Connected people
Update: I added a few more points to the end of the post. This list might grow as the discussion around this theme continues. Thanks for the comments!
I am speaking tonight on a panel with Pascal Rossini and Thierry Crouzet about the connectors, the generation that “silently, without demonstrating or asserting, is changing all the established codes”. An important and impassioning subject as it is a real revolution we are witnessing at the moment. And it is not only happening at LIFT or reboot, but in our daily life.
I wrote down a few ideas to clear up my mind before the talk, here they are:
Connectors brought some new rules:
• there aren’t six degrees of separation like before, but only one. All connectors are accessible via Google and email.
• the connector’s world is flat, old hierarchies are dead.
• the connector’s world is a meritocracy, everybody can stand out with creativity or work.
• english is everybody’s language, an interface between people around the globe
• relations are now bidirectional, unilateral communication – ignoring the other part’s feelings – is dead.
• machines (computers, mobile phones) are the number one socialization tool, and these offer some interesting and new possibilities (familiar strangers, meetic, urban seeder )
What are the consequences of this shift?
• Internet is the new silicon valley.
• meritocracy is a reality for enterprises, creators, artists, etc… Take coComment that goes in seven days from a Swiss chalet to Wired.
• network is the new job security (as hugh told me over lunch last week, great quote)
• our identities are more and more forged by our relations rather than by what we are
• a global culture is emerging, we have never had that much in common (google is the obvious example). At the same time, nationalism is re-emerging again a little bit everywhere…
• rules will completely change in the coming years, the third wave is here. This will notably impact our businesses that will have to rethink marketing, recruiting, work-life balance, work organization, management, etc…
Why is the revolution happening now?
• internet of course, it created an almost universal link between all of us.
• the education and information level has never been that high, and citizens increasingly want to have their say and become consumactors.
This sounds too good to be true, what’s wrong?
• the entry barrier to the world of connectors is relatively high. One billion people use the web out of six billions human beings. That’s a long way to go, and a decent education is still not a given in most countries.
• Nicolas Nova was telling me he was skeptical this model could self organize and scale. I tend to agree with him and think connectors are more an emerging elite rather than a phenomena coming to every single person on this planet.
• we tend to have more relations with people through computers. We communicate more with those that are away than with those in our immediate vicinity. Sociality is getting less and less human, and we’re losing a lot of richness and diversity in the process.
A few more points:
• Network is stronger than geographical positions.
• Confidence (and relationships) is this world’s most valuable intangible asset.
• The intention economy is here.
• Innovation will come from everywhere, especially from the bottom. Hierarchies are dangerous.
• ideas are snowballs. A leader is a person whose ideas will be picked up and relayed by others. You can’t lead by imposing ideas anymore.
• I fear for my privacy. Privacy and identity will be a major challenge for the connected world.
• The fact my life is archived – whether I like it or not – freaks me out.
June 7th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Great post – which brought to mind something I came across earlier today: Pete Townsend (the rockstar) is apparently a blogger – who actively reads other blogs and converses with the “little people”. After he recently posted comments on a few blogs, this guy made this point – which I think is pretty relevant to your post:
“When, in the past, could a group of writers essentially ping a rock star and get a thoughtful response in a matter of hours? I’ll tell you when – never. But tag a bunch of posts with Pete Townshend, get the feeds fired up, and word gets passed up the big media food chain pretty quickly – or rather, pretty directly. The point is: there is no food chain now – no Under-Secertaries of A&R and Communications to keep us away from them.”
http://tomwatson.typepad.com/tom_watson/2006/06/the_man_who_hea.html#comments
It IS a flat world – with only one degree of separation. Increasingly, having something to say to – or something in common with – someone is all it takes to connect with them – whether they’re “just a regular joe” or one of the world’s greatest rock stars. Pretty cool.
June 7th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I have to say there is a very big difference between connectors and collectors.
Connectors have been aroudn for a logn time and the Internet gives them a new and powerful medium.
There is a cost though as there are now plenty of “collectors” out there hwo use Internet tools to mimic what a connector does to build social capital and they succeed often without same level of outward social benefit a rela connector provides.
The biggest chage I see is for mavens who now have a far bigger audience for their views and a much greater social reach than ever before.
True connectors are just doing more of what they have always done they are just better equipped.
I have also seen some evidence that people are hardwired to only be able to coep with 250 real contacts and it is a great area of exploration to me to see how this capacity can be extended so that people can maintain a growing number of deep relationships.
June 9th, 2006 at 6:14 am
This is a highly thoughtful piece, and goes to the core of the community argument. Community says that brands, advertising, corporations become secondary to peer opinion. Yet the points made here indicate that those peer opinions will be those of the meritocracy only. So the value of peer opinion is limited to those that participate. Perhaps this matters less within any one country that has high internet adoption, but on a global scale the situation is very different.
June 14th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Really inspiring! I cannot agree to one point: “Sociality is getting less and less human, and we’re losing a lot of richness and diversity in the process” – Why? Only because we communicate more often to more people through the internet? Isn’t this an evidence for a higher diversity and richness? I see an other problem: the bondage to communicate, to contribute and of self-portrayal. Maybe society gets more penetrable only in one direction – it’s hard to become one of the connectors (>entry barriers, elite) and to stay, but it’s easier to fall.
June 15th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Florian: I used diversity to mean “various and numerous communication channels”, like eye contact, body language, etc… That’s why I wrote “we’re losing a lot of diversity in the process”. I think that real, face to face interactions involve much more senses than IM, email, or any other computerized channel. Real life is a richer, more diverse experience.
colin: brands = peer opinions?
November 13th, 2007 at 9:54 am
[…] All these words combined ? Chief Inspiration Officer, one of the job titles of the future (oh really) and a huge proof that the company who uses it does NOT get how innovation and inspiration work in a connected world. […]