Party ?

While we may debate whether Paypal is a 4th party (when acting on the user’s behalf) we can use the following criteria to measure the degree to which an entity is acting in the 4th party role, enabling:
- user-preference: what, when, where, how much
- user-driven actions: choose, opt-in (and out), propose terms, direct, instruct, schedule, respond to exceptions, final approval.
- user-content: portable, revokable, no use-rights limitations.
- user-independence, improved engagement, acts on users’ behalf, proliferate the minimum data possible within user-crafted contexts.

Where it gets uncertain is on the financial side:
- who pays for the service? what is the 4th parties’ business model?
- who benefits and to what degree? What are the tradeoffs?
- Is there a 2nd party advertising channel created? Can users opt-out?
- Are there restrictive TOS that constrain user actions or rights?

4th party service infrastructure is cheap enough to be ubiquitous, but not free. Someone must provide them at some cost, directly, or indirectly.

The world is not currently balanced with mutually beneficial relationships between vendors and consumers. VRM was born in reaction to the one-way power exerted by vendors and their 3rd party agents on users. (When the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance.)

Now, users have computerized network-enabled tools to push back — market/product knowledge, freedom to assemble, organize, negotiate, expose bad behavior, etc. (Tivo frees us from the totalitarian tv schedule times, etc). CRM systems are less than 20 years old and used to be affordable only by corporations. But now, processing power, networking bandwidth, and storage are low cost commodities, making personal private data systems and user controlled ‘bots possible.

But this may not be enough. Users are not demanding their rights; few see a problem with the current system. (150 years will do that)… 2nd parties are likely to co-opt any user-driven movement (as always, what was revolutionary becomes mainstream — Led Zeppelin, Peter Townshend songs sell cars). Open source volunteers may build it, but companies are only likely to adopt what is to their benefit. This may just mean it will take a long time. Or it may like Doc suggests, happen the way email freed itself from the AOL Prodigy, CompuServe silos.

The catalyst to moving to a VRM future quickly is to convince 2nd parties that it is in their interest to embrace a user-driven environment. Integrating 4th parties into the supply chain to lower cost, reduce risk, improve customer service, and ultimately sell more to those who want to buy are ways to speed this up. Given the current upheaval in stable business models, we could see 21st Century user-driven business practices emerge as value-differentiators that increase market share.

My ‘bot will call your ‘bot.