Web-Tones

Gilligan's web?

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Gilligan's web. I am not certain that I buy this "liberation mythology" argument. It certainly raises some interesting points but Clay's argument is not quite as "simple minded" as portrayed here. Sure there is the Gilligan analogy as an "opposing force" but that is not the gist of Clay's thesis in Here Comes Everybody.

So what is the thesis? Read the book. There is more here than is apparent on its face. It seems that Nick often likes to take the posture that his "hard nosed" view of the web is "real" and everything else is BS. The "hard nosed" view is valid but that does not imply that all others are simply "mythology." That is not only a disservice to Clay's work, it is simply wrong.

Identity. Context. Presence.

Link: At Rearden Commerce, Addiction is Job One ($100 Million Round Confirmed, Major Deal With JPMorgan Chase). Think that "Web 20 like" apps are not going to have an impact on enterprise computing? Think again. Point and click ease of use and real value delivered (plus some giants pushing the brand) can make a difference.

This powerful combination is likely to be featured over and over again, ala Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Sun and so forth partnering to get there wares behind the firewall. As consumers grow accustom to Web 2.0 UI's in the personal life, they will begin to push for similar interfaces in what they do 9 to 5. In short enterprise IT is definitely at an inflection point, and some visionary CIO's are starting to "get it" in a big way.

Chris Saah often says that if information is more than just a few clicks away ( I believe that 3 is his magic number) then it is completely fugitive, because it won't be used. This is of course a metaphor of sorts, but one with relevant "deep analytics" attached to it.

SaaS is a no brainer!

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: McKinsey surveys the new software landscape. The software as a service model is a "no brainer" and it is not surprising that McKinsey is finding growth. Just about all the trend reports I read these days are pointing in that direction and it seems obvious why. I just want to use software but I don't want to be in the business of upgrading it and supporting the hardware necessary to run it. Most small businesses will soon move in great numbers to this model, and many have already done so.

What about small law firms? Some boutiques will make the move, but the legal industry will likely lag for the most part. There are many that fear the security black hole that is the Internet. This is a legitimate concern but finding a trusted provider (read big) is a viable solution.  No one can convince me that the server room down the hall (for most small firms and many large ones) is more secure than Google Apps (paid edition).

Just ask 2/3 of the legal community in New Orleans how secure their files were? Yes, the legal industry as a whole will lag; all  the more reason why prudent risk takers should embrace it. It presents an opportunity to scale at a fraction of the costs. In these tough economic times low cost infrastructure is more than a competitive advantage, it could mean survival.

Welcome "Senor Saah!"

I have been encouraging Chris Saah to lend his voice to the conversation for quite some time now. As CIO of a distributed organization with well over 1000 employees, he lives in the "trenches" and has both the "scar tissue" and the IT wisdom that goes along with it.

In short, he simply has more insight into people, process and platform than anyone I know. If you missed his lead post (a few down) you can find it here. Now that Chris has broken ground, it is my sincere hope that he will grace these pages often. The Internet(s) will certainly be the better for it.

How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)

Link: How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips). Asttorneys thinking about going solo or starting a boutique firm (apparently many are) could benefit from "groking" this list. Keep your burn rate low and more money goes in your pocket, or you have more to spend on things that really matter.

There is no doubt that globalization will not spare the legal industry. There is only so much that can be done vis-a-vis increasing billable hours or hiking rates. If the infrastructure is done correctly (i.e. along the lines outlined in this list) you could theoretically start a national practice on a "song" + an expresso machine--a bit of an overstatement, but not much.

Noncompete Agreements Are The DRM Of Human Capital

Link: Techdirt: Noncompete Agreements Are The DRM Of Human Capital. Having been on the "short end" of the "noncompetes" in Texas (Houston), I can certainly attest to their "chilling effect" on me personally, but the argument that the lack of enforceability of same led to the valley's phenomenal success (i.e. as opposed to Boston) is a fascinating argument. That said, Austin was a "hot regional hub" for a while, but with nowhere near the kind synergies that have continued to make the valley preeminent "software Mecca"--perhaps the DRM worked its evil incantations there as well?

It is interesting that "noncompetes" are not enforceable against attorneys in any state. Which is a good thing since, Lord willing, I will be a practicing member of the FL Bar in the next few months. The rationale is that clients are entitled to the representation of their choice regardless of what firm a particular attorney works for, now or in the future. It makes sense to me, but the obvious questions arise. What about doctors? Are patients not equally entitled to the doctor of their choice. Apparently not, since as far as I can tell, the only global exception I am aware is lawyers.

Embrace and Extend

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Microsoft: the cloud as feature. If anyone believes that Microsoft will be shut out of the Web 2.0 space, or even marginalized to a significant degree, they don't really understand how the "boys from Redmond" work. MS has always been more of a "fast follower" than an innovator.

Embrace, extend and integrate has been the mantra since the early versions of Office. The integration piece was, and remains, MS' greatest innovation--and no small feat. Once this vision was in place, at a company with the market clout to deliver on the promise, the rest was inevitable. MS is not likely to lose its franchise because it will continue to ride Bill's legacy into the foreseeable future (and beyond).

The next obvious extension will be to the cloud. Most of its existing user base will follow it there. As interesting as some of the Web 2.0 office suites look, they pale in comparison to the addiction to MS Office by the masses.

Sure, the monopoly has some serious competition this time, and the marketplace will benefit because of it, but the MS Office franchise is secure--not only is it alive and well, but it will continue to thrive. The real innovation lies elsewhere, and may in fact come from innovative uses of technology than from technology itself.

It's Called Marketing Stupid

Link: Download This: YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret - WSJ.com. Clearly the music business is starting to "get it" regarding viral marketing, but what about the legal industry? Coming from a background in the tech industry, where marketing is like breathing, the legal industry appears to me to be a "strange bird" indeed. Lawyers seem to think that there is something untoward about marketing and self promotion. Why is that? Well I don't know but I suspect that some incumbents have a vested interested in propagating this myth.

Sure there are the professional responsibility rules that prohibit certain activities, but I can assure you that I have read them carefully and there is lots of room for creativity, either despite the rules or perhaps because of them. Law school certainly does not prepare anyone for the "business of the law" and in some ways helps propagate the "we are too dignified" to market mentality.

Marketing is not evil. It is the American way. If done correctly it can be both honorable and profitable! The Internet is providing a kind of "leveling effect" and opening up niches right and left, the key of course is "how to get the word out?"  The answer is to use the medium as intended (i.e. swim with the sharks) and become literate regarding how Google works, especially its page rank algorithm.

Stay tuned...

That's It?

Link: 10 Future Web Trends. I like the "guys" at R/W Web but this post just goes to show you that the "future prediction business is hard work." I mean come on, the Semantic Web and Artificial Intelligence, haven't these ideas already died 1000 deaths?

The really interesting thing about the future is that we have NO idea, NONE, where the next major breakthrough is likely to come from, and if by some chance we happen to hit on it, we would be shouted down as crazy and given a million and one reasons why our guess won't work.

Return of the Boyz From Redmond

Link: Software via the Internet: Microsoft in ‘Cloud’ Computing - New York Times. If anyone thought that Microsoft (MS) would sit idly by and watch its franchise destroyed they have not been awake for the last twenty years. The truth is that MS has always been more of a "fast follower" than an innovator. Does anyone remember "embrace and extend?" The strategy described in the link above resonates with those of us that have seen this movie before.

You can be sure that MS will "bet the farm" once again. Why? Because it has no choice. At the end of the day this will ultimately benefit consumers, because everyone else (read Google) will be forced to "call or up the ante." The major difference this time is that the competition is well armed with serious weapons (and talent) at its disposal.

Should be a fun ride!

Scalability & why it matters

Missing from much of the Web 2.0 discussion is the real change that is happening behind the scenes. There is a race to see who is going to control the "computing on the cloud" experience. No duh? But wait, I am not talking about the latest social networking app du jour, but rather the race to build "the biggest, baddest data centers that the world has ever known."

Why? Because scalability matters for nearly ALL online businesses that want to grow (which don't?), and the best way to get it is to buy it from the grid. Information Technology, as in the "speeds and feeds," is no longer something any business should be managing in house. Bad things happen when you try to scale in house systems. The relationship to other pain points (e.g. staffing) is not linear and it is not long before the "wheels fall off of the wagon."  The marketplace is quickly waking up to this reality. Google and others want to be well positioned when the inflection point comes.

The inflection point is approaching at light speed. The future "ain't what is use to be." Change or die.

Implications of Google Buying FeedBurner?

Link: Weekly Wrapup, 28 May - 1 June 2007. Google continues to put the pieces of its Web 2.0 strategy together. Buying FeedBurner allows it to control yet another advertising channel. We are witnessing the making of another "natural monopoly." Google's ambitions cover multiple vectors. It is clear that the land grab will continue for the foreseeable future. Its advertising model allows it to convert all strategic acquisitions into "monetizable" properties.

As long as the consumer continues to benefit there is very little to fear. Other giants will be forced to follow suit, and that should ensure that pricing remains competitive. The Web 2.0 landscape remains quite fertile ground for other acquisitions. An interesting strategy would be to ride the Google train to competitive advantage by leveraging their high value add low cost offerings. In others words, by becoming a smart consumer of Google's suite of increasingly integrated set of products and services.

15M Blogs & Nothing On?

Link: One By One Media.    Great post here about the how the blogosphere has "plateaued" at around 15 million blogs. Although blogging is no doubt maturing, the innovation that is happening on the web (and elsewhere) will continue to happen, and we will continue to be surprised--something the post highlights.

Blogging has completely and irrevocably transformed the "4th Estate" at a time then the press was becoming less and less relevant due to the obsession with ratings. It has also transformed (to a lesser degree) the entertainment industry. It will transform others.

Blogging is here to stay but it is certainly not the last word on the evolution of the Web. As someone aptly stated recently in terms of the history of the PC we are at the Visicalc stage--the real transformation has yet to occur and the form it will take is impossible to predict--but it is coming just as surely as night follows day.

Bricks & Mortar: The Future of Computing on the Cloud

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The real Web 2.0. I have to agree with Nick  that what Google and Microsoft are up to is way more interesting that all the "cutesy" Web 2.0 services. Maybe because they all appear to be yet another social networking (YASN) service. But the infrastructure to deliver next generation apps is more "manly" stuff. Why? Because we want the "computing on the cloud" experience to be scaleable and highly available AND if we are storing our "digital lives" on the cloud we also want the cloud to be "Katrina proof"--i.e. connected to other clouds when (not if) the inevitable next disaster happens. All of this requires large data centers and therefore bricks and mortar. The fact that (presumably) permanent jobs are added to these communities is also interesting, that is if you care about employment in the good 'ole USA.

Other than that, maybe it is just because I am getting old (no reflection on Nick) that this cutesy stuff appears to be BORING.

Computing on the Cloud: The Next Generation

Link: GigaOM � Xcerion makes Internet OS real. Whether or not you call it an OS is irrelevant. It is the next evolutionary step in the Web 2.0 universe. Call it "synchronicity" the web & offline worlds collaborating in a seamless computing experience. Yeah MS will be a big player here for two reasons: 1) they can embrace and extend (deja vu all over again); 2) they can protect their base (which is huge) from mass defections from MS Office.

That is not to say that others do have a significant market opportunity, BUT there does not appear to be any winner take all scenarios that are likely. Still, chipping away at MS' monopoly will be interesting, since the billions that are likely to be invested will ultimately benefit consumers, brutal competition almost always does...

SAP Adopts SaaS Model

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: SAP CEO calls SaaS "the better model". We are indeed going "back to the future." The Web 2.0 "computing on the cloud" model is really nothing more than mainframes with anywhere, anytime connectivity. For big IT vendors the game changer is how well they manage and scale the datacenter. Guess who does this better than anybody else at the moment? Google of course. While everyone is busy anticipating their next apps move, they are busy developing the real killer app, the always on  24/7 365 datacenter. Scalable on demand--all built on top of a robust LAMP platform--this is the foundation that their entire strategy depends on. This is the hidden real estate that has the most value and that their competition is only now just starting to wake up to!

It is game on but the competition may be down a couple of sets. Think big media can play here? Not a chance. This is the land where tech geeks rule, always have, always will. Build the datacenter and content will follow, like night follows day...

Google Buys Intuit?

Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Google should buy Intuit. Well not yet, but this is likely to happen for all the reasons that Nick Carr sites, it just makes too much damn sense and too hard to pass up for an emerging monopoly. These are the kind of acquisitions that will significantly leverage everything Google is already good at, with lots of upside and little if any downside for existing Intuit customers.

When this happens the Web 2.0 game will be on for certain. This is the kind of move that signals the real beginning of a new paradigm. We all know that it is coming, this move, or something like it will put the nail in the coffin--should reignite the entire space.

Viacom Loses & You Win

Link: What happens after Google loses? � Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger. I am not quite as certain that it is a slam dunk that Viacom wins the lawsuit because of some built in protection from the DMCA for ISP's. However, I am more certain that Viacom loses the war. There are several reasons but Scoble hits on a very important one, there are normative principles at work here and the Internet hordes do not reward this kind of behavior. Viacom may yet steal the ultimate pariah award from SCO, something that is without a doubt an achievement of sorts. Sure good "old fashioned" billion dollar suits are not going away anytime soon but if your current and prospective customers start to vote with their wallets, you may have just bitten off much more than you can chew.

Internet video is not going away. Deal with it.

Web 2.0 Wars Continue

Link: Firefox 3 To Support Offline Apps. Google is not going to be left behind simply because it doesn't have much of a presence on the desktop. Why? Because it fact it does have a presence, it is called the browser, and in this particular case it is called Mozilla Firefox 3. But notice that almost by definition, despite whatever necessary enablement, and later competitive advantage Google might derive from the browser providing support for offline apps, everyone else who wants to play here is also benefited (e.g. Salesforce.com). Just another indicator of why the Web 2.0 space will always, by definition, be more open and competitive than the desktop--ultimately to the advantage of consumers.

What impact on law office computing? It begins to remove barriers to adoption of Web 2.0 apps. Serious business users, and attorneys definitely fit this category, have a need to be connected 24/7 and when they are not, they still need be productive--knowing that their offline work will sync once the connection is restored is a big step in that direction.

YouTube R' US

Link: An Inventive Video Journey To Web 2.0 : Somewhat Frank :: Web 2.0 ● Technology ● Life :: Blog by Frank Gruber. This is an awesome example of what can be done with creative video. This "short" is four minutes long and priceless! This is one of the better examples of where Internet video is heading, but there are others. Check out the ZDNet WhiteBoard Videos for another slice of the medium.

The real challenge here is that video is an entirely different learning curve from all that has come before...this is both the good news and the bad news. Bad news is that a significantly greater amount of  quality "play time" is required to "jump the curve." The goods news is that it is still early in the game...

The Media 2.0 Moniker

Link: Are You Paying Attention?. This 2.0 moniker  is entirely overused but does serve as an effective mnemonic for where change is happening. And as we all know, almost always (from a business perspective) where there is enough change happening then the $$ follows. Right now, and for the forseeable future (oh lets say about at least the next year or so), media will continue to be THE hot topic. There is no doubt that Web 2.0 technologies have transformed journalism as we know it, BUTthe interesting question is what other industry transformations lie ahead?

Software Mutation: Predicting the Missing Link

Link: Software Mutation: Predicting the Missing Link. Good stuff here, especially as it relates to data, this is what the good doctor has been ranting about for years now. It's the data that creates the "lock in" and unleashing it has important implications.

Video Blogging & Podcasting

Anyone interested in video blogging and podcasting, and before long there will be tons of people interested, should get this book. It is authored by a couple of industry veterans and makes sense out of the moving parts that make up the domain. Sure you can piece together the story by brute force web searching, but having a trusted set of tour guides makes much more sense.

The applications for these enabling technologies are vast (see chapter 3) and I believe that the authors' are just scratching the surface. Certainly they will have an impact on KM and may in fact redefine what is meant by it. The content sensitive rich content (CSRC --you heard it here first) digital universe that I explored here is quickly becoming reality.

All that said, it seems like the authors' missed an opportunity by not having videos that support their writing. It is always more effective marketing when you demonstrate that you are "eating your own dog food."

Emerson & New Media

Ralph Waldo Emerson explores the power of symbols in his essay "The Poet" (audio iTunes version here ) where he describes their importance not only to poets but to everyone. The true poet being simply the most effective user of them, rendering the natural & spiritual worlds transparent through their use.

Emerson, if he were still with us, would not have been surprised by the rise of "new media" and the democratization of publishing and computing that it has unleashed. The masses also have the same desire for human expression that we attribute to the poet, as Emerson recognized, despite the fact that their abilities are constrained and their particular genius is limited.

It is the human desire to create and to express, coupled with enabling technologies, that has fueled the growth of the web. Now that the genie is out of the bottle there is no predicting where the muse of the masses might lead, but it should be an interesting ride.

Web 2.0 & Microsoft

Link: � Will Web 2.0 ultimately kill Windows? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com. Google annouces that it has bought Jotspot (a business wiki company) today and it continues to put together the pieces of its "Google Office" strategy while a Microsoft executive implies that Google is a "one trick pony." My retort is "yeah but that is a pretty damn good horse!"

Web 2.0 will not provide that kind of "deep integration" that a "fat client" can provide any time soon, but for a huge percentage of users something like"Google Office" will work just fine, thank you very much! I am mo Microsfot hater, they have helped revolutionize computing as we know it, but this "one trick pony" nonsense is pure hubris, and the sound of someone desperately trying to hold on to the past.

Google & YouTube

Link: Techcrunch � Blog Archive � Google Has Acquired YouTube. What is the import from Google buying YouTube? Who knows, but if it was a moronic move (as per Mark Cuban) then Google must have been the smartest moron in the room, since Microsoft & others were suitors as well. Microsoft does not have a history of "moronic acquisitions"..they are usually buying "market share" in a profitable, or soon to be profitable, space & they use acquisition as a better way to play in "internet time." We don't have as much history with Google acquisitions, BUT is clear that video will be king & apparently Google thought that any IP lawsuits that might follow were something it would need to confront sooner or later since it is clear that it was not going to be shut out of this "sandbox."

Google & Vertical Search

Link: Techcrunch ? Blog Archive ? Google Presents Code Search. The "boys" from Google are not about to concede the vertical search space anytime soon. Here they have come out with a competitive offering to Krugle , a specialized search engine for source code. How much longer before Google enters the vertical search space for health care? How much longer before Lexis & Westlaw are in its sights?

This is how natural monopolies evolve...just good 'ole fashioned rationality at work!

Cheap Storage

Link: Replacing my home backup server with Amazon's S3 (by Jeremy Zawodny). Here is why the "cheap storage" math makes sense. Once you grok it you will be tempted to make the move. Now since we are ALL (more or less) procastinators by nature, we won't make this move immediately...but soon enough (perhaps after our laptops have crashed for the nth time) we will make the move. Soon after, we will start wondering why not get rid of the server as well? Why buy it when you rent it cheaper?

The opportunities today, both business and personal, have everthing to do with how you use technology--so "muck it with it less" and "start using it more!" Web 2.0 is coming to a theatre near you....

The Web as OS Meme

Link: ResourceShelf � The Word “Mashup” Key to Newly Registered Google Domain Names. Google is busy buying domain names that include "search & mashup". While this could be a "head fake" or just planning for a "somewhat distant future", I seriously doubt it. The "Web as OS meme" has been gathering traction ever since O'Reilly coined the Web 2.0 moniker and the hype machine went into a "full court press"--however, while what we have seen to date could be called "interesting" (some might say "cute"), we have yet to see significant signs of a "platform" that is maturing. It is my sense that this is all about to change!

IP Lawyers Run Amok

Link: Wired News: Pod People Ponder Litigation.

 

Not a day seems to go by when you don't read about an emerging intellectual property issue on the Web.

But Apple's attempt to trademark the word 'pod' is more than just a little over the top. Now an 'iPod' trademark is not only legitimate but it would be sheer legal stupidity not to trademark it. However, we have lots of case law in the trademark space that says that you cannot trademark common words, and the use of pod, in its many incarnations (podcast, podcasting, procaster, etc.) is so common that you would think Apple would be laughed out of court if it attempted to bring an infringement action (assuming that the PTO was crazy enough to grant it).

Besides that, why antogonize an entire industry and  risk losing (even a little) of that magical qaulity called "goodwill?" This is not as bad as the O'Reilly infringement suit on its "Web 2.0 Conference" trademark, but it is in the ballpark!

Cheap Computing is Hip

Forbes September '06 front page article "The New Barbarians" covers the "four waves" of computing as follows: 1) mainframes (think IBM); 2) Mini-Computers(think DEC); 3) PC (think Dell); 4) Cheap & Obiquitous Utility Computing (think Linux). The entrepreneurs at Cassatt (virtualization), ActiveGrid (developemnt tools), & Zimbra (email) all have their sights set on industry heavyweights and with the right mix of luck and technology they are likely to succeed. Why? Because better, faster, cheaper has always carried the day in the technology space and the there is no reason to believe that trend will not continue. The incumbents see the writing on the wall, but tech has always favored the young and the hip (see the innovator's dilemma).

However that is not the interesting part--the transformation (the real impact) will be at the companines that use cheap cycles to transform their organizations and in some cases their industries. The historically luddite legal industry will not be spared--somewhere there is a "new barbarian" with some heavyweights in her sights.

Innovation Strategy: Think, Play, Do

Think, Play, Do captures an interesting approach to innovating. But I haven't read the book yet so this is not necessarily an endorsement but it does seem to capture the essence of what I wanted to say and the review on Amazon seems like it is on point.

I have been recently exploring/troubleshooting the VOIP services of Skype (www.skype.com) and after some frustration with the service I decided that it was time for serious play. So my partner and soulmate (aka WebGoddess) and I setup a SkypeCast and started "fooling around." We were joined in our SkypeCast, through pure serendipity, by someone from Belgium and someone from Tulsa.

We were all exploring/testing the service and spent about an hour troubleshooting and discussing various issues. The WebGoddess resolved an echo problem related to 1 open mic (mine) that was causing echo feedback for all other callers. We also jointly figured our how to setup a private conference.

The point is that when we want to climb a learning curve often the best thing to do is "play"...this is probably one of the principal reasons that inventors are often tinkerers. Serious work often gets done while when we drop all pretenses of being "smart" and allow our curiosity to guide us.

Bookmarking Yes-Social Bookmarking, Yeah Maybe

I finally broke down and got a del.icio.us account and started collecting
"important" bookmarks. I am writing a paper: "Search, Knowledge Management & the Practice of Law" & it occurred to me that my bookmarks were a kind of research trail, one I didn't want to lose next time (not when) my (new) laptop crashed. My primary motivation was the ability to have bookmarks available 24/7 from any computing device I happened to be using & I wanted to Katrina proof them (i.e. same reason I am moving to Gmail from Outlook Express). Although I am fairly diligent about backups, IE favorites & Outlook Express files never seem to get the attention that they deserve. Del.icio.us & Gmail solve this problem permanently in addition to providing anywhere/anytime access. I will, in the not to distant future, rent space "somewhere in the cloud" & virtually all my backups will reside there--everything from personal work product to digital mementos. It is time to focus, with a vengeance, on using enabling technologies instead of wasting precious cycles playing systems administrator, something that I am happy to outsource to the pros.

Now the "social" part of this, the ability to share bookmarks, while not my primary "driver" is certainly a "nice to have". I can definitely see the utility of sharing bookmarks with like minded knowledge mongers, especially if it requires little or no effort to do so.

Related Tags: del.icio.us, social bookmarking

Wealth of Networks (reprise)

Just finished Benkler's masterful tome Wealth of Networks (available as a pdf here ) and it was well worth trudging through the near 500 pages! This seminal work will be read for years to come, because it pulls together in one place, a starting point for analyses, important across multiple dimensions, that lay the foundation for the networked economy.

Related Tags: Benkler, Lessig, Wealth of Networks, WN, Web2.0, Web 2.0

New Media, Geeks Still Rule

Geoffrey Moore has some new media insights as well as other pearls of wisdom from the networked economy that provide a glimpse of our current inflection point. From the transformation of journalism as we know it, to context sensitive rich content in everything from on-line marketing messages to on-line how to training guides, new media (synergistic combination of text, audio & video) is poised, like a disruptive tsunami, to wash over industry after industry, despite the best efforts of incumbents to keep its forces at bay.

Video is king and the ability to create low cost high quality videos with products such as Camtasia Studio is turning what I wrote about in knowledge management & infotainment into an every-man's reality! New Media, used in innovative and disruptive ways, in combination with the Web as platform meme, is the engine that will drive the user revolution embodied in what Doc Searls calls the "Because Of" factor. The trans-formative quality of innovative uses of emerging enabling technologies is the next "killer app." This is the realm of geeks of a different sort; geeks with deep domain knowledge (in any industry you care to name) and the ability to effectively communicate it.

Related Tags: Web2.0, Web 2.0, Geek, Searls, Because Of, New Media

Wealth of Networks

Yochai Benkler has written a tome that Lawrence Lessig has said is the most important book on the topic in the last decade. Coming from Lessig that is a huge compliment since he has written an enormous amount on related topics. This recommendation will not disappoint. This book is nothing short of the equivalent of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations for the post-modern information economy. A simple "Gladwell like" writing style coupled with the rigor of academic research makes this book an astonishing achievement. Bits and pieces of accumulated "net wisdom" is found here in one place, with a theoretical underpinning and organizational structure that both pleases and informs.

I must however provide the following warning: the book has an easy style but because of its substance (and length) it is not an easy read. But, want to know all you need to know about the "net neutrality" issue, you will find it here. Want to know why blogs are transforming journalism and becoming the new "fourth estate," you will find it here. Want to know why and how "peer production" (i.e. open source) has transformed software development and is threatening to transform other industries (though clearly only those with certain characteristics), you will find that here as well. In short, this book is a must read for any serious student of the Internet and the transformational qualities of the communications infrastructure that underpins it.

Related Tags: Benkler, Lessig, Wealth of Networks

Why Lawyers Are Dangerous

This brouhaha over O'Reilly's Web 2.0 service mark is proof of why a legal strategy and a business strategy do not always align, or simply why  lawyer's can be dangerous, if not absolute complete morons. To be sure we do not know if it was the lawyers or the business people that were behind this gaffe, and no doubt it will ultimately be the lawyers that will be taking it on the chin (comes with the territory) but the point is basically the same. Because you can do something legally, doesn't mean you should. There is no telling how much O'Reilly's reputation (and future profits) have been damaged, but you can rest assured that it will be significant. A mea culpa is certainly forthcoming, but this is a paradigmatic example of where the apology is necessary but not sufficient, because frankly once this negative buzz starts it is hard to get the genie back in the bottle, especially when you have been the one arguing that genies should be free.

The best that O'Reilly can do at this point is to stop the bleeding and to call in some chips from their author community and others tangentially on the payroll to aid in the effort. The rest is left to the Internet gods to sort out and all the organization can do is pray for kindness. Surely a sad state of affairs over a mark that was nothing but a blip in the O'Reilly universe. This blip has already taken on a life of its own (Frankenstein cannot be controlled) and will live on as an example of how not to shoot yourself in the head in law and MBA classes for years to come.

Mashing Up

Do a Google search on "mashup" and you get a lot of interesting results, mostly about mashups that are happening in the music space, but what I want to talk about is mashups in the software space. Take a look at what is happening at www.salesforce.com with their AppExchange offering and you will be getting a preview of things to come, essentially using the Internet as a software development platform, with tech savvy end users in the drivers seat and leading the collaboration (for the most part). Sure, vendors have been touting the death of programming (and programmers) for thirty years now so don't hold you breadth on that score, but more and more power is being placed in the hands of users, and that is going to have a huge impact, as we begin to close the loop (for users) between what I want and what I know how to do.

Tags: Web 2.0, Web2.0, Mashup

Transactions versus Interactions

Geoff Moore moderating a heavyweight panel discussion in Davos (The World Economic Forum) that included Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, John Chambers and Niklas Zeenstrom (of Skype ) discuss (in part) how the new IT will be focused on interactions as opposed to transactions. What they are getting at is the "markets as conversations" meme and implying that IT will be more focused on providing enabling technologies that facilitate interactions/conversations with customers. And while that might be true, the enabling of interactions will be driven mostly by enlightened business executives that are tech savvy enough to know how to leverage this brave new world in ways that drive competitive advantage (the because of factor). This is going to be a user driven revolution and IT will have a seat at the table but its ability to contribute will depend heavily on changing its mindset from back office apps to those apps that change the rules of the game within the company's niche or industry.

Tags: Web 2.0, Web2.0, Because of, Davos

The Buzz

Chris Anderson rants about the new boom here, and the good doctor and Rick Segal continue the rant about re-inventing the VC business here, and you start to get the feeling that something is happening again in the technology space because the buzz is audible. But the real buzz has to do with the "Because of" factor. Companies that change the rules of the game not because they invent the technologies but because they find new and innovative ways to "use" the technologies. Get ready for the "user centric" revolution. The democratization of powerful enabling technology is poised to allow "smart little guys" (OK they need some capital too, BUT not as much as they use to) to begin transforming niches in industry after industry, and since the "little guys" create most of the new jobs, this activity should have a positive effect on the economy as a whole. Watch out India and China, American ingenuity is "fixin" to kick butt again!

Tags: Web 2.0, Web2.0, Because of

Rumor of Web 2.0's demise?

Great post here on why it may be way to soon to start thinking about the demise of Web 2.0. The dot com companies imploded and the Internet grew more and more important to our daily lives. Web 2.0 is about architecture and about how apps are developed, it is not about the fate of a few companies (some good, some not so good) that are using the platform to launch new businesses. Many will fail, so what? That might be important from an investment perspective but a lot less so from how the platform will evolve and transform the computing paradigm, and the way that we interact with and experience apps. It is the user experience that is being transformed (think Apple), and empowered user/producers will cause changes to happen across the economy, within already established companies, not just those that are breaking new ground.

Tags: Web 2.0

Education 2.0?

This offering is clearly a harbinger of the Web 2.0 education space. While it may not attract the big guns in online education, it will attract masses of independents and in house providers, and since it is mostly financed by Google ads, the numbers are what matters. If Nuvvo pulls this off, like they appear to be poised to, they are a likely acquisition target as the big boys (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) fall all over themselves to acquire addition Web 2.0 services.

I ran through the demo to see enough of their implementation of Ajax technology to be suitably impressed. This is only the tip of the ice-burg as more and more richer functionality is added. Lots of possibilities for applications within Law firms. Although attorneys might be too busy to jump in and create practice management courses, their eager computer literate support staff will take to this stuff like they have to Excel, Word & Access.

Tags: Web 2.0, Law 2.0, Blogging

Tracking Web 2.0?

The goto place (for now) to track Web 2.0 developments is TechCrunch. Michael Arrington (former Silicon Valley attorney turned entrepreneur/commentator) is plugged into the Web 2.0 ecosystem in a big way. He consults (and invests) in some of these companies but is good about disclosing such. In any case, his perspective on these emerging technologies and breadth of coverage is the important thing.

The discussion surrounding Web 2.0 has crossed over into a Law 2.0 discussion as well. How will these technologies impact how law is practiced? The impact is likely to be significant because how we manage and consume knowledge (discussed on web-tones here) is the central focus of many of these applications. But that said, only of few of these will potentially be "killer apps" with respect to the law and those are the ones that will blogged about here.

Tags: Law 2.0, Web 2.0, Blogging