More on the blurring lines between corporations and people, via my strategy wonk filter Ethan Bauley…

Jeff Jarvis in BusinessWeek, Detroit Should Get Cracking on its Googlemobile:

I don’t suggest that design should be a democracy. But shouldn’t design at least be a conversation?

In the same way that “markets are conversations”, “design” has always been a conversation; traditionally that conversation only occurred in the marketplace when people make their decisions to buy or not buy a company’s designs.

What’s changed is that the platforms and cultures are beginning to change to allow us to expand that “conversation” into the realm of the the organization; we (as companies) are able to involve people (our prospective consumers) in tactical product decisions before the products reach the markets. This expansion of the conversation creates new markets; new markets that create new value propositions, new core competencies and new sources of capital for organizations and people.

How?

Start thinking about:

• Umair Haque, Edge Competencies.
• John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, The New Reality: Constant Disruption.
• Umair Haque, How to Chrome Your Industry.
• Ethan Bauley, commenting on the Android Market.
• John Hagel, Mastering New Marketing Practices.
• Tom Nixon, The Building Blocks of Social Media Strategy.
• Ethan Bauley, commenting on rethinking the rationale for the firm.
• Me, Social capital isn’t new, but everything about it is.
• Me, Content is cheap, context is expensive.

I’m not the only one thinking about the need for innovation in organizational structures. So much thought-provoking strategy gold on the web, where to start?