Due to popular demand (yeah right!) I’ve just added the WordPress plug-in which allows you to be notified by email when anyone posts a comment on a post you’ve commented on. See below the “Reply” form, where it says “Notify me of any further comments via email”? Good.
Conversations are not markets, people!
What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
View more documents from Marta Kagan.
Ten years ago The Cluetrain Manifesto claimed, in the first of its 95 Theses, that “markets are conversations”. Unfortunately, this has led marketers to continue to believe that the reverse is also true — that all conversations are markets.
Or, more precisely, marketers believe that all places where humans gather to converse are places where they can and should take their marketing message.
Some marketers, anyway.
The marketers I want to slap.
This isn’t helped by some later theses of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Unless you read these next two very carefully…
38. Human communities are based on discourse — on human speech about human concerns.
39. The community of discourse is the market.
… you could end up believing that all human discourse is nothing but a market! That in turn leads to the “marketing everywhere” idea.
This. Belief. Is. Wrong.
Episode 50 is now online
Last night’s episode of Stilgherrian Live is now online for your viewing pleasure.
After some excellent nominations for “Cnut of the Week” — which I failed to list in full on the program, sorry — I chose the usual shortlist of four.
Poor former NSW Liberals leader Peter Debnam only scored one vote (6%), coming in 4th place. Amazon.com came in 3rd (17%) for their deletion of George Orwell’s books from people’s Kindles. And in 2nd place (33%) were the critics of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who won’t leave the man have his sex life in peace, or something.
But the clear winner of “Cnut of the Week” was the oldest member of Australia’s House of Representatives, Wilson “Ironbar” Tuckey (44%), who throughout the program was represented by a photo of Treasurer Wayne Swan. Don’t ask.
Now, the prize draw…
Mark Pesce was drawn first from the Cocktail Shaker of Integrity, but he’d already gone to bed. Someone summoned him via SMS, but deliberately gave him the wrong codeword. So, Mark dutifully emailed me “pineapple” when I was after “elephant”. They’re so easy to confuse!
DAemon was drawn next, but he wasn’t watching.
The t-shirt from our friends at King Cnut Ethical Clothing went to Woolly Mittens. Enjoy!
Stilgherrian Live will return next Thursday night at 9.30pm Sydney time. Unless I tell you it doesn’t. It’s not the same without the live chat amongst the audience, so watch it live. No, really.
Stilgherrian Live finally returns… tonight
Do you remember Stilgherrian Live? I know. It’s been weeks. Well, it’s back. Tonight. And you know what that means…
Nominations are now open for “Cnut of the Week”, where we remember the example set by King Cnut the Great, who proved to his sycophantic courtiers that trying to hold back the tide is pointless.
We’re looking for people, organisations or other entities who are futilely trying to hold back the tide of change. It has to be something in the news in the last week, and you have to explain yourself. Nominees have to be not merely doing bad things, but failing to notice or adapt to the change around them.
Everyone who nominates and leaves a valid email address goes into the draw for a free t-shirt of their choice from our friends at King Cnut Ethical Clothing.
Nominations for “Cnut of the Week” are open until 8.30pm Sydney time, and you must nominate at the website for it to count. And also, when we draw the t-shirt winner, you must be watching the program and email us the code word within 3 minutes of your name being announced, otherwise we’ll pick someone else.
(Of course, neither me nor King Cnut Ethical Clothing are as lame and unethical as to share your email address with anyone else. I for one have site policies about this sort of thing, and so do they.)
Stilgherrian Live starts at 9.30pm, Sydney time.
Who do you nominate, and why?
Learn how to direct multi-camera Internet video… cheap!
If you want to learn how to direct multi-camera streaming video on the Internet, and you’re in Sydney, then here’s an opportunity too good to miss! Metro Screen has a full week-long masterclass next week for just $175, and there’s some places left. Check the write-up and get your application in now! You can join ’Pong, who’s doing it to refresh Stilgherrian Live.
The really real revolutionary revolution of the Internet
The man in the photo, science historian and broadcaster James Burke, is a revolutionary. So pay attention. This is important.
I don’t mean “revolutionary” in the lame-arsed sense used by every pissant little company with a new kind of double-whacko widget that’ll “revolutionise” the double-whacko widget industry. Because it’s now available in three different colours.
No, I mean the real kind of revolutionary: someone who advocates a revolution — yes, as in a complete overthrow of the established political system.
I’ve just finished watching Burke’s ten-part TV series from 1985, The Day The Universe Changed. It’s available on DVD, but you can also do what I did and watch the whole thing on YouTube. At least until some copyright-addled arsehole decides that you can’t.
As Wikipedia says:
The series’ primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. The title comes from the philosophical idea that the universe essentially only exists as you perceive it through what you know; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe with new knowledge, you have essentially changed the universe itself.
To illustrate this concept, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world.
Apart from anything else, TDTUC is an excellent history of western scientific thought. But, after taking you on this journey, Burke’s final episode is a revolutionary call to action.
Continue reading “The really real revolutionary revolution of the Internet”