I learned about a new term / new movement this week - Vendor Relationship Management. Think of it as the polar opposite of Customer Relationship Management.

I always questioned the CRM term. How could a company think they managed their relationship with me? Certainly they could influence, or cajole, or offer, or goad, or even threaten - but manage?

VRM seems to recognize that reality, and proposes that customers should manage vendors, not the other way around.

I first learned about this by reading Doc Searls' blog. Doc is leading Project VRM within the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. The VRM concept grew out of work by Doc and many others around the topic of "user-centric identity".

Technorati Tags: Identity, Digital Identity, Identity Management, VRM