Israel-Gaza truce with an analysis of tactics used, along with new developments in Chad.

Highlights, by Country

North Korea (DPRK):

News services have reported no new developments related to the North’s change in readiness condition and threats against South Korea. The South Korean forces are on alert and that is likely to deter the North Koreans. The South Korean Navy is ready for a grudge match against the North off the west coast and has far superior capabilities.

Israel:

Separately, Israel and Hamas have announced temporary truces. The Israelis announced they have begun a gradual withdrawal of ground forces, but remain ready to resume the fighting. Political contests in Israel and in Gaza will replace battlefield reporting for a while.

AFCEA NightWatch Analyst McCreary supports the Strategypage.com account of the fighting.

• The Israelis were better prepared than Hamas expected.
• Hamas was caught by surprise.
• Tactics that it borrowed from Lebanese Hezbollah failed because the Hamas fighters were poorly trained, less disciplined and less dedicated.
• Most of the estimated 20,000 Hamas fighters, some of whom were Iranian trained, ran away rather than fight the Israelis.
• Israel appears to have damaged Hamas physically and psychologically.

Israel fought as if it were a war, which it was, and imposed damage in that context. That means the Israelis declined to fight according to terms set by the UN or Hamas propaganda. The result is that 13 Israeli soldiers died, four from friendly fire, and more than 1,300 Arabs died.

The effects are likely to be temporary, depending on whether Israel and its friend can prevent resupply of Hamas. Moreover, Hamas leaders remain determined to destroy Israel. Rocket attacks will continue, but Israel might have found a formula for administering behavioral modification techniques to the Palestinians in Gaza again and again, until they conclude Hamas is not their best choice for local leaders. Hamas leaders failed the Palestinians. The Israelis won this round.

Chad:

Leaders from Chad’s eight main rebel groups have signed an agreement to join together in an alliance called the Union of Resistance Forces, Agence France-Presse reported today, citing rebel leader Ali Gueddei. General Mahamat Nouri, leader of one of the eight groups, said the alliance is a “big step” toward the goal of toppling Chadian President Idriss Deby’s government. Expect another series of raids against capital city N’Djamena.