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The Mesh Conference, in it’s seventh year, hit Toronto once again this month, where attendees were able to hobnob with some of the best and brightest minds of social media.

Martin Waxman attended the conference and caught up with David Weinberger, the author of Cluetrain Manifesto and Too Big to Know. They discussed networked knowledge, which is a contrast to book-based knowledge we’re accustomed to having most of our lives.

Weinberger brings up a great point about knowledge. It used to be that knowledge had to be settled enough that it fit between the two covers of a book. There was no jumping out of the book, on to the web, to get more information, to have debates, disagreements, or even confirm what we were thinking after having read a particular book.

We used to think knowledge could be mastered, but now we’ve come to realize it’s linked and messy and contradictory. We tend towards media the confirms our beliefs, which creates an echo chamber and it also makes us more extreme in our stances.

Moving from books to the web happens every day. In fact, Joe Thornley has been talking about this for a couple of years, when he discusses how long-form reading is slowing down as we read smaller stories, essays, blog posts, and articles so we can bounce around the web to learn more about what the author is theorizing.

The interview goes into this further. Listen on to learn more!

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.