Digital Media & The Cluetrain Manifesto

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There were a number of things that I had been trying to say for the conference that were most easily said using a variety of digital media, rather than words. But that was in the relative flatland of reality... Now I'm at work figuring out how to get those same ideas expressed in the hyperlinked virtual world, using what it makes possible. As a first step, I returned to some brilliant thinking from a few years ago - revisitng The Cluetrain Manifesto which I had read and signed onto back in 1999. (Also check out The Hughtrain) The 95 theses are now even more on point than they were back then, with statements like:

  • Markets are conversations.
  • Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
  • Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
  • Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
  • People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
  • The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
  • Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.

What I did in PowerPoint was a challenge, but now how do I use audio, video and pics along with blogs, podcasting, etc.? The coming months should be quite interesting!

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