How We Know Us

Category: Commentary

  • Life in a Networked Age

    John Robb, who brought us the term “open source warfare,” wallops the concerns of governance of our increasingly global network: A global network is too large and complex for a bureaucracy to manage.  It would be too slow, expensive, and inefficient to be of value.  Further, even if one could be built, it would be impossible to apply…

  • 8 Simple Steps to Personal Networking

    Here are some simple steps you can take to start easy, and create a habit of expanding the value of your network by bridging gaps. Make a list of everyone you have exchanged email with in the past month [gmail search] Add to your list some personal notes: what they do for a living, their…

  • Demographics Fail

    We forget, now that our reach is wide, that all purchasing is done by individuals.  Since we don’t know the individuals, and locating and selling to each and every one of them (us) is too expensive, we developed marketing to help us select the people, the individuals, most likely to purchase whatever we are selling. …

  • Bernanke: Individual power increases network risk

    Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank will consider discarding its long- standing aversion to interfering with asset-price bubbles and warned that the banking business may be concentrated in too few companies. Sounds familiar.

  • Bailouts: Understanding Risk in a Networked Economy

    Individual power increases network risk. When the power goes, so does the network. But, this risk can also mobilize everyone else to buoy up the network by supporting the powerful (AIG rescue) or group cooperation (bailout lobbying).  When a power fails, there will be painful redistribution of wealth (Lehman Brothers) and the market as new…

  • Response: How Does the Web Define Authority?

    The real questions are: whom do we trust, why, and under what conditions is trust transferable? Chris Brogran asks: How does the web define authority? First is an important matter of language.  There is a large difference between authority and an authority.  Authority is power formally granted by a position or role.  An authority is…

  • How Would You Promote Education through Social Networks?

    I was recently asked to put together some thoughts about the potential impact Social Networks could have on education by a really savvy M.D. over at Cerner, and I thought this audience might be interested too.  I have not seen too much about this topic, and would really like to hear your thoughts. Social Networking…

  • Innovation Thrives Under Constraint

    This is not my usual topic, but I’ve done a lot of work looking at innovation, and the conditions under which it thrives. Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, founders of Twitter, have talked often of the “constraints” that are built into the Twitter app. You can only post 140 characters in a single message, for…

  • 8 Requirements for a Perfect Contact Management System

    I read about some new organization software over at LifeHacker, which got me thinking about what would be my ideal organization software.  I am beginning to embrace the implications of the uneven levels of attention I can pay to people I know, and the definite limit to which I can keep everyone in my head. …

  • Newspapers: Don’t Give Up Yet!

    Dan Gilmore: Newspapers have at least two more huge opportunities. First is to open the archives, with permalinks on every story in the database. Newspapers hold more of their communities’ histories and all other media put together, yet they hoard it behind a paywall that produces pathetic revenues and keeps people in the communities from…