Everybody is doing it, even the president. Technology and social media are playing a big role in global, national, and local news and events. In the meantime, big companies and a generation of old-timers are trying to figure “it” out.

The fine folks at www.research-live.com recently posted an email debate titled “Tracking online word-of-mouth: The people vs machines debate.” This debate featured Mike Daniels of Report International arguing the pro-human side and Mark Westaby of Metrica arguing the pro-machine side.
This is a great debate and is definitely worth checking out, along with Nathan Gilliatt’s response. [...]