It's a chicken and egg dilemma.

Thomas Madsen-Mygdal blogged recently about a presentation at the CustomerMade conference April 20 at the IT University of Copenhagen. Here is the pdf version.

The conference raises new questions about who is in the driver's seat when it comes to new product and innovation.

Certainly the blurred line between producer and consumer/media and audience is at the heart of both the new production on demand trend and digital media.

Sure, RightNow Technologies Inc. founder and bootstrap guru Greg Gianforte phoned hundreds of companies in the late 90's to find out what features they might want from his proposed product to help them respond to customers' e-mails.

On the other hand, Gianforte had to first figure out what he wanted to sell. He didn't call hundreds of companies just to ask them what they thought he should sell them.

To put it another way, Seth Godin points out that in digital media (blogs for example) trying to figure out what the audience wants may paradoxically reduce your traffic.

The new innovations that can make everyone a manufacturer and everyone a communicator also call for the individual voice today more than ever.

It's necessary to figure out thoughtfully what you want to say before figuring out whether anyone will respond.