The Seeds of the Longtailer's Manifesto
Doc blogged the following this morning:
Unmediated is more excellent pushback from Dave Rogers on his Groundhog Day blog.
I think Dave is doing more than pushing back, I think he is forking the Cluetrain. Since I agree with just about everything he said, I wanted to highlight some points which might be the beginnings of The Longtail Manifesto. I did paraphrase and add some thoughts, so you would be well served by reading Dave Roger's original post.
- Favorable reaction to the Cluetrainers on Chris Lydon's show is just an example of echo-chamberism.
- The lack of any real challenge by Chris was a disservice to his listeners.
- The assertion that the Web is unmediated is a distortion of the plain meaning of the word mediate.
- The assertion that the Web is more a world than a medium is a distortion of both those words.
- Many aspects of blogging are in fact mediation.
- The fact that bloggers have no editors, does not mean that they are unmediated and the current A-List gatekeepers in the blogosphere certainly act as mediators.
- Almost all commnications require mediation and to suggest otherwise is incorrect.
- Marketers have a loose relationship with language and truth which is why they are comfortable with statements like Markets are Conversations and notions like Authority without Responsibility.
- Authenticity is the difference between speaking the truth and trying to sell it.
- People sell authority and so they mediate their messages to make their own authority as pleasing and palatable as possible.
- Despite the statements of Cluetrainers, technology only changes *how* we do things, not *what* we do.
- If Cluetrain ideas have merit, they deserve to be challenged, tested and criticized.
- Perhaps the best rejoinder to all the hyperbole offered in the service of authority is the following:
"A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
Thanks Dave for all your work and insight.
Updated 5:45 PM EST
Unmediated is more excellent pushback from Dave Rogers on his Groundhog Day blog.
I think Dave is doing more than pushing back, I think he is forking the Cluetrain. Since I agree with just about everything he said, I wanted to highlight some points which might be the beginnings of The Longtail Manifesto. I did paraphrase and add some thoughts, so you would be well served by reading Dave Roger's original post.
- Favorable reaction to the Cluetrainers on Chris Lydon's show is just an example of echo-chamberism.
- The lack of any real challenge by Chris was a disservice to his listeners.
- The assertion that the Web is unmediated is a distortion of the plain meaning of the word mediate.
- The assertion that the Web is more a world than a medium is a distortion of both those words.
- Many aspects of blogging are in fact mediation.
- The fact that bloggers have no editors, does not mean that they are unmediated and the current A-List gatekeepers in the blogosphere certainly act as mediators.
- Almost all commnications require mediation and to suggest otherwise is incorrect.
- Marketers have a loose relationship with language and truth which is why they are comfortable with statements like Markets are Conversations and notions like Authority without Responsibility.
- Authenticity is the difference between speaking the truth and trying to sell it.
- People sell authority and so they mediate their messages to make their own authority as pleasing and palatable as possible.
- Despite the statements of Cluetrainers, technology only changes *how* we do things, not *what* we do.
- If Cluetrain ideas have merit, they deserve to be challenged, tested and criticized.
- Perhaps the best rejoinder to all the hyperbole offered in the service of authority is the following:
"A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
Thanks Dave for all your work and insight.
Updated 5:45 PM EST
posted by Mike at
9:13 AM
