In the final days of SXSW control was the topic, during “Open Knowledge vs. Controlled” moderated by Francesca Rodriquez of Creative Commons with panelists Robert Capps from Wired, Brett Gaylor Filmmaker from Open Source Cinema, Hemai Parthasarathy Managing Editor from PLoS and Gil Penchina CEO of Wikia explored how transparent technology, community sharing and collective information.

Do Encyclopedia’s go away? Does collective intelligence drive better thinking, or sacrifice scientific discipline and journalistic integrity? This was some of the planned banter, but the more interesting moments came when an icon of technology culture shared in a little group therapy.

It’s a bit of a paradox to see a technology “bible” like Wired come clean to admit it’s own struggles with the new world of participative journalism.  It can’t be easy being at the fulcrum of the new media v’s old media evolution. 

After diving in headfirst to allow consumer involvement in story development, Wired mag struggled, and clearly are more comfortable in the “one way” creation space. Seeing more more bad outcomes then good with its CGM experiment, negative comments, unproductive participation, and less than “standard” journalistic content left a bad taste.

With some healthy advice from Wikia chief Gil Penchina, there was the subtle reminder that Wired is playing in space they are not known for, out of the comforts of the precise and controlled publishing environment. Even their biggest fans viewed their tentative steps into participative media as the move of a follower, and with a critical eye. The result; looking like the egocentric professor that asks for student thinking, only to ignore it or use it as point to wax further on the philosophical soapbox. Less participative learning or collaboration, more (even if it wasn’t intended) condescending in tone.

The learning for any of us that are on more of the “traditional” side of the equation, is to be wary. “Bandwagonism”, jumping on the latest trend can hurt as much as it can help. For Brands that so desperately want in on this growing space of Consumer Generated Content and Community, the learning curve can be painful. Forcing our ideas to move into CGC or Community just to check it off the list of campaign needs, can backfire as easily as it can help your consumer embrace your risk taking innovation. Without a commitment to transparency and dialogue, well… why bother. Ultimately, it is about Trust…trusting people with your brand, and opening your brand up to people to allow for a relationship that goes the beyond the trend, or the one sided message. CGM is not a campaign, it’s a conversation.