Why should we monitor today’s shift from top-down information flows to more horizontal sharing?

• Gain knowledge of the concept of open source software
• Gain knowledge of the value and use of web-based and computer-based communication and collaboration tools, including everything Google
• Gain knowledge of collaborating via systems-based thinking including Thomas Friedman’s  10 Flatteners concepts
• Gain knowledge of value and use of Twitter as a social networking tool
• Gain knowledge of the value and use of RSS feeds for news distribution
• Gain knowledge of the value and use of podcasting as a communications medium, using free tools such as Audacity
• Gain knowledge of weblogs (such as Triple Pundit) and their value in communicating and sharing news and opinions on current topics

Why should you know all this?  To know how information works, plus to strengthen your personal identity and brand. And here’s more about how to build your own website for free on wordpress.

These brief summaries will help out with projects:  Google docs;  Twitter Search, and Augmented Reality.

More good links:  The 10 Best Mashups on the Web plus Mashup Awards  (Love Twittervision , Mapdango, Overstock, Pubwalk, Strawpoll, TonightRadio, TwitterVenn, Umbrella Today, Woozer);  Why social media/flash-mobs/meet-ups are important:– A recent example about Target; Things like NMap, which posted this graph of the world’s most popular websites.

Credit:  Some of these topics are updated materials from a Summer 2010 MPA course co-taught with Eric LePage, tech brainiac at Bridgewater State University.