Robert Paterson's Weblog

Going Home - More thought

I posted a first draft of my essay Going Home in February. This week I was talking to a friend, Kashmir Birk about the similarities between the Gutenberg Bible and Social Software and how Social Software may have the same explosive impact on human society and on who has power.

We had what we thought was a huge AHA!

In my draft essay, I had remarked how , as many others have, it was the cheapness and availability of the printed page that made the difference in giving the people the power.

But as we talked this week, a new thought emerged. I had been in a meeting offering a client a web site based on the new technology. A critical part of the new type of site is the use of powerful search rather than a book-like taxonomy. Wikipedia versus say a Government of Canada site - all tabs and navigation.

The client was stunned to understand that the search engine was not only very powerful but free. 5 years ago the search engine would have cost $30,000 and would have been peripheral to the site architecture.

Later the AHA hit me. As importantly as reducing the cost per page, the really huge idea behind Gutenberg was the use of the local language.

Until then not only were books produced by a high cost production system but they were written in this strange code called Greek or Latin that only a Priest understood! Has not technology been written in a language known only to priests? Called Fortran, Cobol or Flash, only the initiated could use it. Now not only are the new tools cheap but they can be understood by the layman.

As with the rise of Protestantism - we no longer need a priest between us and God. The tools will not only do away with much of the IT world/Priesthood but will of course take down their dependents - the monarchs/ large organizations.

Ross Mayfield - The Transaction Cost Issue an the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Ross is at the Wikimania conference and here is his outstanding post on the meaning that is emerging from the conference.

Transaction costs are 50% of US GDP. This is what Open Source and the 'sphere are after. 50% of GDP!!!!!!

As a historian I jump back to the point of take off in the English economy. It was after Henry VIII had adopted the protestant faith and went after the pool of locked in wealth that the Catholic Church had acquired over millennia. The Church was the largest landowner in the country. Much bigger than the King. Henry confiscated the lot, and monetised it. This, the dissolution of the monasteries, provided the capital for the new men and the foundation of the British surge above their weight in a Europe where France and Spain had the conventional edge.

Is this what is on the table???

Podcasting Lessons at the Commons Monday Aug 15 at 6pm

I have been struggling with this for weeks. Now saint Dave is going to show me how.

Details here

Service - Typepad - How it should be done

The few times I have had any problems with Typepad, I have got an informed answer back from a real person within hours. This has just happened again today.

Simply excellent guys!!!!!!!!

Microsoft Spam????

I run an Apple iBook and an iMac,. Recently I have been linking sites in Gmail but they arrive as links to Microsoft's Corporate site????

Any ideas as to what is going on?

Now I have heard everything - outsource your own job and keep the difference

Thanks to Jason Kottke

Here is an article from the Times of India.

Snip -

Outsource your job to get a new one! This is the new mantra doing the rounds in the US IT sector.

Programmers are outsourcing their software modules to cheap and efficient labour in India. This way they get the best of both worlds- more money and more time. They earn doubly - one from the outsourced job, other from the new job they undertake.

According to this concept the techie is able to give himself a promotion outsourcing the specific modules to one or more Indian techies . While he takes the charge as a overall project manager.

You can utilise the time in updating yourself to new technologies as well as learning a different domain thereby enhancing your market value considerably .

Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He's happy to have the work. I'm happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing."

The New Media - CommandN - A Future for TV - a Plug for Queen Steet Commons

CommndN is a personal TV Channel that comments on technology trends.

Amber Mac and Mike Lazazzera host the show with Jeff MacArthur (Halifax, NS) as a guest segment producer. Brian McKechnie is the cameraman, post-production editor, and all-around chief rendering champ. It is so low tech and yet so appealing. My bet is that in 2 years the low tech will have gone away and it will have a technical quality of mainstream TV.

(By the way they give a nice plug for Queen Street Commons)

I think that this is part of the Media Future - the infinite universe is emerging right now.

I think of the problem that this means for advertisers - who will be watching conventional broadcast TV, listen to conventional scheduled radio, read a print newspaper in 5 years - many people will but not those that you want to reach. They will all be inside the interactive, anytime, anywhere universe that is produced by millions of people and aggregated by some means as Bloglines or itunes do now for blogs and podcasts.

This shift is here now - but these are surely the first baby steps. Think of the speed and the ubiquity of high speed in 5 years time. My Aliant installer tells me that we can expect a 15 time improvement next year alone. Think of storage. My regular iMac has 160 gig and I have a 400 gig back up. What will a terabyte cost in 5 years? We will see an iMovie for sure where we will have all are favorite shows. There will be no technical barrier to the online anytime interactive world.

It's not just the technology. It is culture that is shifting and the new tools serve this culture. There is a Maslowian shift in how many feel about their needs. Marketing began with Sunlight Soap offering the buyer for the first time a predictable utility. The early cars were all about a predictable utility that we could afford. By the 1940's utility has had its day - as many had what they needed for life. Now convenience came into play. This was the era of the washing machine and the cleaner. Then when all had convenience, we had ego - if I have one of these I will be deemed to be cool, sexy, sophisticated etc. Then when all could buy a brand we have been left with only price. Now if it is not cheap we don't want it. The Wal*Mart syndrome?

BUT I note a new desire - the desire to have meaning not for my ego per se - but to have meaning in my relationships. Starbucks makes me feel that I am pampering myself. My son James has a friend, Jen who makes bespoke handbags. You can buy an expensive brand name hand bag anywhere but if you want to give the woman in your life a sign that you really care - you may consider a one of a kind handmade bag by Jen. You may reward yourself with one of Tom's suits or buy one for your man. You may think all banks suck but your sister has breast cancer and you join hundreds of thousands of Canadians and Run for the Cure as sponsored by CIBC. This changes your perspective about CBC and sets it apart. It has meaning for you.

A service or a product in a world where all things are available for a low price must now have a meaning for your relationships with yourself, those that you care about or for the issues that you care about.

The mainstream in this world are not important - they adopt later what the pioneers and early adopters want. You reach the mainstream via the early adopters. It is this group that demand meaning. No meaning = no market.

The cold top down mass-market ad is no longer going to reach the market that most need - the people that influence the mass. The channel that you relied will be ignored by the influencers. The TV, Radio and Print world that stands like a colossus and all the marketing world that is attached to this edifice is terminally ill.

What an opportunity - the forest is burning and all this new growth will have room to emerge. The asteroid of technology has hit the dinosaur world of marketing and the little furry mammals will have their day.

I can't keep up - Nerd TV

I can't keep up even online with the changes that are pouring out every day (Via Chris)

Here is the latest Nerd TV a PBS new show of downloadable TV

Beginning Sept. 6, PBS will make available - exclusively over the Internet - broadcast television's first entirely downloadable series, featuring PBS technology columnist and industry insider Robert X. Cringely's interviews with personalities from the ever-changing world of technology. NerdTV will be available for download from www.pbs.org/nerdtv .

Said Cringely, "NerdTV will have an uninterrupted hour with the smartest, funniest and sometimes nerdiest people in high tech. These are people who have changed our lives whether we know it or not. Through NerdTV a broad audience of enthusiasts and students will gain a much greater understanding of these techies and the context of their lives and work." Cringely is the author of the best-selling book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date.

Cindy Johanson, Senior Vice President, PBS Interactive Learning, said, "Over the past ten years, PBS and its member stations have led the way with some of the most innovative, meaningful multimedia experiences available. Bob Cringely's NerdTV illustrates our unwavering commitment to bring audiences clever, on-demand, participatory programming." She added, "This ground-breaking series will be distributed under a Creative Commons license, so if viewers like what they see, they can redistribute the shows or even edit their own non-commercial version. Further, NerdTV offers a cost-effective production model that may transform how programming is made in the future."

Viewers will be able to choose which content or format they download to their computer: MP4 video of the whole program, MP4 video of the "juicy" excerpt (for a more general audience wanting just a nugget) and MP4 video of the "nerdy" excerpt (for a more technical audience wanting just a nugget). In addition, a variety of audio-only formats will be available, including AAC, MP3 and ogg vorbis.

Cringely noted, "With more than half of American homes with Internet access now using broadband, computer video - especially downloaded computer video - has become a viable but still little-used option for TV distribution. The strength of this new medium can be found in how it serves niche audiences. This is where Internet distribution shines."

CBS Respods to the online world

CBS is making the step away from structure and schedule to an online buffet

"It is clear to us that the public has moved to the Internet as the place they go when they want to get information," Mr. Kramer (CBS)said, "because they can get the news whenever they want it and how they want it." (NYT)

Snip from CBC

CBS News has unveiled broad plans to revamp its website to attract younger viewers, offering people the ability to create their own newscasts in a "video jukebox."

The network announced Tuesday that its site will give the public free access to more than 25,000 video clips as well as expanding staff to make the online component a 24-hour entity. A feature called The Eyebox will allow viewers to assemble their own newscast from exclusive Web video, material already broadcast and archival material.

CBS will allow web users to create their own newscast.

"We are redefining the mission of CBS News," said Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News.

"It's increasingly clear that the future of CBS News is not just as a practitioner of broadcast journalism but of broadband journalism."

Heyward said CBS aims to become a 24-hour network available across all platforms.

CBSNews.com will also feature a Web log called Public Eye, where executives and journalists will respond to questions and complaints from the public.

Journalists will be encouraged to supply video reports to the site frequently, so viewers can see it online instead of waiting for the next TV broadcast.

CBS will also have a Blog - "The Public Eye? to mediate between CBS and its customers - Quote from the Press release - "Ververs" (Vaughn Ververs) will serve as the conduit between the public and CBC News..." Mr. Heyward said the purpose of the new blog was not to criticize CBS but to make the news gathering process more open. Mr. Ververs will have the right to interview CBS correspondents and executives, and even bring cameras into the network's daily news meetings.

Mr. Ververs said he was not concerned about this restriction. "This is not an attempt to bring verdicts down from the mountain," he said in a telephone interview yesterday. "This is an attempt to show how things are done at CBS News and bring transparency to the process."

CBS recognizes that having a real person between the organization and the public will have the potential of developing a much better relationship without the costs, the drag and the inefficiencies of a more formal research and ombudsman approach. Expect more to follow this lead.

Think you are being Phished? - An excellent resource

I am sure that like me, you receive a number of fraudulent request from what appears top be eBay, Pay PaL or even your bank to provide sensitive information.

Here is an excellent link to how to determine if you are being scammed.