Doesn’t it actually mean the opposite of openness and transparency? Analysts and so-called experts certainly have their place, especially as collectors of data, doing the legwork so we mere mortals don’t have to spend that time. Of course, the flip side is analyst’s bias and undisclosed personal interests, including the big one — ego — which color the data they collect and results they report.

How about technology that allows users to discern patterns more easily out of that ambient stream of social media interaction constantly being recorded somewhere in the bowels of the Twittersphere? Perhaps democratizing data in that manner is a nasty trick to play on the big-shot experts; real transparency causes unexpected shifts and real downstream consequences.

On the other hand, how many users are really up to the task of researching facts to develop informed opinion? The couch potato phenomenon of narrow-mindedness extends to Twitter, Friendfeed, and any other tools du jour that might come down the road.

Thanks for raising thought provoking issues in an interesting post.

Doesn’t it actually mean the opposite of openness and transparency? Analysts and so-called experts certainly have their place, especially as collectors of data, doing the legwork so we mere mortals don’t have to spend that time. Of course, the flip side is analyst’s bias and undisclosed personal interests, including the big one — ego — which color the data they collect and results they report.

How about technology that allows users to discern patterns more easily out of that ambient stream of social media interaction constantly being recorded somewhere in the bowels of the Twittersphere? Perhaps democratizing data in that manner is a nasty trick to play on the big-shot experts; real transparency causes unexpected shifts and real downstream consequences.

On the other hand, how many users are really up to the task of researching facts to develop informed opinion? The couch potato phenomenon of narrow-mindedness extends to Twitter, Friendfeed, and any other tools du jour that might come down the road.

Thanks for raising thought provoking issues in an interesting post.