Audience as network

Yesterday I was invited to be on a panel speaking with a gathering of Christian publishers at Duke's Divinity School. As an introduction, I gave my standard presentation about the five aspects of effective networks, but to make it more relevant to this audience, I started with two seminal works about how the Internet has changed the relationship of readers/consumers to publishers/creators.

First, journalism professor Jay Rosen's 2006 blog entry on "The People Formerly Known as the Audience." Here's an excerpt:

"The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift youve all heard about. [...]

"You don't own the eyeballs. You don't own the press, which is now divided into pro and amateur zones. You don't control production on the new platform, which isn't one-way. There's a new balance of power between you and us."

Second, The Cluetrain Manifesto, written in 1999 by a bunch of Silicon Valley-type techie and marketing dudes (including my friend Doc Searls). It begins this way:

"We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it."

Here's the whole presentation, posted at Slideshare.com: