Of all the communication models out there, it should be no surprise to anyone who knows my computing background that I prefer the networked model.

In 2002 I made two trips to Russia to teach MBAs at Moscow University Touro. You can read about my early January trip, “Christmas trees in the Kremlin,”  in Rowan University’s magazine. I returned in November of the same year to teach an e-commerce class, where we got into a discussion of how Internet technology has facilitated the growth and speed of feedback loops.

To illustrated to the class the power of feedback loops, I described how the development of accurate feeding technology (see the sidebar below) depended on the microprocessor, which in turn depended on the ability of feedback loops to provide timely data on what’s happening outside the feeder.

- Todd Van Hoosear, who focuses on business communications for Topaz Partners. Van Hoosear previously worked for Weber Shandwick Worldwide, leading the team that handled the North American launch of CMG Wireless Data Solutions. Todd is scheduled to post tomorrow.

- Steven King, senior advisor at the Institute for the Future and a partner at the early stage advisory firm Emergent Research. Steve has more than 20 years of industry experience and has held a number of senior corporate general management and marketing roles, including Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Macromedia, Vice President and General Manager Asia-Pacific for Lotus Development Corporation, and Vice President of Marketing for Isys Corporation. We'll look for Steven's post Thursday.

The revolution in micro media feels to me a lot like the original rush to the Internet back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. So it's enlightening, I think, to talk with those who were at the vanguard at that time, when CompuServe was our main means of online collaboration and no one had heard of Mosaic.

Consider this wiki-based Q&A with Dave Lakhani, president of Bold Approach in Boise, Idaho, who was a sysop for CompuServe's PR & Marketing Forum, also known as "PRSIG."

"The most important thing that can be learned from the CompuServe experience and applied today in my opinion is that there is tremendous power in web based groups," Dave writes.

"Allowing people a place to hang their hat where they are surrounded by like-minded friends and the occasional rabble rouser creates a whole new sense of connectedness and synergy . . . one that often results in publicity, education and yes profit."