Saturday, November 10, 2007

Mixed feelings, more than mixed metaphors Mike Hughes is running for Second VP of STC. Taking on that position translates to a four-year commitment that includes President of the society. Why mixed feelings? Mike wrote a dynamite article for my special section of ACM <interactions> published earlier this year; he's a colleague at IBM where we both serve on a council to promote involvement of information developers in various professional organizations, conference, and publications; we share thinking on esoteric topics such as embedded assistance strategies, even though we're separated by organizational boundaries and most of a continent. Mike's a friend. And I know the stress that high office in STC places on the courageous volunteers who accept such positions. I wouldn't wish that pressure on any of my friends. But Mike's clearly thought about it, and has some great ideas on the future of STC. He'll make a great president. So I'm happy to support his candidacy, and encourage you to vote for him (but you have to be a member first!). But I'm also going to have Andrea Ames (an STC Fellow, past-president, and IBMer) to get Mike on the phone and  'splain  some things to him. 7:32:49 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

What will they think of next? Also from TechCrunch, a bit of painful nostalgia: There[base ']s a whole generation of people who don[base ']t remember when the internet was exactly like this. I can still remember buying a 14.4k modem for something like $500 then having to download Trumpet Winsock to get net access under Windows 3.1. We[base ']ve come a very long way. Imagine how todays startups and tech will look to people in 2017 or 2020. (via CrunchGear)  [TechCrunch] No kidding. I never had a 14.4k modem; I paid $500 for a 9600 bps modem, then moved right to the 28.8k model, then bought a book with accompanying floppy disk that contained Winsock and a dialer to get online. It's not just the astounding development of technological wonders that we marvel over, it's the prices we paid 10 or 20 years ago. Think $6000 for a new IBM PC AT (no, I didn't buy one; that was probably 1/3 my annual income at the time). 6:46:38 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

The end of. . . whatever Everyone's been talking about how business, including advertising, as we have known it must change or die. Now IBM has a report specifically on the advertising question: IBM: The End Of Advertising As We Know It.  IBM released an interesting new report earlier this week that predicts the end of advertising as we know it within 5 years. . .The Full report here (pdf) makes for interesting reading, particularly for anyone working in an advertising related business. A lot of it states what many of us already know, but it doesn[base ']t hurt to have this validated in writing. (via Slashdot) . . .  [TechCrunch] Nice to have IBM's work noticed in TechCrunch; but notice also that the originating story came from Slashdot! 6:38:03 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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