I had the good fortune to attend Podcamp Boston recently and meet a gentleman named John C. Havens.

John is the VP of Business Development at BlogTalkRadio, and together with Shel Holtz, is author of the upcoming book, Media 2.Open: Discussions on Transparency in Business.

This is a hot topic in professional circles these days; the rise of social networking, open source development, and consumer generated media has led to an environment of radical transparency.

How do individuals, companies, and brands deal with this phemonenon? How much information sharing is too much? And how do brand managers navigate these new waters in which they don't have control of their brands?

The idea of tranparency is interesting to me because I've experienced it as an individual blogger, as an agency blogger, and as a consultant to marketers trying to make sense of the social media space. Today, we find ourselves in an open source era, where consumers who are increasingly connected through social networks expect to have access to and share information when and where they want. I like to think that all of this sharing and collaboration creates value, but of course there can be pitfalls if not done carefully.

Transparency in business means conducting business with integrity, authenticity and intelligence - understanding how to join in the public conversation and share information that is relevant, while not feeling so pressured to share that you communicate irrelevant/erroneous/sensitive information.

John and I discussed this, plus practical ways for brand marketers to manage the blogosphere, in my recent interview on BlogTalkRadio. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.