Bob Garfield is off again. In a good way. I may not be sure about ‘listenomics’, but if that’s what it takes to make people to think about what’s happening, so be it.
…the information society is reversing flow. What began as an
experiment among a few software nerds has, thanks to the Internet,
expanded into other disciplines, notably media and law. But it won’t
stop there. Advertising. Branding. Distribution. Consumer research.
Product development. Manufacturing. They will all be turned upside down
as the despotism of the executive suite gives way to the will, and
wisdom, of the masses in a new commercial and cultural epoch, namely:
The Open Source Revolution.
Yeah, yeah. Sure. Linux. Zzzzz. Wikipedia. Zzzzz. Blogging.
Podcasting. RSS feeds. Zzzzzzzzzzzz. This cultish open-source stuff is
undeniably a snooze — a handful of evangelistic cybergeeks yammering
on till little beads of white goo form at the corners of their mouths,
as you struggle to remain conscious. If you can’t get jazzed by "Open
Source Revolution," fine. Maybe you prefer "Reverse Flow Economy," or
"Listenomics." Whatever. Any which way, the herd will be heard. And,
any which way, it is underway.
There is some very good stuff on who owns what when it comes to ‘brand equity’. Sums up the reasons why Open Source rocks. 
And a worthy contribution to my crusade on advertising:
If the conversation is dominated by consumers themselves, and they’re
paying scant attention to the self-interested blather of the marketer,
who needs ads — offline, online or otherwise? This raises the question
of what agencies are left to do.
Maybe the answer is obvious: to manage, focus, exploit, maybe
even co-opt the open conversation. The real question may be whether the
agency world is culturally equipped for the task.
So nice to see it spelled out in an AdAge article.
