Cluetrain Redux
The World of Ends thing has me thinking. Natch. Exactly the point of the exercise.
Comparisons with The Cluetrain Manifesto are, as Doc has just pointed out inevitable.
But the links between Cluetrain and WoE are important not just because of the connection between the two protagonists.
For example, it puts me in mind of something I wrote way back then when the Cluetrain phenomenon first exploded into the minds of Net users everywhere. (I went digging back through the Topica archives to find this).
Way the hell back in December '99, before there was a book, when Cluetrain was just an idea and a website, rattling the shared consciousness of the clueful and the clueless; Craig Peters posted a comment to the Cluetrain Topica list saying:
"To what degree does Cluetrain preach to the converted? Can the Manifesto manifest any *real* impact (I hope so) or will it be viewed by all too many (I fear so) as simply the next flavor of the month after Seth Godin?"
It was a valid question then, and equally valid to ask about WoE now. To what degree does WoE preach to the converted? I just posted a comment in similar vein to the QuickTopic Discussion Board for WoE, saying:
"...will the intended audience ever even get to see the message? What are the chances Ted Turner will ever encounter something like this? Or Michael Eisner? Or Michael Powell? Or Sonny fucking Bono? How do we get these people to sit up and take notice?"
And that's what made me realise I felt like this once before - way back when I was still a corporate HOD in 99, reading the Cluetrain Manifesto online and punching the air like a grinning loon.
Here's part of my response to Craig's post back then:
What I'm worried about is the questionable moral honesty behind many of our gleeful Cluetrain high fives. We've all been leaping enthusiastically onto the Cluetrain - we, the converted - yodelling: "Oh yes, oh sweet Lord yes! At last someone's telling it like it is!"
But honestly, how many of us (at least those of us working from the veal pens of some vast corporate purgatory) have ever done something equivalent to walking up to the boss and saying: "The inflated self-important jargon you sling around—in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us?" or maybe: "You need to realize our market is often laughing. At us," or how about: "Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy!!", or even: "Actually boss, you're a wanker. You can take this stoopid job and blow it out your mule."?
Be honest. (If you're working for an organization of less than 10 people you're probably exempt from answering, for reasons that should be obvious).
Maybe I'm just outing my own inherent cowardice in the face of wage slavery here (although, in my defense, I can honestly say that I did once quit a dumbass company "so lobotomized that (it couldn't) speak in a recognizably human voice" with words very close to the mule line above. Just wish I'd thought of those exact words at the time, dammit).
Anyway. I think the point I was trying to make, before I came over all subordinate with me clauses back there, was that OF COURSE Cluetrain is preaching to the converted - almost by definition. If you weren't already converted you probably wouldn't have a clue (eep!) what the darn thing was twattering on about in the first place.
The real challenge, is how many of us have it in us to become convertERS? How many of us are cut out for Cluetrain missionary work?
A few thousand delighted, clued-up signatories nodding to each other and chuckling "Oh yeeeessss, VERY good chaps, markets are conversations, mmmm, yeeeesssss, that really is jolly, jolly good" - does not a revolution make.
As the site says: This message wants to MOVE - and it is doing, but mainly from one already "clued" individual to the next badass, net-savvy, already hyperlinked dude.
Wrong!
We need to print this mutha and carpet bomb the boardrooms and bogs of Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Finsbury Square, Government Center - strongholds of greydom the world over. If you’re already doing this, or the local equivalent, apologies and dog bless you.
Maybe there is light at the end of this tunnel after all. Way back whenever I signed the manifesto, I remember saying “I’m spamming the URL to everyone I know”. I didn’t, of course – I sent it only to the people I know but also happen to like, respect or admire.
I’m sorry. That was weak of me.
This doesn’t move the message – this only spreads it slightly quicker to smart clueworthy people who would have found it themselves in due course anyway.
So the rest of you on that “everyone I know list” – the ones I don’t like, respect, admire or give a rat’s ass about: grab yer ankles. I’m printing the manifesto, folding it into the pointiest, spikiest shape possible and homing in on your flabby complacent fundaments right now.
Banzai! I’m off to see a man about a mule…
*cough*
Full of piss and vinegar. I was a fair deal younger back then.
But there's a difference. The Cluetrain message did move. The book made the Business Week Bestseller's lists, fercrissakes. It got read and it made a difference.
World of Ends can and should make a difference too. And this time, it can get there even faster. As this time around it has the Blogosphere to propagate the meme way faster than anything that was available when Cluetrain first hit the wires.
I mean, check it out: WoE is #1 on Daypop and Blogdex already. And the darn thing’s only been up since yesterday.
The message is moving, baby.
So maybe, just maybe people like FCC Chairman Powell will get to read it. Maybe Richard Parsons, Bill Gates, C. Michael Armstrong, Sonny goddam Bono and others will get to read it. Maybe the message will get across.
Yeah. And then he woke up...
[Update: Yes, OK....thanks to all the people who've pointed out that, of course, the late Sonny Bono doesn't really get to do too much reading anymore. I was being...er...ironic. Yes - that's it. Ironic. Or forgetful. Something.]
The World of Ends thing has me thinking. Natch. Exactly the point of the exercise.
Comparisons with The Cluetrain Manifesto are, as Doc has just pointed out inevitable.
But the links between Cluetrain and WoE are important not just because of the connection between the two protagonists.
For example, it puts me in mind of something I wrote way back then when the Cluetrain phenomenon first exploded into the minds of Net users everywhere. (I went digging back through the Topica archives to find this).
Way the hell back in December '99, before there was a book, when Cluetrain was just an idea and a website, rattling the shared consciousness of the clueful and the clueless; Craig Peters posted a comment to the Cluetrain Topica list saying:
"To what degree does Cluetrain preach to the converted? Can the Manifesto manifest any *real* impact (I hope so) or will it be viewed by all too many (I fear so) as simply the next flavor of the month after Seth Godin?"
It was a valid question then, and equally valid to ask about WoE now. To what degree does WoE preach to the converted? I just posted a comment in similar vein to the QuickTopic Discussion Board for WoE, saying:
"...will the intended audience ever even get to see the message? What are the chances Ted Turner will ever encounter something like this? Or Michael Eisner? Or Michael Powell? Or Sonny fucking Bono? How do we get these people to sit up and take notice?"
And that's what made me realise I felt like this once before - way back when I was still a corporate HOD in 99, reading the Cluetrain Manifesto online and punching the air like a grinning loon.
Here's part of my response to Craig's post back then:
What I'm worried about is the questionable moral honesty behind many of our gleeful Cluetrain high fives. We've all been leaping enthusiastically onto the Cluetrain - we, the converted - yodelling: "Oh yes, oh sweet Lord yes! At last someone's telling it like it is!"
But honestly, how many of us (at least those of us working from the veal pens of some vast corporate purgatory) have ever done something equivalent to walking up to the boss and saying: "The inflated self-important jargon you sling around—in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us?" or maybe: "You need to realize our market is often laughing. At us," or how about: "Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy!!", or even: "Actually boss, you're a wanker. You can take this stoopid job and blow it out your mule."?
Be honest. (If you're working for an organization of less than 10 people you're probably exempt from answering, for reasons that should be obvious).
Maybe I'm just outing my own inherent cowardice in the face of wage slavery here (although, in my defense, I can honestly say that I did once quit a dumbass company "so lobotomized that (it couldn't) speak in a recognizably human voice" with words very close to the mule line above. Just wish I'd thought of those exact words at the time, dammit).
Anyway. I think the point I was trying to make, before I came over all subordinate with me clauses back there, was that OF COURSE Cluetrain is preaching to the converted - almost by definition. If you weren't already converted you probably wouldn't have a clue (eep!) what the darn thing was twattering on about in the first place.
The real challenge, is how many of us have it in us to become convertERS? How many of us are cut out for Cluetrain missionary work?
A few thousand delighted, clued-up signatories nodding to each other and chuckling "Oh yeeeessss, VERY good chaps, markets are conversations, mmmm, yeeeesssss, that really is jolly, jolly good" - does not a revolution make.
As the site says: This message wants to MOVE - and it is doing, but mainly from one already "clued" individual to the next badass, net-savvy, already hyperlinked dude.
Wrong!
We need to print this mutha and carpet bomb the boardrooms and bogs of Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Finsbury Square, Government Center - strongholds of greydom the world over. If you’re already doing this, or the local equivalent, apologies and dog bless you.
Maybe there is light at the end of this tunnel after all. Way back whenever I signed the manifesto, I remember saying “I’m spamming the URL to everyone I know”. I didn’t, of course – I sent it only to the people I know but also happen to like, respect or admire.
I’m sorry. That was weak of me.
This doesn’t move the message – this only spreads it slightly quicker to smart clueworthy people who would have found it themselves in due course anyway.
So the rest of you on that “everyone I know list” – the ones I don’t like, respect, admire or give a rat’s ass about: grab yer ankles. I’m printing the manifesto, folding it into the pointiest, spikiest shape possible and homing in on your flabby complacent fundaments right now.
Banzai! I’m off to see a man about a mule…
*cough*
Full of piss and vinegar. I was a fair deal younger back then.
But there's a difference. The Cluetrain message did move. The book made the Business Week Bestseller's lists, fercrissakes. It got read and it made a difference.
World of Ends can and should make a difference too. And this time, it can get there even faster. As this time around it has the Blogosphere to propagate the meme way faster than anything that was available when Cluetrain first hit the wires.
I mean, check it out: WoE is #1 on Daypop and Blogdex already. And the darn thing’s only been up since yesterday.
The message is moving, baby.
So maybe, just maybe people like FCC Chairman Powell will get to read it. Maybe Richard Parsons, Bill Gates, C. Michael Armstrong, Sonny goddam Bono and others will get to read it. Maybe the message will get across.
Yeah. And then he woke up...
[Update: Yes, OK....thanks to all the people who've pointed out that, of course, the late Sonny Bono doesn't really get to do too much reading anymore. I was being...er...ironic. Yes - that's it. Ironic. Or forgetful. Something.]
