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the cluetrain manifesto

the end of business as usual

Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger

Why doth thou recommend, sir?  This was really the first kid on the block and its themes still resonate through most of the other books on this page.  A slightly unstructured format (it is essentially a collection of essays from the four authors) but remarkably prescient given that it dates back to 1999.  It's forthright message to Big Business - drop the corporate-double-speak and start listening to us (before someone else does) - is still playing out its course today.  The subsequent impact of blogs, instant messaging, consumer sites such as TripAdvisor.com and the unmistakeable whiff of consumer power on the march arguably remains the most powerful and coherent internet phenomenon to date.  It underpins almost all that now parades under the web 2.0 banner.  Whilst we are not yet in the domain imagined by the authors (direct communication between employees, customers, and Big Business) the tectonic plates of corporate ideology and mass media communication are - undeniably - moving in that direction.

The core of the book is its 95 theses.  Here is a snapshot:

• "Markets are conversations."

• "The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media."

• "Markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized."

• "There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone."

• "Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves."

• "There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market."

• "We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are creating it."

• "We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute?"

• "We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal."

Essential reading then, young rock 'n' roll imagineers.  And best of all the whole thing is available, in full, for free at the cluetrain.com website.  Click here to get swift access to the various chapters:

.  Foreword

.  The 95 Theses

.  Elevator Rap

.  Introduction

.  Chapter 1: Internet Apocalypso

.  Chapter 2: The Longing

.  Chapter 3: Talk Is Cheap

.  Chapter 4: Markets Are Conversations

.  Chapter 5: The Hyperlinked Organization

.  Chapter 6: EZ Answers

.  Chapter 7: Post-Apocalypso

What we say (updated analysis):

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