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  • From: Edward Wesolowski <edwes AT idisplay.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] What's up (with) Doc?
  • Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 09:23:36 -0400

>I couldn't make it to the Doc Searls presentation yesterday. Any comments, impressions?
...impressions, here are a few:
DS opened with a quote, "English is the preachers language because it allows you to talk until you think of what to say." (G. Keillor)
I enjoyed that!

He said, "Markets are conversations."
How do you get your arms around a change (sea change) as fundamental as the Internet is? (I'm asking this, not Doc Searls, at least not in this talk.) I heard his talk as suggesting ways that could help in thinking about that ...and ways that weren't helpful. .(...he had an interesting discussion of metaphors in the language we use to talk about certain topics, e.g. Marketing=war/combat, ...targeting,

DS talked about organization structure. I read into what he was saying as, a top-down structure doesn't make some much sense with something like the peer to peer internet communication. He showed a graphic of a sphere with nothing in the middle and network interconnections on periphery and suggested that attempts to mediate conversations on this periphery was like AT&T wanting to mediate the internet! ...pretty disastrously awful!

Doc likes "The Matrix," doesn't like the sequels so much, doesn't think they're as profound as the initial Matrix film!

I liked the quote from Stewart Brand (I'm a fan of SB), "form follows
funding."

He cautioned (maybe "cautioned" isn't strong enough of a word!) against using words like "consumers" and "producers."
"Markets are conversations."

I watched an interview w/Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's campaign mgr responsible for Dean's internet campaign. Trippi predicted that by 2008 we could have a third party, people fed up with the existing two parties, a third party that organized over the internet and was able, via the internet, to raise "$" sufficient to outdo the traditional parties and traditional party fundraising. His characterization of the type of person who'd front this effort (...the internet candidate) was interesting, the persona he described....

I mention because the same thing DS was talking about enables the traditional political party structure to be superceded.

I think there was a tacit admission on DS's part that language (OK, I'm reading into this here...) is a tool that hinders as well as helps with understanding. So he was using language, his talk, to suggest some things to think about for trying to get a grip, I mean, a handle on what this sea change means to the "consumer" society that came with the industrial revolution.

Since markets are conversations, the concept of the "consumer" reduces, sort of bypasses the conversation. Producers produce; consumers consume, done. The conversation, the relationship's really what's most important!

The "Cluetrain Manifesto," which DS co-authored looks interesting. Hence,
"Cluetrain..." and Joe Trippi's book, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything" .are next on my reading list!

Ed W






At 10:08 AM 9/8/2004 -0400, you wrote:
I couldn't make it to the Doc Searls presentation yesterday. Any comments, impressions?

=jimA=

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jim Allman
Interrobang Digital Media
http://www.ibang.com/
(919) 649-5760

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