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.
No comments:
Post a Comment