jr conlin's ink stained banana

[As if by magic or ex-lax, the pent up posts are a flowin...]

One of the curious things that Web 2.0 brings out is that you start living in a stick free world.

Traditionally, people who have things usually gain value by holding back or controlling the flow of said things. Sometimes it's for bad reasons (like greed), sometimes it's for good, (making sure that folks follow guidelines or rules). It's how things were done for… well… as long as there was things to sell and people to buy them.

The problem is that the internet and this whole information culture radically changes things. It's information. You can't really control that since you're soaking in it right now. i can't exactly say "Don't share this information with anyone else" and reliably believe you won't do that. Why should i? There's no incentive for you not to share this and no way i can reliably penalize you for doing it. Plus, it'd be counter-productive to my goal. i want to share this information in a way that gets people thinking and talking about it because the discussions that follow are how i get my information. In the old business world, you'd call this a carrot and stick approach, since you had both reward and punishments.

Now imagine what happens when every stick in the world disappears.

Let's say that you've got information you want to share. Now, let's say that there's an group that is supposed to control how that information is shared. If that agency is doing their job right, they're working with you, providing solid reasons and support to help you get that info out faster than you could do on your own. That's nothing but carrots. Perhaps a pointer to where the carrot tastes better in a little bit, but nothing but carrots.

Now, let's say that group has a different approach. Instead of working with you, they throw up hurdles and make demands about how you should do things. They don't really help, but they're more than happy to point out "problems" and "issues" that are your responsibility to resolve. Well, (remembering the post from yesterday) , while the rules say in order for that agency to promote your product, you have to work with said agency, but there's nothing in the rule book that says you can't do it yourself.

Set up a site, promote your service heavily, encourage discussion and community involvement, (heck, show up at a few user groups and set up a blog can be all that's required) and suddenly that agency looks stupid because unlike everyone else, they're NOT talking about your service. Truth is, while having that "promo" agency is nice, they're really not required.

That's a world without sticks. (Well, other than telling that problem group where they can stick it.)

(Quick note here, this post is NOT based on my current work, although i do work for a group that's supposed to help spread information inside and out. It's just interesting when i hear about groups and companies trying to keep a more stick based environment, and hoping that this kinda helps those folks realize that won't work the way they think it will.)