The Cluetrain Manifesto
Paperback edition
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| Author | Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger |
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| Country | America |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Basic Books |
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Publication date
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June 30, 2009 |
| Media type | Print: Paperback |
| Pages | 320 pp. |
| ISBN | |
The Cluetrain Manifesto is a work of business literature collaboratively authored by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger. It was first posted to the web in 1999 as a set of ninety-five theses, and was published as a book in 2000 with the theses extended by seven essays. The work examines the impact of the Internet on marketing, claiming that conventional marketing techniques are rendered obsolete by the online "conversations" that consumers have and that companies need to join.
The Cluetrain Manifesto was written and first posted to the Web in March 1999 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger. A revised and extended version of the text appeared as a book under the title The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual in 2000.
In its central thesis that "markets are conversations", the work asserts that the Internet is unlike conventional media used in mass marketing as it enables conversations amongst consumers and between consumers and companies, which are claimed to transform traditional business practices. Technologies listed in the printed publication as conduits of such conversations include email, news groups, mailing lists, chat, and web pages. More recent technologies (such as blogs and ) are not mentioned.
In its form, the work alludes to Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, a central text of the Protestant Reformation.
The work asserts that the term "cluetrain" stems from an anonymous source speaking about their former corporate employer: "The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took delivery."
The Cluetrain Manifesto was re-published as an extended 10th Anniversary Edition in 2010. In 2015, two of the authors, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, posted New Clues, a follow-up to the work.
A single paragraph summarizes the essential position taken by the writers:
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