Steve Lohr in the NYT weaves a web around
Markets Shaped by Consumers:
That consumers shape markets is a truism, but their influence is probably understated and certainly not fully understood.
Eric von Hippel, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argues that a huge swath of innovation can be traced to elite consumers whom he calls lead users. These imaginative and technically adept consumers spot a need and invent a solution, often changing whole industries, from sports to software.
"Needs emerge, and users scrounge around and find something," Mr. Von Hippel said, "or tools and technologies emerge, and people figure out how to use them."
Any tool can be hacked, turning a user into a developer. Take short-text messaging.
The evolution of short-text messaging on cellphones is an example of consumers putting technology to an unforeseen use. Telecommunications engineers in Europe began using short-text messaging in the early 1990's to alert their peers to network problems. Later, carriers tried to market the text-sending ability to businesses as a substitute for pagers. It never caught on.
But the market exploded when teenagers in Europe and East Asia got cellphones. Today, the value proposition, as they say, is simple. "If you are a teenager in Europe, you can't have a social life without cellphone text messaging," said Nick Jones, an analyst for Gartner Inc. in London who has a 19-year-old daughter...
Markets, it is said, are a conversation - producers, consumers and others have a voice. And consumers are using technology to change the conversation....
Its a wonderful article (not just because of the analyst as anthropologist quote) with great examples of consumers turned into producers: Blogging,
Bluejacking, Camera Phones, Mountain Bikes and Social Networking.
Concludes with something a little odd. Interesting, but odd.
At the Almaden Research Center of I.B.M. in San Jose, Calif., researchers regard social-network technology as one aspect of what they term "relationship-oriented computing." Its prototype project in the field is Web Fountain, a large supercomputer that digests most Web pages and other online information.
Using search, business intelligence and text analytics technology, I.B.M. researchers can look for trends, buzz and hints of shifting consumer attitudes as evident from Web postings. I.B.M. hopes to sell this market intelligence as a service to companies.
"It's the collective I.Q. of the Internet coming to your aid," said James C. Spohrer, director for services research at Almaden.
Someone please tell me how some Superwonderhunky carnivating intelligence about consumer relationships is consumer empowerment. How are users developers?
What's interesting is how the old fashioned User Group is taking new life in networked form. Where users are developers, groups form and markets
accelerate. Social capital is created as a positive externality that can be applied to new markets. However, the connections that underlie creation can be a negative externality, such as
privacy concerns.
There is something wonderful about how social technologies empower consumers, but we have to wonder if with each advance: Does it increase or decrease social capital? If it doesn't the tide will turn us back into consumers before we realize it.
1. Nat, web designer on April 30, 2004 8:24 PM writes...
It's a natural thing. Market is to be shaped by consumer as it is for consumers. But a professional should be able to look farther, to do some analysis (that's what a consumer doesn't usually do). If it doesn't happen, we can be turned back into consumers.
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