Thursday, December 5, 2002

Jon Udell (and others) have been writing about the spam issue lately. Here he descibes one "solution" and the inherent problem with it. Talk to the hand. The whitelisting begins. I haven't communicated with x@y.com in quite some time. Yesterday I sent him (and a number of others) a message that likely would have interested him. Here's the reply: ... [Jon's Radio] This is another assault on the Internet's end-to-end architecture. It also illustrates the endgame of personalization -- a scenario aptly described somewhere as "the daily me": my news, my weather, my buddies. If we rule out spontaneous association then we will not have defeated the spammers. They will have defeated us 4:23:22 PM

Tim O'Reilly: On next-generation Internet services. I think that some next-generation Internet services are going to end up using that Visa/Mastercard model, because the information is so critical, and it shouldn't belong to one player. And there are already large databases of people who've signed up for one identity system or another. Everyone on the Net has at least one unique email address. Microsoft's own customers use Passport. AOL's customers have their AIM identities. Amazon has a large population of customers who have given approval to charge their credit card via 1-click. So does PayPal. All these things are going to co-evolve, and gradually increase their level of interoperability. It's going to end up going much the same way as the various networks of Automated Teller Machines. Who knows any more what exactly is the difference between Cirrus and New York Cash Exchange? These networks originally didn't talk to each other; after a while they basically threw in the towel and they all said, "We've got to interoperate." And at some point it becomes relatively transparent to the customer. Occasionally, a cash machine says, "Sorry, your bank doesn't belong to our network," but increasingly, everybody belongs to the same network and they've agreed to share. [Scott Loftesness] 7:05:40 AM

The Next Communications Network, SuperNova Conference weblog As this article in USA Today shows, community WiFi wireless access points are becoming mainstream news. WiFi flips the traditional centralized model of communications. Anyone can establish an access point and create a localized island of connectivity. Today, WiFi is an extension at the fringes of the existing communications infrastructure, because it still depends on "backhaul" to the public Internet or telephone network. But tomorrow? Continue reading "The Next Communications Network" by Kevin Werbach: an independent technology analyst, author, and organizer of the Supernova conference. Homeland security waiting for Wi-Fi. Security must be a priority for users and makers of wireless networking equipment in order to prevent attacks on federal and corporate systems, experts say. [CNET News.com] 5:48:59 AM

Why Decentralization, SuperNova Conference weblog Decentralization is a big word. It's not one of those catchy buzzphrases the market research firms churn out, so its meaning may not be immediately obvious. But it's vitally important. I'm convinced decentralization is a crucial concept for the next wave of technology and business developments. That's why it's the focus of Supernova. I tried to explain what decentralization means and why it's important in a recent essay. Continue reading "Why Decentralization by Kevin Werbach: an independent technology analyst, author, and organizer of the Supernova conference. 5:32:58 AM

Price Is Limiting Demand for Broadband. Only about 15 percent of American households currently subscribe to broadband service despite the fact that 70 percent of households have the technical option of doing so. By Simon Romero. [New York Times: Business] Only about 15 percent of American households currently subscribe to broadband service [~] or fast Internet access [~] despite the fact that 70 percent of households have the technical option of doing so. And analysts do not expect the majority of homes to have broadband access anytime for at least five years. That means any company, whether America Online or any other Internet business, cannot expect to base a mass-market business on broadband anytime soon. New Strategy From AOL Leaves Many Unconvinced. Investors and analysts walked away from AOL Time Warner's meeting unconvinced that AOL's product plans were strong enough to reignite its growth anytime soon. By Saul Hansell. [New York Times: Business] 5:03:15 AM

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