Remarkablogger

In the nineties, venture capitalists and Wall Street displayed what has come to be termed “irrational exuberance.” How naive, everyone said after the internet bubble burst, that we thought the internet was going to change everything.

Well, guess what? It did change everything. It’s still changing everything. It’s doing it more slowly than we first thought it would. But—and here’s the big deal about it—it’s changing everything down to a far more profound and deep level than we ever could have imagined. Each new iteration or optimistic up-cycle of socio-technological progress (web 1.0, web 2.0), like stones dropped into a pond, continue to create overlapping ripple effects. The original Napster was the atomic bomb of internet age: it was just the beginning.

1. Anyone can be a producer: production tools are now ubiquitous and freely available to all. Such tools used to be the exclusive domain of monied organizations or individuals. This is no longer the case. Anyone with a computer can now be a producer. Computers are getting cheaper and cheaper. Open source operating systems and software do not cost any money. Large media companies are no longer competing against each other. That they continue to believe this is one of their biggest downfalls. They are now competing against everybody. And since everybody is also their customers, dinosaur media are caught between treating their customers like customers or like rivals. We all know which path they’ve chosen.
2. Anyone can be a distributer: distribution was once the exclusive domain of entities which controlled the expensive physical resources that comprised the distribution channels. No more. Distribution via networks requires so little in the way of physical resources or expense that anyone now can be a distributer. In fact, the less physical the content, the easier and cheaper distribution becomes.
3. Controlling distribution is not the same as controlling creativity, content, methods, or ideas. Dinosaur media companies are pissed because they no longer have the lock on production/distribution tools/methods. Art in the form of music and words has always been free and uncontrollable. The human race, going back to the beginnings of language, has always employed an oral tradition that was never centrally controlled. Technological progress allowed, beginning in the early 20th century, for monied organizations to restrict mass production/distribution. In the history of the human race, this has actually been a very short period of time. Now, however, technology has progressed to the vanishing point of complete pervasiveness, bringing us back to where we began: remix culture is the new oral tradition. To put it as succinctly as I possibly can: All attempts at controlling/restricting distribution will ultimately fail.
4. The culture (or cult, really) of ownership is over. To paraphrase Tom Peters: do what you do best, outsource the rest. Own as few physical assets as possible, they are now seen as liabilities. Liquidity, flexibility rules. Dinosaur media companies are built upon the cult of ownership. Until they get “deprogrammed” (something done to “rescued” cult members), they will continue to die their slow death.
5. The culture of passive consumption is over. Channels of production/distribution are now two-way. This is partly why mainstream advertising is dying a slow death. The culture of participation is growing and its growth cannot be reversed. The one-way messages of traditional marketing and public relations are revealed for what they are: lies. They are unwanted in a two-way communications environment. They were never wanted, actually, but people can filter and control their own internet experience to some degree.

Even thought I’m using the phrase “media company,” these new rules (with apologies to Bill Maher) apply to every company. Instead of music or video, substitute your company’s marketing message instead, and you get the idea. In truth, it won’t be but a few years until you will lose control of basic manufacturing and machining capability, as well. When parts can be “printed” in three dimensions using sophisticated computers and only slightly less powerful versions of the machinery used by the pros, another stone has been tossed into the pond.

And everything will continue to change. If you don’t take the above five rules of the new paradigm to heart, my prediction is that your company will, sooner or later, be over.