We the Media is a book written by Dan Gillmor, published in 2004 by O'Reilly (). Gillmor discusses how the proliferation of grassroots internet journalists (bloggers) has changed the way news is handled. One of the book's main points is that a few and productionof media. Gillmor believes the aggressive use of copyrighting in America is a cause for the lack of creativity and innovation in the states. For this reason, he has his book published for free under a creative commons. The Blogs and Beyond "Big Media" has increased availability of news reception. Major broadcasting companies no longer have the mass influence over users it once had. News is now more of a conversation. News has more choices, voices, perspectives, and options. "Big Media's" only strength is its depleting stocks of financial resources and their powerful presence during copyright investigations. Early social innovators, like Thomas Paine and other early American pamphleteers and muckrakers, set the stage for successive media revolutions. The most significant being worldwide, low-cost access to internet and having their own say about what is happening in the world. Ch. 2: The Read-Write Web David Winer developed user friendly software that would allow most people with a computer to be able to write on the web. People no longer needed an ISP account or be an expert with HTML to create web pages. With this new technology anyone could subscribe to the content of others. In the past 150 years there were two major means of communication: one to many, and one to one. Winer's software changed this. Today there is the addition of many to many or few to few. We use SMS for time sensitive alerts, text messages, and information. Publishing is easy with RSS. It allows the public to both blog about and keep up with current events, commentary, personals, and businesses. The internet makes the amateur the professional. There is no reliance on limited sources because the public can access information and receive events in real time. Ch. 3: The Gates Come Down The power of big Media’s ability to advertise and conceal news or information with the rest of the world is dwindling on the brink of a new era. This grassroots media era is what’s essentially in effect here. The power of the common people united in a “truth squad" is at an all-time high. They are able to gather and