Sunday 13 July 2008

Swarms and swarm marketing



Self-organising communities inspired by nature is how I describe Ken Thompson's Swarm Teams or Tribes as he now refers to them. Ken created a manifesto published on Change This which was the beginning of his new enterprise. He studied bees, geese, dolphins and derived that the collective leadership typically found in the animal world was something that we humans could beneficially apply in our own undertakings.

The resulting software platform underpinned by the collective leadership philosophy enables group messaging by email, IM or SMS via an easy to use web or mobile interface. He envisaged swarms to be primarily used in the workplace, but the software has many possible applications. Currently sponsored by Nesta, it is being used by unsigned bands to help them manage their fan base. This could be a great opportunity for the music industry to identify and promote up-and-coming talent and of course many possible brand and cause uses also exist.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ann. Great site. You might want to think about putting a visible RSS symbol up somewhere (or did I miss it) as I get most of my content through RSS these days.

I forwarded this blog link to a colleague of mine who is researching the development of boyband fanbases!

Another colleague of mine runs the Remedial Thoughts blog. He's researching mobile and gaming and stuff similar, which I thought might be useful for you (we share an office... sounds familiar!)

Good blogging. A.

Ann Longley said...

Alex. Many thanks for your feedback. I'll add the RSS function. Have added Remedial thoughts to my blog list. A.