On Sunday 13 February 2005 08:55, Ian wrote: > I think that these conferences are changing and it fits the > models of tipping points and disruption.
+1 In addition to Gladwell and Christensen, one other theorist who sheds light on the importance of cons is Bhaskar Chakravorti. His book, The Slow Pace of Fast Change, contributes an important piece about understanding the *pace* of change, which is a weak spot in the Christensen team's otherwise stellar theory. Chakravorti talks about the building up of an ecosystem within the disruptive biz network. His work is relevant to this discussion in that it helps prevent burnout to understand that until the tipping point happens, the adoption rate will still be slow, as the mass of demand side and supply side players hangs back to see what other key players will do. Conferences are among the tools that will help demand side and supply side players roughly gauge the scope of the size of the network, and when and how to jump into the entrant's biz network. > At first the groups are > like minded innovators, geeks etc sharing ideas, then the early > adopters, often large companies like IBM and Sun who can't afford > to take the initial risks the geeks take but as things start to > mature, they can't afford not to get involved. +1 Very well stated. In a way, you have just described the tipping. IMHO, it is the point at which Chakravorti's "demi-Moore's law" starts working IN FAVOR OF the market entrant, and AGAINST the former incumbent. Demi-Moore's law is a joking way to referring to the fact that in a networked economy, both demand side and supply side players will hang back to see which path seems to be prevailing. In a way, demi-Moore's law is a tweak of Metcalfe's law (the value of a network equals the square of the nodes). Demi-Moore's law helps us focus our attention on smaller, key markets and the demand side and supply side players who have a vested interested in building the entrant's value network while eroding the incumbent's value network. That is what I like about Bhaskar's idea. It helps us break things down into bite-sized pieces. Ian, I promised you that you would like Christensen, and so now you really should read Bhaskar's book: http://www.slowpacefastchange.com > This leads to the > more mainstream confidence so the mainstream people start to > attend conferences to find out what its all about. +1 Confidence is the stuff of demi-Moore's law. > As marketeers we need to > be seeking out the connectors, mavens and salesmen that are not > already part of our project, to spread the word and conferences > are good places to find these people. Look to see who has the > most diverse set of contacts, best knowledge of technology value > statements and those who are most persuasive. Make these people a > priority in transferring the OpenOffice.org message. Also, in the next stage of our SMP (strategic marketing plan), I think that we should try to identify some key demand side and supply side players in each geographical region who are either ripe for switching, or who have already switched. We could have the marcons try to recruit people in those small areas to talk with those key players to establish an on-going dialogue with them. I'm sure that Jacqueline and John and others have already been talking about this, and it has just taken me a while to catch on. ;-) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
