OPEN

So says Clive Thompson quoted by Chris Anderson, of Wired / Long Tail fame in a post titled: Totally Transparent Transparency (AKA: Get quoted in Wired!).

The post is the most important thing I have read in a while. Sent shivers up my spine.

He’s talking about an article being written for Wired at the moment by Clive Thompson with three themes:

• Secrecy is dead
• Tap the hivemind
• Reputation is everything

Last year I penned a series of “provocations” about what the shift from channel / industrial media to online networks would mean for brand and corporate communications (see below). One effect I noted was the shift from Chatham House to Glass house  rules in communications.

I was thinking mainly about media relations – no more back room deals between PRs and journos about what will and won’t be published, no more stashing the story in the Fleet Street safe, no more open secrets about public figures discussed at dinner parties by those in the know but kept away from “the public” (an almost derogatory term for some in those political, business and media elites, certainly an expression of other-ness). Now, in an age of personal publishing and open networks you have to work with the presumption that – if it is interesting – the truth is much more likely to out than be kept out of sight.

This new transparency is good for communications, media, business and society as a whole – but it will require some re-thinking of how we conduct ourselves and where we expect the line of private and public to be drawn in all areas of out lives.

Really looking forward to reading the article. Clive Thompson has an open call for participation in putting the article together. Best check that out…