Cluetrainplus10 - Cluetrain Manifesto ten years later

I suspect the vast majority of media people have never heard of the Cluetrain Manifesto.  I think it should be mandatory reading for anyone working in a media or marketing organization.  I find it incredible that 10 years ago the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto had the foresight to envision the impact the Internet would have on the whole of society. 

To commemorate the 10^th anniversary, today as many as 95 individuals will be writing a blog post on one of the theses.  I chose to write on thesis #6:  The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. 

This one thesis foretells of the massive changes that are now occurring in the media and marketing industries.  It recognizes that the Internet revolutionizes communications, making one-to-one and one-to-many conversations possible and therefore turning the unidirectional mass media into antiquated and ultimately irrelevant industries. 

Mass media has served two functions, the first being the delivery of news, information and entertainment to an audience. The second function is to aggregate that audience and sell advertising to marketers.  The Internet has caused both of these functions to become commoditized.  There is no longer the need to have a multimillion dollar printing press or broadcast license in order to serve either of these functions. 

Not only are the mediums themselves antiquated, the marketing models for the promoting of brands goods and services are now ineffective as well. To me, this thesis represents the single greatest impact on our society.  There is no question as to whether this thesis is right or wrong - the question is - how we deal with this new reality.

Congratulations Cluetrain Manifesto authors…ten years have only stood to validate many of your theses. 

By

Jose Leal

Comments

[Pete Burden]

Thanks for the reminder Jose - it _was_ quite a feat to forecast all this so confidently.

As you say, this thesis describes the one-to-one and one-to-many conversations that are now possible. And also the many-to-many conversations.

And _conversation_ is now the operative word - a to-ing and fro-ing, a back and forth, that was never possible in the top-down communications of old.

[Randall]

To my mind it is a great article.
http://www.torrentbasket.com/night-and-day

[web design perth]

Web 2.0 technologies have changed the game of not only web design but also on how websites are to be developed. It is all about being interactive.