In a blinding flash, Stephen Dale reminds us that It's not the (social networking) technology - it's the people that matter.
I know this is a very contentious thing to say, but you don't need online social networking tools to engage with citizens. You could - for example - talk and listen to them (an ancient craft, dating back several millennia, but rapidly falling into disrepute). [snip]
The blinding light of Web 2.0 hype seems to be obscuring the fact that the most important aspect in building any community (of interest or practice or whatever) is the people and NOT the technology. [snip]
There isn't much more to say here, other than that I like the way he put this piece together. And I note that I have a "technology" category and NOT a "people" category on this blog. Though many of the other categories have much more to do with how people or companies work than how technology works. so there!