Re: [projectvrm] Microsoft's Personal Health Care Records

[Matthew Blass < >]

Alan,

You  say, "When push comes to shove, the terms of vendor-customer relationships are either designed around the vendor’s value agenda (buy me!) or they serve the individual’s value agenda – is this the best decision for my life, circumstances, priorities etc?"

I think the terms have always been based on the individual's value agenda, however, the individual agenda has been defined as a mass market agenda because of the tools available between production (invention of the corporation and invention of the factory line) and communication (radio, TV, and advertising as a function of that environment) have driven the messages about what the values are. This gave the entity selling the message (the corporations) more power in defining the values, and for the most part, this was a major improvement for society.

Today, though, we have tools that are breaking the mass market agenda. The relationships haven't changed except the individual's values are gaining influence not as a mass market message, but as an individual message as both forms of technology in production and communication allow for easier interaction at this level. The R in VRM would then be about fine tuned interactions and the ability to vocalize different and broader messages.

That won't in itself help a person make better decisions, but it will allow greater granularity and customization (hopefully) of product offerings, but only because the mass market tools are being broken, which allows small competitors (and long-tails) to exist more prominently giving more power to the individual's message and desires. In that case, I'm not sure VRM has to think too much about the R as much as it should let whatever happens happen.

Matt