Conversation about the book continues to build as we recover from our Chicago party and gear up for the next bash in New York on Thursday:

• Our old digs—In These Times—excerpted the book’s “Beyond Pale, Male and Stale” chapter.
• Over at RH Reality Check, feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte interviewed Tracy about the importance of the netroots for the weekly “Reality Cast” podcast
• Leonard Doyle of UNFree Media considers the international implications of the media models we describe. “Beyond the Echo Chamber has the potential to change the US national conversation about progressive media and the future of journalism and it has lessons too for the world outside,” he writes. “Britain’s newspapers are so loud and opinionated that they [leave] little room for bloggers to stand out. But by sneering at participatory media, these outlets risk being left behind by emerging players.The same is true around the world where online media is still relatively in its infancy and progressive journalists, bloggers, producers, activists, readers, and policymakers are only now emerging.”
• On MediaShift, I suggest how our model of the four network layers might help media makers understand how to better evaluate the impact of their work.

We wrote the book to spark conversations about media strategy and evaluation, so it’s exciting to see people taking up our ideas and grappling with them. Stay tuned for more feedback!

Over the past week we’ve been featuring a series of visualizations that examine how media makers can work with various layers of networks to increase their impact. These layers include:

• Networked users
• Self-organized networks
• Institutional Networks
• Networks of Institutions

For our last visualization, we’re taking a closer look at how outlets can engage and collaborate with users at every stage of production, from conceptualization to distribution to evaluation.
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Hello again! We’re on the third layer of our Four Layers of Networks taken from our book Beyond The Echo Chamber where we are not only defining, but visualizing how media makers can interact with each of these networked layers for maximum impact. So far we’ve described and visualized the first two layers:

• Networked users: See Monday’s post.
• Self-organized networks: See Tuesday’s post.

The next two layers move from ad hoc networks to more durable and deliberately organized networks.

• Institutional Networks
• Networks of Institutions

Today, we zero in on “Institutional Networks.

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As we noted yesterday, we’re proud and excited to be releasing a series of visualizations that bring to life our theory of the “Four Layers of Networks” that journalists and media organizations must strategically integrate into their planning for maximum impact.

Those four layers are:

• Networked users
• Self-organized networks
• Institutional Networks
• Networks of Institutions

Today, we tackle “Networked Users.”
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Welcome to our new online home! Why did we change the site’s name from “Build the Echo” to “Beyond the Echo”? When we started our research in 2005, it was all the rage to talk about how progressive media needed “infrastructure”–an echo chamber to mirror and combat the right’s noise machine. Over the past four years of our research, writing and organizing, we’ve come to believe that progressive media’s impact and success depends on moving “beyond the echo chamber” to a collaborative, networked model of reporting and community building.

Speaking of our reporting and research, we are excited to announce that February 9, 2010 is the publication date for our first book book, Beyond The Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media. (You can start ordering it now!) In January we will release a series of new visualizations that illustrate our theory (outlined in the book) of the “four network layers” that media outlets must strategically integrate into their planning to shape and distribute their content for maximum impact. Here’s a hint! These include:

• Networked Users
• Self-Organized Networks
• Institutional Networks
• Networks of Institutions

Aren’t you intrigued already?

In the meantime this site will build upon the book’s theories of strategic impact, feature the latest news and trends related to the future of journalism and track the latest high-impact media projects. Watch this space for news about our book tour, tidbits from the book and more. We invite you to comment, offer suggestions about related stories and projects for us to cover, and join us as we continue to follow the intersection of media, politics and change.