Cluetrain
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The cluetrain concept comes out of the cluetrain manifesto developed by four Internet business critics in 1999: Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger. The word is attributed to an unknown acquaintance Doc Searls quotes as saying about a company, "The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and no one ever took delivery."
According to their Web site, "The cluetrain manifesto is our attempt at articulating a set of principles and dynamics we believe will determine the future experience of both individuals and institutions online."
The manifesto went on to be published as a controversial book in 2000, but the text has been released back to the Internet by its authors.
The manifesto, mirroring the structure of the Protestant Declaration of Martin Luther, contains 95 theses. One of the central themes of the cluetrain is that in the new online world, ease of communications has relaxed the boundaries between formal "corporate speech" and natural "human speech", and therefore open and honest communication is the key to success in the market, rather than carefully crafted mission statements and PowerPoint presentations.
"To get onboard the cluetrain" is to understand modern communications.
See also prosumer for other factors changing producer/consumer relations.
External links
Cluetrain Web site (http://www.cluetrain.com)
Text of the cluetrain manifesto (http://www.searls.com/cluetrain/)
Doc Searls Weblog (http://doc.weblogs.com/)