The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 49 ratings · 10 reviews

Caveat venditor—let the seller beware

While marketers look for more ways to get personal with customers, including new tricks with �big data,” customers are about to get personal in their own ways, with their own tools. Soon consumers will be able to:

� Control the flow and use of personal data
� Build their own loyalty programs
� Dictate their own terms of service
� Tell whole...more

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published May 1st 2012 by Harvard Business Review Press

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 179)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 30, 2013 Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Caveat Venditor - Let the Seller Beware"

So proclaimed Doc Searls in The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge. Co-author of the legendary The Cluetrain Manifesto, Searls' main thesis is that customers - like markets - should be free.

According to Searls, empowered customers should not be shackled to the chains of big business like "calves" forced to suckle many different "cows". Their personal data - demographics, buying behaviours, online surfing patterns - should not be owned by compan...more

like · see review

Feb 10, 2013 T.Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book to start your exploration of Vendor Relationship Management, Personal Clouds and the shift of (at least some) control from companies to consumers. It is part vision and part documentary since Doc tells us of work already being done across several fronts in this field.

There are, however, a few pieces that have yet to be ironed out. For example, as a security specialist I'm a little uncomfortable with the notion that a 3rd party will have data that paints an extremely intimate...more

like · see review

May 18, 2013 JP rated it 3 of 5 stars

If it seems like a long treatise on the topic, it's because it's thorough. What I enjoyed most about Searls' critique of the current state of the customer experience was his continued focus on having automation catch up so customers are again in control. He covers several foundational concepts, like contracts of adhesion and captive markets. These are balanced equally with practical topics like applications to travel and healthcare. Overall, I found this to be thoughtful, informative, and distin...more

like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 Sara M. Watson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really excited to read The Intention Economy because it is one of the first efforts I've seen to extend popular privacy concerns into the realm of the economics of personal data and user empowerment. I've been pursuing these ideas in talking about the nature of our transactional relationships with internet services and companies by "paying with our data," and we've seen early signs of this in the World Economic Forum's discussion of personal data as a new asset class.

Searls's strongest exp...more I was really excited to read The Intention Economy because it is one of the first efforts I've seen to extend popular privacy concerns into the realm of the economics of personal data and user empowerment. I've been pursuing these ideas in talking about the nature of our transactional relationships with internet services and companies by "paying with our data," and we've seen early signs of this in the World Economic Forum's discussion of personal data as a new asset class.

Searls's strongest explanation comes in describing the underlying problem in the existing internet economy that gives data use power to companies: it's all based on those boilerplate, impossible-to-parse terms of service that operate as "contracts of adhesion." Contracts of adhesion is an old idea, introduced by Friedrich Kessler to describe the heavily biased positioning of bargaining power with the company. These contracts exist to allow for mass production and consumption at scale, but they get in the way of principles of "freedom of contract". So how do we put users on a more level [contractual] playing field with companies?

Searls proposes that control over the terms of data use need to lie with the user, and that fourth party data brokers (also called data lockers) could negotiate and manage our terms and our data on our behalf to share with the services that need access to our data. Terms might include things like "If we cease our relationship, you can keep my data but not associate any PII with that data." While customer relationship management (CRM) platforms have been around for more than ten years to help companies manage interactions with and data about customers, Searls suggests that we've been missing the mirrored pair on the customer side of the relationship, which he's deemed vendor relationship management (VRM).

While I'm excited about shifting the dynamic of predominant economic models as they relate to data, Searls' book falls short in a couple of key ways:

- It's too optimistic. Searls doesn't address or even acknowledge the of the limitations and challenges (most obviously, inertia) that would prevent The Intention Economy from realization. It's too easy to punch holes.

- Searls puts too much focus on and faith in the tools. He says, "We didn’t need a car, a copier, a radio, or a smartphone until we saw one and said to ourselves, 'I need that.'…SO, THEN Customer liberation requires necessity-mothering inventions." I tend to disagree. While developing tools to enable these markets is important, making customers aware of the problem, and making them aware of an alternative model, is a bigger challenge, first. One audience member in Searls's book talk asked: "Customers are lazy. What's going to make them want to do anything about this?" Sure, having tools that make this as easy and seemless as possible is going to make adoption go a lot more smoothly, but there won't be a market if enough consumers don't see this as a clear problem. The popular media's coverage of privacy concerns over the last year has certainly raised the level of discourse, but it's mostly been focused on fear mongering. We haven't seen much in terms of alternative models for moving forward, and that's what conscientious consumers should pick up from this book.

- Searls doesn't address the elephant in the room, which is: why should we trust fourth parties with our data anymore than we trust Facebook or Target? Might it just be the case that the fourth party managing our data for us will just end up being one of the companies that already has a lot of our data already? Will Facebook become our data broker, like it's already our identity manager (given all the startups using Facebook for signup and login)? That possibility seems more likely to me, given the concentration of users already captured on these platforms. It's harder to imagine one of the current data locker startups rising to the top to come between us and Facebook (unless of course they got bought by Facebook). But even for Facebook to become our data broker, the dominant economy of the internet will have to shift way from advertising to create something that looks a little like Searls's Intention Economy. He doesn't make this argument, though, since he's so invested in those VRM startups.

Aside from this more glaring problems, Searls's writing is full of awkward, imperfect metaphors like calf-cows relationships ("The World Wide Web has become a World Wide Ranch, where we serve as calves to Web sites’ cows, which feed us milk and cookies.") and Chinese walls between advertisers and consumers ("If advertisers would peek over on our side of the Chinese wall, they would see two icebergs toward which TV’s Titanic is headed, and both promise less tolerance for advertising.").

All that being said, The Intention Economy is bold, and it's hard to cover all the bases when your arguments are so radical. But it's also hard to convince others to rally around the cause if there are too many questions left unanswered.(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2013 Blair rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book that projects how customers will continue to use the web to wrestle back control over vendors. Doc Searls writes a thought provoking piece as he, and the team at ProjectVRM, try to keep ahead of the changing landscape. I'd say he's about one year ahead of anyone I've read in this field.

like · see review

Dec 05, 2012 Adam Edwards rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book is "out there", meaning it presents an idea that is still in the concept stage and can't be implemented for quite a while. Interesting concept of a CRM for a consumer to indicate wants or needs to retailers but not very applicable to current business.

like · see review

Dec 11, 2012 Vancott rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the future, it's you! Doc has been talking about VRM for years, this is his manifesto, enjoy and plan your next career moves accordingly!

like · see review

Mar 09, 2013 Christopher Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

An excellent discussion of where the economy should go as IT transforms the commercial processes we are so used to.

like · see review

Nov 19, 2012 Tom rated it 2 of 5 stars

Well written but I found it more of a manifesto than anything else - he paints a utopian/distopian picture of the future in the first part but then doesn't (to me at least) make a viable case for how or why this will occur, except that he and a bunch of others think it would be a great idea.

like · see review

May 19, 2013 Joc Tay rated it 2 of 5 stars

Interesting views, but tends to berate and lament, without a lot of clear evidence. More anecdotal than prescription based.

like · see review

Jun 16, 2013 Guy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jun 16, 2013 Gaspar Torriero rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jun 15, 2013 Chris marked it as to-read

Jun 14, 2013 Josh Wade marked it as to-read

Jun 06, 2013 Matt Gierl marked it as to-read

May 26, 2013 Karen Grunawalt marked it as to-read

May 25, 2013 Scott Bird added it

Shelves: psychology

May 22, 2013 Jess marked it as to-read

May 20, 2013 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 13, 2013 Hertzel Karbasi added it

Jun 10, 2013 Lindy Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

May 02, 2013 Haidong Wang marked it as to-read

May 10, 2013 Suman Reddy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apr 27, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apr 22, 2013 Jimmy marked it as to-read

Apr 21, 2013 Grayson Hill marked it as to-read

Apr 21, 2013 Dave is currently reading it

Apr 21, 2013 Mark Cameron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 21, 2013 Zeyad marked it as to-read

Apr 20, 2013 Heba marked it as to-read

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 next »

See top shelves...

Books by Doc Searls

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Intention Eco...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge
avg rating	preview: The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge Goodreads rating: 3.65 (49 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12968836-the-intention-economy?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344696100l/12968836.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12968836-the-intention-economy?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge by Doc Searls[/url]

The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (1)

Genres

Books by Doc Searls

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Intention Eco...

The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (1)

Genres

Books by Doc Searls

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Intention Eco...

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (1)