Cluetrain-a-Day 2009: The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

2009 cluetrain cluetrain-a-day-2009 11 January 2009 | View Comments

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #6: The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

This is the first of many eerily predictive theses of the 1999 version of The Cluetrain Manifesto. In 1999, personal publishing wasn’t as we know it today. Sure, you could put your message online fairly easily, but that’s about as far as had hit “mainstream”. In 2009, we take comments and reviews for granted. Every single node of data on the web seems to have a comment field or a 5-star rating on it.

Feedback, as we know it, has become a ‘roided out monster that Doc, Rick, Chris, and David could have never imagined.

What’s important to realize, though, it that the dialog never changed, it just also moved online. The tools just keep getting better. Feedback became easier. Data begot metadata.

The internet of 1999 (which I barely remember, admittedly) was still very read-only, which is one of the many distinctive differences between that swell in industry growth and the one we’re immersed in now. When the internet was only really able to offer publishing capabilities, the real values it provided beyond mass media were a) low barrier to entry and b) reach. Ultimately, a read-only workflow designed to collect and then flip eyeballs into a commercial product turned into an awful business model.

Create a service that users need, not a service that needs users

These days, the mainstream web is extraordinarily different. Hyperlinked pages aren’t the only tools at the disposal of businesses and their customers. Customer feedback, product reviews, fan-communities, low-cost video production and knowledge sharing are just a few of the tools that have completely changed the way that people talk about themselves, their activities, their likes, their dislikes, their surroundings, and their observations.

Companies have begun tapping into these resources, but it’s only the beginning. Companies are using old models with the new tools, and still attempting to be an imposing force.

On the Internet in 2009, the companies that are succeeding are checking their their egos at the door, and noisy customers are figuring out how to provide valuable feedback instead of just bitching into the void.

Now and again, companies and customers are meeting in middle ground, and magic is happening.

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  • Alex, you've tapped into the stream these posts! I do remember 1999 and one good thing about then was that content, although somewhat sparse compared to today, was in some sense, more to the point. That said we still have not unlocked our interconnected potential even today. Volume doesn't equal quality and neither does empty chatter. Remember you can still get sued for writing a bad Yelp review, but as you said this is only the beginning. The next wave will be personally tailored quality content.
  • quoth:

    ...and noisy customers are figuring out how to provide valuable feedback instead of just bitching into the void.


    It seems that many places that foster primarily user-focused conversations, though, eventually go the way of the later - the more people find a voice and outlet, the more saturated it gets with the obnoxiously loud minority.

    Is there a way to prevent this? Is a company required to guide and mediate conversation? Listening without preconception can lead to better products, but at what time does the conversation start devolving into useless... bitching?
  • Craig Meidinger
    Just want to say thank you! Feel a bit foolish, discovering Cluetrain for the first time this past weekend, ten years old! Wow... Yes, i crawled out from a rock... Please continue to bring a ten year perspective to Cluetrain's "Partly Like it 1999" Manifesto! You got me hooked. (Linked from Doc Searls).
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