{"id":301,"date":"2010-09-07T12:27:12","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T12:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/?p=301"},"modified":"2010-09-07T12:27:12","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T12:27:12","slug":"the-cluetrain-manifesto-for-councils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2010\/09\/07\/the-cluetrain-manifesto-for-councils\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cluetrain Manifesto for Councils"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cluetrain Manifesto knocked me sideways when I read it in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

It still knocks me sideways now.<\/p>\n

I have spent some time thinking about how it might shape up if we were to apply it to conversations between councils and communities rather than between ‘corporations’ and ‘markets’. \u00a0In most cases it holds up pretty well.<\/p>\n

The only place it doesn’t hold up quite so well is that in the private sector most companies that don’t get web 2.0 are\u00a0likely\u00a0to go to the wall. \u00a0There is no such survival imperative for councils. \u00a0 There are no competitors waiting in the wings to take our council tax away. \u00a0But then\u00a0again…perhaps there are… Perhaps this cuts to the heart of council as smart\u00a0commissioner\u00a0and clever facilitator of ‘community services’.<\/p>\n

If you have not read the Cluetrain Manifesto<\/a>, I cannot recommend it highly enough. \u00a0Just try replacing ‘corporation\/company’\u00a0with ‘council’ and ‘market’ with ‘community’. \u00a0Customers may also become residents…<\/p>\n

Here are a few highlights from my experiment:<\/p>\n

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