I saw this by Alan Moore on the SMLXL blog, referring to the Communities Dominate Brands blog (Alan Moore is one of the co-authors of the book the blog refers to). We often hear about the economic impact of the internet, mobile communications and new media, but the real story is that it will change just about everything, including culture, politics and government.
There is a school of thought, that, within 10 years communities will have replaced the orthodoxies of government, management, business and marketing as the primary medium by which these organisations will successfully engage with their audiences.
Further, enabling or capturing peer-to-peer information flows will transform these organisations and how they engage with their stakeholders, simply for the better.
And, that those organisations that ignore the newly empowered and connected customer/voter/stakeholder will simply struggle to survive.
This is the unsung, un-remarked media and cultural revolution. That the great explosion is in peer-to-peer communication – something many organisations up until now have overlooked.
When we look at something like IodaPromonet – a blog/podcast ‘tool’ assisting artists to promote themselves through online sharing of their music and ideas – we can then begin to understand why the big record labels are now running around like chickens realising that the axe has started its downward swing onto their necks.
Given the acceleration toward digital communities I wonder what schemes our ‘analogue’ governments have planned to counter the peer-to-peer system of communication, since surely any form of ‘community’ that they can not exercise complete control over must be an anathema to them.
I say….
Hype. The problem with all this stuff (let’s call it web 2.0 for now) is that it’s mainly written about by people who are part of it. A bunch of bloggers saying that blogs are the new black is about as interesting as a bunch of newspaper headlines saying that newspapers are the new black.
Furthermore, I see nothing addressing the gulf between common interest and common desire. Societies of common desire (e.g. trade unions) can be powerful. Societies of common interest much less so. But I don’t see many effective internet based lobby groups. I see some companies making use of new marketing opportunities – but it’s not revolutionary, it’s merely a fast form of word of mouth. There were many companies prior to the Internet who sidestepped the traditional advertising methods, too.
Over the last 15 years or so, I have seen the internet largely being diluted by ‘mainstream’ culture, not the other way round. Slowly, the mass of people on the net, and the increasing userfriendlyness of technology are starting to change things. But really slowly.
But I’m struck by how the Internet has moved from a world of individuals to a world of groups and ideas. It’s less about who you are, and more about who you hang out with. Or stick in your blogroll, or whatever.
I can imagine these groups shifty and changing, rising and falling from prominence – but it’s that shifting that will vastly reduce their influence.
Think of human societies. Who wins, the amorphous, distributed societies, or the big, heirarchical well organised top down ones?
J sounds like so many of the director I deal with on what Alan quite correctly says are the companies who will soon be stuggling to survive (and not understanding why). My think this who thing is actually being under-hyped, not over-hyped.
Dear J.
What a cynical person you are 🙂 I happen to blog but do so much more. Lets take some real life cases.
Politics: Joseph Estrada of the Phillipines was overthrown by a smart mob (mobile phone mob).
Business: Boeing design team harnessing the interest and power of 120,000 people around the world that have a passion for aviation but dont work for Boeing
Business: Kyrptonite. where a community nearly brought a global company to its knees – a combination of old world and new world if you like. Just go and have a google with ‘bic pen & Krytonite”
Politics: Senator Trent Lott forced to resign over racist comments via the blogosphere.
Media: Dan Rather forced to resign over the inaccuracy of his news broadcast about George Bush. Or the chap from CNN.
Popular Media: Jamie Oliver delivering 230,000 signatures to Downing Street protesting about what we the people think ablout what the Governement feed our school kids. And this is now a global phenomonen.
Popular Media: 400,000 people watching China Idol and thereafter the Chinese Governmant debating what sort of genie they had let out of the bag.
Business: Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Micosystems saying that the 1000 bloggers of Sun have delivered more value to Sun than a $1 billion ad campaign.
Music: Artic Monkeys getting to no1. in the pop charts without a record label.
Lego: With the Santa Fé train. Designed and built by lego fans. More sold than any advertising campaign
So, once you have stormed the Bastille you don’t go back to your day job.
Why is the BBC so itent on building engagement and two way flows of communication into their broadcast model?
Why is Ricky Gervais offered up as a podcast by the Guardian today
I thought we were pushing the boat out with our book Communities Dominate Brands – But instead I think we have been somewhat reserved in what we say.
Come on son, don’t be churlish.
And this is but the tip of the ice berg.
Funny enough, while I was out getting my hair cut this afternoon the girl handed me an Esquire I believe it was, and there was an article about how the advertising business is practically imploding right now because of the change in habits. They used to have large audiences with shared experiences. Now they have 500 channels, they have internet, mobile phones… and customers react badly if you annoy them…
I think this fits very much with both your statement and your <ahem> business plan 😉
Alan Moore’s statements above have modified my view. His examples have shown how much things have changed. But how much further can they go?
When I look around my family and friends I believe I am the only one who regularly reads blogs. In fact I’m not even sure that most of my friends and family are yet aware of blogs. The only item of recent technology that most of them use regularly is their mobile phone. Even downloading music appears to be an activity that, of my personal group, only my teenage children get involved in. So the potential for change when a higher proportion of the population are regularly joining various on-line communities may be phenominal.
Yes, and it always comes more naturally to the next generation because they have not yet had it pounded into their heads (sometimes by themselves) what they can or cannot do. The net is just ‘there’ and a fact of life. The kids of most of the people I work with have thriving on line social lives (in *addition and sometimes as part of the old fashioned off line ones).