1. Trade Book Review—Cluetrain Manifesto: The end of business as usual Authors: Fredrick Levine, Christopher Locke, David Searls, and David Weinberger Review written by: Marie Walker
2. Authors Christopher Locke Author of Gonzo Marketing Editor of the Entropy Gradient Reversals e-newsletter Former consultant for HighBeam Research Fredrick Levine Co-founder of WordofMouth.com Chocolatierand Founder of Seth Ellis Chocolatier
3. Authors (Continued) David Searls Co-founder of Hodskins Simone & Searls (HS&S) advertising agency Winner of the 2005 Google-O'Reilly Open Source Award for Best Communicator David Weinberger Former writer for the comic strip “Inside Woody Allen” Author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web
4. What did you learn by reading this book? Errors are good things if you learn from them Mistakes can be conversation starters
5. What surprised you in this book? The internet is not about information Information is built to be managed “Information” is a product of the “computer age”’
6. What do you want to learn more about, now that this book has piqued you interest? Double talk Volunteer slavery Passion for quality
7. Would you recommend this book to other students? Great insight to the world of the internet Information from various points of view
The Cluetrain Manifesto was published in 2000 by Perseus Publishing, New York, NY. The book is basically a collection of 95 theses into a manifesto which calls for businesses to join the online marketplace that is the internet. The entire text can be read by visiting www.cluetrain.com.
Fredrick Levine is the founder of Seth Ellis Chocolatier a small chocolate manufacturer in Boulder, Colorado. He is a former web architect for Sun Microsystems, a Java Software group.Christopher Locke has written for many publications such as: Wired, Release 1.0, The Industry Standard, and Harvard Business Review. He is also the author of the books “Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices” and “The Bombast Transcripts: Rants and Screeds of RageBoy”.
David Searls co-founded Hodskins Simone & Searls (HS&S) advertising agency and The Searls Group, a consulting firm. He has written pieces that have been published in magazines such as: Wired, PC Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and Upside.David Weinberger provided technology policy advice to John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign. He served as “Senior Internet Advisor” to Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. He currently serves as a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.Weinberger and Searls co-wrote the book “World of Ends: What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else”.
Errors shine a light on flaws that could be turned into opportunities. If one notices an error, then they now have a place where they can become creative and breathe new life into an existing framework.Mistakes are great conversation starters. When a mistake is discovered it is important to talk things over, questions such as: What went wrong? What were you trying to achieve? and When did you go off course? can be asked and new ideas can be generated.
The internet is a database of information but this database is less about the information that it holds and more about the people that post and consume the information that exists. The way that people interpret the information that is out there is what determines the importance and value of said information.Information that simply exists has no purpose. Once information is being managed properly and their value is determined by those who need to access and use this information, then the information has a probative value. The random senseless information that can be found on the internet is due to a lack of management, for this information serves little purpose and no one has seen it necessary to organize this data.Due to the importance that is placed on the data or information that is on the internet, the information that can be found and the ease of access to that information, the term “information” has been re-defined by the “computer age” and the people that are a part of it.
The authors suggest that by allowing ourselves to be censored we are participating in a type of “voluntary slavery.” This is due to the fact that we are choosing to let others decide what is best for us to do or say. I want to make sure that I make my own decisions and walk my own path, while ensuring that I don’t alienate others.The authors suggest that sometimes we say things that we don’t truly mean in order to maintain control over certain situations. I would like to find out how to be more honest in work situations. It’s not always easy to ensure that you stay true to yourself when you are in an environment that is so highly controlled, such as work or school.The authors stated that it is of grave importance that organizations encourage and engage their staff in genuine conversations. These genuine conversations can make workers feel more valued and instill a certain level of passion within them. When people have passion for the work that they do, then the work tends to be of a higher quality. I would love to try and figure out a way that I could inspire others and myself to have more passion and pride in the work that we do. It would also be great to figure out ways to help professors instill a greater sense of passion in their students.
The Cluetrain Manifesto has 95 manifestos that each provide different tidbits of information about the internet. The authors have varying backgrounds and so their views contrast each other and provide a great balance of information. The authors re-define common things such as the terms: web, internet, and information.
