In the history of the web, last spring may figure as a tipping point. That’s when Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”—a site that grew from 100,000 articles in 2003 to more than 15 million today—began to falter as a social movement. Thousands of volunteer editors, the loyal Wikipedians who actually write, fact-check, and update all those articles, logged off—many for good. For the first time, more contributors appeared to be dropping out than joining up. Activity on the site has remained stagnant, according to a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind the site, and it’s become “a really serious issue.” So serious, in fact, that this fall Wikipedia will turn to something it has never needed before: recruiters.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Nice insight on telcos driving Andriod success (TechRepublic.com)
Google Android began with the greatest of intentions — freedom, openness, and quality software for all. However, freedom always comes with price, and often results in unintended consequences. With Android, one of the most important of those unintended consequences is now becoming clear as Google gets increasingly pragmatic about the smartphone market and less and less tied to its original ideals.
Here’s the dirty little secret about Android: After all the work Apple did to get AT&T to relinquish device control for the iPhone and all the great efforts Google made to get the FCC and the U.S. telecoms to agree to open access rules as part of the 700 MHz auction, Android is taking all of those gains and handing the power back to the telecoms.
Good article from Jason Hiner, on Android is becoming a way for telcos to regain/retain carrier lock-in. Lovely illustration of market dynamics.
Worth a read: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=5855#
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sledgehammer for privacy? Change Your Name to Escape Google Permanent Record
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has a great way of making public statements that are at once frank, unorthodox, thought provoking - and a little frightening. This weekend The Wall St. Journal ran an interview with Schmidt that offered tidbits like that on a wide range of topics. One statement in particular, that Schmidt thinks teenagers should be entitled to change their names upon reaching adulthood in order to separate themselves from the Google record of their youthful indiscretions, is something worth stopping to take note of.
via readwriteweb.com
It's revealing that the privacy solution from Google is to 'change your name'. The obvious question one might ask, is exactly how long this might work for if taken up by a significant proportion of people?
I would expect substantial competitive pressure for search engines to find the match. And indeed to force it to the front of the queue, much like the extremely frustrating google auto-correct option on possible mis-spelling. "Did you mean:"
In any case, read the original article for more info: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_ceo_suggests_you_change_your_name...
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
C.K. Prahalad - constant focus on weak signals - great quote - great article
Every one of my research projects started the same way: recognizing that the established theory did not explain a certain phenomenon. We had to stay constantly focused on weak signals. Each weak signal was a contradictory phenomenon that was not happening across the board. You could very easily say, “Dismiss it, this is an outlier, so we don’t have to worry about it.” But the outliers and weak signals were the places to find a different way to think about the problem.
A wonderful quote from Prahalad, he of the bottom of the pyramid, and core competencies. I recommend checking out the whole interview at http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00043?pg=all.
Crowd Sourcing not a perpetual motion machine - duh!
Take This Blog and Shove It!
When utopian ideals crash into human nature—sloth triumphs.
Illustration by David Plunkert
via newsweek.com
Important reality check. Crowd sourcing is fascinating, and cool, but driven by exogenous factors -- much, one might think, like open source.
All the fun of the PC - First Trojan for Android Phones Goes Wild
Google Android phones must be popular - they've just been targeted with their first Trojan. An SMS Trojan called Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a has already infected a number of mobile devices, according to security firm Kaspersky Lab. Purporting to be a harmless media player application, the Trojan, once installed, actually sends out SMS text messages without the users' knowledge or consent.
via readwriteweb.com
There will be a lot of mobile device management companies thrilled to see this news.
The big questions:
1. How susceptable are SmartPhone (hand held computer) operating systems to this type of attack, or indeed to all the varients that occur on the desktop?
2. How will organizations cope with managing and securing, not just Windows devices, but the menagerie of emerging SmartPhones and tablets.
Monday, August 9, 2010
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