A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. ... These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.
Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. ... employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.
Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.
The tone has changed and almost all major companies now have a presence on the Internet, but that presence often reflects the pre-Internet culture that the authors complained about. Some companies are now clearly moving in the direction of "employees are getting hyperlinked" and those employees are getting linked to each other behind the firewall and to the markets beyond. Enterprise 2.0 is a natural step in the evolution of the Internet, a step that was recognized even before the required technology was available.You can learn more about the Cluetrain Manifesto at http://www.cluetrain.com/ including a link to the book.
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