Beyond Blogs

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article about a report on the fasting growing Internet sites over the past year. The report found that traffic generally has flattened on the Internet, but that certain sites are growing dramatically. The growth sites are the so-called "social networking" sites, like MySpace and Blogger (the site that hosts this particular blog).

Any thoughts about what this all has to do with issues management? I hope it calls to mind a point I think I made earlier in the course that the Internet's most popular and compelling feature these days is its ability to make offline connections. Contrary to a previous fear that the Internet would create a generation of houseplants, people alone in their basements banging away on keyboards anonymously, some with evil intent, the Internet is bringing people together.

We have a new public square that knows no geographic boundaries. What does that mean for those seeking to influence public policy using communications techniques?