Using the traditional definition, a prism separates white light into a spectrum of colors. The “white light” in this case, is the focused stream of conversations that are often grouped, but not separated by voice, context, source, or outcome. We take this beam of dialog and blast it into a spectrum of discernible light, let’s call it enlightenment (i.e. to see, hear, learn and adapt). We quite literally bring conversations to light. Used figuratively, it references the clarification or distortion afforded by a particular viewpoint. For example, “We view conversations across the networks through the prism of our social dashboard.”

Each shade of color represents an entirely unique reflection of light, meaning separating context and intention by network. Today’s social realities require that we envision, organize, and understand that conversations take place in communities that we don’t yet realize … far beyond Facebook and Twitter.

The Age of ‘Social Media’ Context

The social landscape is evolving with increasing acceleration.

As you can see throughout every iteration of The Conversation Prism, the number of networks that vanish and emerge is staggering. But more importantly, the nature and focus of how social networks are used is also dramatic in its changes.

In some cases we see the move to smaller or more concentrated networks and at the same time the visual “social” web is becoming more pervasive. We are moving into an era of context where what we share, how we interact and how we form relationships is moving away from a general social graph to a distributed yet organized network defined by shared interests.

The Conversation Prism Poster is available for sale, here.