the cluetrain manifesto

the cluetrain manifesto
soon to be a major motion picture

Now!

"A different brand of business book, thank goodness:
saucy, heartfelt, and warmly appealing in its faith in the commonwealth."
Kirkus Reviews

read the full text of chapter one
read additional excerpts

ranked #6 on Business Week's list of 2000 business bestsellers
(February 19, 2001 issue - subscription required)

ranked #9 on Amazon's list of 2000 business bestsellers

Shortly after publishing the manifesto online, we were approached by David Miller of the Garamond Agency, who saw a potential book in our ideas. Duh, we said, a book? But he convinced us. The day that word of the manifesto hit The Wall Street Journal, he rang up all the major U.S. publishers and started an auction. The hands-down winner was Perseus Books. The result is a kickass tome unlike any business book you've ever read. Tell your fellow seditionists about it. Remember: every book you buy sends an unmistakable message to clueless corporations everywhere.

Here's what some people in the industry have been saying...

The Cluetrain Manifesto is about to drive business to a full boil. Recall what The Jungle did to meat packing, what Silent Spring did to chemicals, what Unsafe At Any Speed did to Detroit. That's the spirit with which The Cluetrain Manifesto takes on the arrogance of corporate e-commerce.
from the foreword by Thomas Petzinger, Jr., The Wall Street Journal
author of The New Pioneers

Loud, over the top, jarring — all apt descriptions of The Cluetrain Manifesto. No matter, because Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger may have collectively drawn the truest bead yet on what works when it comes to doing business on the Internet. The marketplace they describe is complicated, messy, and above all human.
Harry C. Edwards, Business and Investing Editor
in his "Editor's Picks" writeup on Amazon.com

The Cluetrain Manifesto is an in your face warning to all businesses as they seek to adapt to the spread of electronic markets. It delivers a "tough love" message: embrace the conversations enabled by electronic networks or become road kill. Embracing these conversations means rediscovering our passion and our voice. All managers must heed this message, even though it will require wrenching changes across all elements of the business.
John Hagel, III, Partner, McKinsey & Company and
co-author of Net Worth and Net Gain
The Internet changes what we mean when we say we mean business. The Cluetrain Manifesto explores the profound depths of this change to deliver an analysis that will enlighten and challenge you, make you laugh or drive you crazy. Love it or hate it, no one with a stake in the online scene can afford to ignore what this book is saying.
Michael Wolff, author of Burn Rate

The cluetrain is to marketing and communications what the open-source movement is to software development — anarchic, messy, rude, and vastly more powerful than the doomed bullshit that conventionally passes for wisdom.
Eric S. Raymond, President, Open Source Initiative
author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar

These troublemakers are going to get what they deserve — a huge and enthusiastic following!
Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure Holdings
author of Release 2.0

The Cluetrain Manifesto is brilliant and impossible at the same time. It's magnificently overstated and yet entirely correct: The Web changes the way people and markets meet and work in almost every way, and a remarkably high percentage of companies just don't get it — yet. The Cluetrain Manifesto gets it, and the authors aren't shy about shoving it down our throats.
Thomas A. Stewart, author of Intellectual Capital

When people in networked markets can get faster and smarter information from one another than from the companies they do business with, it may be time to close shop. Or, maybe it's just time to get on The Cluetrain and fully understand that your customers are living, breathing creatures who want one-to-one relationships with your company, not just one-way rhetoric.
Don Peppers, co-founder Peppers and Rogers Group
co-author of Enterprise One to One
The Cluetrain Manifesto is required reading for the new millennium. It will make you question just about everything you're doing online. It will make you sad for the way companies perceive the web today and joyous for the possibilities to come.
David Siegel, author of Futurize Your Enterprise

If you don't think you need this book to better understand your market, that's your second mistake!
Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing

I told them they were full of it — that they shouldn't write the book. Hey look: this is the new economy. You don't have to make money to make money. You don't have to please the customers. Hell, if your software really worked, there wouldn't be any reason to buy the upgrade. These guys just don't understand business. It's supposed to suck. They're... well... clueless. Don't buy their book. And above all don't read it. I know what I'm talking about. See, when I first saw the primitive Mosaic browser, straight out of that cowtown just south of Chicago, I predicted that it wouldn't work. I said what a stupid idea — it would only confuse people and make our lives worse. So listen to me — listen to the real futurists!
Don Norman (don@jnd.org), author of The Invisible Computer

Haven't had enough yet? OK, here's more...

Like Zen masters, these four irreverent visionaries produce startling insights by first confronting our most cherished but often misguided beliefs about business. Seeing the Internet as forcing profound and deeply humanistic change, this book lights the way into the 21st century for e-businesses large and small.
Eric Severson, Executive Consultant IBM Global Services
This train hurtles at high speed into your perception of business theories and explodes out the back of your brain with exhilarating ideas that engage, energize and enlighten. Anyone connecting with the Internet — as seller, buyer, surfer or stroller — should heed these four exceptional writers the way a law student studies for the bar. Not doing so is not only foolhardy but irresponsible. Read Cluetrain first for yourself, then for your business, your stockholders and your future.
Brilliantly on target and ceaselessly entertaining, this express train to 'Net commerce awareness stops only long enough to hit you between the eyes with the realities of "voice" and then speeds along to surprise again. Locke, Levine, Searls and Weinberger know the Internet, Big Business and you. Yes, you. If you're reading this book, you're in these pages. On par with 'Net pundits Peppers and Rogers, Pine, Dyson and Negroponte, the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto speak with intelligence, wit and insight on the topic of who's controlling whom and the very direct role each of us plays in the web. Exceptionally compelling and brilliant!
Steve Larsen, EVP Marketing, Net Perceptions
The authors have written a must-read book for anyone who's been in business more than five years. The hardest thing for those of us in that category to understand is that the world does not revolve around whatever business we happen to be managing. The Cluetrain Manifesto has no respect for size, success or precedence. It reminds us that business is about people, not just commerce as such. Guaranteed to be utterly different from any business strategy book you've ever read.
Bruce Kasanoff, CEO, Accelerating1to1
a spinoff of Peppers and Rogers Group
The Cluetrain Manifesto is the purgative for the corporate soul your company and career need to make success on the Internet possible. You may want to put this book down, because it tells hard truths, but you'll never stop coming back to it in order to obliterate your old ideas.
Mitch Ratcliffe, VP of Programming & Editor-in-Chief, ON24 Network
The authors look at business as usual from the vantage point of a networked world — and business as usual comes off looking pretty absurd. Everything you thought made good marketing sense may be exactly useless in the Brave New World of the Net.
Tom Matrullo, managing editor of InSarasota.com, a Comcast site
A proof of the Cluetrain Manifesto arrived this morning, and I'm halfway through already. I cannot express just how good this book is — the first chapter alone had me almost weeping for joy at the fact that someone has said what has sat, inarticulate, at the front of my brain for years. I'm sure it will be a big seller — but more importantly, it needs to be read. CEOs should have this book forcibly tattooed onto their chests.
Ben Hammersley, IT Reporter, The Times of London
To a world full of clueless marketers trying to shove transactions down the throats of unwilling "consumers" — who never asked to consume anything in the first place — The Cluetrain Manifesto is a sharp rap to the temples. Locke, Levine, Searls and Weinberger have laid the trail for all those who want to take the road less travelled — but far more rewarding. Like "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more," Cluetrain's clarion call — "Markets are conversations" — will be shouted from the rooftops and worn on t-shirts by Generation Z...
Gary A. Bolles, Host, ZDTV's "Working the Web"

Our heartfelt thanks to all for stoking the cluetrain fire.

manifesto | ringleaders | buzz

Shortly after publishing the manifesto online, we were approached by David Miller of the Garamond Agency, who saw a potential book in our ideas. Duh, we said, a book? But he convinced us. The day that word of the manifesto hit The Wall Street Journal, he rang up all the major U.S. publishers and started an auction. The hands-down winner was Perseus Books. The result is a kickass tome unlike any business book you've ever read. Tell your fellow seditionists about it. Remember: every book you buy sends an unmistakable message to clueless corporations everywhere.

Here's what some people in the industry have been saying... The Cluetrain Manifesto is about to drive business to a full boil. Recall what The Jungle did to meat packing, what Silent Spring did to chemicals, what Unsafe At Any Speed did to Detroit. That's the spirit with which The Cluetrain Manifesto takes on the arrogance of corporate e-commerce. from the foreword by Thomas Petzinger, Jr., The Wall Street Journal author of The New Pioneers Loud, over the top, jarring — all apt descriptions of The Cluetrain Manifesto. No matter, because Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger may have collectively drawn the truest bead yet on what works when it comes to doing business on the Internet. The marketplace they describe is complicated, messy, and above all human. Harry C. Edwards, Business and Investing Editor in his "Editor's Picks" writeup on Amazon.com The Cluetrain Manifesto is an in your face warning to all businesses as they seek to adapt to the spread of electronic markets. It delivers a "tough love" message: embrace the conversations enabled by electronic networks or become road kill. Embracing these conversations means rediscovering our passion and our voice. All managers must heed this message, even though it will require wrenching changes across all elements of the business. John Hagel, III, Partner, McKinsey & Company and co-author of Net Worth and Net Gain The Internet changes what we mean when we say we mean business. The Cluetrain Manifesto explores the profound depths of this change to deliver an analysis that will enlighten and challenge you, make you laugh or drive you crazy. Love it or hate it, no one with a stake in the online scene can afford to ignore what this book is saying. Michael Wolff, author of Burn Rate The cluetrain is to marketing and communications what the open-source movement is to software development — anarchic, messy, rude, and vastly more powerful than the doomed bullshit that conventionally passes for wisdom. Eric S. Raymond, President, Open Source Initiative author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar These troublemakers are going to get what they deserve — a huge and enthusiastic following! Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure Holdings author of Release 2.0 The Cluetrain Manifesto is brilliant and impossible at the same time. It's magnificently overstated and yet entirely correct: The Web changes the way people and markets meet and work in almost every way, and a remarkably high percentage of companies just don't get it — yet. The Cluetrain Manifesto gets it, and the authors aren't shy about shoving it down our throats. Thomas A. Stewart, author of Intellectual Capital When people in networked markets can get faster and smarter information from one another than from the companies they do business with, it may be time to close shop. Or, maybe it's just time to get on The Cluetrain and fully understand that your customers are living, breathing creatures who want one-to-one relationships with your company, not just one-way rhetoric. Don Peppers, co-founder Peppers and Rogers Group co-author of Enterprise One to One The Cluetrain Manifesto is required reading for the new millennium. It will make you question just about everything you're doing online. It will make you sad for the way companies perceive the web today and joyous for the possibilities to come. David Siegel, author of Futurize Your Enterprise If you don't think you need this book to better understand your market, that's your second mistake! Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing I told them they were full of it — that they shouldn't write the book. Hey look: this is the new economy. You don't have to make money to make money. You don't have to please the customers. Hell, if your software really worked, there wouldn't be any reason to buy the upgrade. These guys just don't understand business. It's supposed to suck. They're... well... clueless. Don't buy their book. And above all don't read it. I know what I'm talking about. See, when I first saw the primitive Mosaic browser, straight out of that cowtown just south of Chicago, I predicted that it wouldn't work. I said what a stupid idea — it would only confuse people and make our lives worse. So listen to me — listen to the real futurists! Don Norman (don@jnd.org), author of The Invisible Computer Haven't had enough yet? OK, here's more... Like Zen masters, these four irreverent visionaries produce startling insights by first confronting our most cherished but often misguided beliefs about business. Seeing the Internet as forcing profound and deeply humanistic change, this book lights the way into the 21st century for e-businesses large and small. Eric Severson, Executive Consultant IBM Global Services This train hurtles at high speed into your perception of business theories and explodes out the back of your brain with exhilarating ideas that engage, energize and enlighten. Anyone connecting with the Internet — as seller, buyer, surfer or stroller — should heed these four exceptional writers the way a law student studies for the bar. Not doing so is not only foolhardy but irresponsible. Read Cluetrain first for yourself, then for your business, your stockholders and your future. Brilliantly on target and ceaselessly entertaining, this express train to 'Net commerce awareness stops only long enough to hit you between the eyes with the realities of "voice" and then speeds along to surprise again. Locke, Levine, Searls and Weinberger know the Internet, Big Business and you. Yes, you. If you're reading this book, you're in these pages. On par with 'Net pundits Peppers and Rogers, Pine, Dyson and Negroponte, the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto speak with intelligence, wit and insight on the topic of who's controlling whom and the very direct role each of us plays in the web. Exceptionally compelling and brilliant! Steve Larsen, EVP Marketing, Net Perceptions The authors have written a must-read book for anyone who's been in business more than five years. The hardest thing for those of us in that category to understand is that the world does not revolve around whatever business we happen to be managing. The Cluetrain Manifesto has no respect for size, success or precedence. It reminds us that business is about people, not just commerce as such. Guaranteed to be utterly different from any business strategy book you've ever read. Bruce Kasanoff, CEO, Accelerating1to1 a spinoff of Peppers and Rogers Group The Cluetrain Manifesto is the purgative for the corporate soul your company and career need to make success on the Internet possible. You may want to put this book down, because it tells hard truths, but you'll never stop coming back to it in order to obliterate your old ideas. Mitch Ratcliffe, VP of Programming & Editor-in-Chief, ON24 Network The authors look at business as usual from the vantage point of a networked world — and business as usual comes off looking pretty absurd. Everything you thought made good marketing sense may be exactly useless in the Brave New World of the Net. Tom Matrullo, managing editor of InSarasota.com, a Comcast site A proof of the Cluetrain Manifesto arrived this morning, and I'm halfway through already. I cannot express just how good this book is — the first chapter alone had me almost weeping for joy at the fact that someone has said what has sat, inarticulate, at the front of my brain for years. I'm sure it will be a big seller — but more importantly, it needs to be read. CEOs should have this book forcibly tattooed onto their chests. Ben Hammersley, IT Reporter, The Times of London To a world full of clueless marketers trying to shove transactions down the throats of unwilling "consumers" — who never asked to consume anything in the first place — The Cluetrain Manifesto is a sharp rap to the temples. Locke, Levine, Searls and Weinberger have laid the trail for all those who want to take the road less travelled — but far more rewarding. Like "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more," Cluetrain's clarion call — "Markets are conversations" — will be shouted from the rooftops and worn on t-shirts by Generation Z... Gary A. Bolles, Host, ZDTV's "Working the Web"