Inventing the Future
Extraordinarily perceptive article by Tim O’Reilly about how the future of the Net will emerge from a myriad of developments, most of them outside the corporate sector. This piece is in the same league as Clay Shirky’s original essay on the significance of P2P.
Shake-up at AOL Time Warner
Chickens coming home to roost department. Financial Times story here. New York Times story here. And the FT followed up with an admiring profile of the company’s putative saviour.
IN FIVE years’ time, says Andy Grove, the former chairman of Intel, all companies will be Internet companies, or they won’t be companies at all. [Source]
Good description of Microsoft — by Ralph Waldo Emerson!
“An institution”, he once said, “is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
“Can the Corporation survive?”
Useful Economist piece on Coase’s theory of the firm and how it stands up in modern times.
Another Homer Simpson joke
Homer is learning computing. Comes to the instruction: “Press any key to start”. “Where’s the Any key?” he asks.
SJ Mercury: Andreessen: Copy protection efforts are doomed. As film studios and recording studios urge Congress to extend copy protection to every home entertainment device, Andreessen said the entertainment industry need look no further than the software industry’s own expensive, failed attempts at encryption to realize it is ineffective at stopping piracy. [Tomalak’s Realm]
From Gerry McGovern’s weekly newsletter…
Customer: “I’d like to buy the Internet. Do you know how much it is?”
Customer: “How much does it cost to have the Internet installed?”
Customer: “Can you copy the Internet for me on this diskette?”
Customer: “I would like an Internet please.”
Customer: “I just got your Internet in the mail today…”
Customer: “I just downloaded the Internet. How do I use it?”
Customer: “I don’t have a computer at home. Is the Internet available in book form?”
Customer: “Will the Internet be open on Memorial Day tomorrow?”
Customer: “Are you sure that the Internet isn’t closed for the night?”
Says Gerry: “These are all supposedly real quotes from real people, taken from a website called Computer Stupidities. If you think the people who said these things are really stupid, then you shouldn’t be designing websites.”
I am reminded of Homer Simpson’s celebrated observation that “they’ve got the Internet on computers now”. Or of the Dublin lady I once overheard boasting that her husband’s new Volvo was fitted with “a cataclysmic convertor”.
Good Business Week piece by Heather Green highlighting the elementary schoolboy mistake which motivates Senator Fritz Hollings in his eagerness to prostrate the US Congress before the needs of Disney & Co. Quote:
“Here’s the latest take on the broadband mess: High-speed Net access hasn’t taken off in the U.S., according to Senator Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), because entertainment companies are afraid to digitize their content due to the threat of digital piracy. Without compelling content online, consumers don’t want to sign up for broadband. To break this supposed logjam, Hollings on Mar. 21 introduced the Consumer Broadband & Digital Television Act of 2002.”
And the elementary schoolboy mistake? Why, assuming that the reason people want broadband is to ‘consume’ the entertainment industry’s digital pap.
Heather’s piece is really very good. She goes on:
“The problem is, this scenario doesn’t add up. For some reason, the myth continues that broadband finally makes it fun to watch movies on your PC. As anyone with a T1 line can tell you, that’s just not true. Only Hollywood seems to believe the ultimate use for a computer is to watch videos. Consumers aren’t waiting for more digital-entertainment choices to sign up for broadband. They’re waiting for better response from the phone and cable companies when they call to get high-speed service installed — and for lower pricing. According to Forrester Research, 72% of existing Net users are willing to pony up only $25 a month for broadband, half of the average cost now. Hollings’ bill isn’t about helping consumers. It’s about protecting Hollywood. And using the broadband mess to address the digital-copyright issue is just a ploy. Hollywood has already shown it isn’t interested simply in protecting digital versions of copyrighted works — it also wants to control how those works are used. ”
And now Louise Kehoe too!
Louise Kehoe: “When I first came across weblogs a year ago I was derisive in this column. I saw them as derivative, mostly comprising links to articles written by other people with brief comments. I thought of them as the digital equivalent of scrapbooks containing pictures and articles cut out of magazines and newspapers. My new-found enthusiasm is based in part on finding a few high-quality examples with original thoughts. I am also drawn in by the format and interactive nature of the weblog.” [Scripting News]