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.