If mass marketing is dead, can someone explain to me why I keep receiving more and more junk email? I'm not a marketing expert, but if the insdustry wants to personalised marketing to meet the personal needs of each and every individual it will likely be expensive and may not be efficient. The main benefit of mass marketing is that it provides a quick and cheap way to reach a large public and it takes into account that only a small part of the targeted public will care about your message.

As for training, I agree that personalized training is more efficient on an individual basis, but is it finacially feasible for a large organization to individually train each and every employees? Can you imagine the military providing individualized recruit training where each recruit would be doing its own learning at his own pace, only being linked to one another through facebook? A virtual community is nothing more than virtual, meaning that it only simulates the conditions of a real community.

In the military context, mass training is not only a mean to save time and money, it serves as a catalyst to create a strong sense of community. The training is far from being individualized: one size fits all, but what makes the military community so strong is that everyone has gone through the same indoctrination. And what the training does not provide, the community does. Individuals who are stong in some subject matters will help others at night in the shack: this is called team work. At some points teams can become so strong that individuals will be ready to put their life on the line for their team mates. Who would risk his life for a facebook friend?

The same applies to the enterprise: if you want the employees to feel as being part of a team, you must provide them real life opportunities to interact, not just virtually because individuals care more about people they actually met that people they just know by their username.

So, mass training may not be the best way to teach each and every learner, but in some situations it is sure a good way to develop a sense of belonging and stimulate informal learning within the a group.