Dan Gillmor

Ten years after Cluetrain's original publication, too many companies still ignore the idea that markets are really made up of people. In our rapidly changing world, this book's message is more vital than ever. Companies may be wired for business, but they still struggle with how to talk to their customers like human beings. The 10th Anniversary Edition features extensive new commentaries by industry leaders, but the core message of this modern business classic remains intact.

We're in an age of information overload, and too much of what we watch, hear and read is mistaken, deceitful or even dangerous. Yet you and I can take control and make media serve us -- all of us -- by being active consumers and participants. Here's how. Published under a Creative Commons license.

"We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better." - "Financial Times". Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it's possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In "We the Media", nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make - and consume - the news. Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers - politicians, business executives, celebrities - and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from "control" to "engagement." And, he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant. Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. "We the Media" casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it. Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company's first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site "of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area." From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the "San Jose Mercury News", Silicon Valley's daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the "Mercury News" after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the "Kansas City Times" and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist, he played music professionally for seven years.