b.cognosco

The Innovation Cycle.
From Adam Curry's weblog, a great review of a book about the history of the telephone. He equates the challenges faced by Bell to the weblog challenge. I think it's broader than that, but the similarities in economic climate, business challenges, etc. are absolutely intriguing:

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." [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
[tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]

Another Voice Among the Half-Million

11:03:53 PM

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Is this promotion or corruption? Another blog has been launched and I am to blame. My friend Scott Walker has launched Radio Rackensack.

It's a good start, Scott. Now let's see what we can do in the Emergent KM (EKM) space (Ok Matt Mower, how's that for a TLA?)

Information Architecture Resources

10:19:29 PM

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Stuff I've been waiting for -- especially the 2nd Ed. of the IA book. Regular expressions? Not likely to understand them even if I read the book -- twice. But the blogging book sounds worth taking a look at.

(Excuse me whilst I go dangle another participle.)

Several books from O'Reilly that I'm going to buy.
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web 2ed. "We've updated the chapters on organization, labeling, navigation, and searching, and illustrated the interconnectedness of these systems in a new chapter on thesauri, controlled vocabularies, and metadata. And we've expanded the methodology chapters to include a more interdisciplinary collection of tools and techniques. We've complemented the top-down strategies of the first edition with bottom-up approaches that enable distributed, emergent solutions."
Mastering Regular Expressions 2ed. "If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage."
Essential Blogging. "Written by leading bloggers, Essential Blogging includes practical advice and insider tips on the features, requirements, and limitations of applications such as Blogger, Radio Userland, Movable Type, and Blosxom. This book will get you up and blogging in no time." [toolbox]

Worth Investigating for the Personal Intranet

10:14:32 PM

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Always on the lookout for better hosted applications around which to build my personal intranet. Need to see if eRoom is signifcantly better than CommunityZero for my needs.

eRoom spruces up hosted collaboration offering. "NEXT WEEK COLLABORATION software provider eRoom plans to roll out an updated version of its hosted digital workplace offering, featuring integrated real-time communication tools and new business process capabilities." [toolbox]

Later: Hmm. Can't get into the site. May be my proxy, may be my browser. Maybe just an overloaded server. I'll try later.