The Cluetrain for YouTube

In 2004 I wrote the following introduction to Part 1 of the Millennium Matrix.

"Our communication tools have changed over time: from the spoken word, to the written word, to the broadcast-image word, to the digital multimedia word. With each change has come a new and different way of seeing the world. Here's what happens:

• When our communication tools change, our perception changes.
• Changed perception creates a changed understanding.
• Changed understanding changes our psychological makeup.
• Changed psyches change our interaction with the world.
• Changes in our interaction with the world change our relationships to one another.
• Changes in our relationships lead to changes in the institutions that facilitate those relationships.
• Our psychological makeup changes, and we reshape our world in our own image.

I thought all I needed to do is make a simple and profound observation about our changing world and everyone who read it would go - OMG - that is cool. I need to change everything!!

Well - only two problems. The message has only reached at the most 10,000 (if I'm really generous with all of my speaking, articles and book sales). Problem #2 - when you read that above paragraph did you pause, reflect and said - holy cow - this changes everything? I didn't think so. This blog gives you (and me) a second chance at that revelation. There is only 1 challenge - you need to watch a 60 minute video. I promise, if you do - you will be hit by the Cluetrain.

Michael Wesch is a professor of anthropology at Kansas State. I met him in 2004 at a conference at Fordham. I presented ideas from my book and he presented the impact of media on a tribe in New Guinea. Not much in common on the surface. However, I kept in touch because I was fascinated by his insight and understanding of the power of media to change worlds. A few years later I run across a YouTube video created by his class that explained how dramatically our education is changing. Then came the video on Web 2.0.

Both were so profound that they became phenomena on YouTube with millions of views.

Here is the third video that I highly recommend. Even though it is an hour - it will be one of the most informative hours you will invest if you believe that its important for you to "get it" when it comes to the YouTubization of the our culture.

This video is for executives - especially those who have the word marketing in their job description. This is not a video that you will immediately generate new ideas for campaigns (and please don't be as naive as GM - if you watch you will see what I mean). For those who do get it (the Cluetrain) - there are powerful implications for transforming how your company communicates with itself, its stakeholders, clients and the world. True to McLuhan's prophetic utterances it can release a level of innovation and connection that seems so hard to tap these days.

YouTube's sweet spot are the 18-34 year olds in terms of generating content.

Wesch's video explains how YouTube has exposed a new cultural tension.

• We express individualism but desire community.
• We express independence but desire relationship.
• We express commercialization or branding but desire authenticity.

We see connection in the current context as constraining - but this new medium allows connection without constraint.

There is a new dynamic - a new vibe - that we need to pay attention too.

mindshift has created an emotional connecting point for its members, changing our industry and improving our world. It has also created a platform for practicing participatory innovation. We call that being a "do-tank."

I'll be curious to see how many actually view the video. In many ways I'm jealous. I wrote a book and have spoken to several thousand with essentially the same message over the course of four years. These videos reach millions (in weeks) and provide a deeper level of understanding than 250 pages of writing. I'm old school.