We Want to Talk to Each Other!

I've been thinking more about the interview with Rachel Dreztin about FRONTLINE's Digital Nation project, and a comment I made during the interview about the video stories that anyone can upload to the site.  I told Rachel I thought it amazing that we can contribute in this way to the project, but that I wanted to communicate directly with those who'd posted the videos (or slideshows or audio).  (I tried to post a video this week but it hasn't made it up there yet--not sure why.)  The real sense of engagement will come when we can talk to each other there.  I sense that there hasn't been as much contribution on the site as the Rachel and the staff would have liked, and I think it's largely due to their maintaining the "gatekeeper" role.  "We provide you with content and you provide us with content"is still a hierarchical relationship and doesn't release the latent energy that is available when we can talk to each other.