Conversation is the Kingdom

A not-to-be-missed post by Jeff Jarvis, Who wants to own content?

Distribution is not king.
Content is not king.
Conversation is the kingdom.
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In our media 2.0, web 2.0, post-media, post-scarcity, small-is-the-new-big, open-source, gift-economy world of the empowered and connected individual, the value is no longer in maintaining an exclusive hold on things. The value is no longer in owning content or distribution.

The value is in relationships. The value is in trust.

Jeff says there is no scarcity of good stuff out there, the value is in the conversation, in the relationship.

You want to join in on what people do on their own.  You want to help people make and find and remake and save the content they want.

Better to be part of a fluid network, better to gather than create.

If I have to pick sides, you can guess what side I pick: small, not big; open,not closed; shared, not owned; enabled, not excluded.

Yet once you think about it, this isn’t so new, really: Isn’t journalism supposed to be about building trust (so how did it become so untrusted?)? Aren’t brands supposed to be about communicating trust (so how did so many of them become so untrustworthy?)?

In the end, isn’t the only asset worth owning trust? Content is not king. Distribution is not king. Trust is king in the kingdom of conversation.