Lateral media can be seen as any specific technology to promote lateral communication

Lateral communication

-Organizational communication:In organizations and organisms, lateral communication works in contrast to traditional top-down, bottom-up or hierarchic communication and involves the spreading of messages from individuals across the base of a pyramid....

. A grapevine

Grapevine (gossip)

To hear something through the grapevine is to learn of something informally and unofficially by means of gossip and rumor.The usual implication is that the information was passed person to person by word of mouth, perhaps in a confidential manner among friends or colleagues. It can also imply an...

 is in effect lateral communication but is not necessarily a lateral media if there is no technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

. We then can consider informal help networks, email circulation lists, Information Routing Groups, even the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 as a lateral media. Lateral media assists lateral communication

Lateral communication

-Organizational communication:In organizations and organisms, lateral communication works in contrast to traditional top-down, bottom-up or hierarchic communication and involves the spreading of messages from individuals across the base of a pyramid....

 and the transmission of tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...

 in contrast to Central media

Central media

Central media were defined in the book The IRG Solution - hierarchical incompetence and how to overcome it and were those media which repeatedly broadcast a single identical message to many recipients such as mass media magazines and specialist technical and scientific journals...

 which cannot.

Various of the great Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

 figures could be seen as lateral mediarists in that they wrote and copied ideas amongst the great thinkers of that era, a bit like the Internet but slower and on parchment. The Lunar Men or Lunar Society

Lunar Society

The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...

 were a classic Lateral Media of the 19th century, bringing together scientists, engineers, chemists, and manufacturers leading to many technical and social innovations.

The Internet is largely a lateral media, and likewise Information Routing Groups (IRGs) which are specifically designed to promote lateral communication

Lateral communication

-Organizational communication:In organizations and organisms, lateral communication works in contrast to traditional top-down, bottom-up or hierarchic communication and involves the spreading of messages from individuals across the base of a pyramid....

.

See also

• Delphi technique
• Hierarchical incompetence
  Hierarchical incompetence
  Hierarchical incompetence is the often observed inability of organisations to achieve the aims set for them. This can be due to the over-simplification of issues and the loss of tacit knowledge about issues as they ascend a hierarchical organization.There is often an inbuilt tendency for people up...
  
  
• Hierarchical organization
  Hierarchical organization
  A hierarchical organization is an organizational structure where every entity in the organization, except one, is subordinate to a single other entity. This arrangement is a form of a hierarchy. In an organization, the hierarchy usually consists of a singular/group of power at the top with...
  
  
• Information Routing Group
  Information Routing Group
  An Information Routing Group is a component of social networks consisting of a semi-infinite set of similar interlocking and overlapping groups...
  
  
• Interlock diagram
  Interlock diagram
  An interlock diagram is a real or imagined diagram that plots the actual interactions, physical, political, social, environmental between all entities within human societies. Each node is a specific activity such as a power station, or a policy such as controlled rent...
  
  
• Interlock research
  Interlock research
  Interlock research is a concept used to overcome the gaps in individual or group knowledge of which they are unaware of and which would result in incorrect action being taken, or important action not taken, leading to unintended consequences. It is based on the notion that no individual or group...
  
  
• Lateral diffusion
  Lateral diffusion
  Lateral diffusion is the process whereby information can be spread from one node in a social network to another, often in a selective way, and can rapidly traverse an entire population, but preferentially to those nodes likely to be interested, or needing to know. Messages or information are also...
  
  
• Law of unintended consequences
• LinkedIn
  LinkedIn
  LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
  
  
• Relevance paradox
  Relevance Paradox
  The relevance paradox describes an attempt to gather information relevant to a decision, which fails because the elimination of information perceived as distracting or unnecessary and thus detrimental to making an optimal decision, also excludes information that is actually crucial.-Definition:In...
  
  
• The IRG Solution - hierarchical incompetence and how to overcome it
  The IRG Solution - hierarchical incompetence and how to overcome it
  The IRG Solution is a book written by David Andrews and published in 1984.-Synopsis:The book, written in 1984, developed from a number of research papers at the Open University Energy Research Group, and an article appearing in the Guardian Newspaper which attempted an information- and...
  
  
• The Wisdom of Crowds
  The Wisdom of Crowds
  The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, published in 2004, is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better...