Categories: Articles

Internet And Culture

Skimming through the latest issue of Wired Magazine (June 2008), there’s a small feature on Brian Eno called, The Eno Evolution. Since this is the fifteenth year anniversary issue, Wired (who describes Eno as the "proto-typical Renaissance 2.0 artist") asked him three questions about how far we’ve come. One question (and answer) really hit home for all of us looking at Social Media, Web 2.0 and how this all connects:

The question was: What effect has Internet technology and culture had on art?

"Ideas are put out much earlier and less completely formed, so others can then finish them in their own ways. I think this makes culture a broader conversation, a host of untraceable contributions knitting together to produce new things. And it’s almost impossible to know which grain of sand is going to start an avalanche."

Eno recently co-produced Coldplay‘s latest, Viva La Vida, composed the score for the upcoming game, Spore, and is still making music with the likes of U2 and David Byrne.

After reading what Eno said, it’s no wonder that all of us in Marketing are trying to figure out the differences between the grains of sands and the avalanches.

Enjoy your weekend as you marinate on his thoughts.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.