How information travels- Shelly Palmer

"Far from being in the control of the realm, information now displays many of the characteristics we attribute to living things. It is born, it evolves, it eats, it excretes, it mutates--but, interestingly, it can no longer die. This was true on a small scale even before the "great unwashed" learned to blog.

• However, this is the first time in history that an idea (good or bad, true or false) can travel worldwide instantaneously and live on with a permanent, un-erasable, record of itself. Burn all the books you like, the knowledge lives on in the ether.

The most interesting attribute of BlogMobs is the way they self-assemble. These swarms of ideas evolve into points-of-view and then metamorphose and mutate into the next phase of their existence--gaining or losing the power to influence their audience. It is a fascinating twist on our ability to communicate and, for organizations that rely on central control (like governments and corporations), it is not necessarily a good thing.

• Perhaps the legacy of RSS (Really Simple Syndication--the specification which enables blogging) will be the empowerment of a true Fifth Estate with a collective mind of its own and the ability to amplify the voice of the people above all others. Which begs the question: "Can any traditionally organized government withstand an ideological force of this magnitude?""

From article by Shelly Palmer, "BlogMobs--The Attack of the 5th Estate," 6/29/06, linked from his article, "Imus in a Techno-Political World," 4/20/06 in The Huffington Post.

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