I sit in a fair amount of darkened hotel ballrooms watching people that think they are very very important flipping PowerPoint Slides and espousing buzz words with such repetition that I think somebody should shout “BINGO!” for a $10 Kwik-E Mart gift card.

And every time I hear the words “Authentic” or “Transparent” I think back the pre millennial tension of the Cluetrain Manifesto with a mixture of reverence and annoyance. Reverence that it has had such a profound effect on how we now communicate with audiences across multiple platforms: and irritation that no one ever seems to remember it, or give it its due.

In brief, the Cluetrain Manifesto was written in 1999 by 4 guys to explain how the Internet was going to change marketing. It is a list of 95 things that largely address the changing relationship between companies and consumers because of access to communications, data, and content. Although it never uses the actual words “authentic” or “transparent” it does lay the foundation for much of what would evolve into the ways in which brands would need to navigate the social media landscape, including:

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

11. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.

15. In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court. [This was written 10+ years ago]

67. As markets, as workers, we wonder why you're not listening. You seem to be speaking a different language.

91. Our allegiance is to ourselves—our friends, our new allies and acquaintances, even our sparring partners. Companies that have no part in this world, also have no future.

95. We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

Now debate raged through the aughts as to whether consumer generated culture and marketing would king or kill the corporation, but we are well on the other side of that. But we are still working our way through this, and looking back on these principals is an excellent gut check on who we want to be and where we want our communications to go.

And the best part, it’s still free.