FRONTLINE: digital nation: watch the full program. I wanted to wait a bit because it seemed like it'd be more interesting to listen to all of you.
There used to be a name for what I was doing, "lurking" -- it dates back to a very different time in the net's history, when usenet and mailing lists were the main forms of communication. It was hard to talk about lurkers then, for the obvious reason that no one knew much about them; it hasn't gotten much easier since. The idea of lurkers has all but vanished now, buried by a succession of ways to try and slice and dice them: "eyeballs," pageviews, users, subscribers, friends, followers, etc, etc. I think these changes are relevant in this context because Doug's initial questions put a lot of emphasis on expression: participation and activism on the one hand, and a concern that "social networks" (as if there were any other kind) might be diminishing the quality of people's engagement, on the other.
That's good and bad. Digital Storytelling. Tell A Story in 5 Frames - Kids.