Scripting News - Latest Comments in Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Bob Calder — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:17:59 -0000

Journalists are gatekeepers. Their traditional function is to filter information so I wonder if the Obama-as-Hitler-Socialist-Fascist-Commie influence would have got past them and into the collective ear of the susceptible.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

benjaminjtaylor — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:55:15 -0000

Well said! Anil Dash alluded to "gatekeepers"in a recent video interview with Big Think. It's good to see this sentiment echoed elsewhere. Great post.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

StephenPickering — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:30:19 -0000

As long as there is a true free market gatekeeping is a losing strategy. And for now the internet, the communications Revolution, is the ultimate free market. But in industries where there is a false vacuum, ie Telecom, Financial, gatekeeping still works. This is why, although bandwidth prices halve each year, my comcast and cellphone bills keep going up each year. It's not because Comcast and AT&T are evil, it's because regulation, the sword of Damocles, keeps capital from flowing into competition. Now that sword is thrusting into healthcare. It won't be long until that slippery slope finds it careening into the internet itself.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

spinchange — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:59:20 -0000

We willingly return to what sends us away; We willfully flee what keeps us contained.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

isilverthe — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:40:11 -0000

Very depressingly optimistic this is why I fallow you.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Jim "Genuine" Turner — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:42:15 -0000

You went to Marshall not as a gatekeeper but as an amplifier. He may not have got in you to the cool kids group, but he had a larger audience in the genre you were looking to reach. The gatekeeper would have been someone that allowed you to have Marshall's ear.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

manielse — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:43:50 -0000

Hubs are always more powerful than spokes. That said, without the spokes, the hubs become less powerful. The same holds true on the Gatekeeper analogy. If the "influencers" no longer have advantages of information or an lack of audience they become less powerful. There will always be an elite that helps a circle (usually already in the elite).

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Sophmom — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:21:36 -0000

Great post. I've thought for a long time that the laws of physics apply to interactivity. Your water analogy is spot on.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Mark Essel — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:15:28 -0000

Maybe I'm overly affectionate of the Soup Nazi analogy here, but its a great statement. The relay provider, or portal of discovery, has been a sustainable creation. It aids in our navigation of free flowing information. I especially like your point that any attempt to wall off information, while it may be temporarily effective, is immediately an act of self obsolescence.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

dave — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:59:10 -0000

Excellent!

I almost specifically said that you could refer to this piece if in a
meeting someone insists that you must go through a gatekeeper to get to the
market. Being more creative will often get better results. For example, when
I did the rollout of bit.ly I went to Marshall, because I thought he would
understand and like the product and find the stuff that made it interesting,
well -- interesting. It turned out very well, of course. But the
conventional wisdom was that RWW, his pub, was not a gatekeeper. I don't
think it is, but I don't think anyone really is a gatekeeper, it's kind of
an illusion. The mistake is to act on the illusion.

Glad I was able to help and good luck with your potential customer! :-)

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

dave — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:56:56 -0000

No -- that's the danger in these pieces, everyone thinks they know who it's
about -- but it's not about anyone in particular. It's about gatekeeping as
a practice. If to you that means Apple, great -- but honestly I wasn't
thinking of Apple when I wrote it.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Tobin Truog — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:41:09 -0000

Dave!

Thank you for helping me out. I was in a conversation with a potential new customer the other day trying to explain this very concept and what I was saying just wasn't getting through. I have previously used the example of the big corporate coffee shop that moves in across the street from the local coffee shop and they BOTH end up successful, but I think this gets more to the point of connection / participation and "give before you get." Thanks for the interesting take.

Re: Gatekeeping is a losing strategy (Scripting News)

Richard — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:35:12 -0000

Is the implied gatekeeper of this tale Apple?