Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Will smart networkers change the consumer paradigm?
"We're releasing in the first of the 2005 TYF Perspectives today. It's an analysis of our 2004 IFTF Lifestyles Survey that focuses on a new segment we're calling "smart networkers."
For this analysis, we developed a networking IQ index based on six factors: group participation, referral behavior, online lifestyle, personal mobile connectivity, locative activity, and computer connectivity. We then used the index to assign networking IQs to the 2,014 people in our survey looked for correlations between between IQ and other behaviors.
For many years, IFTF has been tracking a group of "new consumers" who are well educated, with above average income, and use information aggressively to manage their lives. Unlike new consumers, however, smart networkers are not so easy to pigeon-hole by education and income. They span income, education, ethnic, and political groups. And we think they represent a vanguard who may be leading society away from the traditional consumer paradigm altogether.
Over the next couple years, we hope to take a closer look at these smart networkers. In the meantime, we'd like to introduce to them to you in Consumers: Do You Know Kevin Bacon?
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