8 January 2009SOCIAL MEDIA: CITIZEN PUBLISHERS ARE CHANGING
SOCIETY AND OUR FUTURES, LEADING ANALYST SAYS
“Content Nation” Author John Blossom Sees a New Shape to
Human Civilization Emerging and Outlines New Imperatives for
Businesses and Societies Around the World
WESTPORT, CT (January 8, 2009) -- The explosion in
electronic publishing by individuals and enterprises using
social media and social networking tools is fundamentally
changing how people relate to each other in their personal,
business and community lives, according to a newly released
book by well-known publishing and information industry analyst
John Blossom.
Social media include Web 2.0-enabled self-publishing social
networking forums that create unprecedented information sharing
and collaborative links among vast self-organizing online
communities.
Blossom’s “Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social
Media Changes Our Work, Our Lives and Our Future” (Wiley;
January 2009) weaves together historical perspectives, case
studies from around the world and practical tips that
illustrate how to succeed in business, politics and society
using social media and social networking.
The book also explores how a future shaped by social media’s
non-hierarchical information flow will alter human
civilizations. “Content Nation” integrates input from social
networking activists connected through a wiki site managed by
Blossom (www.contentnation.com), the founder and president of
content industry research and executive consulting firm Shore
Communications Inc. (http://shore.com).
The book is available now through online retailers, in
bookstores and in draft form on Blossom’s Content Nation social
networking Web site.
“’Content Nation’ will help its readers understand the
immediate impact of social networking publishing tools such as
weblogs, wikis, and popular social networking sites such as
Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn so that they can survive and
thrive in challenging times,” Blossom says.
“But ‘Content Nation’ also helps people to understand how
these tools are challenging many of the fundamental assumptions
that have held together human societies. Social media’s
importance and impact in its current early stages must be
measured not just against the backdrop of traditional
electronic media but also in comparison to how people have
communicated throughout human history. Social media and social
networking are more than a challenge to today’s institutions --
they have the potential to change the very DNA of human
society.”
Early signs are there, Blossom says, pointing to how
companies are redefining their marketing strategies to deal
with the virtually limitless role of bloggers and other
bottom-up influencers, and in the success the Barack Obama
presidential campaign enjoyed in last year’s election through
its online network building.
In 2009, Blossom says, “Social media and social networking
will move front and center as a prime concern in business,
politics, government, the arts and any number of other arenas.
Social media is not a trend or fad; it is a realignment of the
essential tools of human communication that is giving new power
to individuals and institutions to change the world.”
Many existing hierarchies are being challenged, Blossom
says, with the publishing industry the most immediate and
obvious example.
“The days of exclusively top-down decision making about what
gets published or reported are over. Information and news are
now communicated horizontally from one peer to another.
Individual information consumers are able to add value through
analysis, with minimal barriers to participation. Those who
know how to take advantage of these developments will succeed
where others more tied to traditional publishing are now
failing.
“If you’re on the sidelines of social media and social
networking, your future is not bright,” Blossom says. “Adapting
to the new imperatives can help people not only to survive but
to thrive in exciting new ways that are now beginning to unfold
on a nation-like scale. The world is becoming a nation of
publishers and millions are ready to be citizens of Content
Nation.”
(Note: quotes in this news release are not taken from the
book. Please visit www.contentnation.com for the text.)
John Blossom is available for interviews and speaking
engagements. He will be a keynote presenter at this month’s
InfoVision conference in Bangalore, India (www.infovision.org.in/2009).
MEDIA CONTACT
Contact John Buckman, Buckman Communications, for Shore Communications
412.381.2900,
jbuckman@buckman.biz
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