August 5, 2006
"it's all about trust"
[The story behind this cartoon is here.]
A very important article by JP Rangaswami:
Pretty much every serious argument we’re having, every conversation we need to continue, is about some form of Big versus some form of Small. Blefuscu versus Lilliput. And we use concepts like expertise and authenticity and reliability and affordability and freedom and choice to try and win the arguments. And the concepts we use land up polarising the debates. Which made me think….[JP is very much on my "must read" list these days.] Posted by hugh macleod at August 5, 2006 12:18 PM | TrackBack…..It’s all about trust.
[...]
Trust used to be something that bound small groups together. Over time we tried to scale trust. It didn’t scale. And what happened instead was Big Everything. In an Assembly-Line meets Broadcast world.
Big Everything broke trust. Big Media lied. Big Content Producer reduced our choices. Big Pipe and Big Device reduced it further. Big Firm wrongsized away. And Big Government did what it liked.
Oh, boo hoo and cry me a river.
We never 'tried to scale trust'. If anything, we tried to sell it. If nothing, we let them destroy it while we stood idly by.
There is no 'them' and 'us'. It's just us on this planet.
Posted by: Eric the Red at August 5, 2006 1:37 PMor 'Big' power wine Hugh? Trust comes with Localisation which is so much safer than Globalisation as there is less hiding and more balance via community. Perhaps global networked communities display the human side of localisation (I made this word up just now..) I like the following comment for the friendship you engender via your Stormhoek Geek Dinners
"Wine is an act of friendship, an act of love; Wine is also an act of power, of people using wine for reasons of snobbery and prestige."
(Jonathan Nossiter, Sommelier & Filmmaker)
Posted by: James Thomson at August 5, 2006 2:06 PM
Hmmm.... love, friendship and power. What else does a man truly need? ;-)
Posted by: hugh macleod at August 5, 2006 2:46 PMEver it was so - but not many people listened and then accted upon what was staring them in the face
Posted by: Dennis Howlett at August 7, 2006 1:01 AMCan we get a high-res link for this one? Thank you!
With the death of the industrial age perhaps the economy of scale that enabled "too big," will finally pass.
Technology is the individually empowering tool that may liberate trust and reputation once more.
Posted by: allan at August 12, 2006 8:44 AMI second the request for a high-re link for this one. Please :o)
Posted by: Leah Maclean at November 2, 2006 11:12 PM