@Bingo: high signal to noise ratio (SNR) means a good signal; low SNR is when it’s harder to distinguish signal from noise.

I got an email from a friend that just last month relocated to Mumbai… (you and rollingstop have met him, we met up with him for a drink last time I was in the tdot) on this subject:

“I’ve received a ton of emails and I thank you all for the concern – I only have time to send this one mass email to let you know that everything is fine. The attacks took place at both the hotel we were recently staying at (The Oberoi in Mumbai), and the hotel we were going to stay in for 3 months starting January (The Taj Palace in Mumbai). Fortunately, we had just left Mumbai for Delhi, and so besides all my luggage (which is still at the Oberoi, and I presume gone) … I am 100% safe and sound. We were actually supposed to go back to Mumbai yesterday, back to the Oberoi where hostages are still being held, but as luck would have it we extended our stay in Delhi by 1 day for follow-up meetings.”

Certainly, there’s a high signal to noise ratio on these media, but I would argue it’s not much different wrt initial reports from CNN or other MSM sites. Think of all the bogus, unconfirmed reports that were released immediately after the WCT was hit in 2001.

The major difference here is that MSM sites, TV news shows, etc, have a large staff of people who take the initial garbage and build anf filter until by the end of the day or the next day, you have a complete picture of what took place.

I see this sort of filtering and building starting to take place among social network users more and more organically all the time. This tech is in its youth. But it’s turning into a real force in the world of information distribution.