Large organizations will start to do worse now, though, because for the first time in history they’re no longer getting the best people. An ambitious kid graduating from college now doesn’t want to work for a big company. They want to work for the hot startup that’s rapidly growing into one. If they’re really ambitious, they want to start it.
OLPC in Uruguay
via img293
Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is under attack by online pirates. An add-on for the Firefox browser called ‘Pirates of the Amazon’ makes it possible to shop at the Amazon store but leave without paying a dime. Instead, on Amazon product pages the add-on integrates links to ‘free’ copies on The Pirate Bay.
The truth is, giving up our online anonymity may not be all bad - we’ll have a convenient, portable friend graph, for example. We can burn our notebook filled with our usernames and passwords. Our search data will be easily accessible from one place. But for the convenience of a simple login, searchable personal data and web history, and social networks filled with friends, we’ll have exchanged a bit of who we are in the process. We’ll pay for our services on the new internet with our identity and personal information. When the companies we sold ourselves to use it for their own benefits, our outrage will come too late. We’ll only have ourselves to blame.
Facebook Connect is representative of some surprising new thinking in Silicon Valley. Instead of trying to hoard information about their users, the Internet giants have all announced plans to share at least some of that data so people do not have to enter the same identifying information again and again on different sites.
Great example of a concept being dumbed down for mainstream media to the point that it’s simply untrue. Way to go, NYT.
Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web - NYTimes.com
observing the internet
- analytics: the number of times per day a person checks analytics and their sanity are closely related.
- creativity: there are a ton of creative mediums, both to create with and distribute ideas. some work better than others.
- feedback: user feedback is a mixed-bag, but generally useless unless collected and pruned carefully and intelligently.
- traffic: not all traffic is equal. a stumbleupon or digg visit should be worth .5 or .25 what a regular visit is worth.
- design: design is a little about how it looks and a lot about how it works. but it better look good.
- risk: every action can be placed on a risk/reward continuum.
- apples: some things suck when you start them, but end up rewarding. like eating apples - the first bite is full of skin, but by the end you’re glad you ate it.
- browsers: cross-browser testing takes away time from focusing on building better applications and sites.
An essay by Steve Jobs from 2007 — really interesting hearing someone explain the role of DRM from Apple’s perspective.
Starting this Black Friday and over the next 35 days leading up to the end of 2008, we want your help in promoting a consumer boycott of Digital Restrictions Management. Every day we’ll be publishing your stories — about a product, company, service, executive or politician that has has inflicted the nightmare of Digital Restrictions Management on you and our society, reminding us all why this holiday season we need an all-out boycott.
I always thought boycotts were silly, but this is interesting at the very least:
35 Days Against DRM — Economic Boycott of DRM This Gift Giving Season | DefectiveByDesign.org
As times got tougher, people began to ask themselves whether they really needed a musical instrument you play by waving your hands through laser beams. Like Tinkerbell, doubt was fatal to The Sharper Image.