The Cluetrain Manifesto was written in 1999 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.

The 95 theses that make up the Cluetrain Manifesto are only now starting to happen to any great degree. Why is this?

Were the writers farsighted? What could they see that others couldn't see? Didn't see? Wouldn't see? Weren't able to see?

Ideas are easy to formulate. Words are easy to write. 

Change is easy to talk about. Change is difficult to do. 

Some ideas remain. Other ideas are forgotten. 

Technology comes. Technology goes. Not all technology remains.

I believe things happen when they happen because the conditions for that change to happen come together at the right time.

Having not really Tweeted at all over the Christmas period I thought I would check out my Klout score. Prior to Christmas it was around 57 I think, but two weeks later it's now at 53. I've gone from being a Specialist to an Explorer. Whilst I don't take Klout and similar types of tools too seriously, I do think these tools will become more sophisticated and play an important role in time. We are even seeing a few companies take note of people's Klout scores and provide different levels of service based on it. 

What this has got me thinking about, however, is that Klout reflects a person's activity. It does not provide a fixed view of a customer or potential customer. It is a movable view of a customer at a particular moment in time; a snapshot in a sense. Customer service, on the other hand, is not set up in this way. It is fixed. The process is fixed, and the resolution for the most part is fixed. 

If you are a company that provides a service based on a person's Klout score, at what point do you decide to ignore or to pay attention to someone's Klout score? A Klout score may not necessarily provide a true indication of someone's influence.

Reminds me of a radio programme I listened to yesterday with Susan Maushart talking about her new book - The Winter of our Disconnect. The book is about 'how one family pulled the plug on their technology and lived to tell/text/tweet the tale'.

Playing around with augmented reality. Early days, but from #custserv point of view, could be a game changer for self-serve.

I recently joined a blog comment group. I'm wondering if this is the equivalent of a book group of our times? There's a whole range of subject matter which I'm looking forward to learning about. I think there's about 17 of us in the group, spread across the UK, Sweden and the US. I think the issue for all of us, as with most things, is keeping the momentum going. But I am hopeful.

I have often wondered why people use lifetime value over and above lifecycle value, or at least why they don't use the two in tandem. In my opinion, lifetime value implies a customer who has come to the end of their spending life with a company. It allows us to predict the possible value we believe a particular customer or type of customer will give to us over the course of their lifetime with us. By lifetime I mean the amount of time they spend engaging with us, whether that is in terms of spend or recommending us etc. Lifecycle value, on the other hand, allows us to predict the value to the business of a particular customer or type of customer in terms of the interaction they may have with us at a specific time. I won't try to explain either of these concepts in detail, Jim Novo in his book 'Drilling Down' does a far better job than I.