10 Membranes

» The Godin Controversy

Quite a few people have been either getting worked up over Seth Godin, or protesting how they are totally not worried about Seth Godin. The reason it’s interesting is that it is another instance of the concept that, from an academic view, is the most fascinating in digital publishing: disintermediation, e.g. the creation of genuinely new and revolutionary business models that start from the ground up. For obvious reasons this is less fascinating to established publishers, more panic inducing. 

Here is my prediction: Seth Godin will be back to publishing. There are so many arguments about what the nature, benefits, downsides etc of his play, but really I think he has underestimated the importance of the books in “brand Seth” and will publish again in about five years. Books are the anchor point around which the blog swirls. Arguably if Kevin Kelly for example wrote more books, “brand Kevin” would be much bigger. Ditto “brand Cory” would be much smaller sans science fiction dead tree volumes. Books represent an end product; blogs, speeches etc represent an ongoing process. Books represent fixity and statement; blogs and speeches generally do not act as a record but as argument. No one reads last year’s blog posts or leader columns. Ultimately that is why books and brands go together, and why Godin will eventually come back. 

One thing - he is right on the lead times.