Tuesday I spent much of my day with fellow Fellows of the Society of New Communications Research (SCNR) — a Palo Alto based non-profit think tank that does original research into many aspects of our new media and communications worlds, and effects on culture and education.

I'm a Founding Senior Fellow and have been associated with SCNR (pronounced 'snicker') for five years. It was founded by Jen McClure and it represents an extraordinary number of early pioneers, such as Shel Israel, Shel Holtz, Elisa Camahort, the co-founder of BlogHer, Dan Farber, Neville Hobson, Phil Gomes, Bruce Lowry, Giovanni Rodriguez, Matthew Podboy, Mike Manuel, Steve King, Dan Forbush, Tom Abate, Don Bulmer, Louise Kehoe, Jean-Baptiste Su, Debbie Weil, Josh Hallett, Adrian Chan, Sally Falkow, Paul Gillin, Andria Carter, Vanessa DiMauro, Geoff Livingston, Francois, Gossieaux, J.D. Lasica, John Cass, Steve Lubetkin, Albert Maruggi, Don Middleberg, Katie Paine, Todd Defren, Brian Solis, and many more...

And there are new Fellows joining every year, carrying out important research.

There's an amazing amount of incredible knowledge, expertise, and a huge variety of skills in this group. And it was great to catch up with many of the SNCR Fellows on Tuesday.

Looking around the room, I also noticed how many of the Fellows are in their 50s and 60s. It just goes to show that with all this new media and communications technologies that are emerging, mastery has nothing to do with youth or age -- it's experiential rather than generational.

Here is some recent SNCR research:

The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks
Conducted by SNCR Fellows Donald Bulmer and Vanessa DiMauro with the support of Leader Networks and SAP

2009 Middleberg / SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World
Conducted by SNCR Fellows Jen McClure and Don Middleberg
Made possible in part by Marketwire

The Global Newspaper Market: Searching for a New Business Model
Conducted by SNCR Fellow Andria Carter

The 2009 Tribalization of Business Study
Conducted by SNCR Senior Fellow Francois Gossieaux with Ed Moran, Deloitte

The Fortune 500 and Blogging: Slow and Steady and Farther Along than Expected
Conducted by SNCR Senior Fellow and Research Chair Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Still Setting the Pace in Social Media: The First Longitudinal Study of Usage by the Largest US Charities
Conducted by SNCR Senior Fellow and Research Chair Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Social Media in the 2009 Inc. 500: New Tools & New Trends
Conducted by SNCR Senior Fellow and Research Chair Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Here are some best practices:

• Best Practices for Developing a Social Media Policy
• Best Practices for Corporate Blogging
• Best Practices for Co-creation
• Best Practices for Blogger Relations
  
• Best Practices for Online Press Releases
• Best Practices for Using Social Networks

SNCR is a great resource. Companies can sponsor custom research projects and also get involved in many different ways.

Also, if you would like to become a Fellow of SNCR, there are details here.