John Winsor

Guy's Got a New Blog

Guy Kawasaki started a blog last week. It's worth a read.I especially like his definition of Blogger - "Someone with nothing to say writing for someone with nothing to do."

The Myth of the “Consumer”

This time of year, it’s hard not to think about the consumptive holiday fervor that many of us have just experienced. So, I did a little research. The word ‘consumption’ first appeared in the 14^th century, and meant to waste, use up, devour or destroy. Its opposites – production or productive – appeared from Middle French in 1612 and meant to be creative or generative, but the idea of consumption being the opposite of production did not appear until 1745.

To further confuse things, tuberculosis is historically known as the disease called consumption; at the beginning of the 20^th century, ‘consumption’ was still considered to be a disease. It was thought that people were sick if they thought about consuming goods. This hasn’t stopped companies from typically looking at their customers as ‘consumers.’

This classification is just as dangerous and potentially inaccurate as any stereotypical label. Do individuals, who just happen to buy products, want to be considered primarily as consumers? Do you spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, overtly consuming? Or are you a person with passions and relationships who has a life beyond that label?

Today there is an increasingly diverse mixture of both cultural consumption and production that threatens the corporate dominance of culture. New forms of resistance to a homogenized culture are beginning to appear. People are showing an interest in not just choosing the products and brands that are relevant to them – but in helping to co-create those products.

These ‘prosumers’ – as Alvin Toffler called this emerging class in his 1980 book, The Third Wave – combine the roles of consumer and producer. Toffler spoke of consumers of the future being interested in participating in the creation of their own products. He was right.

Today people are opting to gain local knowledge rather than simply succumb to the available market information. They choose to work creatively on everything they purchase to make it their own. They are also cultural DJs, sampling and mixing, cutting and pasting inspirations to develop and define their own new cultures.

It’s time to think beyond the words “consumer” and “consumption.”

Pigs and Globalization

NPR had a great interview with pig farmers in the mid-west who have decided to start operations in Brazil. Now, these guys aren't big corporate farmers just a couple of family farmers trying to expand their business. The world is certainly flat!

In Praise of Slowness

Happy New Year!

Ahhhh........

Well, for the first time in a few years I shut my computer off before Christmas and am just now turning it back on. It's been 12 wonderful days filled with family and friends since I've looked at email, websites or blogs. It feels good.

One of my goals this year is to slow down and be more thoughtful with those things that I choose to do. I've always had a hard time saying "no." This year I going to work on it.

As I was starting to think about the new year yesterday I heard a wonderful interview on NPR with Carl Honore, the author of In Praise of Slowness. It's worth a listen.

If you're like me, trying to get it all done every day, I hope you'll join me in trying to slow down. While I might decide to slow down on my blogging, I would hope that you would decide not to read my posts every once and awhile and do something more important for yourself.

Have a great 2006!