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June 28 Social networking = transparency....Chattering Clusters are nothing if not transparent. The chatter is always about 'belonging' to this particular cluster. First and foremost people within clusters are chattering not presenting riffs, diatribes, or monologues. With their chatter people promote themselves, likes and dislikes, ideologies, values, products, services, and even familial experiences. The chatter is the message. It is transparent. It is simple. It can be simplistic too. It is whatever is needed to build a bond. It is like the chatter in the playground at school at lunch time - it has purpose, energy, shrill, volume, and little if any malice. This chatter is now connected across the world via the internet. It is establishing the new norms. It is electing governments, It is forging consumer demand. It is doing all this without motivation nor intent. It is not well understood by those involved nor those observing it because it is so transparent. Because this chatter is transparent it is under-estimated by everyone. Where is the plot? What is the hidden agenda? Who is orchestrating it all? Where is democracy in all this popularism? What can parents, government, regulators, marketers, businesses, etc do about all this willfully transparent chattering? June 26 The Chattering Clans are full of innovators....The
Chattering Clusters form Clans - in those Clans are early adopters of
fashion, fads, technologies, and C21st ideas. Chattering Clans are
global online entities - they are innovation workshops. Tune into
their conversations and you will be surprised just how much you can
learn about where the cutting edge is in politics, religion, values,
workplace reform, personal ambitions, etc. You will be surprised if,
like me, you read and take too much account of the mainstream
commentators. The mainstream does not get it. The mainstream is big,
slow, and meandering along a course that few within the Chattering
Clans are traveling or show the slightest interest in. The mainstream
is moribund in comparison to the ideas, passion, and idealism within
the Chattering Clans.
But he quickly does what all 'mainstream analysts' do, he turns to the
polling results to validate his opinions, riffs, and sage points on
political campaigns. The polls do not support him. Obama is not
dipping in the polls. Conclusion he is the 'Teflon' candidate and all
these mistakes do not stick to him. That is the 'mainstream' take on
this US Presidential Campaign between Obama and Mc Cain. But it is not
what you hear if you listen to the excited conversations of the
Chattering Clusters and their Chattering Clans. Oh no! The Chattering Clusters, especially the Chattering Clans, have already made up their minds about whom they want to become the next President of the United States. It is Obama. He is headed for the White House with a huge majority. Why? He is the innovator in US politics right now. He is running an Internet based campaign that is all about leading the conversation. Obama is still as much an unknown quantity to the Chattering Clans as he is to everyone else around the globe. The remarkable thing is that he is not an 'unknown' in any sense of that word to them in the ways that count to them - he is pro change, he is a risk taker, and his campaign funding is based on C21st digital networking principles of 'inclusion' (small doners are about to shower Obama with the largest election campaign funding windfall ever recorded - possibly $US 300 million). Obama says to the Chattering Clans that he will deliver 'change we can believe in'. He has already achieved some of that in way he has setup his Campaign and the way he presents himself as a candidate. He is the political innovator the Chattering Clans are absolutely desparate to believe in..... MySpace the most valuable Chattering Cluster?Michael Arrington the
well respected commentator on social networks has tried to put a value
on the most well known sites. Here is some of what he had to say on
the subject as reported by Fast Company.... His model looks at total Internet advertising spend in countries rather than evaluating a social network on the basis of page views and unique visitors. “I believe an effective way to value a particular user is based on the average Internet advertising spend per person in the country they live in. The higher the spend, the more value the social network can get out of the user by serving them advertising and other products. That means that, for now, users in a handful of key countries are worth far more in terms of revenue potential than those in the rest of the world.” For what it is worth here is my response on Fast Company..... Michael
Arrington has raised what may become the classic C21st debate about
Social Networks - that is the value of users versus customers. What
is the potential for the revenue models of MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn,
etc to grow into the future? That is the question investors want the
answer to before they place a $ value on these assets. Potential buyers
will answer that question in different ways and come up with a
different $ valuations for those assets. Here the question is all about the valuation placed on the 'revenue model' attached to a social network. June 24 Rising costs = reduced prices....We all face rising costs if we live and work in a carbon-based Nation-State economy. The economy supporting us is moribund. It is carbon expensive - soon to be ultra expensive - and labour intensive. It is a supply based economy which runs on the antiquated notion of value adding. It has not changed much since Henry Ford adopted the Frederick Taylor principles of time and motion studies to improve the productivity of labour and thus bring economies of scale to his assembly line. Ford's breakthroughs led us to a boom time based on mass production of the same or similar goods and services. It brought us a time of unprecedented growth and wealth creation at the end of C20th. It was based on two basic factors of production - cheap oil and cheap labour. In 2008 the global costs of oil and labour are rising. What do you do when you face rising costs? Yeah, that's right you rise your prices.... Well maybe not this time? I refer to myself as a 'digital warrior' these days. Why? Because the next economy is here, it is digital, and it needs to be fought for just as Henry Ford fought to establish a workforce that could buy his T Model cars. He paid them $US5 per day and he made them the pride of America's workforce. He raised the costs of production but to ensure he could continue to pay his day labour these high wages he continually lowered the price of his cars. Remember Henry Ford was building cars at a time when they were a novelty - they were horseless carriages in a horse and buggy era. so Ford did the unexpected, he sold his cars as a tool not as a novelty. Henry Ford sold use value to consumers not novelty or snobbery value. The analogy I seek to draw here is a simple one - the emerging digital economy is being treated as a novelty within most carbon-based businesses rather than the core of new use value propositions. If your business is an integral part of the carbon-based economy then you probably can benefit by becoming a digital warrior too - find the ways that digital technologies, web 3.0 social networks, active feedback loops, consumer innovation loops, and internet-based free services can help you reduce your prices. If your business is supported by a carbon-based economy, and is thus still labour intensive, then find new ways to use technologies to automate your services, slash your prices, and then provide 'state of the art' consumer experiences. Why will these seemingly suicidal tactics work for you? They will work because there are going to be few and few businesses doing whatever you do - the businesses that survive in your local industry will be networked to the community they serve via lower prices and more use value. Once local businesses are networked we actually need fewer of them - just as Henry Ford replaced many horseless carriage businesses, with his mass assembly line, so the new digital networked economy will replace many carbon-based and labour-intensive businesses. June 23 Tribal business...Tribal business is local, networked, inclusive, web-based, and based on experiences. Tribal business is primarily face to face. It thrives on communal contact and repeat business. It can have long supply chains that stretch around the globe. It is changing right now as local demand shifts more and more towards community sourced products or services. It will become more and more important for consumers as energy and food costs rise over the next few years. Tribal business is destined to become a networked business with a purely local focus. It will be designed, built, and often rebuilt to best suit the changing wants and needs of the local tribes. It will succeed because it offers a locally differentiated product or service. It will thrive on 'word of mouth' advertising because it provides an excellent consumer experience. It will innovate its products and services to meet the specific needs and wants of its local consumers. Tribal business can do no better than to model their entity on the Tupperware Party experience of the 1950s. Tupperware employed a host to conduct 'in home parties' for her local tribe. New products were prototyped at these parties and so the company got reliable feedback. Current products were on sale and so these too were vigorously discussed - often innovations were suggested by their current users. Tupperware Parties had many simple rituals and procedures that made the locals feel part of a tribe. The most successful tribal facilitators, the party hostesses, were in turn invited to the annual Tupperware Jubilee where they derived a sense of belonging to a national and later international clan. Tribal business is a simple concept and yet if it is executed well it can become remarkably successful and this success can continue to serve many generations of consumers. June 21 You can become a digital warrior...So you want to become a 'digital warrior' and do business online or in C21st ways. Here are seven things you must do: 1) have 'perfect' consumer feedback loops. 2) design consumer demand by chattering. 3) embed themes into consumers chatter. 4) befriend 'nanosecond consumers'. 5) let consumers sell their ideas to you. 6) built networks not revenue models. 7) provide use value > $ cost of sale. June 20 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? June 19 Are you a digital warrior?Do you give your customers stuff free? Do you seek feedback from your competitors' customers? Do you cherish feedback from your customers? Do you do things today that stretch you so you will be the best you can be in 2013? Do you recommend customers to go to your competitors if they have a better product or service? Do you always provide greater 'use value' than dollar cost to your customers? If you said 'yes' to two or more of those questions then you are a digital warrior.... Chattering Clans vs Tribes over the cost of oil?Chattering Clusters online hold the keys to the White House. These clusters form into Chattering Clans and Chattering Tribes. Chattering Clans have already formed for Obama around his notion of 'change we can believe in'... Within these Clans are most early adopters and so they like the Obama message, image, and ideals. They do not know the candidate a fact that does not overly concern them. They are not too fussed either about Obama's ideology indeed I suggest most do not recognise him as a liberal. They do not care therefore that he is preparing to tax oil companies with a windfall gains levy. Obama is the change candidate they have to have and that is all there is to know. The political commentators are strident in their claims that 'the cost of oil' is the key issue in the electorate leading into the fall 2008 elections. It is the key issue there is no doubt. It is an issue because it affects every voter every day through increased costs of living, so it is natural that polls will show it as a key political issue. Commentators will therefore lecture the candidates on this issue as they try to give their consumers, you and me, a gladitorial battle between Obama and Mc Cain. To have a battle you need two sides and so you will need to see Mc Cain's Chattering Tribes form around him on this issue of the cost of oil. Mc Cain has an opportunity to marry his Chattering Tribes with those that Hillary Clinton formed during her campaign for the Demoractic nomination. The Tribes want change too. They know that Mc Cain represents change. They know him as a candidate as well as most who have run and won the White House. Knowing Mc Cain as a person is important to the Chattering Tribes because they are fearful of inexperience in the White House. Tribes want to know, in broad terms, what policies will be pursued to bring down the cost of oil. On the face of it we have the perfect storm, with the rising cost of oil, to bring on a Clan versus Tribe battle. Those who advocate such a battle see it as a war of ideas, ideals, and ideologies. Obama the liberal versus Mc Cain the conservative pitched in battle over an issue that neither has the solution to and neither has the capacity to resolve, from the pulpit of the White House, even if they did truly have a perfect solution. This battle will not be about the cost of oil - it will be a re-run of many old battles between two fading ideologies. The political pundits want this battle because they know how to commentate it. They know how to beat it up. They know how to make it feel new and important all over again. They know how to make each voter feel they are concerned about their daily lives as they link their analysis of policy, ideas, ideals, and ideology to their key issue of the cost of oil. Problem is it will not work this time. This time the Chattering Clusters online are in control of the political conversations and they are not buying into this battle. The Chattering Clusters are rather unifying and connecting the discourse within the Clans and Tribes. Obama will win because the Chattering Clusters have already decided what is important in the fall election for the White House. What is important is 'change we can believe in'. June 18 Consumer led innovation....The game of football I watch, tucked away down here at the bottom of the globe as I am, is Australian Rules. To say it is a different game to the one I played as a kid is to state the obvious. The core of the game is the same. The principles are the same - go get the ball and kick it, or pass it by hand, to a team mate until you are in a position to score. If the opposition team has the ball then do everything you legally can to wrest it from them. A simple game with very simple objectives played by 18 players on each team on a big oval. The game I watch on TV is very different today. It is faster. It is played by full time professionals. It is played with skills and flair that I could only dream about as a player. It is less physical with less contact. It is a joy to behold when it is played by the two best teams. Why has the game changed? Well you could start with the coaching staff - there are more of them to the point that each player has some type of specialist working on his skills and techniques. There are more trainers and fitness experts to help a player prepare to play the game at this level. There are more high technology tools around the club from boots, to gym equipment, to instant videos of your last ten minutes of play, etc. There is more stuff everywhere around the ground including more officials to enable the game to flow. So all this adds up to a fast, clean, and enthralling game. All these inclusions have brought innovations to the game. Indeed at the halfway mark in this season most fans agree our game has already evolved beyond where it was just last season. Why is the game changing so fast? To answer that question I feel I have to pose another. Who benefits the most from this game becoming more open, faster, less contested, etc? The consumer that's who! The consumers are attending in greater numbers. The consumers get more TV coverage than ever before. The consumers chatter more than ever about the players, rule changes, results, and the abiding ethos of this evolving game. The game of football I prefer to watch live or on TV is evolving faster than ever because my fellow consumers, both men and women, want innovation and change. The game of football is being innovated because the Chattering Clusters, Clans and Tribes demand it. They chatter incessantly about what needs to change now that this or that change is working. They chatter incessantly about changing even the most traditional aspects of the game. They chatter incessantly about what they want to see and what they have just seen taking place on the football field. The game is still played by the 18 footballers on each team on the ground competing for the ball. Meanwhile the game they play this season is being innovated by the consumers who buy their product. When I played the game there were 18 footballers who had the opportunity, with their brilliance and inventiveness, to change the game. Now there are millions of consumers who have the opportunity, through their Chattering Clusters, to change or innovate the game. If you want to know and understand what this game will look like next season go listen to the Chattering Clusters rather than watch a current game of football. Conversations.....I had lunch with an old friend yesterday.... We had not seen each other for about 5 years... He has continued to build his software company into a global entity with a sought after niche product.... He is the same person he was all those years ago... His life has changed little... He is still keenly interested in data mining and a user friendly presentation of the results... Over lunch he told me where he is at and where he is going... Save the success he has had since our last conversation he still talks and walks the same story lines.... I am essentially in the same place as I was when he and I last conversed - so there is nothing new there either... What had changed is the fact that we did not have a shared purpose.... Years ago we had worked successfully together and the combination of our divergent talents had brought us some success, against the odds it would have to be said.... Then our conversations would focus on the ways and means to produce a feasible and desirable outcome for the project we were both working on... Yesterday there was no shared purpose so the conversation lacked energy, passion, ideas, agreement, and direction... We are still friends because we respect what we did together and that fact was at the core of our meeting... I came away from our meeting a little down and sad.... I expected a spark to re-ignite within our conversations and for us to find a new purpose... It did not happen automatically and I now realise I will have to do more in future to find our new common ground and purpose if we are to rediscover our 'conversations'.... June 17 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.
June 14 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 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? June 13 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'. June 11 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. June 08 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. June 06 Chattering Clans 1 - Chattering Tribes 0The 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. |
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