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=                      The Cluetrain Manifesto                       =
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                             Introduction                             
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'The Cluetrain Manifesto' is a work of business literature
collaboratively authored by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc
Searls, and David Weinberger. It was first posted to the web in 1999
as a set of ninety-five theses, and was published as a book in 2000
with the theses extended by seven essays. The work examines the impact
of the Internet on marketing, claiming that conventional marketing
techniques are rendered obsolete by the online "conversations" that
consumers have and that companies need to join.


                               Overview                               
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'The Cluetrain Manifesto' was written and first posted to the Web in
March 1999 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David
Weinberger. A revised and extended version of the text appeared as a
book under the title 'The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as
Usual' in 2000.

In its central thesis that "markets are conversations", the work
asserts that the Internet is unlike conventional media used in mass
marketing as it enables conversations amongst consumers and between
consumers and companies, which are claimed to transform traditional
business practices. Technologies listed in the printed publication as
conduits of such conversations include email, news groups, mailing
lists, chat, and web pages. More recent technologies (such as blogs
and wikis) are not mentioned.

In its form, the work alludes to Martin Luther's 'Ninety-Five Theses',
a central text of the Protestant Reformation.

The work asserts that the term "cluetrain" stems from an anonymous
source speaking about their former corporate employer: "The clue train
stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took
delivery."

'The Cluetrain Manifesto' was re-published as an extended 10th
Anniversary Edition in 2010. In 2015, two of the authors, Doc Searls
and David Weinberger, posted 'New Clues', a follow-up to the work.


                        The 'Cluetrain' theses                        
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A single paragraph summarizes the essential position taken by the
writers:

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet,
people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant
knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting
smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

A reading of the '95 theses' can lead to a number of divisions or
aggregations, it is possible to make a somewhat arbitrary split of the
listed theses as a basis for understanding the content of the printed
publication and a simplified structural view of the main suppositions
of the authors.


 Theses 1–6: Markets are Conversations 
=======================================
Historically, the authors state, the marketplace was a location where
groups of individual gathered and talked to each other (thesis 1):
they would discuss available products, price, reputation and in doing
so connect with others (theses 2-5.)
The authors then assert that the internet is providing a means for
anyone connected to the internet to re-enter such a virtual
marketplace and once again achieve such a level of communication
between people. This, prior to the internet, had not been available in
the age of mass media (thesis 6.)


 Thesis 7: Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy 
========================================
The ability of the internet to link to additional information -
information which might exist beyond the formal hierarchy of
organizational structure or published material from such an
organization - acts as a means of subverting, or bypassing, formal
hierarchies.


 Theses 8–13: Connection between the new markets and companies 
===============================================================
The same technology connecting people into markets outside of
organizations, is also connecting employees within organizations
(thesis 8.)  The authors suggest that these networks create a more
informed marketplace/consumer (thesis 9) through the conversations
being held.  The information available in the marketplace is superior
to that available from the organizations themselves (thesis 10-12.)

The authors, through the remaining theses, then examine the impact
that these changes will have on organizations and how, in turn,
organizations will need to respond to the changing marketplace to
remain viable.


 Theses 14 – 25: Organizations entering the marketplace 
========================================================
With the emergence of the virtual marketplace, the authors indicate
that the onus will be on organizations to enter the marketplace
conversation (thesis 25) and do so in a way that connects with the
‘voice’ of the new marketplace (thesis 14-16) or risk becoming
irrelevant (thesis 16).


 Theses 26–40: Marketing & Organizational Response 
===================================================
The authors then list a number of theses that deal with the approach
that they believe organizations will need to adopt if they are to
successfully enter the new marketplace (thesis 26) as it is claimed
that those within the new marketplace will no longer respond to the
previously issued mass-media communications as such communication is
not ‘authentic’ (thesis 33.)


 Theses 41–52: Intranets and the impact to organization control and structure 
==============================================================================
More fully exploring the impact of the intranet within organizations,
theses forty-one through fifty-two elaborate on the subversion of
hierarchy initially listed as thesis seven. When implemented correctly
(theses 44-46), it is suggested that such intranets re-establish real
communication amongst employees in parallel with the impact of the
internet to the marketplace (thesis 48) and this will lead to a
'hyperlinked' organizational structure  within the organization which
will take the place of (or be utilized in place of) the formally
documented organization chart (thesis 50).


 Theses 53–71: Connecting the Internet marketplace with corporate Intranets 
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The ideal, according to the work, is for the networked marketplace to
be connected to the networked intranet so that full communication can
exist between those within the marketplace and those within the
company itself (thesis 53.)
Achieving this level of communication is hindered by the imposition of
‘command and control’ structures (thesis 54-58) but, ultimately,
organizations will need to allow this level of communication to exist
as the new marketplace will no longer respond to the mass-media
‘voice’ of the organization (theses 59-71)


 Theses 72–95: New Market Expectations 
=======================================
Theses seventy-two through ninety-five aim to identify the
expectations (theses 76, 77, 78, 95) and changes (thesis 72) that
exist within the new marketplace and how those expectations and
changes will require a corresponding change from organizations (theses
79, 84, 91, 92, 94).


                              Reception                               
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The ninety-five theses as initially posted to the web received
positive reviews in mainstream publications such as the San Jose
Mercury News and the Wall Street Journal. They were also widely
discussed online, provoking almost religious argument in some cases.
Vocal adherents included technically oriented people, who were adept
in building websites, writing blogs and making themselves heard on the
Internet.

The book quickly became a business bestseller and entered the top ten
of 'Business Weeks "Best-Sellers of 2000" list.

'The Cluetrain Manifesto' has been credited with setting out "the
guiding principles of social media years before Facebook and Twitter
existed." It is also considered a foundational text in the field of
conversational marketing; 'Advertising Age' proclaimed in 2006: "the
grand vision outlined in 1999's 'Cluetrain Manifesto' is now coming
true. Consumers have control, markets are conversations and marketing
is evolving into a two-way discipline."

The book has been criticized for casting its central term of human
"voice" in expressivist rather than rhetorical terms.

Some critics consider the work's public reception to be cult-like.
John C. Dvorak, for example, dismisses the work as a product of
"lunatic fringe dingbat thinking that characterized the Internet boom"
and rebukes its adherents for their "apparent faith in this odd vision
of an idealistic human-oriented internetworked new world/new economy."

Other critics point to the fact that the Internet cannot be
conceptualized simply as "a conversation" or that human activity
online cannot be reduced to the notion of a "conversation".

It has also been pointed out that the work's predictions have largely
failed to materialize.


                               See also                               
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* Web 2.0


                            External links                            
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* [http://cluetrain.com The Cluetrain Manifesto website] as of 1999
* [http://cluetrain.com/book/ Original text of 'The Cluetrain
Manifesto' book]
* [http://www.searls.com/cluetrain/ Another archived text of 'The
Cluetrain Manifesto' book]
* [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/ Doc Searls' Weblog]
* [http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/ David Weinberger's Weblog]
* [http://www.rageboy.com/blogger.html Chris Locke's Weblog]
* [http://99faces.tv/davidweinberger/ David Weinberger in Interview
with 99FACES.tv  - ´The Cluetrain Manifesto´and ´Too Big To Know´]
(Jan. 2012)


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cluetrain_Manifesto


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