Where did it come from?

Firstly I would like to thank our valued clients and guests from Canberra this morning. The session went very well I hope and we lived up to our promise of there being one or two things to take away and take forward. I should also thank the TNS Canberra team who always make me feel welcome.

Where did all of this come from? And how does that relate to research? Some commentators refer to a third economic wave which is internet related. The internet will become a general purpose technology which we can (and already are) starting to harness to do life's work, in much the same way that electricity was in the late 1800's. So Edison becomes Berners-Lee (or O'Reilly as some people might say). This will lead to spatial changes and variations in the rhythm of life, just the same as we experienced (and now take fore-granted) with electricity becoming a networked utility. That's the backbone of the argument (no pun intended).

But where does that relate into research?

For me we are in a third wave and I have gone on record with this, for example at ESOMAR, Orlando in late 2007.

- Fordist Economic System: Think Henry Ford mass production and consumption, optimises the mass marketing, interruption style of marketing. This gives rise directly to a mirro response in research of interruption research: It's called F2F and CATI

- Flexible Accumulation: Think General Motors, customisation, just in time creates the need and expectation of permission marketing and efficiency. This found its home in research with permission research, AKA as panels

- Globalisation and Offshoring: Think India, increasingly China and Vietnam. Globalisation creates engagement paradigm which offers new opportunities for engagement research AKA 2.0

Each epoch is a new layer with new possibilities. It leads to new innovations and new insights in conjunction with the 'established' approaches.

I will reach Melbourne Thursday night, ready for Friday's session. I look forward to meeting more of you then!

Jon