As our world goes flat

Part of the interest of this moment is the speed with which communication vehicles are changing. It's not just print vs. digital, but a broader spectrum of possibilities. They make communication a flatter proposition within firms - more "open source." As this happens, who is "us"? That's going to be harder to decide. "People under 30 make no distinction between work and the rest of life," Rick Klau said at the panel I attended. "People over 30 do." As those boundaries disappear, the top-down nature of communications will at least have to coexist with grassroots offerings. Some design firms are sanctioning blogs (and twittering), while others just let it happen. My sense is that both approaches have their purposes. Experimenting seems valid, too. People should try things out. The main danger is looking silly. And except possibly for adolescents, that's not life-threatening.