Among many, there seems to be a belief in the intrinsic value of online conversations. The world is flat. Ordinary people are being empowered. Governments and corporations are being held accountable.
It is all true to an extent. But I think the story that isn’t being told enough is how divisive and pointless much of the online conversation really is....
Continue ReadingWow. Just read a great essay on Edge called “DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism” by computer scientist Jaron Lanier. The essay is a massive broadside against the trend towards collective editing and decision-making that is taking hold online (the Wisdom of Crowds trend). Lanier takes aim at the use of collectivism in venues as diverse as Wikipedia (and all Wikis really),...
Continue ReadingWe recently took a closer look at the 2006 Senate candidate’s blogs in an attempt to judge the overall quality of blog quality and blog offerings. Here is what we found:
78 percent of the 18 campaign blogs included RSS feeds.
Only 33 percent of blogs included a blogroll or links to other blogs....
Continue ReadingAccording to a recent New York Times article, “Death by a Thousand Blogs“, there are now some four million blogs in China, representing about 4% of some 100 million Chinese Internet users.
This is remarkable, given the high degree of Web censoring that occurs in China today. Although China claims that its web regulation is no more restrictive than that of the US or Great Britain,...
Continue ReadingI recently visited the website of Berkshire Hathaway, which is the holding company controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett that ultimately employs 190,000 people. I was looking for video clips of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual board meeting, which are famous for Buffett’s pronouncements on a variety of economic subjects. It became clear pretty quickly that Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t do multimedia....
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