But there is another manifestation of plastic that is becoming interesting to watch. Debuting as the name of a news and opinion reservoir, the site www.plastic.com turns the whole idea of news on its head. This isn’t another formal ‘gatekeeper’ who sets the news agenda. We are so accustomed to news emanating from a corporate source (a media organization) that anything less than that seems anarchistic and absurd,. But stick with me for a moment. If we accept the fact what we read, listen to, or watch is an edited material passed through a series of filters we call editors, then news is nothing but the product of editorial choices. The page-layout people or the video editors then place it in different slots, assigning it a priority. What gets placed on page-1 in one newspaper may be buried in an inside page in another. This ‘anarchy’ does not reveal itself when the news organizations are limited but the news consumers are unlimited. Mass consumption of information doesn’t allow us to analyze these choices.

But in the networked economy, there can arguably be as many senders as there are recipients. Information is no longer scarce. The smartest media organizations and the savviest marketers have tapped into this reality. News is no longer what ‘we tell them’ but what ‘they share with us’. Marketing communication is following close on its heels, in order not to be left out.

At plastic.com there is a constant stream of information being shared by visitors. The site acknowledges that the model is "somewhere between anarchy and hierarchy".

It bills itself as "a live collaboration between the Web's smartest readers and the Web's smartest editors, a place to suggest and discuss the most worthwhile news, opinions, rumors, humor, and anecdotes online."

But what if these opinions and anecdotes are baseless or bizarre? Before you dismiss this as a short-lived online phenomenon, consider the equally inane rag sheets, the ‘supermarket tabloids’ in the US (the kind that report Elvis sightings) and their sensational cousins in London (the kind that obsess with Prince William). More than a news phenomenon, Plastic.com is an example of the blurring of lines between sender and receiver, publisher and audience. Producers and consumers of content are immersed in the same meme pool.

Similar sites are sprouting up, most notably around commerce. These are tomorrow’s ‘communities’ made up of those who have been marginalized and ignored. The implications for marketing are mind boggling in such online communities oozing with opinion. The grand-daddy of these was Epinions.com, a site that was spun off from the early, primitive online communities called Newsgroups. One visit will convince you that there is no shortage of people here willing to share their thoughts on anything from analgesics to off-road vehicles. These are not necessarily people ranting about their pet hates, but people who come to contribute ideas as an alternative to the nonsense spewing out in the name of brand advertising. Want to write to General Electric about an appliance that is malfunctioning? You have convenient links, plus a way to rate your input from a scale of Furious, Annoyed, Neutral, Pleased and Thrilled!

Consider a ‘story’ posted on the site that claims that "Nintendo has denied allegations that Pokemon is offensive to Islamic culture and promotes Zionism." This was an opinion based on the banned Pepsi consumer promotion in Saudi Arabia. No amount of PR can spin itself around the story like that, especially when the crisis is past. What’s worse, the postings remain and multiply. Remember the whole basis of Plastic.com is ‘recycled news’, so even though the topic may be stale, the audience is infinite.

So it’s not the mainstream media that is scratching their heads as to how to cope. Brand experts are advising their clients to engage in two-way channels of communication and tap into the feedback that customers have never been really encouraged to give. Take the Firestone crisis. Many people died because Firestone refused admit a serious tread flaw. The result? Consumers took over, forming their own networks, sharing information that Firestone could no longer control. Suddenly the ‘informed sources’ (PR people) who once controlled the ‘gatekeepers’ (editors), or those who managed product information (brand managers) were not in control. If there is a lesson for us, it’s this: channels can no longer be controlled by those with the biggest budget. Also cropping up are private portals and a phenomenon called ‘Blogs’ (short for ‘Web Logs’). Your employees may finally have a way to get back at the Gestapo who run your Human Resources department. That customer you just ticked off may be spreading the horror story of the customer service fiasco you chose to ignore. It’s a hyperlinked world, after all.