Yes... there are rules and norms to this...

I love Clay Shiry's quote here:

"Shirky describes this generational shift in terms of pidgin versus
Creole. “Do you know that distinction? Pidgin is what gets spoken when
people patch things together from different languages, so it serves
well enough to communicate. But Creole is what the children speak, the
children of pidgin speakers. They impose rules and structure, which
makes the Creole language completely coherent and expressive, on par
with any language. What we are witnessing is the Creolization of media.”"

This is what a lot of people who aren't "of this world" don't get...  the advertisers, the brands, the agencies, and even some of the social networks themselves...   you can't just throw any crap up and say, "Come and create" or "tag this" or "be my friend" and expect the dollars to start flowing. 

Few people really want to learn the culture, which every international businessperson will tell you is probably more important than just learning the language.


links for 2007-02-07

9 Degrees