The Chartered Institute of Public Relations today gave the Cluetrain Manifesto its Presidents Medal. The announcement is here.

This is a huge honor and a big deal. CIPR is the largest professional association for PR folks in Europe.

Former recipients include — get ready for this —

• Sir Tim Berners Lee

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu

• Princess Anne

• Prince Philip

Yup, those are now my peeps.

Background: The Cluetrain site went up in 1999 — yes, almost 20 yrs ago — and we turned it into a book in 2000. (The “we” is Doc Searls, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, and me.) It was an attempt to explain to media and businesses why people like us were so enthusiastic about this new Web thing: it is a place where we get to talk about what mattered to us and to do so in our own voice. That is, it’s a social space, which, surprisingly, was news to much of the media and many businesses. The best-known line from it is Doc’s: “Markets are conversations.”

For the occasion, they asked me to video a talk which is here and is 45 mins long. On the other hand, they wrote up an extensive summary, which should save you north of 42 mins. ( Why me? Pretty random: I was the Cluetrain point person for this.)

Cluetrain got important things wrong, but it also got important things right. CIPR has honored Cluetrain, I believe, as a way of honoring what is right and good about the Web. Still.

Categories: cluetrain dw