There are great technical entrepreneurs out there, and there are great policy people who really care about the net, but the two groups don't communicate as well as they should. Yesterday I was at a policy group meeting that was dedicated (in part) to discussing how to communicate with the "online community." And one person there said, "What's Slashdot?"
It's not a big deal, not knowing what Slashdot is. But this moment shows we've got a gap of sorts. We're at a turning point in the history of the internet, and the techies and the policy people need to meet up.
Today at the vloggercon lunchbreak, I witnessed another sort of gap. Someone's mother called. The person who answered the phone took the phone from his ear and handed it to a friend across the table. "Here," he said, "explain to my mother what this conference is about." The person across the table gamely took the challenge, introducing herself to the mom on the phone and doing her best to explain the video blogging phenomenon. But I wasn't listening closely, because I was laughing too hard.
Mind the gap. We've all got a lot of learning to do.
(thanks to Mary Hodder for this post title)