The last few days I have had to make a few test posts.  After all, this blog is in the spirit of trial.  I enjoy writing blog posts but I also use my blog to learn about Blogware.  This part of my role here as an Associate Product Manager.

I have worked as a tester myself and I enjoyed the job.  I was advised once by a more senior tester to always remember the story of the Kobayashi Maru. 
How did James T. Kirk become the only cadet to ever pass the test?   He secretly changed the code. 

Let that be a lesson to all testers.

I was prepared to dislike the book, The Cluetrain Manifesto as I am a natural skeptic of business books with such revolutionary titles such as 'The End of Business as Usual'.  These titles are overused in the genre and I'm tired of book titles about 'pioneers', 'revolutions' and 'new generations'. 

After I began reading the Cluetrain Manifesto my skepticism waned.  I was encouraged to see that though the book was published in 1999/2000, the authors express a suitable amount of disdain for high-flying .dot companies. 

Does this manifesto bring us the end of business as usual?  According to 'The Cluetrain Manifesto' markets are conversations.  This is contrary to the traditional business definition of a market which would be a group of buyers and sellers.  How did markets become conversations?  Through the highly interactive and distributive communication brought to us by the Internet.  Buyers do not have to accept the word of a corporation as prepared by a marketing PR department when it can speak to other buyers about the companies.  The Cluetrain encourages people to jump into the conversation.  If you are a marketing PR person, start listening to those conversations on the web and join in.

The Cluetrain Manifesto, in fact, is a sustainable idea and does reflect a reality in today's business environment.  There are increasing examples of how companies who would like to keep information quiet cannot because of the ability to share information today.

The ideas introduced by the Cluetrain Manifesto are valuable but the book itself could have been shorter.  In fact, I found it long and highly repetitive.  It makes a good point, an important point but it seems to make the same point over and over again.  I found the chapter entitled 'Talk is Cheap' by Rick Levine to be the most interesting and succinct.  By describing his personal story as a Communications professional, Levine illustrates how when he talked with passion about his work, he was able to generate excellent PR. 

The book is definitely worth taking a look at but I would recommend reading the Introduction, Levine's chapter and the final chapter.  And you can do that online for free at their site.

The spirited debate in the comments section over new media versus traditional media is an interesting one.  What interests me most about it is, how do people find new music?  But here are some background figures.

The gap between teenagers and adults as radio listeners continues to widen.  Over the last five years teenagers' radio listening has declined by 3 hours a week versus 1 hour a week decline in adults.  On average in 2004, teens in Canada spend 8.5 hours a week listening to radio. (Statscan)  I highly doubt that teens find new music from radio.  The recent reports of payola confuse me.  If radio listening is in decline, why would you pay to have it put on radio? 

As for television, the slowest growth in television comes in the conventional television channels in 2004 at 0.9%.  However specialty and pay-tv stations increased by 9%. (Statscan) 

The financial report of CHUM, one of Canada's media conglomerates and owner of the MuchMusic, reflects these general statistics.  The revenue from their conventional station has severely lagged their specialty and pay-tv channels.  This is not just because of advertising drawn to specialty stations but because CHUM earns subscriber revenue from the cable carriers.

MuchMusic and its derivatives does bring in revenue for CHUM.  Do teenagers still watch MuchMusic to find new music?  According to CHUM's own promotional material MuchMusic is actually geared towards 18-34 year olds and not teenagers who I would place at 12 - 18 years old.  This surprised me quite a bit since I do pass the screaming hordes outside the City-TV building every so often.

I'm in the 18-34 year old group and I don't watch MuchMusic but  I don't buy cable.  (Off-air baby!  Off-air). 

Are you in the 18-34 age bracket and a buyer of cable with MuchMusic in your package? 
Do you find your new music that way? 
Is that how you buy CDs? 

Please post and let me know.  I am sincerely interested.

And Black Stations, White Stations... This is 1984 (M+M) This song nicely reflects that despite its glam and superficial shock-value, television afterall is an inherently conservative industry.  Times change.

The highschool teacher also had a list of Movies to watch before you die.  I also include my brother's hand written annotations.

Midnight Cowboy
Birth of A Nation
The Mission
Glory
Nicholas and Alexander
Citizen Kane
Gone with the wind
The Graduate
Henry V
Dead Poets Society
Steel Magnolia’s
A Dry White Season
Dr. Strangelove
High Noon
Clockwork Orange
West Side Story
Star Wars (triology)
China Town
Ordinary People
Platoon
Apocalypse Now
Mr.Smith Goes to Washington
Little Big Man
Ben Hur
The Ten Commandments
Anything with Bogart
The Longest Day
The Wizard of Oz
It’s a Wonderful Life
Anything by the Marx brothers
From Here to Eternity
Any Alfred Hitchcock movie
Johnny Got His Gun
Land Before Time
Easy Rider
MASH (the movie)
Old Yeller
2001 Space Odyssey
Bridge on the River Kwai
Gelgud’s, Burtons and Gibson’s Hamlet

Dave’s Additions

The Man Who Would be King
The magnificent Seven
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Reds
The Hustler
Rocky
Blue Velvet
Holiday Inn

My brother added several items to the original list

Findley – The Wars
J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye
Albee – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
E.M. Forrester – A Passage to India
Morley Callaghan – A Time for Judas
Hemingway – In our Time, The Sun also Rises
Ralph Ellison – Invisible Man
Oscare Wilde the Picture of Dorain Gray
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter
Joseph  Heller – Catch-22
DeFoe – Robinson Crusoe