Last night, during a panel talk for MENG, we got on the topic of transparency - it's one of those multi-faceted subjects that inevitably surfaces in new media talks, and yeah, it's also probably one of the most grossly overused and under-defined words in the marketer's vocabulary today.

Now, in all fairness, transparency can take a lot of different shapes and sizes, but you and I know it when we see it and maybe more important, we know when it's missing.

But for a lot of companies, trying to determine just *how* transparent they need to be, particularly in the context of a conversational web, is something that each company has to simply decide for itself. In my experience, it rarely comes naturally or quickly, and be it for better or worse, it takes some trial and error. I think the important thing about transparency is that it's not just about an outcome, it's about an effort too. The only way a company can really figure out its own boundaries for transparency in business is if it tries...

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