Professor Aaron Barlow On 'The Rise Of ePluribus Media'

Aaron Barlow, "assistant professor of English at New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn, New York," USA,  has a February 27, 2007, post at newassignment.net headlined "The Rise ePluribus Media -- A Horizontal Network of Journalists. Notes Barlow:

"There’s a certain efficiency in vertical organizations. Decisions can be made quickly. Channels of responsibility can be clearly defined—”the buck stops here.” If you want to get something done, and quickly, a vertical model will generally prove more useful than any other we humans have yet to develop."

Barlow, whose book “Rise of the Blogosphere” will be published in April 2007, adds:

At the other extreme is the completely horizontal organization, with no command structure — all decisions come through the group as a whole. Town-meeting governance, for example, works this way. The most obvious drawback of a horizontal structure is that its very nature can impede resolution.

According to Barlow, ePluribus Media is an example of an organization "that tries to use the horizontal possibilities of the Web to create a different type of news organization."

While Barlow's piece is thought=provoking and worthy of consideration, it's not surprising that he thinks highly of ePluribus Media. If he didn't see it as organization with possibilities I doubt he'd still be on its board of directors. I recommend his article.