Mark Beeching has been talking to many of us lately about the internet-driven trend towards open source in many areas of our lives. Doubting Thomas' should look no further than Skype for a profound and surprising development in this regard. Skype allows anybody in the Skype network to call anybody else in the Skype network, anywhere in the world, without cost.
The key to how it does this (with next to no infrastructure) is at the heart of the open source mindset; when people join skype, they donate their un-used computer processor power to the skype network, which uses it for routing calls. If that sounds fishy to you, please bear in mind that Skpe has 41 million users and that it is growing at a rate of 150,000 a day.
Skype is no anomaly, but part of a growing trend. The Internet is making mass collaboration in the absence of formal hierarchy possible, and with this comes an inevitable challenge to old corporate structures. As the phenomenon has grown, it is taking two fundamental forms:
Sharing computer processor power: this is where millions of small computers join together to form virtual supercomputers to be deployed in scientific discovery or to provide services like Skype. This is one of the less-obvious, but most interesting, implications of the growth of broadband. The corollary of the interent always being available to the user is that the user (in this case the user's computer) is also always available to the internet.
Sharing Human Brain Power: Linux is the classic example of this, but open-source software is not the limit. Online collaboration sites called Wikis are also enabling online collaboration in the preparation of content of any kind. A powerful example of this is the open-source online encyclopedia called Wikipedia. This site has overtaken the Encyclopedia Britannica with more than 1.5 million (mostly very high quality) entries in 200 languages by volunteer experts around the globe, far outnumbering Encyclopedia Britannica's 120,000. The founders are not looking to make much money out of the project, but that has not dampened their appetite for putting Britannica out of business.
Corporations, though challenged by these trends in many ways, are also embracing them. Companies like P&G are going beyond asking their customers what they think and are using open source to allow their most enthusiastic customers and partners to help them design products and bring them to market.
In theory, open-source advertising is no different: directly involving consumers who are enthusiastic about your offering appeals to advertisers who want to get closer to their customers. In reality, that closeness can be very uncomfortable for companies who are having to adjust to a big shift in the balance of power between themselves and their customers. They ought not to shy away from putting the effort in: this is not a trend anybody can hide from any more.
Bring it on! The future of open-source advertising is nirvana for marketers who consider themselves to be in the "truth" business.
Posted by: Marianne | June 14, 2005 at 05:40 PM