Rating: 
Summary: Packed with Knowledge!
Review: The Cluetrain Manifesto was one of the seminal books of the dot.com bubble era, but reading it now is like waking with a hangover and looking at all of the empty bottles, each of which seemed like a great idea at the time. The Internet changed everything, all right. Those who can bite back the irony long enough to see the big picture and keep reading will find some valuable practical advice on using the now-not-so-new-technology of the Web to do business more effectively. We recommend this pivotal book for the sake of your sense of perspective (or to give you a critically necessary background if you are too young to remember when Amazon was just a river.)
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn...this is soooooo 1999
Review: Markets are conversations. Uh huh. So what. Feeding the cat in the morning is a conversation as well, nobody is paying me a six-figure advance on that tidbit-o-wisdom.This book is very 1999. Yeah, the whole "Internet revolution" thing was a real turn on back then. Today, we know the reality. While the Internet may be a very cool thing that is transforming markets, its also full of a lot of self-important dipwads who think they have a bigger handle on the universe than the rest of us. The authors firmly believe that the Internet will infuse some kind of populist collectivism into the purchasing trends of consumers. The result will be some "new paradigm that fully leverages the best-of-breed synergies of real-time information distribution." Or some such nonsense. Unfortunately, as we now know, people are drooling semi-simian dolts who follow whatever carrot is placed in front of them. How else can you describe the leaders we elect to run this nation? All you have to do is push the masses in one direction and most will follow. Sure, some will go off a drive strange French cars and load Linux on to their X-box. Yet, the majority of consumers behave themselves and purchase what they are told to purchase from the local bulk-product distribution center. As such, this book's insights are only mildly interesting and accurate. While the whole "markets are conversations" thing sounds great to college professors and coffee house philosophers, it doesn't translate so cleanly to the suburban buying centers that drive the economy. This isn't a bad book, its just not terribly "revolutionary."
Rating:
Summary: Markets are not conversations.
Review: If you prefer Hotwired to The Economist, James Carville to David Brinkley, and Tom Peters to Peter Drucker, you will probably enjoy this book. It cheers the power of the Internet to create productive informal relationships between people. The book's primary message is "Markets are conversations." It should have been "Marketing is a conversation." Economic transactions are the exchange of information as well as economic goods and money. The authors are right to condemn the traditional tendency to focus too much on the exchange of economic goods for money. By overstating their case, the authors imply that we can safely ignore the exchange of economic goods and money. As many dot.com investors learned the hard way, dominating a particular conversational niche on the Internet does not automatically lead to success in business. As a book about marketing over the Internet, this book deserves four stars. As a book about Internet economics or information age management, it deserves none.
Rating:
Summary: Business Protestantism
Review: So The Cluetrain Manifesto begins with 95 theses.
I get it, like Martin Luther's 95 theses against the Catholic church in 1517 started Protestantism.
Perhaps these authors mean for their treatise to be equally revolutionary. The format begs high expectations. I just can't help thinking, "Shakespeare said, 'First thing, let's kill all the lawyers.' You'd have to do that for this Openness in Business to work." So where are the lawyers in this groundbreaking philosophy for businesses? It seems like businesses double-talk & obfuscate to protect themselves against liability. And I notice that none of the authors of this philosophy are lawyers.
And as for openness inside the company, we all know how long that would work. I don't see this book as revolutionary or practical. How do the authors tie in these exhortations to any current management philosophy?
Authors: Come down from your ivory tower and conduct some research in the 8-5 world.
If we need a parable, we'll turn to "Who Moved My Cheese?"
Rating:
Summary: Old business paradigms are out the window! The web rules!
Review: This thought-provoking book actually was one of the catalytic influences which dynamited me out of my complacency in terms of my own existing web site. Just like Dr. Martin Luther, posting his similarly disruptive "95 theses" on t"he Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" in 1517, Mssrs. Levine, Locke, Searls, and Weinberger put a definitive stop to the notion of "business as usual" in the newly "wired" world. It kind of reminds me of a next door neighbor I used to have: he predicted that the internet would be "a fad just like CB radio." In a pig's eye!
The co-authors assert that "markets are converstaions" and that they "consist of human beings, not demographic sectors." Much like this site, with the numerous hyperlinks, connecting YOU, the user with more information, logically organized, than you would be able to construct yourself, the authors also assert that "hyperlinks subvert heirarchy." In other words, if the shortest distance between you and the knowledge that you need is a short clickable link on the world wide web, executed by the 1/10th of an inch movement of your index finger on a mouse, the "priesthood of experts" fall.
This is an "in your face" book that should be read by EVERY entrepreneur, EVERY fee-for-service practitioner of ANY profession, and EVERYONE connected with modern networks and the internet. You will never look at the world, or business, the same way afterwards. And you will recognize that "eye candy" web sites with the same old advertising messages will no longer work.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the beef...
Review: This book starts great. The Author starts with some great insights on how the "business place" will be effected by the coming of the real information age, but instead of pulling all his ideas together he babbles on about his opinions. This book needed more data and concrete examples.
Rating:
Summary: The Web, Sans Geekspeak
Review: Excellent book. These visionaries (Weinberger, Locke, et al) let those of us in the world of business know in no uncertain terms that we have absolutely NO CLUE what the Web is all about (and our customers are laughing at us, not with us.) In the words of Weinberger, it's time for us to "get our heads out of our [buttox]" and realize the Web is about communication -- not about "thousands of eyeballs" or mass marketing opportunities. Also highly recommend as a companion read Gonzo Marketing by Cluetrain co-author Christopher Locke. -- D. Payne
Rating: 
Summary: Liberating!
Review: This book is a breath of fresh air! Pragmatic and very truthful! This is a must no matter what business your in, and in what capacity!
Rating:
Summary: prepare to be under-whelmed
Review: A tour de blase that left me wishing I could get back the time I wasted reading it. The authors seem self-absorbed and must think that everything they say is really cute and dripping with insight. Maybe "cluetrain" would have been prophetic had it come out 5 years earlier, but I was left feeling "so what?" and "that's all you could think of?". And if it was all they could think of, they were successful at delivering in the most stupefyingly annoying way. Reminds me of some over-the-hill pot-bellied geezers who hobble with their guitar to the stage with the assistance of walkers and beller "ARE U READY TO ROCK?" and fall down. A joke compared to truly visionary and skillfully crafted works like Gilder's "Telecosm", this sad drivelly rag should be propelled to an obscure cut-out bin and their website disbanded.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: Hits the nail on the head and is still relevant in 2001 and beyond --- I can't understand the other reviews that diminish the depth and understanding that is in this book --- Bravo!!
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