Let’s “Meta” one More Time

The New York Times Magazine had a “Riff” on Meta, called “Welcome to the Age of Heavy Meta” by Devon McCann Jackson (aka David Zweig).  A highly recommended read.  He says it so much more elegantly than I did in my riff, “Big Data, Megatrends and Meta Trends” in this blog back in July. The article’s subtitle sums it up perfectly: “Somewhere between Aristotle’s “Metaphysics” and “Family Guy”, the world “meta” became shorthand for wry knowingness.  But the advent of metadata shows us just how much – and how little – we truly know.”  

"I love you; you're perfect; now change"

Yesterday I had an epiphany of sorts.  At the kitchen sink no less.  Of late I have been thinking a lot about people and their behavior and the realization that people do not change. Not fundamentally so. I think a person can learn to modify certain behaviors, but our basic wiring is our basic wiring. Of course we learn along the way and modify behaviors and change our opinions (or not) and hopefully become more attune with our surroundings and wiser in our decision making, we might mellow and be more forgiving, but we will fundamentally and with our gut always be “who we are”.  

Internet 3.0

So where are we going? Quo vadis? That could be asked, no: that has to be asked of all aspect of our lives. (And yes, we’re back to one of my fave topics) This entry: quo vadis www? Where are we headed with the internet, and these days the internet seems to be near synonymous with social media. 

So: we moved from being consumers to being co-creators. That means media now engages with communities (niche audiences) and (should) no longer cater just to a generic audience. Companies that communicate to the outside no longer push information (or products for that matter) to a community, but need to be ready to pull information into their organizations and to LISTEN.  Organizations that are traditional hierarchical need to rethink being flat(er) in structure and allowing for a network of employees to listen and communicate with consumers.  Flexibility is key.  Leadership needs to move from control to empowerment.

Coincidentally that jives with my earlier entry (the Culture Code) on generation y – or generation “me” (aka Millennials): the need to be heard, to be empowered and to be co-creators.  So, at least www. 3.0 is squarely catering to generation y – surprised?  Ok; I agree it’s a chicken and egg situation. Did you know that by 2025, 75% of the work force is going to be generation y-ers (aka Millennials)?    

In summary, below a table put out by Vodafone Enterprise Plenum after their work trip 2013 in New York and Boston:

	www 2.0	www 3.0
Individuals	Consumers	Co-creators
Media	Audience	Community
Organizations	Hierarchy	Network
Markets	Products	Platform
Communication	Push	Pull
Leadership	Control	Empower