The Cluetrain ManifestoOriginsJason's ridiculous oversimplificationInternet Apocalypso (Locke)‏Internet ApocalypsoSlide 6The Longing (Weinberger)‏The LongingTalk is Cheap (Levine)‏Talk is CheapMarkets are Conversations (Searls & Weinberger)‏Markets are ConversationsSlide 13Slide 14The Hyperlinked Organization (Weinberger)‏The Hyperlinked OrganizationSlide 17Slide 18E-Z Answers (Locke & Weinberger)‏E-Z AnswersSlide 21Post-Apocalypso (Locke)‏Angst aside...The Cluetrain ManifestoJason KovacKnowledge Management SystemsOctober 9, 2008OriginsOriginal website shared 95 collaboratively-penned theses (http://cluetrain.com).See handout for “elevator rap.”“Cluetrain” purportedly comes from comes from a Fortune 500 exec: “"The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took delivery."Jason's ridiculous oversimplificationThe internet is helping reverse the bad habits that business developed during periods of mass production, via participatory involvement in markets.Maybe forcing is a better word...Internet Apocalypso (Locke)Somewhere along the way, markets latched on to mass production, “characterised by alienation and mystery” (p. 10).The arrival of the internet had a “radicalising effect,” which the Manifesto calls voice.Internet Apocalypso“Just about all the concessions we make to work in a well-run, non-disturbing, secure, predictably successful, managed environment have to do with giving up our voice” (p. 42). “The internet is inherently seditious. It undermines unthinking respect for centralized authority, whether that 'authority' is the neatly homogenized voice of broadcast advertising or the smarmy rhetoric of the corporate annual report” (p. 8).Internet Apocalypso“But many businesses, especially large ones, still refuse to acknowledge these radical shifts affecting internal workforces and external markets. They don't want to relinquish hierarchical control... it's what they know” (p. 18). “The question is whether, as a company, you can afford to have more than an advertising-jingle persona. Can you put yourself out there... Can you deal with such honesty? Human beings are often magnificent in this regard, while companies, frankly, tend to suck” (p. 25).The Longing (Weinberger)“We don't know what the web is for, but we've adopted it faster than any technology since fire... it is the granting of a place in which we can be who we are (and even who we aren't, if that's the voice we've chosen)” (pp. 43-44).The Longing“We may still have to behave properly in committee meetings, but increasingly the real work of the company is getting done by quirky individuals who meet on the Web... [moving] ahead faster than the speed of management.” “The memo is dead. Long live e-mail... Bland, safe relationships with customers are dead. Long live customer-support reps who are willing to get as pissed of at their own company as the angry customer is” (p. 44).Talk is Cheap (Levine)“Authenticity, honesty and personal voice underlie much of what's successful on the web” (p. 51). “We seem to know, intuitively, when something spoken, written or recorded is sincere and honest—when it comes from another person's heart rather than being a synthesis of corporatespeak filtered by myriad iterations of editing, trimming and targeting” (p. 65).Talk is Cheap“Stories play a large part in the success of organizations. With stories, we teach, pass along knowledge of our craft to colleagues, and create a sense of shared mission” (p. 67). “Companies can't stop customers from speaking up, and can't stop employees from talking to customers. Their only choice is to start encouraging employees to talk to customers—and empowering them to act on what they hear” (p. 71).Markets are Conversations(Searls & Weinberger)“The first markets were filled with people, not abstractions or statistical aggregates; they were the places where supply met demand with a firm handshake. Buyers and sellers looked each other in the eye, met and connected” (p. 74). “In the 20th century, the rise of mass communications media enhanced industry's ability to address even larger markets... with larger markets came larger rewards, and larger rewards had to be protected. More bureaucracy, more hierarchy and more command and control meant the customer who looked you in the eye was promptly escorted out of the building by security” (p. 76).Markets are Conversations“We know that the real purpose of marketing is to insinuate the message into our consciousness, to put an axe in our heads without our noticing... Ironically, many of us spend our days wielding axes ourselves. In our private lives we defend ourselves from the marketing messages out to get us, our defences made stronger for having spent the day at work trying to drive axes into our customers' heads” (pp. 78-79).Markets are ConversationsNetworked markets are changing how messages are received: “finding themselves connected to one another in the market doesn't enable customers just to learn the truth behind product claims. The very sound of the Web conversation throws into stark relief the monotonous, lifeless, self-centered drone emanating from Marketing departments around the world” (p. 81).Markets are ConversationsSearls & Weinberger suggest that: PR departments should focus on stories, not spinEmbrace the power of word-of-web over advertisingReplace brochure-type content with opportunity for dialogueGet away from TechnoLatin: "It's not language, it's camouflage... speak real words. The new Web conversations are remarkably sensitive to the empty pomposity that has served marketing so well. Until now" (pp. 102-103)Get over the fear of what the peons will say. Use them to your advantage in reaching out to customers.The Hyperlinked Organization(Weinberger)“Some along the line, we confused going to work with building a fort” (p.116), where we have everything we need within our walls, the outside is dangerous, the king rules, we each have a defined role, and the goal is to beat the enemy.“The Web, in the form of a corporate intranet, puts everyone in touch with every piece of information and with everyone else inside the organization and beyond... Conversations subvert hierarchy. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. Being a human being among others subverts hierarchy” (p. 121).The