Love From The Nation

[I love writing for the youth journo mag WireTap. They give me free rein on subject matter, and have a cool syndication with The Nation. Here's my recent spiel on the thorny roots of social networking. -- ST]

Who Owns Whom? Social Networking's Corporate Roots
[Scott Thill, The Nation]
You'll have to turn elsewhere if you want to keep corporate influence from social networking.

As the Facebook controversy proves, the best place to start is the social network itself. While it may feel imbalanced to use Murdoch to fight Murdoch or use Microsoft to fight Microsoft, it has been proven to be somewhat effective. After all, you drop a quarter or half billion dollars for something, you want that investment to at least retain if not gain value. And that doesn't happen when your consumers are fleeing to the next social networking site, which seems to pop up with more regularity than before.

In the end, it may feel imbalanced. But the playing field is perhaps more level than ever... MORE @ THE NATION