I was in a discussion that other day with an excellent writer and we were talking about the biggest game-changer in the last few  years. I think it is technology, in general, not just the Internet.

Why? Because it has forced governments, companies, large associations, etc. to consider a new communication strategy. Technology, meaning cell phones, phone recording devices, computers, and the Net,  allow citizens to become reporters, editors, op-ed writers and educated observers of large events.

What does that mean? It means that large organizations can’t have just a push strategy where messaging and products are just pushed into the marketplace, or into the population. Technology allows the common citizen or customer to respond and publish what they like and what they don’t like. And in given certain circumstances these responses get wide circulation.

Case in point: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a recent widow of a British soldier killed in Afghanistan. Nice thought but he didn’t count on the technology. She recorded the conversation, and she gave him heartfelt powerful feedback about Britain’s lack of support for the soldiers in Afghanistan. He was reduced to mumbling almost inaudible responses. Well, the conversation went world-wide, landing. among other places, on CNN. Lesson here; be prepared for published feedback and have a strategy of humanity for it.

No longer can companies or governments be big clumsy entities just spewing products and messaging. Talk back is now in the millions of conversations everyday. And these conversations are filling the distribution channels.

And sometimes these conversations are filled with human emotion and awful loss.

Companies and governments must now have a voice and have the confidence to have many be a part of that voice. And have the confidence to continue the dialogue, humanely.

That’s the biggest change, in my opinion, in the last few years.