Keynote: Doc Searls—Harvard Fellow at the Berkman Center, Coauthor, The Cluetrain Manifesto Next on the Open Horizon Web visionary Searls isn't much interested in making the current ad-centric "attention economy" more engaging. He wants to replace it altogether with an "intention economy" that matches consumers' intent to purchase a specific product with any and all relevant brands. Is this nirvana for marketers or does this economy render them obsolete? And will Searls's Vendor Relationship Management get us there?

1. 1
What’s next
on the open
horizon
Doc Searls
Linux Journal • UC Santa Barbara • Harvard University •Twitter • Blogs • Various window
seats

2. 2
I believe in Duncan Watts.
But I also believe in tipping.
And we’re going to tip something big before this is
over.
So don’t leave.

3. 3
What’s next is fulfilment
of The Cluetrain Prophesy:
1. We still don’t give customers the respect Cluetrain demanded
more than 9 years ago. Because we can’t. That will change.
2. The Net is an open source project. Markets are too.
Understanding the former will help us make the most of the
latter.
3. Markets are relationships. Relating is the new frontier. And
customers will take the lead.
4. The customer is the new platform. It’s time to take sides with
ourselves, and our own intentions, and not just those of
sellers.
5. The Intention Economy will grow around what we actually
want. Not just guesswork about that. Demand will drive
supply. Personally.

4. 4
First, we have some
unfinished Cluetrain
business.
- Chris Locke

5. 5
How can customer reach
exceed vendor grasp?

6. 6
We can take our clues from
free software and open
source.
They’ve been building a whole new world
for us.
Their way.

7. 7
Open source developers
have practical motivations.
They want to build stuff.
That can be used, and re-used.
By anybody. For anything.

8. 8
Open source code
is a product of human nature.
Its wild and free environment is the Net.
Which it also helps build.
Making it even more wild and more free.

9. 9
Open source and the Net
share
two ideals:
1) Nobody owns it
2) Everybody can use it
Plus one more…

10. 10
3) Anybody can improve it

11. 11
There are now more than
half a million open source code bases.
All of them grew on the Net.
Which also embodies the same NEA principles:
Nobody owns it, Everybody can use it, Anybody can improve it.

12. 12
The Live Web
is branching off the Static Web.
Think of the branching as one between space and
time.
Space (Static)
Time (Live)

13. 13
Relationships will grow
on the live web.
Here relationships between customers and
vendors will be two-way.
Power will be much more symmetrical.

14. 14
The Live Web is where we’ll
drive
The Intention Economy.
The Intention Economy is what we get when we are no
longer “seats”, “eyeballs”, end “users” or
“consumers”.
You have customers who are ready to buy.

15. 15
Intention in a markeplace is what you
get when the customer’s mind is
made up.
It’s also virgin territory.
Mostly because we’ve spent too much time and energy on
marketing,
And not enough on what happens in markets when buyers
are ready.
Attention Intention
Decision

16. 16
We can explore The
Intention Economy with
Searls law #14:
It doesn’t matter what car you want to
rent.
You’re going to get a Chevy Cavalier.

17. 17
The car rental business makes an
excellent study of intention-deprived
markets.
There they are, all lined up against the same
wall…

18. 18
…or worse, on the Web:
Where they are all marketing silos.
And where United replicates the all-silo airport
experience.

19. 19
I like to rent from Budget,
because I might get a Ford
Focus
They still say their compact is a Ford Focus, “or
similar.”
But, like the rest of them, what they rent you mostly
is…

20. 20
What good would it do the car rental
business to know what any customer’s
intentions are, outside the silos?
They would spend less energy trying to trap and hold
customers
And more trying to meet demand and improve service.
And enlarging the whole marketplace.

21. 21
A few things companies will need
to know about independent
customers
They have lots of relationships that might also be good for you.
Most of what they want isn’t in your CRM system.
They have more good ideas for you than anybody inside your
company.

22. 22
I should be able to express global (and
logical) preferences outside of anyone’s
silo.
For example,
IF I am calling for tech
support,
THEN I don’t want to hear a
commercial message.
AND I am willing to pay X to
reach a human in <60
seconds.

23. 23
I should be able to manage
my own health care data.
Instead of risking my life when I fill out
manual forms with names of diseases I
don’t know how to spell.

24. 24
I should be able to inquire and
relate to whole markets, on the
fly.
For example, send a message from my
moving car that I need a stroller for
twins somewhere in the next 300 miles
on I-40 eastbound…
— without going into a silo, or giving any
more than the required information…
— which mainly consists of being
trustworthy and having money to spend.

25. 25
I should be able to manage my
relationships with vendors.
That means “agreements” need to go both ways.
No more 10,000 word piles of legalese from Verizon
saying they can cut you off for no reason at all.
It means real relationships between truly consenting
patries.
Whether those relationships are enduring or
transitory.

26. 26
We’re calling this VRM,
for Vendor Relationship Management
It tests the belief that markets can be truly free and
open.
And in control by customers as well as vendors.
We’re building tools that equip customers to be both
independent of vendors, and better able to engage
with them.
We’re doing this at Harvard’s Berkman Center.
And in groups around the world.

27. 27
Our first project is a new
business model for free media.
(that isn’t advertising)
Free media include…
Public broadcasting
Blogs, podcasts
Music…
Anything that’s either free on purpose or too
easy to “steal”

28. 28
Our first tool is the
relbutton:
It says,
“I want to pay…
what I want.” And/or,
“I want to relate…
on my terms…
and not just yours.”
“This is my code’s way
of letting your code know that.
Even if you’re not listening. Yet.”

29. 29
The relbutton can represent
three different states.
1. Intention to relate (and to
pay).
2. Intention to sell, but also to
relate on your (the buyer’s)
terms, as well as mine.
3. Existing relationship.

30. 30
There’s no limit to data
types
stored on both sides.
These can include intentions, transaction
records, preferences, memberships, “social
graphs”, shopping lists, existing agreements,
whatever.
Selective disclosure is key.

31. 31
Here’s where you’ll see it
first.
On a radio tuner for the iPhone and other
mobile Internet devices.

32. 32
That provides a new
business model for media.
Starting with noncommercial sources.
And growing to include everything.
Starting with the music business, probably.

33. 33
Q&A
Doc Searls
http://projectvrm.org
doc@searls.com