[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] QUOTE
I've been reading the History of the telephone, as written in 1910 by Herberst Casson. It has been very refreshing to read how hard it was for Bell to get anyone to notice, look ar listen to his new device. In fact, it wasn't until he sent a 'news story' at a distance of 16 miles, that he received the attention he needed: the press. Seems they only react when their own business affected.
So much of this story is analogous to weblogs. Their invention, mis(understanding) and application all pretty much went through the same stages. Here's one you'll recognize:
"There were hundreds of shrewd capitalists in American cities in 1876, looking with sharp eyes in all directions for business chances; but not one of them came to Bell with an offer to buy his patent. Not one came running for a State contract. And neither did any legislature, or city council, come forward to the task of giving the people a cheap and efficient telephone service."
It gets better: " ......it was a most unpropitious time for the setting afloat of a new enterprise. It was a period of turmoil and suspicion. What with the Jay Cooke failure, the Hayes-Tilden deadlock, and the bursting of a hundred railroad bubbles, there was very little in the news of the day to encourage investors."
UNQUOTE [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
[Blogfish] QUOTEs Adam Curry quoting Dave Winer
Dave: "How do people make money with weblogs," asks the happy blogger who wonders out loud.
"How do people make money with telephones and word processors," asks some random wise-ass. Beautiful! QUOTING [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
UNQUOTE [Blogfish]
Money is made based on the content transmitted, such as newspapers, and jobs for people who can read a script on telephone spam.
Money is made based on services to the people who struggle to use the technology effectively, such as the folks who do house calls to clean the dust out the inside of personal computers, and value added plug-ins that users are willing to pay money to get.
The history of the telephone has had to have been rewritten since 1910 thanks to the controversy over who really invented it. Check out this thread in an off-topic forum of www.AirDisaster.com
http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&;f=2&t=001470
The exchange of information is as follows, between people with the same kind of wild identities as Bloggers use:
- [Sherlock]: Antonnio Meuci, an Italian Engineer, invented the telephone in 1850 and was unable to sell it. It gathered dust on a shelf in a Long Island Laboratory for Bell to find and patent.
- There was some debate over whether or not it worked before Bell improved it, or whether Bell's patent was identical to Meuci's earlier published description.
- [Ed]: Part of the process of invention is telling the world about the invention, and in fact managing to sell it.
- [me]: misc.
- [Sherlock]: It is still stealing to take another man's work and claim it as your own.
- [me thought]: Only if you are caught doing that.
- [Jim]: National Geographic Society on where the telephone was invented and Dual Citizenship Bell Family Tree. The first publicized stunt as opposed to perfecting and researching the process in advance.
- [Adoucette]: US Congress House Resolution 269 on Antonio Meucci inventing the telephone in Cuba then moving to New York, demonstrated it, published description in newspaper, went bankrupt.
- [Fearless Freep]: Initial research on the Light Bulb in the mid 1800's. First patent 1874 for a Canadian inventor, bought out by Edison's buddies to be replaced with Edison's invention.
3:21:58 AM 
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