Ed Brill

In case you've been hiding under a rock, I've been intermittently blogging about an impressive book called We the Media by Dan Gillmor. (Part 1 Part 2 Part 3)
One last quote from the book:

...[W]e must all recognize that the rules for newsmakers, not just journalists, have changed, thanks to everyone's ability to make the news. ...
Newsmakers need to understand that the swirling eddies of news are not tiny pools on the shoreline.  Information is an ocean, and newsmakers can no longer control the tide as easily as they once did.
So they must face at least three new rules of public life.
First, outsiders of all kinds can probe more deeply into newsmakers' businesses and affairs.  They can disseminate what they learn more widely and more quickly.  And it's never been easier to organize like-minded people to support, or denounce, a person or cause.  The communications-enabled grassroots is a formidable truth squad.
Second, insiders are part of the conversation.  Information no longer leaks.  It gushes, through firewalls and other barriers, via instant messages, emails, and phone calls.
Third, what gushes forth can take on a life of its own, even if it's not true.

This sums up the whole book for me.  Sure, in addition to what I've covered in previous parts, there are some interesting other thoughts. Gillmor passionately describes the issues associated with the near-monopolies over communications pipes and bandwidth that broadband providers and governments have, and why that might be a [bigger] issue for content in the future.  He suggests ways to embrace our new power responsibly and carefully -- discussing legal issues such as libel, censorship, etc.  And he offers a slew of resources for more information on topics covered in the book.
One powerful realization for me in all of this -- Lotus Notes, or more broadly Lotus software, is squarely in the middle of how social software is changing the media landscape.  This shoudln't be a surprise -- Lotus's collaboration features can be broadly applied to any type of communication.  But just think how impressive it is that weblogs, instant messaging, RSS, Wikis -- Notes/Domino has provided an extensible architecture and foundation for all of these modern tools for collaboration.  None of these were even a gleam in Ray Ozzie's eye, but yet we have blog templates, wikis, RSS readers, and instant messaging all as part of the core Notes/Domino services today.  We have built a community around adopting these tools to modern applications -- both outside and inside the firewalls of our organizations.  Thank you for your part in the continuing evolution of this incredible technology platform.

Oh, one last note -- Gillmor also embraced one other aspect of this new world in publishing his book.  He used a Creative Commons license, which allows for redistribution of the book's contents as long as it is non-commerical and attributed.  Christopher Byrne took Gillmor up on this, and created a Notes database containing the contents of the book.  Bruce Elgort and the OpenNTF team have made the NSF of "We the Media" available for download.  So, you don't even have to buy the book to learn its valuable lessons -- just click and download.  Awesome.  
I look forward to reading more reviews or comments about this book!  Let me know how it has impacted your thinking.