Saturday, January 28, 2006

Cyberspace, end of The End of Cyberspace Goodbye, virtual world. Hello, new world. About the end of cyberspace Cyberspace is a "metaphor we live by," born two decades ago at the intersection of computers, networks, ideas, and experience. It has reflected our experiences with information technology, and also shaped the way we think about new technologies and the challenges they present. It had been a vivid and useful metaphor for decades; but in a rapidly-emerging world of mobile, always-on information devices (and eventually cybernetic implants, prosthetics, and swarm intelligence), the rules that define the relationship between information, places, and daily life are going to be rewritten. As the Internet becomes more pervasive-- as it moves off desktops and screen and becomes embedded in things, spaces, and minds-- cyberspace will disappear. About this blog This blog is about what happens next. It's about the end of cyberspace, but more important, about what new possibilities will emerge as new technologies, interfaces, use practices, games, legal theory, regulation, and culture adjust-- and eventually dissolve-- the boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds. 10:14:38 AM    comment []

Are we willing to do what's good for us? 20 Business Principles They Don't Teach in Business School Miz Liz on Biz biz.erati.com, January 27, 2006 Experience is a fabulous teacher. It gives depth to skills and substance to what we learn from books and from college professors. Life and business really are about two things -- showing up with your mind engaged and paying attention to what people actually do and how things actually work. 8. It's hard to have an unbiased world view, when you're in love with the information in your own head. 10. Never blindly buy into someone else's sense of urgency. 12. We use the same words, but don't be surprised when they mean different things. 15. When change is a new boss, new client, new owner, you have just started a new job. 17. Being good at what you do is important, but a strong personal brand includes both good and easy to work with. 18. If you do the work right, you won't have to do it over. Those, of course, are just 20 out of what's probably 20 million. I mentioned I am good at mistakes. Didn't I? But I'm a quick study too. Failing isn't the problem. It's not failing and recovering fast enough. Neither is taking a well-considered risk. It's refusing to adjust course as you go that can get you in trouble. I learned that years ago from reading and listening to Tom Peters. Know that you'll always be adjusting course. 7:01:05 AM    comment []

Are Americans willing to pay for what's good for them? Out with old media; in with... what? The old gatekeepers are getting weaker by the day. Will anybody step up to take their place? By Justin Fox, FORTUNE editor-at-large, January 19, 2006 ...This is not an unprecedented state of affairs -- big American cities used to have lots of different newspapers, each with pronounced political leanings and articles explicitly shaded to reinforce those leanings. There is nothing natural or inherently superior about the monolithic media institutions of the mid-to-late 20th century. But there is still a need for the community-building, consensus-shaping role that the best of the media gatekeepers can play. The question is, who's going to play it? And how are they going to make it work economically?... For those who place classifieds or read them, the new era of Craiglist, Monster.com, and the like is undeniably better than the old newspaper-dominated one. But for decades, classified ads subsidized journalism. Now they won't. This is the way of economic progress, and as a business journalist who has on occasion applauded creative destruction as it wreaked havoc upon other people's industries, I can't exactly complain about it. But it does raise some subversive thoughts: Are Americans willing to pay for what's good for them? Are there great new fortunes to be made in telling us what to pay attention to, or is this business of media gatekeeping going to be chiefly a sideline (think Oprah Winfrey and her book club)? Is there a role for public broadcasting as the last uniting, subsidized medium? 6:11:28 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2006 Russ Savage. Last update: 1/28/06; 10:15:13 AM.