In 1993, I made the Minneapolis Star Tribune one of the world's first newspapers with an Internet connection. The goal wasn't to publish online. It was to facilitate reporting online, especially reporting that might involve collaboration with others. I knew how powerful such a simple tool as email could be.
Deborah Potter describes how CBS News called upon its affiliates to collaborate on a story on gas pump ripoffs:
"For the first time, the network enlisted the help of reporters at local affiliates in reporting an investigative story and featured those reporters on the CBS Evening News."
A network ... behaving like a network. Brilliant!
So, why isn't there more of this happening?