Thursday, November 20, 2008

Chattering Clusters - and me - are to input to Obama-Biden Transition Team....

Here is the letter I received today as an email inviting me to contribute to US Climate Change and Energy issues, ideas, and policy formulation process. So I did just that... If you would like to become part of the new Chattering Clusters advising the next President of the United States on America then you can simply follow the prompts on my invitation....

Dear Richard,

62 days. That's how much time we have left to prepare for the Obama-Biden Administration that will bring the change Americans demanded so strongly in this past election.

President-elect Obama has set a high bar for the Transition team: to execute the most efficient, organized, and transparent transfer of power in American history. As a co-Chair for the Transition, I want to tell you about a few steps we've already taken to achieve this goal.

First, we adopted the strictest ethics guidelines ever applied to any transition team. President-elect Obama pledged to change the way Washington works, and that begins with shifting influence away from special interests and restoring it to the everyday Americans who are passionate about fixing the problems facing our country.

Opening up the Transition means listening to your ideas and stories and providing a window into how the process works.

To give you a look at how we're approaching some of the nation's most pressing issues, we filmed this meeting of our Energy and Environment Policy Transition Team and interviewed team member Heather Zichal.

Watch the video and submit your ideas on energy and the environment:

Watch the video

President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden have set an ambitious agenda, and we are going to make Change.gov a source of information, as well as a place to participate in the decisions being made about your government.

Since the decisions we're making affect all Americans, we're counting on citizens from every walk of life to get involved. You can help us right now by making sure your friends and neighbors know about Change.gov and give their input, too.

We're continuing to develop new ways to open up the process, and we'll keep you posted along the way.

Thanks,

John

John Podesta
Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Hold the phone on Obama as President....

Obama will win the White House - I have been predicting this for a long time now.... The upcoming election is locked in I have repeatedly told you all - well it was until Sarah Palin arrived to help John Mc Cain.

Governor Sarah Palin is a real person in a world of virtual celebrities like Barack Obama. She adds a new dimension to this contest. Senator Joe Biden (Democratic Nominee for Vice President) adds nothing to the Obama Camp except the illusion of age and experience. Biden has never really done anything of note outside of the Sentate so he is there as window dressing.

Palin is a 'hands on' Governor of a small but tough State. She is a mother with a large, and colourful, family. She hails from Alaska where things are done a little differently. She is a huge asset to Mc Cain.

So hold the phone just now and let's see if Sarah Palin can do the impossible and get John Mc Cain elected. She could well do it. How so? Well now Mc Cain (or more accurately Palin) will be the talk of the 'chattering clusters' . On the web and in real life Palin will be an inspiration to the deflated Republican voters who supported Bush. She will ensure the 'chattering clans and tribes' re-think their long-held proposition that Obama is their next President.

Palin is social networking gold for the Mc Cain campaign and she is already bullet proofed because she (or her family connections) have already provided more shocks than could have been imagined. Thus she is just the type of person who makes Web 2.0 social networks glow with viral marketing traffic. Palin will ensure that Mc Cain get talked about.

I thought Obama had the web social networks all to himself but Palin could out do him in this arena. If she does Mc Cain will win this election........

So forget what I said before Palin arrived on the stage.... Just hold the phone there might be an upset brewing in the US Presidential Election....

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Talk directly to 'chattering clans and tribes'....

Brands are dead long live the Internet.....

Both Barack Obama and John Mc Cain have given up on their brands - Democrat and Republican respectively - as they endeavour to talk directly to the digital age clans and tribes. The clans want change. They want an end to Bush. They want an end to the mindless handouts from Washington DC and the meaningless political games politicians play on Capital Hill. Obama and Mc Cain know this and they are doing precisely what your business should be doing - they are going directly to their customers with their messages of change.

I coined the term Chattering Clusters. On closer inspection I noted that these clusters were either clans or tribes.

The clans are early adopters - you would think that means they are young (generation y or x) and they are in large part. The emerging truth of the matter though is this is not an age or generational issue it is an access and connection issue. If you have broadband access and a reliable connection to web social networks you can be a clan member at any age. The change you are looking for if you are a retiree maybe different to those you seek as a teen nonetheless you both want change and you both are advocates for a point of view. Blogs tell the story as their creators, in all age groups, pound out their messages of change.

The significant feature of a clan is it can form and dissipate quickly. The tribes are slower to form and more long lived. They are clusters that have a clear and present purpose. They are working hard to achieve an outcome with the content of their blogs or the formation of a social network. Within these tribes there are rules, taboos, protocols, etc that do not exist within clans. This makes the tribe a more stable entity as a social networking cluster. However, a common side effect of their stability, focus, and purpose-driven nature is that their chatter is repetitive and stale. Tribal conversations, on the web, are often a digital version of 'group think' what we might refer to here as 'cluster think'. Cluster think makes the tribes much more coherent and manageable than clans.

Obama and Mc Cain will spend the next ten weeks or so before election day talking directly to their clans and tribes. Their aim is to have those clans and tribes work for them as viral marketing agents to convey the most meaningful parts of an Obama, or a Mc Cain, election platform to their peers.

Obama will do this job better because he has set up a web-based social network of clans and tribes the like no one has seen before. He has harnessed the power of the internet to motivate a range of disgruntled voters who are forming into political clans and tribes to support his candidacy. Because Obama has organised the 'Chattering Cluster' to hear his conversation above and beyond that being presented by Mc Cain he will win the upcoming election for the White House.

What Obama will do with and for his new digital electorate as their President is hard to know but if he continues to talk directly to them then he will get himself re-elected in four years time.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Obama can do no wrong......

It is mildly amusing for me to watch the media at the Democratic Conference trying to find something new to say. Truth is it has all been said or left unsaid. Obama will be the next President of the United States because the chattering clusters on the web have already deemed it to be so. The world has changed and Obama is the change candidate. The media covering the convention have not changed they are still trying to find or to invent 'the story' that will impact the upcoming election. The only story is that Obama won over the chattering clusters with his refusal to be an old styled politician and his insistence on being the first 'internet generation' public figure. The only thing left to report on is just how big Obama's majority in Electoral College will be. It is locked in now and yet it is still not clear how big it will be. I suspect it will be huge.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

My C21st business pitch....


I have a real C21st challenge ahead. Pitch a new way of doing business to clients who, in the main, are still doing business the old way. Here is my pitch...

Richard Lipscombe is an online asset for you and your company. He works online and occassionally onsite. He will travel to other countries and regions but sparingly. He believes in digital business models because they are cost efficient and effective. He runs a spartan business model.

Richard has developed business models in heathcare and social networks. Otherwise he works on issues as directed with a simple three phase approach. Clear, hold, and build. Clear out the old ideologies to allow new ideas to breath. Select the best of these ideas to go forward by placing them into context. Design a framework for action to develop the potential of these ideas. Hold these ideas within a business model. Construct prototypes to test them. Test them to breaking point. Reframe these ideas as executable initiatives for the business. Build these ideas into new revenue streams.

Richard has also developed a social networking model. He has studied the ways people gather on and use Web 3.0 links. He has identified three patterns of conversations that can impact your business. These are Chattering Clusters, Clans, and Tribes. Clusters form on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Ning, etc. They can have 150 or so people in them chattering about all manner of things. Within these conversations they trash products, services, and brands they dislike and praise those they like. These conversations are full of positive and negative viral marketing. Clusters form with a low level of trust. Clans have a slightly higher level of trust and are populated by the early adopters of new ideas, technologies, products, and services. They form and implode quickly. Tribes are purpose built – they tend to be built to last and populated by people who have common ideologies or shared values. Environmentalists tend to form into tribes because they are dedicated to saving the planet from the worst effects of Climate Change, etc.

Engaging Richard to work with you on your problems is simple. Contact him by email at the above address – setout your issue in the email. He will reply by email stating where and why he might be able to help or suggesting some other course of action for you and your company.



Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Obama the politician....


The Chattering Clusters have chosen the right man in Obama even though he is a left leaning Democrat. Or is he?

Having dispensed with the race to become Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama now faces up to a tough electoral college battle with his Republican Party opponent John Mc Cain. All through the Primaries the media commentators had Obama pinned as a Liberal Democrat. He was clearly an ideologue and this would be in undoing because the electors did not want such a President.

But hold the phone! Obama is moving his political rhetoric and his policy positions towards the center of the continuum. Oops! What does this mean? What is a media pundit to make of this move? What does it do to all those projections about which candidate wins which States in the fall election?

Well the first thing Obama has to do is win an election so these moves are seen as part of the political strategy to win the White House. So he had to move to policy positions that appealed to the wider electorate and more especially to the so called 'independent' or non committed voters. These voters were not his concern when he was facing down Hillary Clinton for the nomination. Now they are front and center in his political calculations for winning office. That is as it should be.

What we are seeing with Obama is emergence of a gifted politician in a race for the highest office in America. His ability to read the politics of the race for the White House is beging to be his greatest asset. Why?

First he has won the Chattering Clusters and they will elect him no matter what he says in the lead up to the fall election. He is their teflon candidate and so nothing sticks to him except their votes. Second he has to now appeal to the Chattering Clans. Those independent minded voters who might either stay at home and not vote or vote for Mc Cain. Obama can appeal to them by showing how he will govern. Yes govern. They are going to see Obama running for the job of President of the United States with the same strategy around issues that he will have when he sits in the Oval Office.

It is important that Obama runs a campaign based on what he intends to do not what he has to say to get elected for two reasons. First he needs to win over the support of the independents so that he has a resounding victory in the fall election. Second he needs to demonstrate to the Democratic Party how he will act as the incoming President.

My guess is the 'independent voters' will like what they see of Obama in this election but the Democratic Party leaders will not.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Obama and Clinton unite a nation over a bottle of water....


The reality is the upcoming election of Barack Obama is a foregone conclusion. How can I know that to be a fact when it has not happened? I listen attentively to the Chattering Clusters, Clans and Tribes and they tell me they want change they can believe in. Barack Obama is the only candidate offering what they want. How do I know that to be a printably fact? I observe those 'little things' that tell the Chattering Clusters that Obama is their man.

At an open air gathering the other day Clinton was praising Obama. She was telling the collected gathering that he offered them "change we can all believe in".... As I looked at the video I saw a tangible sign that she certainly knew what she was talking about... Next to the microphone were two plastic bottles of water - you know the type with the light blue screw on lids. As Clinton spoke Obama took one of the bottles of water and drank from it. He was immediately identifiable as one of the Chattering Clusters. He was one of them - that is what they would do if they were sitting there. He was sipping water from a plastic bottle just like they do - no glass, no jug, nothing but a plastic bottle with a blue top.

Obama is 'change you can believe in' .........

Friday, June 20, 2008

Loosely coherent networks...


I continue to be fascinated by the notion that our organisations are 'getting beyond people'. All my adult life the core asset of an organisation was its people. Sure people are still important yet, it is information or more precisely conversations about ideas and actions that is the new lifeblood of an organisation. Why? Because we have begun to move on from people-based processes. We have essentially turned the notion of our C20th organisational form and function inside out with a mixture of automated processes and consumer self-service. We have outsourced the core activities of the traditional organisation to computers or customers. As a direct result our organisations have become 'loosely coherent networks' rather than bounded entities. These networks stretch equally well around the globe as around the block. They are elastic in ways that traditional organisations never could become. The key to understanding these networks is to understand their revenue models. If you understand how these networked entities make or derive (ie taxes or charitable contributions, etc) their revenue then I believe you will better understand why and how they make the types of collective decisions they do.

One day it all clicked for me - I suddenly seemed to understand this new organisational form. It all happened because I stumbled upon the notion of 'Chattering Clusters'. It just made sense to me that people are chattering all around the place with 'delight' about their vast arrays of Spring flowers or with 'a driving passion' for some new ideas or ways to succeed with a project at work.

Then I noticed that there was more to this network - much more. To get beyond the general chattering the 'early adopters' form Clans which tend to promote change in a broad sense. Senator Barack Obama is running for the White House because he has a Chattering Clan following for his simple storyline of 'change we can believe in". Once a Clan is up and chattering the focus will often shift from the broad canvass to a much more specific 'framework for action' or to 'a prototype for change'. This is a networked or distributed activity and so the key to cohesion and success is trust. Within Clans the trust levels are not too high because they are built 'to flip' not built 'to last'. For a network to be built to last you need deeper levels of trust to be present.

As trust levels build within a Clan so a shared purpose (or even a shared set of values, ideologies, ideals, mores, etc) becomes evident and so the more dedicated members tend to form into Tribes... Tribes are more likely to have some face-to-face contact or regularly scheduled meetings. By meetings I mean a formal or informal device to support a conversation. Chattering Clans and Tribes have 'meetings' on Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc to chatter about all manner of things. Clans chatter about change, fads, fashion, trends, etc. whereas Tribes chatter about a purpose driven project. Same technological platforms host very different conversations for Clans and Tribes.

Does your workplace work as a 'loosely coherent network'? If not why not? What would you have to do to make it so?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The magic of conversation.....

What conversations did you hold with people today? Are they the same as yesterday? Was there a new twist to them? Did someone take a conversation to a new level, in a new or unexpected direction, or was it simply business as usual? What did you do inside those conversations to spark innovative ideas, change, or difference? What can you do tomorrow to bring a new set of conversations into your life at home and at work?

Every conversation has a beginning, a middle, and an end. All your conversations are orchestrated within your head - that is where they begin, progress or stall, and find resolution. If you are an ideologue then you will struggle to find too much magic within the conversations on Web 3.0. If you can suspend your ideologies and join into the spirit of Web 3.0 conversations then you will find a new world of ideas, images, themes, and realities come flooding into your open-minded head. Once you find your 'open-minded head' you are ready to experience the magic of conversation within the Chattering Clusters, Clans and Tribes on the world wide web.

A globe of clusters....


The Chattering Clusters have taught me that we both over simplify and over complicate our C21st notions of business and social cohesion. They have taught me that the C21st is an interesting mix of old and new. Old ways of being and culture. New technologies as the platform for those old habits and behaviours.

How we view this mix depends so much on the words, images, stories, and concepts we run inside our heads. What runs inside your head is, in part, a consequence of the Chattering Clusters you join. You join clusters online today to converse with businesses, colleagues, family, and friends. When you go online with Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Skype, etc. you construct your C21st framework for action inside your head. On Twitter you have short conversations about what you and your friends are doing right now. Twitter provides you with a Chattering Cluster that spans the globe. You are on Facebook with virtual friends who form your Chattering Clan – this cluster has 150+ people in it and as it expands it covers more and more of the globe. You do business on eBay with a Chattering Tribe of locals and a Chattering Clan of global contacts – this network grows at the local and the global levels as trust builds between you and your buyers. You use Amazon to provide you with a platform (an EC2 cloud of computing capability) so you can expand your business offerings around your Chattering Clans and Tribes (not by self promotion but through friendly conversations about what it is you do). Members of your Clans and Tribes trust you and therefore trust your products and services. You stay in touch – you get active feedback on what C21st consumers want and need – because you chat obsessively on Skype to everyone.


We live and work within a globe of clusters.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Clusters of trust.....


The Chattering Clusters have taught me a great deal over the past 2 years. You must have learned stuff too. Isn't it amazing when you join a cluster that you immediately feel a pull of 'trust'?

Do you feel it when you join in a conversation on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Fast Company Now, etc? Do you feel the pull of people wanting to belong to the conversation? Do you sense their need to become involved, share their experiences, connect with you, allow you access to their thinking, be there for you? Do you, like me, wonder why this is so within the Chattering Clusters but not within your workspace? Do you try to extend the feeling of trust you have within your online clusters into your workspace? Do you find immediate acceptance of it as you would within a Chattering Clan or Tribe? Do you find yourself wondering why it is that we spend so much time and money at work on leadership, communication, negotiation, team building, etc training and yet it is all there in an instant when you join a Chattering Cluster?

When you were at school were you like me just busting to get to the playground and join the Chattering Clusters, Clans and Tribes? Do you remember the 'little lunch' breaks when the yo yo fad was just be
The Chattering Clusters have taught me a great deal over the past 2 years. You must have learned stuff too. Isn't it amazing when you join a cluster that you immediately feel a pull of 'trust'.

Do you feel it when you join in a conversation on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Fast Company Now, etc? Do you feel the pull of people wanting to belong to the conversation? Do you sense their need to become involved, share their experiences, connect with you, allow you access to their thinking, be there for you? Do you, like me, wonder why this is so within the Chattering Clusters but not within your workspace? Do you try to extend the feeling of trust you have within your online clusters into your workspace? Do you find immediate acceptance of it as you would within a Chattering Clan or Tribe? Do you find yourself wondering why it is that we spend so much time and money at work on leadership, communication, negotiation, team building, etc training and yet it is all there in an instant when you join a Chattering Cluster?

When you were at school were you like me just busting to get to the playground and join the Chattering Clusters, Clans and Tribes? Do you remember the 'little lunch' breaks when the yo yo fad was just beginning and you either were part of it or bemused by it and yet always so aware of it? Do you now understand that you were always an integral part of the conversations in the school playground even if you were not at the cutting edge of it or at the 'tipping point' of the new best thing (often an old best thing being recycled - like a yo yo craze!)? Do you crave a return to the honesty of the playground, the open access to all the conversations, and the integrity of those who had formed a Clan or a Tribe and demanded higher levels of trust from their members?

Do you feel, as I do, that the C21st heralds a return to clusters of trust at work and at play?
ginning and you either were part of it or bemused by it and yet always so aware of it? Do you now understand that you were always an integral part of the conversations in the school playground even if you were not at the cutting edge of it or at the 'tipping point' of the new best thing (often an old best thing being recycled - like a yo yo craze!)? Do you crave a return to the honesty of the playground, the open access to all the conversations, and the integrity of those who had formed a Clan or a Tribe and demanded higher levels of trust from their members?

Do you feel, as I do, that the C21st heralds a return to clusters of trust at work and at play?

Friday, June 13, 2008

Consumers are the new talent....

I wrote the following a short while ago.... With the release of a new iPhone I thought it might be worth repeating here today.....

Steve Jobs tied the iPhone to one telecommunications company. This is not what is normally done in the telecommunications industry. Jobs knew he had low talented users - he designed the iPhone specifically for them. Jobs also knew he had to give them an extraordinary iPhone user experience so he limited who could do what with the iPhone and relied on his cool design to win the day with his consumers.

But all bets are off for the next generation of iPhones. It is already clear that the next generation of iPhones will have to serve extraordinarily talented users and so Steve Jobs must complement his handset with free contracts with every telecommunications company. To make this deal even better the provision of a free service contract will most likely come with a range of additional telecommunication offering because all those companies will have devised passive income models that suit their iPhone users.

What did the Chattering Clusters make of the iPhone? It was intially greeted with great joy and thus generated a heap of positive chatter. But what long-term storylines will prevail? Some of the negatives about the service provider's role in the iPhone began to play loud and often after the initial release. So what will prove to be crucial to the iPhone's success? For the iPhone to become the next big thing, like its little sister the iPod, it has to win over the Chattering Clusters.

If the iPhone is a great user experience then the storylines within the Chattering Clusters will be generally positive and thus will ensure that more and more users buy it, use it, and most importantly chatter incessantly about it on Web 3.0. If this happens then iPhone Clans and Tribes will be created. These Clans and Tribes will validate the iPhone and then move on to suggest practical ways to adapt it, innovate it, and thus have it provide more value to you and to me.

A powershift.....


A powershift has occurred within the flat world of the internet...

C20th innovation was led by staff. C21st innovation is led by consumers.

The digital age consumer is the same as before, only different...

Within digital networks consumers are the new talent. They cluster on the internet and become viral marketers for everything they like and dislike. They form what I term Chattering Clusters who chatter incessantly to each other about everything from soap powders to celebrities. They are on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Fast Company Now, LinkedIn, Linux forums, etc talking about what they want and need.

What they want and need most is to 'belong' to a Clan (a global network with low levels of trust) or a Tribe (a local network with high levels of trust). There is nothing new in this desire because Tupperware Parties in the 1950s served the same purpose. Consumers today want to 'be heard' by their favourite reality TV show host as well as their favourite soap maker. They want to be involved in product or service innovation. They want products and services that are customized for them rather than just another version of 'one size fits all'.


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I feel your pain America....


Obama and Mc Cain have an equal opportunity to fill the gap left by Clinton. Either candidate can pick up her Chattering Tribes by merely repeating this mantra... I feel your pain America. I feel your pain because you want and need change in Washington. I feel your pain because your aspirations have been trampled on - Obama can add here that some of you wanted the change that led a woman to become the President. I feel your pain because you know America can be strong again - ethically, morally, and spiritually. I feel your pain because you need 'change you can believe in' - could be the Obama closing line. I feel your pain because you want American troops home from Iraq and yet you want their efforts there to count for something to have meaning and to bring a new purpose to Iraq - could be the Mc Cain closing line.

If Obama says 'I feel your pain America' he wins the White House. If Mc Cain says 'I feel your pain America' he could steal the White House. The Chattering Clusters are the key to who wins. With Hillary Clinton gone these clusters will transition into Clans and Tribes. If their 'pain' is not acknowledge by Obama, especially those who voted in the Democratic Primaries for Hillary Clinton, they may well form Tribes whose common purpose is to turn against him. For Mc Cain the Chattering Clusters are already a huge hurdle because they want a 'real change' in the White House - that is what they chatter about not ideologies or policies or personalities but change.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Chattering Clans and Tribes do not mix....


Chattering Clusters include Clans and Tribes. But Clans do not include Tribes and vice versa. Members of Chattering Clans can also be members of Chattering Tribes simultaneously but in each forum they wear different hats. Within the Clan it is cool be expansive, messy, undisciplined, theoretical, hypothetical, imaginary, fanciful, etc. But within the Tribe is cool to be focused, driven, practical, experienced, seasoned, detailed, calculating, etc. These two social networks serve the same people in very different ways. One is a thinking (Clans) and the other is a doing (Tribes) forum.

The only way to appeal to both the Clans and the Tribes is to go to the meta level of both forum - that is the Chattering Clusters. Thus if Obama wants to win the White House he must not select Clinton as his running mate. Similarly Mc Cain must not select Romney. Because for either candidate to do that would mean their message has to be palatable to both Clans and Tribes at the same time - this is impossible. Obama appeals to the Clans in the Democratic Party while Clinton appeals to the Tribes. Mc Cain appeals to the Tribes in the Republican Party while Romney appeals to the Clans. Both Mc Cain and Obama have to appeal to the Chattering Clusters throughout the broad electorate - the candidate who does that best will win the White House.

Obama is best placed to do this because he has a broad message - change we can believe in - that is not based on his liberal ideologies. His ideologies are not an asset in this election so he must stay away from being too specific about policies. His ideologies are not a huge burden either because voters want change - they want change in ideals, ideas, and rhetoric. Obama promises these types of changes and that is all he has to do - he does not have to argue the specifics of policy settings with Mc Cain. If Obama stays on his current message of change then he will appeal to the Chattering Clusters first and foremost. If he does that he will win the White House in a canter.

Mc Cain can also appeal to the Chattering Clusters if he does not attack Obama on his liberal philosophies and policy preferences. Mc Cain must stay above the fray of Democratic versus Republican Party politics. He can do this if he does campaign as a 1950s style and uses the Town Hall discussions as his calling card to influence the Chattering Clusters. If he can stay grounded in local rather than global issues then he can present himself as the demonstration effect of the change we can believe in too. If he does this then this election is too close to call.

I sense that Obama is more likely to find the broad appeal needed to convince the Chattering Clusters to talk about him more than they talk about Mc Cain. If so then he wins in a landslide.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Chattering Clans 1 - Chattering Tribes 0


The Clans beat the Tribes in Democratic Primaries for President of United States. There is absolutely no surprise in that result. The only surprise is that it took so long for the result to be declared.


The Chattering Clans voted for Barack Obama because he offers 'change we can believe in'. The Clans are quick to form and quick to flip but they want to belong to the Obama conversation because it is all about change. Chattering Clans want change and they want it now! They want an end to the reign of President George W Bush in the Oval Office and they want it now! So they voted for Obama and they will in the fall general election. Let's be clear about this result they are not voting for his liberal ideologies or for his Democratic Party per se. No they are voting for his method of communicating with them. They are voting for his attempt to hold a conversation with them about their future. My reference to 'they' here is anyone and everyone - it could well be 'you'. Anyone and everyone across age, race, gender, regions, etc there is no divide here if you identify with the message of change then you will have voted for Barack Obama. You or they who voted for Obama are being told by the expert political pundits that you do not know this man Obama nor his story and so you may not vote for him in the fall. These pundits could be correct but, I am sure they are wrong. They just do not get it - they do not understand the flat world of the internet, Web 3.0, and definitely not the world of Chattering Clans. You and they do not have to know Obama all you need is to trust his message and the way he engages you in conversations about your future.

The Chattering Tribes voted for Hillary Clinton because she offered them a familiar voice and face. She offered them the Clinton brand. She was their safe bet because they, or you again if you voted for her, wanted a woman candidate with a sound record on social justice issues. She did a super job of appealing to the fear of change that she helped to build up within the Chattering Tribes. Clinton offered change - she offered you the first woman President and that was as appealing to many as her message. But the Clinton message was largely negative, defensive, and had none of the expansive element of change that Obama offers. This suited the Chattering Tribes because they want a more measured version of change. They want to be reassured that the change they need to accept will be good for them. They want to be convinced that the next President is capable, experienced, and up to the job. Well they lost the argument.

So it is Clans 1 and Tribes 0.... The big question is will the fall election be a repeat run of this process wherein the Clans vote for Obama and the Tribes vote for McCain. If that is to be the case, and I think it is highly likely, then you can pencil in a scoreline of Clans 2 and Tribes 0.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Web 3.0 - no Windows and no Gates....


In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates? Linux is like a wigwam.... no Gates, no Windows and Apache inside! There are 10 different kinds of people... those who understand binary and those who don't!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Being chatted up by your own .....


You know you are winning when the Chattering Cluster are incessantly on about your message. Let me give you a concrete example of what I mean by this.

Obama will win the Democratic nomination to run for the White House because the Chattering Clusters are on song with his message of change. Obama has one clear and certain message - "Change we can believe in" ..... Everyone wants that kind of change out there in the Clans... They want it so bad they can taste it.... They want it so bad that when they see Obama they want to embrace him because he has become the embodiment of their promised change.

Those who oppose
Obama are shadow boxing with themselves. Because Obama is not a symbol. Obama is not a brand. Obama is not a politician. Obama is not an ideologue. Why can't they lay a finger on Obama even though there is a heap of issues surrounding him as a candidate - including the views of his former Pastor and his wife. Why oh why? Well it is simple, Obama is the embodiment of 'change YOU can believe in!

Mc Cain is the only candidate that can possibly win the White House against Obama. Incredibly his natural political instincts tell him precisely what he has to do to win. Mc Cain has to appeal to the Chattering Clusters too but not the Clans that have embraced Obama but the Tribes who distrust change. Tribes within the Democratic Party's natural constituency who distrust elites, idealists, wordsmiths, visionary, and charismatic people. Tribes who voted for George W Bush because he was a homely type of guy - he was non threatening to them. Tribes who voted strongly and consistently for Hillary Clinton within the Democratic Primaries because she addressed their fear of change.

Within the Chattering
Clusters there are Clans and there are Tribes. Clans are more numerous in numbers but they are also more fickle, unstable, and insincere. Tribes are less numerous in numbers but they are also more reliable, stable, and sincere.

The 2008 race for the White House between Obama and Mc Cain will be a battle fought within the Chattering Clusters between Clans and Tribes.

Who will win?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Feedback......


Tell me all about your experiences with Chattering Clusters. Tell me about the Clans and Tribes you belong to or hang with. Tell me about your need for trust. Tell me about your social networks and how they serve you. Tell me your stories about being a C21st 'nanosecond consumer'.

Feedback is important - both for the giver and the receiver. Feedback is what keeps things real. Feedback is the sure sign that your systems are open to the environment. Feedback is essential if you want to be transparent with your actions.

Want to give me feedback on Chattering Clusters by all means send me an email at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com

Monday, May 19, 2008

Lorenz, Mandelbrot, and Ashby....


Lorenz and Mandelbrot were in a practical sense both 'mothers' of "chaos theory" because they both saw repeatable patterns where others saw only ambiguity, uncertainty, complexity, and unpredictability. Add the 'requisite variety' notion from Lord Ashby - that is complexity will only ever submit to variety - and then you have a workable theory for Web 3.0.

Web 3.0 is chaotic, patterned, complex, etc and yet it is predictable because it presents us with repeatable patterns.

Web 3.0 is patterned by what I have termed the "Chattering Clusters" - they in turn form into predictable Clans and Tribes. Like the weather patterns that Lorenz studied these "Chattering Clusters" are key factors on the flat world of the internet. These clusters are also affected by the equivalent of a butterfly flapping its wings in a rain forest in Brazil.

The Chattering Clusters are affected by 'a sudden shift in trust levels' that usually does occur in an obscure part of Web 3.0.

When this shift in trust occurs, sometimes for no visibly apparent reason, it directly impacts the formation and the implosion of Clans and Tribes....
.

Abundant and scarce...


Web 3.0 world is very different to what preceded it. It is a flat world where your best, most creative ideas, are simultaneously being thought by millions of others. It is a world of inclusion not exclusion. It is a world of networks which means the core notions of abundance and scarcity have to be reconstructed.

Abundant in our flat world is:
- choice
- opportunity
- travel
- information
- sellers
- supply
- labour
- technology.....

Scarce in our flat world is:
- time
- privacy
- security
- trust
- cooperation....

Friday, May 16, 2008

Can you benefit from Chattering Clusters?


You would like to know if YOU can benefit from your Chattering Clusters - right?

Well you already benefit as a consumer. You are informed by the Chattering Clusters on the world wide web. You have joined a global Clan with your participation on Facebook. You have become part of a local Tribe with your Twitter, Texting, or SMS messaging. All these are digital warrior tools. All these tools give you access to information that you trust about a whole array of goods and services. All these tools have linked you into social networks that replace your need for marketing, advertising, or brand loyalty. You are being informed by your Chattering Clusters.

In business you can also benefit from Chattering Clusters. All you need do is to translate your consumer behaviour into your business models. First you need to stop marketing and selling your brand because you know that no one out there cares a hoot about it. You need to be both 'relevant and remarkable' to your future 'nanosecond consumers' who are being informed by their Chattering Clusters.

So here is my free gift to you - you may need to read the highlighted sentence below several times: then go away and, come back to it again and again. Why? Because your business brain is NOT wired to receive this message. You have to push it right through your brain and way back into your cortex. You have to beat up on your ego and in the process jettison a lot of what you think you know about doing business. Why? Because you can see that your business needs to change the way it goes about engaging with C21st consumers or else there will be no growth over the next decade.

You need to connect with Chattering Clusters not with consumers!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Linux is not windows....


The 'Chattering Clusters' on Linux get it oh so right...

Sometimes you have to tell people who want to belong to your Clan or Tribe what you are all about by telling them about what you are NOT...

Users of windows come to Linux to escape the C20th mindset and revenue models of Microsoft... But then they often complain that Linux is not the dumbed down product they are use to receiving from the guys and gals at Richmond... They have become accustomed to the Microsoft way of dominating your needs and wants by making it so 'easy to do precisely what they want you to do'... That is why windows exists as a Microsoft product....

So if you want to be told what to think and how to think about what you think then do yourself a favour and stay with windows....

Linux is not windows - says it all really!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Switch to new age marketing....


Times are tough yet companies continue to waste millions on marketing...

Consumers are not watching, listening, or paying attention to YOU. They simply do not care what YOU say or do they are out of your loop. So do yourself a favour and go into work on Monday and slash, better still obliterate, your current marketing budget. Put everyone in marketing who does not deal directly with your customers on a redundancy package.

Why? Because if you don't you should start looking for a new job yourself. The simple truth is your job now depends on revenue generated from nanosecond consumers who are digital warriors not mass marketing junkies. The mass market is dead. Brands are dead. Value adding is dead.

Welcome to the exciting new age living in the flat world of the internet! A world where everything can be sourced from everywhere. A world where time is more important than choice. A world where value is more important than price. A world where trust is the key ingredient in a purchase - this trust comes from word of mouth or viral marketing not what you currently do to support your Brand or current Revenue Models.

Go into work on Monday to either clear out your desk or to clear out your C20th marketing regime!

Built to last or built to flip?


This world is all about YOU right now! This is a period of history - despite current economic cycles - when the world is YOUR oyster. YOU will get to choose so much about precisely what happens in your life if YOU understand whether YOU are built to last or built to flip.

Those of us who are built to last are seeking to belong to a TRIBE. If you are this way inclined you are looking to build off your current experiences. You are looking to hang with people you really, no really really, trust. You are looking to work with people who share your values. You are looking for purpose and meaning in your life right now. You are relying heavily upon your 'gut feelings' - your intuition - when you think about your situation and prospects in a crazy world of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty. You are looking at the big issues like Climate Change, peak oil, immigration, terrorism, security, etc as long-term issues that need a measured approach from a unified community. You are happiest when you feel you belong and that is when the tribe is gathered around you.

Those of us who are built to flip are seeking to associate with a CLAN. If you are this way inclined then you are looking to be creative and use your imagination to showcase your ideas on any medium you can including, YouTube, Facebook, etc. You are seeking to prototype your creativity. You are looking to find people who are highly imaginative and inclusive in their work and play. You are relying heavily upon your "creativity" - your intellectual frameworks - to fashion a place for you in a crazy world of war, price rises, economic instability, etc. You are looking at the big issues like Climate Change, peak oil, immigration, terrorism, security, etc through the eyes of the artist as you conger up personal and communal models for change. You are happiest when you feel a sense of belonging to a clan that has formed quickly to replace the clan you belonged to last week but has now imploded.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Tribes, trust, and networks....


My work is simple - I design and build consumer architecture.

The new given is business has shifted from being all about supply to being all about demand. Why? Web based information and services has networked the economy - this means business is forced to be inclusive not exclusive. Inclusive of whom? There is the rub - the new inclusion is through tribes, trust, and networks.

People want to join tribes - this is why twitter, facebook, and myspace work so well. These technologies connect people with similar tastes, loves, ailments, afflictions, needs, wants, etc. They twitter each other because they want to belong to the tribe. I call these twittering tribes - Chattering Clusters. These tribes are nomadic, 24/7, based on individuals not groups, and live.

They cultivate them on facebook - there they dissect them into Demand Clusters. These Demand Clusters have a shared purpose. So you can be a member of my facebook tribe but not necessarily share the purpose of all 150+ gathered in my tribe. Your own tribe is also 150+ but it simply overlaps mine - it is not a replica of mine. The key to maintaining your own focus, purpose, and tribal ways is trust. Your trust is based on your love of the same things as me rather than on a sense of being faithful or keeping secrets. Trust is a bond - the bond could be as simple as being a consummate fan of The Blackeyed Peas. Trust is given freely but it is nonetheless essential.

People maintain their tribal traits by networking their Facilitated Clusters. Facilitated Clusters are networks inspired by a thought leader - it could be you. You challenge the tribe to extend deeper and deeper into their demand for The Blackeyed Peas. You do this in various ways - eventually you become the maven (respected know all) within the tribe. You may also become the pulsetaker - the one who keeps tabs on the mood within the tribe. Facilitated Clusters have their thought leaders who keep the network active.

Tribes, trust, and networks - its a wonderful new world of business out there......

Selling to nanosecond consumers....


Business today is all about selling the nanosecond consumer who lives within the Chattering Clusters on the web. It is simple really - all you have to do is get these Chattering Clusters to obsesses about you, to make up stories about you, to chatter about you in a positive light, and to enthuse their Clans and Tribes about your products and services. If they do that then you are being networked by the best in the business - you are being recommended by, and to, 'nanosecond consumers'.

Some things have changed for sellers today and you should be aware of those changes. Brands, and especially Brand You, are being trashed within the Chattering Clusters. Self promotion is inculcated into 'negative story lines' amongst the Chattering Clusters. Brands are trashed because it is no longer cool to differentiate yourself from others - today's top stories are all about inclusion and belonging. Trust is based on the sense of being connected to a Chattering Cluster not buying a brand name product. Brands are still used to identify products and services BUT nanosecond consumers no longer identify with these brands. Nanosecond consumers identify with a Clan or a Tribe which they connect with on Twitter, Facebook, and Ning. Clans and Tribes are social networks that exist in virtual and real space and time. These groupings are essentially digital communities wherein social mores and consumption patterns are formed.

The nanosecond consumer is the product of social networks that extend around the globe - networks that can have thousands of people connected to them. Village Square conversations have gone global - the Chattering Clusters talk about everyone and everything, everywhere. The Clans talk about everyone and everything around the globe. The Tribes talk about everyone and everything connected with their purpose so they are more focussed on their own community they are more local. But everyone is promoting or demoting someone, something, or somewhere.

If you want nanosecond consumers to buy your products, services, or you - belong to their clusters, clans, and tribes. How can you belong? You need a story that they can tell and retell - a changing story about new experiences and happenings that relate to you and your products or services. If you are talked about in a favourable light then you belong. If you belong then you are selling directly to the 'nanosecond consumer' and your business deals are done in the blink of an eye.

Online conversations....


Technology has moved the online conversation - a long way.

The new conversation is being convened in what I refer to as "Chattering Clusters" not online communities. It turns out that online communities are very hard to form and farm as a social entities.

This is why sustained innovation is so difficult in the flat world of the internet. For example, Google innovates the search engine and matches it with a revenue model supported by targeted online advertising. We all expected Google to continue to grow and grow over the next 10 years. But hold the new Google phone! Suddenly in 2008 the online market has moved to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. This is not the natural stomping grounds for iGoogle, Googlers, and the Googleplex.

The Chattering Clusters are formed by people who struggled to hold conversations on the net in the old online formats of blogs, chat room, web seminars, etc. So as soon as they could they moved to a new platform. Chattering Clusters may prove to be perfect pointers to what makes Web 3.0 so very different to Web 2.0. These are fledgling developments in commercial terms but not in social terms.

Feedback on Fast Company....


C21st business thrives on feedback.... Procter and Gamble have their website set-up for innovative feedback from consumers. Tupperware way back in the 1950s designed a business with consumer feedback loops built-in. Linux is a software development business that only exists because of feedback - it is being developed as we speak by users and developers who constantly use feedback loops to improve their core product/service. So it is with magazines and publishing too - feedback is a key asset today on Fast Company to help keep its articles relevant and remarkable.

So I was delighted that Fast Company printed my "feedback" in their May 2008 edition. I was pleased too, as you might expect, because this feedback is based on the core ideas in my forthcoming book 'chattering clusters'. BUT I was especially pleased because I was able to combine the ideas of two influential American thinkers whose ideas are often seen as presenting opposing views on our digital world. In fact Thomas Friedman and Richard Florida are talking about the same phenomena - Friedman is talking about it as he sees it working at the global level and Florida is talking about it as he sees it at the local level.

Creative clusters will form at both levels if and only if their members (in these clans and tribes) are able to hold two seemingly contradictory ideas in their mind at the same time. Here is a comment about holding two seemingly opposite ideas as a continuum of ideas. It might make more sense if you read the Fast Company item 'In Praise of Spikes' March 2008....

Creative Clusters

Thomas Friedman is correct: The broadband Internet world is flat ( In Praise of Spikes, March). If you have an idea, then implement it for yourself before someone implements it against you. Richard Florida also is correct: The flat world is a network that links clusters of people who find solutions to local issues. Some of those solutions can scale but others cannot.

If we put Friedman and Florida together, we get a perfect description of what is happening in the world today. At the global level, it is becoming flat (networked), digital (machine to machine), and virtual (ideas based). This flat world is a networked economy that does not obey nation-state governments or regulations -- subprime networked debt was based on a set of financial ideas, not on a set of home mortgages. Clusters are local. They are people based, and they are increasingly wireless (24-7 connectivity), personal (providing a customized experience), and reliant on new revenue models (passive income streams). Our world is changing in remarkable ways, and there are no right or wrong descriptors for what is evolving.

Chattering Clusters can work for YOU...


Its simply great if and when the 'chattering clusters' are talking about YOU and ME!

Thanks to Tom Altman's Wedia Conversations for this gem....

Change Architect

March 11, 2008

We were blabbing in a meeting the other day and we blurted out the title “Change Architect”. I really liked the concept - so I tossed it into google.

I found a post over at boxes and arrows called “Change Architecture: Bringing IA to the Business Domain

When seen from a change architecture perspective, the IA’s existing toolkit—normally used to discover and capture information, re-categorize content for easier consumption, and visualize ideas for shared understanding and action—naturally supports this expanded business domain. IAs can help companies reap the benefits of positive change by reducing fear of change, creating hope for the future, enhancing adaptivity to change, and architecting applications and processes that enable business success.

This is another result from a dude’s (Richard Lipscombe) Live Spaces page:

A Change Architect is someone who works in commonsense ways to resolve the complexity of change and thus ensure a set of positive outcomes into the future.

I like the “commonsense” part - it’s like saying we will try to do good things in the best ways we can think of. That’s pretty cool.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Chattering Clusters - Clans and Tribes....


'Chattering Clusters' is my term for people who incessantly chatter to each other on the web. They form clusters of hundreds or even thousands of people who are vaguely known to each other. These clusters become a network. Which really means the stronger the chatter the stronger the network. Equally the more chatter the greater the sense each person has of 'belonging' to a cluster. As people realise they enjoy this sense of 'belonging' they form Clans and then Tribes within their clusters.

Chattering Clusters are a new form of an old behaviour. In the past we have seen Church Services, Community Meetings, Telephone Trees, Tupperware Parties, etc all serve as the vehicle for chattering clusters. History has taught me that people like to feel they belong to such clusters. It is no less true today. Indeed as clusters form some members become closely knit and form their own Clan within a cluster. With these closer ties often comes a clear and common purpose and so they tighten their membership further and become a Tribe.

This blog is about Chattering Clusters - their Clans and Tribes.

Chattering Clusters - C21st marketing...


Chattering Clusters will do your marketing for you if you:

* listen to their stories....

* participate in their conversations.....

* translate their stories into your themes....

* treat global clans as early adopters - prototype with them....

* anchor your reputation within local tribes.....

Chattering Clusters - The Blog...

___________________________________________________________________________________
Did you notice the world changing right before your eyes - I must admit it took me a while to really see it and then some time to really get it!
___________________________________________________________________________________

This is a blog about Web 3.0 social networks and how they are changing the nature of social cohesion and consumer decision making. Chattering Clusters is my term for what is happening on the world wide web as people chatter incessantly to each other about products, services, politics, beliefs, values, etc.

I identified what I thought was an annoying trend of people simply chattering rather than engaging each other in meaningful discourse. But then I realised these were meaningful conversations - they just were nothing like what I was accustomed to seeing or hearing. I spent about 12 months reviewing what I had seen and heard over the past few years. It was a revelation!

I began to realise that 'Chattering Clusters' were a new form of networked community. These networks were facilitated by internet connections rather than face-to-face contacts. These networks were full of chattering noise unless and until you joined a cluster. These clusters were quick to form and just as quick to implode. However those clusters that did not implode usually formed into Clans and later into Tribes.