September 7, 2004The Independence Revolution1 The Independence Revolution How Self-Forming Markets...

September 7, 2004 The Independence Revolution 1

The Independence Revolution

How Self-Forming Markets are Changing Business, Technology and Everything Else

Doc SearlsSenior Editor, Linux Journal, etc.


Google does the introductions

Of the 171,000 documents Google finds with “Doc Searls” …

58,500 also say “Linux Journal”20,000 also say “Cluetrain”109,000 also say “weblog”

60,900 also say “garage”

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Declarations of independence

1. Mass communications is more about mass than communications

2. Communications isn’t delivery.

3. Information isn’t a commodity.

4. The biggest market changes happen when demand gets the power to supply.

5. The Net causes those changes.

6. The Net isn’t just a medium. It’s a place. Think of it as a market. Literally.

7. Authority isn’t command. It’s a grace given to sources.

8. Knowledge isn’t capital. It can’t be “managed,” either. Nor can independent people.

9. The Net has no bottom or top. It’s a World of Ends. You’re there or you’re not.


In modern terms, I’m playing Morpheus to your Neo.

• I’m here to do the hardest thing anyone can do.• Which is change your mind. Literally.• My main subject is markets, but it’s one among many.• I want to change the way you think and talk about all of them.








There really is a Matrix that tells us what to think and say

The real Matrix is the set of concepts we use to make sense

of the world.We are not conscious of them.But they do our thinking and

talking for us.




The real Matrix is metaphors

• We think and talk in terms of other subjects. We literally borrow whole vocabularies.

• Those subjects are like what we talk about, but are also entirely different.

• Herein lies the irony behind all understanding.


Two Examples

• Time is Money• We “waste” it, “save”

it, “spend” it, “invest” it, “lose” it and “set it aside”

• Life is Travel• Birth is “arrival,” death

is “departure,” choices are “crossroads” and careers are “paths”





Money and travel are conceptual frameworks




George Lakoff says we all frame politics in terms of nation as family






Why should the best people be punished?

• That’s what Dan Quayle said to the RNC in 1992. He was talking about graduated taxation.

• To make sense of it, you need to know:

– The best people are the richest

– Taxation is punishment

– A whole vocabulary borrowed from… where?




The conservative word-box has a consistent set of ideals

Character, virtue, discipline, toughness, thrift, respect, authority, strength, trust, loyalty, sacrifice, dedication, rewards, consistency, self-reliance, responsibility, standards, authority, heritage, competition, earn, hard work, enterprise, property, reward, punishment, freedom, justice, tradition, common sense

So does the liberal word-box


Conservatives and Liberals think in terms of different idealized families

• The liberal ideal is the Nuturant Parent model

• The conservative ideal is the Strict Father model






Different family models yield different political worldviews

• The world is a dangerous place — and also competitive

• You need a strong, protective morally strong leader who stands up to evil

• Highest values are strength, obedience, loyalty, respect, self-discipline, trustworthiness, wealth, freedom

• The world is a good place• Children are born good and

need to be made better• Highest values are empathy,

caring, responsibility, fairness, cooperation, community, opportunity, prosperity, open communication, health, harmony, freedom






Conservative political rhetoric has at least one big advantage

A dangerous world is more interesting than a nice one.

It’s a lot simpler, too.






For just about everything, WAR is the handiest box ‘o words

WAR

attack • campaign

command • defend

dominate • entrench

flank • force • impact

kill • destroy • marshal

beach head • cover • bomb

target • deploy • blow away

• Business• Politics• Sports• Religion• MarketingSo…

Why is that?


What is the basic unit of consciousnes?

Asked by Jerry Solfvin while helping saw a hole in a ceiling at 1810 Lakewood Avenue in Durham, 1980




The basic unit of conciousness is the story

• Because, any good assignment editor can tell you, stories are all that really interest people.




What makes a story interesting?


Every storyhas the same three elements

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(moving toward a) Resolution

Problem (with a struggle)

Identification (with a character)1.

2.

3.


What’s the story of markets?

• What is a market’s character?

• Not what do we mean when we talk about markets, but…




What do we think and talkabout markets in terms of?

Categories

Exchanges

Demographic groups

Regions

Demand (as a verb)

Selling (as a verb)

Targets


Most of the time we see markets as distant things

But they’re not.Markets are real places.

We’ve just forgotten how real they really are.


What were marketsin the first place?


The first markets were markets

• They were places where people met to do business and make culture


Many of our surnames label ancestors’ roles in real markets

Baker, Farmer, Cooper, Tanner, Merchant, Weaver, Miller, Brewer, Smith, Armstrong, Potter, Fletcher, Shepherd, Carpenter, Fisher, Smith, Hunter…

So why don’t we name ourselves Bill Broker, Bob Forklifter or Sue Agent?


Industry wonthe industrial revolution

Crafts lostIndividuality lostIndependence lostIndustry replaced crafts with occupationsIn the industrial age, everybody had a job…Also called a position…Somewhere in an org chart:


In 1980, Alvin Toffler said we’re entering the Information Age

• Which makes sense

• But we still conceive of business in industrial terms

• For example…QuickTime™ and a

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We still conceive business in terms of shipping

• We “load” or “move” “content” through a “channel” for “delivery” to a “consumer” or an “end user.”

• The job of every business is to “add value” to the “chain”




The deepest legacy of the Industrial Age is the few-to-many

model of business• This model idealizes small

numbers of big producers, each with countless consumers

• “A consumer is a gullet who lives only to gulp products and crap cash.” — Jerry Michalski

• The characters that matter most aren’t customers




We need to care about the Net as a character

(moving toward a) Resolution

Problem (with a struggle)

Identification (with a character)1.

2.

3.


What’s the Net’s Character?

• Its architecture is end-to-end

• “Think of the Net as a hollow sphere made of the people and resources it connects.” — Craig Burton

• Think of it as a World of Ends


“Technology trends start with technologists” — Marc Andreessen

• What were technologists up to when they started this world?


Information-as-commodity is an industrial notion

• In the new economy, what matters is the verb, not the noun.

• Informing is rewarded. Not just “delivering information.”

• Tim O’Reilly teaches this well




Independence is a shelf full of O’Reilly Books

• Information -> Inform -> Form• “We are all authors of each other




How Saving the Net made money for Howard Dean

• Dick Cheney hoped to raise that weekend at a $2,000/plate fundraising dinner. The goal was to raise more than $250,000.

• “Saving the Net” runs in Linux Journal

• Blog For America issues a challenge.

• By the time Cheney had his luncheon, the campaign had raised $344,000. By the morning of July 29, the total passed $500,000, from 9,500 people.




The Net’s founding fathersbuilt it to support civilization


Civilizationdoesn’t move all at the same speed

Source:longnow.org


The Net’s founders weren’t coming from fashion and commerce

Source:longnow.org


This civilizationis host to huge conflicts

• They center around infrastructure

• Certain big/old commercial interests want to govern it

• Technologists want it to govern itself — for nature and culture to drive and support its governance

Commerce

Governance

Infrastructure

Culture

Nature

Fashion


Infrastructure is what goes under a platform — it’s the Net’s geology

• It supports what relies on it• It has no secrets• It’s free• It occurs in human nature• It is naturally independent:• Nobody owns it• Everybody can use it• Anybody can improve it

Commerce

Governance

Infrastructure

Culture

Nature

Fashion


Hollywood’s anti-Net forces don’tunderstand infrastructure

• They don’t know or care where the Net came from or what it means to civilization

• They only understand “content” & distribution

They doesn’t understand infrastructure that forms and changes faster than business and fashion

• So they feel threatened by it

• …And want to control the uncontrollable

Commerce

Governance

Infrastructure

Culture

Nature

Fashion? ?


Techies want infrastructureto support business

— Plus the rest of civilization

Commerce

Governance

Infrastructure

Culture

Nature

Fashion


Infrastructure supports markets

Commerce

Governance

Infrastructure

Culture

Nature

Fashion


There’s the issue of opposing perspectives

Commerce

Governance

Infrastructure

• While commercial interests often don’t see the free and open sources of infrastructure…

• Free software and open source techies often don’t see the creative nature and accomplishments of commercial interests


Right now Hollywood bigwigs are pushing for Xtreme Net regulation

• Michael Eisner, Jack Valenti & friends want to turn the Net into a regulated content distribution system…

• And turn PCs into supply-controlled devices.• They’ve had successes with copyright law & the DMCA• They’re not going to stop


The deeper battleis between metaphors

Hollywood sees the Net as a plumbing system for intellectual property and other “content”

Techies see the Net as a place — a commons — where people can make culture and do business


We need to savethe latter from the former


Bazaars — Markets (same thing)operate at 3 levels

Exchange

Conversation

Relationship


Yet we still talkin the language of exchange

• Even when we’re talking about relationshipsExchange

Conversation

Relationship


Exchange is the level we’re at when we say we’re…

“delivering services”

“moving content”

“adding value”

Exchange


Markets are conversations

• Post-Cluetrain Lesson #1: markets are also more than that.

• Think marriages. Are they just conversations? No.

• They’re also relationships.

Conversation


Markets are Relationships

• They’re profoundly social• In fact, companies can’t

help relating, constantly, with their markets

• Unhealthy companies are filled with fear and hostility

• Healthy companies love their work, their people, their markets

Exchange

Conversation

Relationship


Relationships make stories

Exchange

Conversation

Relationship

Resolution

Problem (struggle)

Identification (character)


Relationships have passion

• Passion brings companies into business, into markets, and together with customers

• Relationships are positive-sum. We give our affection. We don’t sell it.


Relationships aren’t about exchange morality

• They’re not about “value for value,” and “favor for favor.”

• They’re not about “added value” or “returns on investment.”

• They go beyond “positive sum” (which is still an exchange concept).

• Relationship morality is about mercy, forgiveness, understanding — love

• They are about transcending the self. They are about us, not just about me.


Relationships are personal• So is business — within

companies, between companies, and between companies and customers.

• As markets turn into bazaars again, the companies that succeed will love their people, love their customers, love the bazaar itself — and trust all three.


Relationshipsare between characters

• Each with their own– Personalites– Passions– Ambitions– Problems– Stories

• Each independent

Work should be about loving what you do, and who you do it with

That’s why they call it a “living”

September 7, 2004The Independence Revolution1 The Independence Revolution How Self-Forming Markets...

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