
Everett Rogers, one of the early pioneers of communication theory, passed away on Thursday. If you aren’t familiar with his work — especially “Diffusion of Innovations” — then it’s worth boning up on, or at least sampling some of the thoughts that people have derived from it since the 1960’s when it was first published. Call him the father of peer-to-peer marketing dynamics, the kissing cousin of memetics, and the original branch from which all this “networked media marketing” fruit comes tumbling from (like viral marketing and even affiliate marketing.) Thanks to Dr Paul Marsden of the London School of Economics for pointing this out, I had missed the news.
Damn… and here I figured all that theory came from A.W. Porter who, btw, is alive and kicking.