What I Wrote On Cluetrain

Austin: Deb Schultz mentioned she was one of the original signatories to the cluetrain manifesto during a panel session today, so I went and looked. I am #14; here’s what I said:

[from the cluetrain manifesto - signatories

The business culture is retreating into a reactionary conservatism in the face of global connectedness of our emerging world society. Just like the ritualized clothing of business — the medieval suits and pointless neckties — much of the claptrap surrounding the conduct of business is a form of obedience to obsolete and dangerous mores. The Internet is subversive, since it breaks out of the linear/hierarchical mindset into a world of feedback and lateral communication. McLuhan wrote in 1964 that the speedup of the electric age is as disruptive for modern literate Western man as the Roman roads were to tribal villagers.

And Deb was somewhere around 40th, I think.

Cluetrain is a generational thing, though. Later on, I met Andrew Hyde, the 20-something founder of the startupweekend thing. Deborah Crooks asked him about the cluetrain manifesto during an interview, and he had no idea what it is.

Andrew Hyde, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.