Thread by @jeffjarvis

One more thing, @esglaude. (Uh-oh.) I thank you for your help in writing a section of my book on the mass and publics. I turned to your paper on Dewey and African American Publics. 1/
philpapers.org/rec/GLATPO-8

You sought "means & methods of organizing an emergent public” for “the complex experiences that inform the varied political commitments & interests of African Americans... through new information & communication technologies, in intelligent and meaningful interaction w/others” 2/

That helped me bring Dewey, Lippmann, & James Carey together with two books that in turn helped me much: @cmcilwain's Black Software & @DocDre's Distributed Blackness. They chronicle what you sought. 3/

.@cmcilwain's brilliant oral history shows the efforts to build community apart from the mass and how it was too often thwarted by the power structure and privilege still in place in the young net. 4/
amazon.com/Black-Software…

.@DocDre's brilliant exploration of success in building such a community is, coincidentally, an illustration of what I argue about #230's enablement of free conversation and community. 5/
amazon.com/Distributed-Bl…

A net that is controlled by old powers--companies, government--is one that will not allow these complex communities and relationships to flourish. I do not defend Facebook, Twitter, Google; I defend the public conversation they allow from such control. 6/

So, @esglaude, thank you for your wisdom and thank you for asking. /fin