Yes, the blogosphere and ‘Web 2.0’ are filled with fluff, idle chatter, and, quite frankly, a lot of crap. However, if you learn to filter the junk, as you do with your mail, e-mail, or television, the rewards can be extremely meaningful – and valuable to business.

I live on Wikipedia (and often am driven their by Google). I do a lot of research and reading and find the quality on Wikipedia to be superlative. In fact, while it has its critics, I’ve yet to encounter a credibility gap. And yet, the reliability of more traditional, scholarly sources are not always as reliable.

For example, I recently read a biography on Stalin from a very credible source and historian. Now I know a thing or two and am a bit of a history buff, but I called into question the nature and circumstances of his death as detailed in this one biography. In fact, there are multiple versions and contradictions on how and where Stalin died...

Read my full column: Web 2.0 is content that matters (with intranet examples, on Ragan.com)