Bob Garfield Writes His Latest Book, Listenomics, In Plain View

This is just another fine example of living and breathing the new world of Social Media. In October, 2005 I posted: Marketing Article Of The Year – Inside The New World Of Listenomics By Bob Garfield. I felt that Garfield had hit the nail on the head. One of my favorite quotes from the article Inside The New World Of Listenomics in Ad Age Magazine is:
“What’s left for agencies? 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.”
I had the pleasure of meeting Garfield in person at the Sympatico MSN Digital Ad Summit a few months back. After discussing Listenomics, he told me that he was thinking of writing his next book by using Blog technology for all to see. He kept his word.
On Tuesday of this week, Garfield posted to his Blog: Listenomics – The Online Book Project Starts Now. Tres cool as we say in Quebec.
“…now comes ‘Listenomics: the Book,’ which I’ll be writing right here, in this space, over the next 18 months. With your help, I hope.
The idea is to put it together, chapter by chapter, with ideas, criticism and corrections coming from all of you out in the Bobosphere. (You may think of it this way.) It’s no wiki; I’m the sole author. And it will be owned lock, stock and hypertext by my employer, Crain Communications. But who cares? It’s being produced in full public view for public view.”
There is still lots of talk about how the digital space will kill the print world. I wonder if this process for putting a book out will help or hinder sales once it hits the stands of the traditional world. I am also curious if The Cluetrain Manifesto folks had a similar challenge, seeing as that entire book is available to read from their website?
You can follow the wonderful world of Listenomics here: Garfield : The Blog.