Watch this:

Thanks to 1 good reason.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is 10 years old, and I am sure that many of you reading this can vouch for the fact that many companies and marketers still don’t get it. Earlier this year, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan announced that they were preparing a collaborative sequel to the amazing book, The Age of Conversation. I found out about the project after it was released, and was very disappointed that I did not get a chance to take part. The original book is depicted at the left, in it’s Amazon link. If you have not read this book, take the time to order it now Saturday 29 March.

Gavin & Drew put out an author call and in true Cluetrain fashion, asked readers and writers to vote on the major topic of the sequel.

The winning topic is “Why don’t they get it?” and next, each author was invited to select a category under the main heading. My choice and contribution is “Moving from Conversation to Action“, and we will explore how, well, I’m not going to give it away. Let’s just say that it’s going to be controversial. And up in the clouds.

The following is the massive list of contributors to this fantastic project:

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, R.J. Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Pay attention. Join the Conversation. Don’t let this happen to you:

The Break Up
by geertdesager

Boosted from here

Hey there my dear readers. This is the most difficult post I have ever written, but I need your help to make this happen.

I am working hard at getting to SOB-Con 2008 in Chicago this year. There is one little difficulty - I have not worked full-time since October, and have been relying on sales from the HD BizBlog Shop to tide us over here at the secret lair. December was pretty good in terms of sales, but January was a bust. I am continuing to work on more projects like the Project Planning in Context course, and doing some consulting work, but it has not been enough to replace the full-time income.

Now I need an infusion of funds to purchase the registration and airline tickets, so here is where you can help:

1. Visit the HD BizBlog shop and purchase one of the Productivity tools. There are several versions of the “F-pattern” DIY Calendar and the 68 Worksheets Weekly Review checklist that many have found to be very helpful. Use this discount code for 50% off this week! [discount code “sobcon2008″]
2. Make a donation by clicking this PayPal button. If you find the information here to be helpful and useful, please consider supporting my efforts through a donation.
   
   

3. For those of you reading this via e-mail subscription, I would ask that you forward it to your friends and associates who may find the information here to be useful.

I truly appreciate all of the support and encouragement I have received from this community over the past year. By attending this conference I can improve my knowledge, skills and the value that you all get from this blog. Here is a list of reasons to attend, from the SOB-Con blog:

At SOBCon 08 in Chicago on May 2-4, 2008, professionals like you will learn business blogging tips and tricks from blog experts.

The sunshine of wisdom will burst through the dark clouds of confusion, doubt and fear. And there will be much rejoicing.

Here’s why YOU need to have a good business blog - and why you should attend SOBCon:

1. Your customers. They’re reading and writing blogs right now. Are you doing free market research?

2. Your competitors. More and more of them are working with business blogs every day. How will you respond?

3. Your products or services. A business blog makes conversation with customers easier. And conversation improves innovation and adds value to your business.

4. Your resume. A blog makes a powerful resume. Where’s yours?

5. Your future. New opportunities arise easily through blogs, thanks to their high visibility and relational nature. You never know who might drop by.

6. Your mind. Nothing exercises the brain like blogging - reading, researching, writing, composing, designing, discussing, promoting, networking - and nothing brings mental satisfaction like learning to master it all. Just ask a good business blogger.

7. Your lungs. Blogs help spread buzz much more effectively than shouting throughout your neighborhood.

8. Your blood pressure. Good business blogs foster loyalty, transparency … friendships … and fun!

9. Your booty. Okay, this one applies more specifically to the SOBCon conference - if last year’s calisthenics are any indication, this year’s conference looks to be a real sweatfest!

10. Your booty - er, bottom line. While business blogging can be challenging, good blogging gives you an excellent return on investment for your time and money.

Thank you for your consideration.

Here is an interesting idea, a Bill of Rights for the Social Web:

A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web
Authored by Joseph Smarr, Marc Canter, Robert Scoble, and Michael Arrington
September 4, 2007

We publicly assert that all users of the social web are entitled to certain fundamental rights, specifically:

• Ownership of their own personal information, including:
  • their own profile data
  • the list of people they are connected to
  • the activity stream of content they create;
• Control of whether and how such personal information is shared with others; and
• Freedom to grant persistent access to their personal information to trusted external sites.

Sites supporting these rights shall:

• Allow their users to syndicate their own profile data, their friends list, and the data that’s shared with them via the service, using a persistent URL or API token and open data formats;
• Allow their users to syndicate their own stream of activity outside the site;
• Allow their users to link from their profile pages to external identifiers in a public way; and
• Allow their users to discover who else they know is also on their site, using the same external identifiers made available for lookup within the service.