• GNU/Linux - thousands of loosely networked free software developers competing with Microsoft at its own game and producing a massive operating system
• Wikipedia -  fifty thousand volunteers successfully authoring a serious online altrenative to the Encyclopedia Britannica (& giving it away for free)
• SETI@Home - 4.5 million volunteers contributing their leftover computer cycles to create the most powerful supercomputer on Earth

In this environment, and as a marketer, be careful to dismiss that next idea out of left field...  The natives are restless and you had better be ready for it.

In 1995, the Cluetrain Manifesto (Doc Searls et al) proclaimed:  "We are not clicks or eyeballs, we are people... deal with it"

And by 2005, Doc Searls was talking of Company Relationship Management, flipping Customer Relationship Management on its head and challenging the one-sided assumptions that companies and brands have traditionally made about their customers. And something had to be done to liberate both sellers and buyers from the belief that
a free market is "your choice of captor".

Doc Searls has since been on a journey to discover technology that could advance customer independence. His conclusion is that full empowerment for customers could only be achieved if they were in control of their own data, including their digital identity. Tim has written about this idea in the form  of Digital Concierges in a previous post.

Doc Searls sees the traditional customer relationship as one where "the vendor does all the asking and where the data is coerced. By disclosing data on an as-needed basis, only within the context of secure and genuine relationships, customers can take the power back. This, in a nutshell, is the manifesto of vendor relationship management (VRM)."

From the brands point of view, the interesting thing is that a shift in power to the customer does not necessarily have to to be a daunting prospect. Indeed there are two immediate wins for brands that anticipate this shift:

• Poor data quality is invariably a problem of CRM systems. It also generates many poor customer experiences as companies endeavour to keep customer data up-to-date. With VRM or personal data stores, the information is provided in consistent and standardised ways by a willing customer interested in keeping this data current and comprehensive.
• Highly qualified leads are generated by well-designed VRM systems. "A well designed VRM system will eliminate much of the guesswork that CRM (& the sales process more generally) currently involves. For example, VRM can provide customers with tools to say 'Here's what I'm in the market for'. or 'Here are my circumstances. What have you got that is relevant?'." 

The claim is therefore that a complementary, even mutually reinforcing  (VRM plus CRM) arrangement can exist.

How will it come together is difficult to say, but there is work underway to enable selective disclosure of personal data including:

Personal Data Stores that can be replicated with trusted "fourth parties" (eg. Mydex.org) and the many digital identity systems and communities that have VRM components (eg IdentityCommons.org, InformationCard.net, OpenID.org, XDI.org).

Doc Searls again: "A core purpose of VRM is to eliminate the guesswork that has wasted enormous sums of money of money and energy for marketing and sales - while also wasting the customer's attention and time. We can save that money, energy and time by giving customers the means to control means of engagement with companies, and to do it in standard ways that work across the board."

A very ambitious vision but when the natives are restless you never know what might happen...