Seeing Forests

I really liked Sebastien’s summary of Malcolm Gladwell’s presentation at YPA.  The three principle themes of framing, connectors and mavens are clearly worth contemplation.  My first reaction is normally, yeah, yeah, people who know a lot and/or know a lot of people are important.  We know that.  But when it’s put into this context (and with this kind of story-telling) it give things a needed freshness.  I agree with Seb about the importance of connectors and mavens and their clear relevance to social networking.   I’m not quite ready to concede the re-framing though.  Malcolm’s admonition that YP’s framing is “we buy from people we trust” just doesn’t seem to be on par with the analogy in his story, that Sarnoff changed the frame of reference of radio from “reporting news” to “bringing the world live into your living room”.  To me, this kind of “global impact” is the kind of re-framing that YP needs.  It’s a vibrancy, and immediacy, and an authenticity that’s at the heart of this opportunity.  And it’s nothing that giant iron robot that is Google has any concern over.  

(As an aside, I think it’s a little bit of synchronicity here that I just posted personally about outdated phrases in our language caused by fading technologies like radio).

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