Interesting Thoughts...

Scott Rosenberg is understandably perplexed by AOL's announced strategy to become a content and services channel on the Internet (a bandwidth free ISP).  Basically, they want to offer a service that rides on the bandwidth provided by the baby bells and cable companies.  What is the thinking behind this?  Jonathan Miller is clearly following an HBO strategy:

"I see these opportunities as HBO 1990 all over again, when Blockbuster and videocassette and PPV were going to put HBO out of business," Mr. Miller said. "It has come roaring back by offering product you can't find anywhere else on television. That's the key to turning things around at AOL."  (Courtesy of the Electronic Media).

Currently, HBO has over 20 m subscribers paying upwards of $14 a month for its content.  That's a great business and is worthy of replication online.  However, Jonathan needs to watch out.  He can't pursue a strategy that merely packages repurposed content from existing Time-Warner assets.  Why?  It's been tried before and it won't work.  Caveat:  if this effort includes throwing open the massive archives of out of print books, music, and movies that AOL-TW owns as part of the subscription, then it might work (although, given the complexity of the contracting process necessary to do this, I am not hopeful).

Like HBO, AOL needs to provide an original experience.  Further, it needs to be an experience that is uniquely suited to the Web/Internet (or in AOL's case, a simulacrum of the Web).  What does that mean?  In my view, that means connecting people.   AOL's unique experience needs to revolve around the content created by its members and the connections they make between each other (and one that utilizes P2P and desktop resources to keep costs low).  What exactly do I mean?  Chat.  P2P multimedia chat.  Desktop publishing (weblogs).  P2P desktop publishing (multimedia weblogs).  To attract members they should throw open the front doors to these AOL produced sites.  However, the hook is that in order to participate, people will need AOL's client software.   In combination with vast libraries of out of print (or low volume) professional content, this becomes a killer app. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

12:57:05 PM    

E-Rate -- Does it work?

Found the study referrenced in an article in Business Week (Dec 9, 2002).  Basically, the study gives a qualified "yes" to the question above. While the study looks only at California schools, the conclusions are interesting.  Urban schools are more likely to apply for internet subsidies than rural.  There is no evidence that Internet subsidies had any measurable effect on achievement, which the authors say is consistent with DOE data that only one third of teachers reproted that they were well prepared or very well prepared to use computers and the Internet. 

11:22:39 AM    

Vocabulary Lesson

1. A new word, expression, or usage.
2. The creation or use of new words or senses.
3. Psychology.
   1. The invention of new words regarded as a symptom of certain psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia.
   2. A word so invented.
4. Theology. A new doctrine or a new interpretation of scripture.

Compliments of The American Heritage Dictionary

Edgization?.

What's the opposite of centralization? What do you call the process by which intelligence moves to the outside while the inside stays as stable and dumb as possible — you know, kind of the way the Earth organized itself: massive dumb core in the middle, providing gravity for the living beings that do their stuff on the outside?

Right now we're calling it "decentralization," which is a topic Kevin Werbach is having us explore at Supernova 2002 next week. I'm thinking we need a neologism here.

Anyway, Supernova will be thick with wi-fi and blogged out the ying-yang, to be sure. Here's the show blog, already cranking (with links to attending bloggers).

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

If you want a "who's who" of the blog world -- the site blog roll is it...

9:19:34 AM    

Filtering in China -- will this happen here?

China Has World's Tightest Internet Censorship, Study Finds. China has the most extensive Internet censorship in the world, denying local users access to Web sites that the government deems threatening. By Joseph Kahn. [New York Times: Technology]

China blocks news not porn online. Chinese net surfers have almost unrestricted access to sex, but news, health and education sites are routinely blocked, researchers say. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

The article notes the Chinese Government reason for filtering internet access is the proliferation of technology -- yet, the Chinese are far more successful blocking political "sensitive" sites, such as the NYT, versus a success rate of blocking only 15% of porn sites.

So, question 1 is -- is this fact a result of the inability of filters to successfully block porn (darn those key words!)?

Question 2 - Is filtering purely a political tool?

9:09:58 AM