Online Markets...

Networked markets are beginning to
self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally
served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better
informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from
most business organizations.

...People of
Earth

The sky is open to the stars. Clouds roll over us night and day.
Oceans rise and fall. Whatever you may have heard, this is our
world, our place to be. Whatever you've been told, our flags fly
free. Our heart goes on forever. People of Earth,
remember.

• 
  
  In both internetworked markets and among
  intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each
  other in a powerful new way.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of
  social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

• 
  
  People in networked markets have figured out that they get far
  better information and support from one another than from
  vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to
  commoditized products.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than
  companies do about their own products. And whether the news is
  good or bad, they tell everyone.

• 
  
  Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about
  human concerns.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  The community of discourse is the market.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will
  die.

• 
  
  Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect
  for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.

• 
  
  There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One
  with the market.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost
  invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete
  notions of command and control.

• 
  
  However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online
  perceive companies as little more than quaint legal fictions that
  are actively preventing these conversations from intersecting.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies.

• 
  
  We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are
  creating it.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the
  door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel!

• We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.
  
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it
  something interesting for a change.

• 
  
  We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some
  better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute?
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh,
  sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe.

• 
  
  Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's
  not the only thing on your mind.
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of
  one-dimensional and boring? What else can we talk about?

• 
  There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One
  >
  
  with the market.
  >
  
  

  
  
  

• 
  
  
  In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost
  >
  
  invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete
  >
  
  notions of command and control.
  >

Even a consumer revolt merely reinforces one's role as a consumer, not an autonomous or creative being.

The more they interact with brands, the more they brand themselves.

Frugality

Strategies for frugality

Some of the main strategies of frugality are the reduction of waste, changing costly habits, suppressing instant gratification by means of fiscal self-restraint, seeking efficiency, avoiding traps, defying expensive social norms, embracing free (as in gratis) options, using barter, and staying well-informed about local circumstances and both market and product/service realities.

February 19, 2007

Saving this planet depends on finding a middle path that is
neither unconsciously consumerist nor self-consciously anti-materialist. The
idea for No Impact Man is not to be
anorexic but to be abundant, not to be eco-efficient but “eco-effective,” in
the words of the environmental scientists William McDonough and Michael
Braungart.

In their book Cradle
to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart discuss