Bob Garfield has a piece in Advertising Age about the coming chaos in the advertising industry (and the denial amongst many of its executives). It’s a fascinating article, with observations like this:

The online space isn’t remotely developed enough — nor will it be anytime soon — to absorb the advertising budgets of the top 100 marketers, to match the reach of traditional media or to fulfill the content desires of the audience..

As the technology plays out, expect to see chaos and the kinds of industry upheaval we’ve talked about before. However, what might hurt or even kill the old media incumbents will ultimately be good for the consumer, and open the door to new ways and new players. He continues on about the inefficiencies of mass advertising:

Not only is it economically nonsensical, it squanders the very nature of the digital universe, the ability to speak with — not to, but with — the narrowest communities and individuals themselves… This may be culturally difficult for advertisers to accept, having spent two centuries trying to browbeat/seduce captive audiences.

The training industry is seeing a similar challenge. (Nor will education, with its 19th century sensibilities, escape it.) The notion of teacher or trainer as a guru with textbook, the font of knowledge, etc, is looking pretty absurd these days. Teachers, like advertisers, are losing control, while the consumers, like learners, are gaining it. No-one can talk down to us any more. From a teaching perspective, we now know that knowledge cannot be transferred without an active participation of the learner. We also have a newfound capacity to create, to connect, and to choose. We will use this new ability becuase it’s there, not as passive, captive, TV-watching consumers, but particpants, co-creators of content, and co-equals. We can now be in control of our own learning.

Ken Carroll