the cluetrain manifesto: the end of business as...

The Cluetrain Manifesto:

The End of Business as Usual

VERTSOL

Torroba, Miguel Antonio V.

10857478

Amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738204315/entropygradientr

Chapter One: Internet Apocalypso

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/apocalypso.html

What I expect to learn:

Hearing the word Apocalypso, I initially thought of it as a chapter about the downfall of

the Internet. But after reading and hearing U2’s song that was excerpted as a quote, I gave it the

benefit of a doubt and thought of it as how the Internet has been used to fill in the gap that we

have been missing in our lives.

Quote: “But you know what they say about all work and no play. People began to play.”

Review:

The chapter opened my eyes on how the Internet has greatly affected the lives of today’s

people. Many of who are now able to speak with their own voices unlike in the years that have

passed. Now, they are able to express their opinions, give suggestions and mostly say what they

want to say.

Internet Apocalypso described how through the years that have passed corporations have

been pulling the strings on what the consumers could and could not have. That there are no other

varieties of that product, either you buy or you don’t. With the fast paced growth of the number

of people who uses the Internet, those invisible strings that used to hold us and our opinions

down were cut off, we were given freedom.

It discusses a wide range of different topics from normal human behavior and longing,

changes needed by the corporations and the power and voice of the market. The chapter also tells

us how the Internet although earlier used by the government has been changed over the years by

the growing number of people who use it, starting from the people who participated in “flaming”

to the everyday people in need to communicate and fill their gap.

This chapter also encourages people to use the Net and talk, converse, listen and read

what other have to say. The author tells us that by doing so we are able to gain different valuable

information that was not accessible to the public beforehand.

The chapter was a great read and it held different information which was very

entertaining. It contained serious topics but also had breaks from these which resulted in a funny

remark from the author, which is very enjoyable. With the author’s witty yet insightful way of

writing, future readers of the chapter would definitely enjoy reading it.

What I have learned:

I have learned that through all of what the people of before had been through, many of

those people still longed for a deeper and wider connection with others. And that is where the

Internet comes in.

The Internet has helped us fill up this gap. Even with its limited functionalities before,

with the help of a little argument, people started to get together in the Internet and either

participated or viewed the flame wars.

It has come to me now that our generation has had it easy since the void was already

being filled up by the time we got here on Earth. I could not actually imagine myself unable to

chat, web surf, read blogs or game forums and the likes. It has dawned into to me that the

Internet has become one of the greatest asset of not only the corporate world but even to the

tiniest household.

Integrative Questions:

What kind of place was the Internet before?

What was the biggest attraction of the Internet?

What is the Internet an extension of?

How did the company view its consumers and workers before?

Why are the bottommost tiers more valuable than that of the managers?

Chapter 2: The Longing

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/longing.html


I expect the second chapter to further discuss the “longing’ people feel towards their life.

How this emerged and how the people of today have managed to deal with it. I also expect it to

deal with of course the Internet and its role in all of this.

Quote: “And when the thrill of hearing ourselves speak again wears off, we will begin to build a

new world. “

Review:

The chapter further focuses on the people’s lost “voice” throughout the centuries. It

discusses certain key features on why we have lost our voice.

It talked about how being managed and managing stuff have greatly affected are daily

lives and further increasing our longing for a voice. The author states that by being managed we

have created this void in ourselves, that by knowing what has happened, what is happening and

what is a about to happen, we have lost our authenticity and our identity.

In by being managed we have lost sight of ourselves and thus become what we have

hated all along, a being controlled and limited by authority and rules. Doing what they want you

to do, saying what they want to hear from you, we most have definitely lost our voices due to

this predicament.

The voice or one’s individuality plays a certain role in that chapter. It states that the voice

is the one most expression that we all have and that this should not be confined. It should be

utilized to the fullest for us to be able to call ourselves humans. The longing in this chapter was

all about our voices being constrained and limited. But although we don’t really know what the

Web is really for, by having this tool we are able to let lose our voices and further express

ourselves.

Unlike the previous chapter which deals with a lot of topics to be discussed, this chapter

was more focused on the people’s voice and how the Internet can be used to retrieve or free our

voices.

The chapter showed more seriousness as compared to the last chapter. However, even

with the seriousness of the tone of it was still delivered in the most promising and easiest way for

the reader to understand.


I have further learned on the people’s voices and how it is confined by management.

Upon reading the chapter, it hit me that I too was like the people being talked about in the

chapter. I go to the Net to show everyone my voice as to who I really am. I got to different social

networking sites to tell people that I feel this way today, I will do this tomorrow, etc. I have only

thought about this as something to pass the time but now I know that this was a way for me to

express myself in ways that I can not when face to face with someone.

I can definitely say that the Internet has been used to showcase everyone my own voice

and is definitely away to see who a person really is.


Who are the “we” that wants to make the Internet important?

What is our voice?

What is professionalism?

Why is the Web viral?

Why do we long for the Web?

Chapter 3: Talk is Cheap

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/talk.html


Upon reading the title I expect to learn why the voice is cheap. What does it have to do

with the Net and how is it related to the voice discussed by the two chapters beforehand.

Quote: “The human voice reaches directly into our beings and touches our spirits.”

Review:

Talk is cheap says it all. Talking according to the author does not touch the people’s

hearts at the other end of the conversation. We must learn to let them hear our voice, for this will

not only benefit ourselves but also the people who are included in the conversation.

Like the previous two chapters, this chapter also talks about our voice. The slight catch of

it however is that it talks about how we converse and try to help out others and at the same time

use our voice in the process.

The discussion in this chapter was on how different components of messaging have

become a useful tool for our daily lives. Things like e-mail, mailing list, chat have been used by

people outside of companies to help one another answer questions and help resolve individual

problems. This has been a way to further use our voice to benefit the people who use the Web.

In terms of corporation, it is said in the chapter that if the corporation cannot converse

with the market properly it is detriment and can end up with the corporation shutting down. This

is because of consumer loyalty that is earned through respect out of properly conversing with the

market and addressing their needs.

Although still enlightening, I found this chapter not that appealing as compared to the

previous chapters. This was maybe because of the way the different articles were presented as

conversations among people. Even though I know if these conversations were not included in the

chapter it will be hard for the readers to understand what the author was talking about, I would

still liked it better if the author didn’t present the chapter like that.

Overall the chapter is still helpful in understanding how the voice can be used not only to

express one’s self but also to help others.


I have learned that people’s voices are not only used to express but also if you have the

time, it is used to be able to help out people along the way.

Many people who use the Web are passive and would rather acquire knowledge than give

it. However the chapter tells us that people long for conversations and not just any conversation,

an intellectual one, one that would benefit both sides of the party.

In this chapter, I was able to get a grasp on how the every day things we do in life like

conversing can be used to help others.


How we can tell the difference between people, committees, and bots?

What underlies success on the Web?

Why are stories a large part in the success of an organization?

What is a critical aspect of success in dealing with large number of customers?

Why is silence fatal to a company?

Chapter 4: Markets Are Conversations

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/markets.html


In this chapter I expect to know more about the effects of the market, compromising of

different people and voices, globally.

Quote: “In a Webbed world, loose lips float ships..”

Review:

Again this chapter talked about the voice, however not only an individual’s voice but a

market’s voice. It discussed primarily about how the market has the bigger influence over the

corporations now as compared to years before.

To know more about how this happened, the author cleverly wrote down the history of

how the importance of market conversations came to be. It talked about how the corporations

turned a blind eye away from what the voices have been saying and by using advertisement

would help them make us shut up.

Advertisement versus the word of the people in the Web was also compared upon. On

how the advertisements of yesterday and tomorrow have been full of lies in which it specifically

gathers the market that it needs by saying what they wanted to hear to and how by actually

searching in the Web for other people’s opinions may it lead to you not buying the product that

they were advertising.

By doing so, we get to discern the value of a product. Do we actually need the product or

not? Should actually buy it or not? With the different voices opening up in the Web and are

willing to help each other out, we get to decide on this things without ever having to doubt the

decision we have made.

The overview of the chapter was that it urges the corporations to partake in talking and

actually conversing with the market it wants to handle. This not only earns the market’s attention

but also actually increases the possibility of further increment of its current market. The author

tells the corporations to just shut up and listen for a while to their market’s concern.

With this the chapter has definitely spoken itself more onto the corporations out there that

if what the “position” they want is not what they have been hearing the people say, then there

must be a problem and that they should actually stop what the are doing and think about it.

The market that the author would like to point out is not a market that actually denies its

individuality and just sits passively but a market that has a voice, either of concern or suggestion.

The market is not something that should just be thrown to the side. It is something that the

corporations should actually take seriously.


The market has the power now over how the corporations should work. They have earned

their voices and by uniting this they are definitely a force to be reckoned with.

The voice of the market has long been shut but however as the Internet found its way into

the crevices of the normal household, it has helped us garner and give information. This helped

us raise our free will, our freedom to talk.


What is the awful truth about marketing?

Why does company marketing fail?

What is the real purpose of marketing?

What is positioning?

What is your voice?

Chapter 5: The Hyperlinked Organizations

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/hyperorg.html


With the word hyperlinked my initial thoughts on the chapter would be of that everything

is available for us to view, to read, to discern, to understand and to give our own views on the

subject.

Quote: “But, then, as the old saying has it, you can’t make an omelet without nuking the existing

social order.”

Review:

The overall idea that I got from the chapter was the fact that the organizations and their

information dissemination should be a communistic one.

The fundamentals of a business mostly on how we imagine it, is that we sit in our cubicle

idly waiting for us to be asked to do something. This stereotype has been going on for ages. This

is also how the pyramid org chart works, in which power is only given to those above and those

at the bottom should just obey their authorized personnel.

However with the emergence of the Internet it has overturned this pyramid style of

organization bottom up. In actuality, it really is not an inverted pyramid but a flat organization.

This is because with the use of the Internet we were given the ability to not only give out

information but also to gain it.

Thus the hyperlink was introduced, with this the people in corporation were able to be

more human like whenever they time in for work. With the hyperlink, the power fueled hierarchy

has been overthrown and replaced by different individuals who are eager to say something, to

share what they know.

With the hyperlink being instated in the daily life of a person, conversations were made

and thus information came flying out to anyone and to anywhere.

The chapter also discusses the characteristics of the Web which is closely related to a

hyperlinked organization in which power is dissolved and conversation abundant in the

corporation’s different areas.

With the chapter ending itself with how business is becoming more like the Web, it helps

us understand that we have the right to say the things we want and that these words are supposed

to be heard.


I have learned that communication is detrimental for a corporation’s survival. This is due

to the fact that without communication, the consumer’s would definitely ignore the whole

corporation and not only this but the corporation would be a target of bad mouthing from those

outside and inside the corporation.

With business becoming more and more like the Web, the people are trying to look for

freedom inside the corporations, freedom to speak out and do what they want.


What is the Net for?

What are hyperlinks?

How many times is the speed of Internet time greater than that of normal time?

Information is a product of what?

What connect people in the Web?

Chapter 6: EZ Answers

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/ez-answers.html


I expect this chapter to be a sort of conclusion or tie-up to everything that has been

discussed in the previous chapters that have been mentioned. It answers any loose ended

questions and it gives as a conclusion on what the Manifesto is really all about.

Quote: “We are asked, How are the poor people of the world going to get Internet access? when

our hearts want to know how we can connect with the poor of the world, because there isn’t a

single person we don’t want to talk with.”

Review:

The chapter proved itself to be the conclusion to the nearing end of the book. It again

talked about how the Internet has become an important tool for us to be able to speak out and

express ourselves more. Furthermore it went back and discussed how the corporate world’s view

on the Internet has to change, that they should entertain the market and find their own voices or

they would risk closing down.

The workers again were given highlight by the author. The voice that each and every

worker has must be used fully to help the corporation improve. By listening to the people who

are around you, different ideas and innovations will spring forth. All of which will be used to sell

your product and unlike before will be able to gain the customer’s loyalty.

Questions of the heart were also discussed by the chapter. It tells us that in each and

every question we have, we must search for the question of the heart. These questions are what

still make us humans. We are able to acknowledge that there is something more to a situation

than meets the eye.

With things being wrapped up by the book, the authors gave a few simple suggestions

more or less a program so that you may succeed in life. These 12 things that were given to us

were that which makes us humans and of which can help us either find our voices or to increase

its usefulness.

This chapter was in a way to help the readers recall things up to this point and integrate

what each and every chapter had discussed. This chapter was used primarily as way to

summarize the findings and further answer the questions asked throughout reading the book.


Some of the things talked about in this chapter were already discussed in the previous

ones. The thing that has really caught my attention would have be that we need to provide

questions that comes from the heart to further encourage the consumers to open up to the

corporations and helping it to stay a float.


What were now encouraged among workers?

Internet technology encourages what?

What do many of today’s organizations resemble?

Why do we ask questions about the future Web?

Who built the Web?

Chapter 7: Post-Apocalypso

URL: http://www.cluetrain.com/book/post-toasties.html


A recap on what has been discussed throughout the whole book. That is all that I expect

to learn from this chapter.

Quote: “Just because you're not seeing a revolution -- or what Hollywood has told you a

revolution ought to look like -- doesn't mean there isn't one going down.”

Review:

This chapter would be considered as the conclusion of the book. It talked about in more

intricate details what has been happening or what has actually happened – a revolution, ignored

and invisible.

It further discuses the use of the Internet in terms of the corporation, the market or in our

daily lives. How the Internet has become the microphone and speakers to fully allow our voice to

be heard.

Change was also part of the things talked about in this chapter. Change that the Internet

had had a big role. With this changes taking place even now, the tale old market, where hustle

and bustle was always seen and heard, has grown more bigger and at the same time have gotten

more unique and individual people to partake in talking and listening.

The demonic paradox was also given the lime light in this chapter. Although we may

have finally figured out how the system works and how it greatly affects us and even if we have

finally found ways on overcoming it we are actually carrying the genes and are actually falling

back to the stereotype of which the corporations have built years ago.

Voices, imagination, corporations, all of which that were all talked about in the previous

chapters have come back again to let us take a sneak peek into the upcoming future, a future

where anyone and everyone are connected and are conversing on a regular basis. The ending has

opened up a variety of possibilities for us to undertake and if we want one of those futures to

happen, we have to speak up and talk about it.


Bottling every imagination, ideas, suggestions, comments or even complaints will never

get us anywhere. We must learn to let our voices out and by the use of the Internet we would be

definitely be able to do that. The Internet was and is still is our little own haven where we can

say what we want, do what we want and become who we want to be.


What is Irony?

Why was ignorance important for the Web?

Why is invisibility freedom in the Web?

Was there a grand plan for the Internet?

Can the corporations of today survive at all?

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