if you only have time for one clue this year, this is the one to get...

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a directresult, markets are getting smarter— and getting smarter faster than most companies. Cluetrain circa 3/24/99 3:21 PM

Read the Bumper Sticker "The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took delivery." — Veteran of a firm now free-falling out of the Fortune 500

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and oftenshocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure,and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings speakon their behalf. While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happy talk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it. However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets. Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in. Download the pdf