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July 16, 2007

Innovation: Age of Conversation

(Author Note: This post is partly about innovation, and partly about shameless self promotion)

Today marks the official release of Age of Conversation.

What is Age of Conversation? It is a precedent setting collaborative book-writing effort between 100+ bloggers and other new media types. It is a model for how information will be produced and shared in the future. Oh yeah, and its a book - something you can go online today and buy (with all proceeds going to charity) and get creative insights from the best minds in the new media space.

There is more information online at www.ageofconversation.com.

Keep reading for a little background on how it all came together:

On March 27, 2007, Drew McLellan, who heads McLellan Marketing Group (an ad shop) posted on his blog about a chance to author a guest book. Gavin Heaton, who is the Interactive Director at Creata, then posted a comment hailing the idea but going one better in saying, “Great concept! But you know, what? I reckon between a few of us [marketing bloggers] we could knock out a short book…all we need is a theme and a charity.”

Two weeks later, Drew and Gavin had amassed a theme, pinpointed a charity and made a grand call for authors.

I was one of the authors who responded and I was honored to be accepted into the group. Each of us (103 in all) was given one page to express their perspective on the concept 'Age of Conversation' any way they see fit. My chapter, which amounts to one page really, is listed as No. 80 in the table of contents, and is entitled 'Putting Media Back in the Middle." It's a brief intro to some of the themes that you will get in my book, 'Media Rules!" which will be published by Wiley in November.

All our collective thinking is now available in eBook, softcover and hardcover formats…with all proceeds benefiting Variety, The Children's Charity.

Again, there is more information online at www.ageofconversation.com.

Being a part of this was both an enjoyable experience and a thrill -- knowing that we were trying something new and that the lessons learned from Age of Conversation will start to impact the way marketers communicate online. The only way that we can advance the level of understanding of people in and around the marketing space about the potential for new media is to band together and pool our thoughts. Age of Conversation proves that co-creation and collaboration are alive and well, and can have dramatic and important impacts.

Many/all thanks go to Gavin and Drew for their leadership and investment, of both time and resources, to get this off the ground. I encourage you to go buy a copy (or several) and invite others to do the same.

Posted by Brian Reich at July 16, 2007 9:26 AM | Topic: innovation | 4 Comments