Business: January 2003 Archive Page

"Since most blogging tools are both free and addictive, it's no surprise that the sales cycle has been eliminated. Better yet, point and click blog designs mean that there's minimal consulting - either customization or configuration - required to set up your blog. The result? Weblogs are spreading like wildfire - by some accounts, the market is growing as high as 25% a month." John Hiler's June, 2002 article was found via Kairosnews.

--Blogs as Disruptive Tech -- How weblogs are flying under the radar of the content management giantsWebcrimson)

A student in my Writing Electronic Text course had an epiphany a few weeks after she chose to write a weblog for her term project. Like most newbie web authors, she had fiddled endlessly with the design of her first website, but the weblog software handles all the design for her; when she suddenly realized that weblogging is about writing, not about web design, her weblog really took off.

"About one-fourth of university-based medical researchers receive funding from drug companies -- ties that sometimes distort study results, according to a review done by two researchers with industry connections of their own."

--Review finds Pervasive Medical Research-Industry TiesAssociated Press)

Ohmigosh ohmigosh oh...my...gosh! Scientific research isn't completely objective? Scientists aren't lofty supreme beings of pure intellect, untouched by such human vices as pride and clumsiness? And when did corporations start funding scientific research? This is an outrage! I'm glad I'm in the humanities, where fraud never happens.

"It might seem like a stretch to compare scientists to, say, African Americans and Latinos, who have historically been targets of often viciously stereotypical portrayals in film and on TV. But Weber thinks the media has a blind spot when it comes to scientists." Jason Silverman --Film Scientists Not All Mad, BadWired)

"Only cranks, mystics, revolutionaries and wealthy dilettantes wrote without some form of pecuniary support, whether patronage, salary, direct sales, residuals, or the penny-a-word piecework compensation offered by pulp-magazine editors.... The Internet changed all that." --Independent Content Providerv-2 Organisation)

"Nurses quickly learned how to hack the system to save time. For example, if a patient's bar code didn't scan correctly on the first try, nurses often entered the seven-digit bar code number manually rather than rescanning it.

"Nurses also felt that the computer system's demands forced them to focus on pill-pushing. If meds weren't given on time, nurses had to take time out to tell the system why. Many feared this could result in poor performance evaluations.

"'I found myself walking away from important conversations with patients and families in order to fulfill the computer's demands,' said a VA nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'I feel like robo-nurse, and I don't like it.'" --Bar Code Tech Drives Nurses NutsWired)

Does manually entering a bar code number really count as "hacking"? I think a system is probably broken if you have to "hack" it to make it work. Maybe the nurses were "optimizing" the system instead.

"[B]eing innovative flies in the face of what almost all parents want for their children, most CEOs want for their companies, and heads of states want for their countries. And innovative people are a pain in the ass.... [S]ome things?the nature of higher education among them?will have to change in order to ensure a perpetual source of new ideas. " Nicholas Negroponte --Creating a Culture of IdeasTechnology Review)

"Rightly or wrongly, record companies are detested by politicians (for corrupting youth), by webcasters (for demanding royalties), and by their customers (for inflating prices). Musicians and songwriters are famous for loathing the labels... Radio and MTV aren't in the industry's corner... And the electronics industry's attitude toward the labels is summed up by an Apple slogan: Rip. Mix. Burn. Which, a music executive once told me, translates into..." Charles C. Mann --The Year the Music DiedWired)

"This is all part of the Big Flip in publishing generally, where the old notion of 'filter, then publish' is giving way to 'publish, then filter.' There is no need for Slashdot's or Kuro5hin's owners to sort the good posts from the bad in advance, no need for Blogdex or Daypop to pressure people not to post drivel, because lightweight filters applied after the fact work better at large scale than paying editors to enforce minimum quality in advance. A side-effect of the Big Flip is that the division between amateur and professional turns into a spectrum, giving us a world where unpaid writers are discussed side-by-side with New York Times columnists." Clay Shirky

--The Music Industry and the "Big Flip"Shirky.com)

Another quote from the same article: "The internet has lowered the threshold of publishing to the point where you no longer need help or permission to distribute your work. What has happened with writing may be possible with music. Like writers, most musicians who work for fame and fortune get neither, but unlike writers, the internet has not offered wide distribution to people making music for the love of the thing."

The web is still primarily a text medium. Regardless of what the future holds, people have already had longer to figure out how to use text online. Until the day when we can talk to our computers in natural language ("Computer -- tea. Earl Gray. Hot.") , any innovation is welcome -- such as an interface that lets you query a music database by humming a few bars of the song you want to find.

"My first cartoon short, Steamboat Willie, was a direct parody of Keaton's movie Steamboat Bill, Jr. On the very first page of the script, it says, 'Orchestra starts playing opening verses of Steamboat Bill.' I remember what Eldred's lawyer Lawrence Lessig said when he read that: 'Try doing a cartoon take-off of one of Disney, Inc.'s latest films with an opening that copies the music.'" Jesse Walker --Mickey Mouse Clubbed: Disney's Cartoon Rodent Speaks out...Reason)

"I think it's possible to stop spam, and that content-based filters are the way to do it. The Achilles heel of the spammers is their message. They can circumvent any other barrier you set up. They have so far, at least. But they have to deliver their message, whatever it is. If we can write software that recognizes their messages, there is no way they can get around that." Paul Graham --A Plan for SpamPaulGraham.com)

"Not so many decades ago, you couldn't buy or legitimately connect your own phone or other telecom equipment to the public telephone network in the United States.... Virtually everything related to telephone communications had to be leased from the local monopoly phone company, which also performed all installations and maintenance. Remarkably, it was even prohibited to attach shoulder rests or any other gadgets to phone handsets..." --DMCA: Ma Bell Would Be ProudWired)

"Walt Disney understood the value of the public domain, and used it precisely as other great artists had done. He updated an out-of-copyright character to create Mickey Mouse, for example, and launched an empire. The company he founded later used writer Victor Hugo's work, which was also no longer owned by anyone, to create a cartoon based on the Hunchback of Notre Dame saga. The Disney animators had every right to build new works on old ones -- and the public also got the benefit. Try the same thing with Mickey Mouse and you'll be hauled into court faster than you can say 'Goofy.' The court's 7-2 ruling betrayed some judicial discomfort, observing that Congress has the power to do 'arguably unwise'' things. Get ready for more unwise acts, in that case." Dan Gilmor --Copyright Ruling is a Ripoff of ConsumersSiliconValley.com)

"When humans use a personal computer, we enter into the computer's world. If it can't do something, or if it crashes, too bad; we have to deal. But a robot enters into our world. If floors are uneven, if legs get in the way, if lighting conditions change, the robot has to deal." George Musser's review of the Roomba robot vaccuum cleaner explains why Robot armies haven't taken over the world yet. --Robots that SuckScientific American)

Another quote from the article: "What makes it a breakthrough is the price, $200, which approaches the don't-need-spousal-preapproval range." The word Robot was popularized by Karel Capek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which was written in 1920.

"Pooh would no doubt scratch his fluff-stuffed head in disbelief at what's going on. Shirley and her daughter, Pati, are embroiled in an epic legal battle with the Walt Disney Co. over the merchandising rights to the world's most beloved bear. Shirley's former husband, Stephen Slesinger, acquired the merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh in 1930 from his creator, A.A. Milne. After Slesinger died, Shirley granted the rights to Walt Disney himself." --The Curse of PoohFortune [annoying pop-up])

"The commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of August 16, 1977 seemed more than anything a media mirage churned up by Graceland smoke machines. A Graceland spokesman had recently discussed the problem facing the operation: if Elvis Presley was indeed immortal, his fans were not. Many of Elvis's original fans were dying off; if the enormously successful marketing of Elvis Presley over the last twenty-five years were to continue, they would have to be replaced by people who were not even born when Elvis Presley died." Greil Marcus

--Elvis AgainThreepenny Review)

It's not often that you read an article about the decline of a pop culture phenomenon, unless it's simply a passing reference like, "Whatever happened to Garbage Pail Kids?" At the beginning of a literature course, I enjoy telling my students that the movies and recording stars that seem to be the center of their world right now -- and that may seem much more interesting than the "old" works we well be studying in class -- will soon be as dated as the pop culture icons that were canonical among youth when I was an undergrad. During the 80s, the "cool" kids watched Miami Vice and lyp synched to Falco's "Rock Me, Amadeus." And when I'm in a nursing home, they will try to placate me by piping in Muzak versions of Michael Jackson and Madonna songs. The horror! The horror!

"Although office clutter is usually almost entirely work-related, it tends nevertheless to be treated as though it consisted of the dirty socks and crisp packets of an adolescent. Workers are confused. They know that creating clutter is an essential part of the way they work, but they are made to feel guilty about it." --In Praise of ClutterThe Economist)

The paperless office isn't.

"By downplaying competition, There hopes to attract women to its universe, which is roamed much like the legendary computer game Myst. In fact, some areas look and sound like the mythical Myst island with the constant chirping of birds and distant roar of surf. 'If we can build a product that women love, guys will show up,' Melcher said. 'The reverse is not true.'" --New Game "There" Puts you ThereCNN/AP)

And how will they build a world that women love? By letting gamers shop in virtual stores, for virtual clothes for their virtual bodies. An interactive Myst sounds like a good idea, but Atrus wouldn't have approved of the commercialization.

"Apparently Jennifer Lopez is coming out with a new 'fragrance' (which is what they call perfume these days, I guess) called Glow by J-Lo. Here's some others that will follow on its heels.

• Mince by Prince
• This Is How You Should Smell by Martha Stewart
• Texas Tea by G.W.B.
• Free For The Taking by Winona
• Affair by Cher
• I Am Led To Understand That This Has An Agreeable Odor But, Lacking A Nose, I Cannot Vouch For It Myself by Michael Jackson
• Stink by N*Sync
• Attack of the Colognes by Lucas
• Drool by Jewel
• I Hereby Command You To Purchase This by Oprah
• Republic of Sudan by Alan Greenspan
• Stench by Judi Dench"

Matthew Baldwin

--Non ScentsDefective Yeti)

BTW, I get a lot of links from Jorn Barger's Robot Wisdom.

"The high-tech industry plans to launch a sophisticated new lobbying campaign later this month to strike back against Hollywood in a battle to shape rules of the road for new digital technologies. The Business Software Alliance and Computer Systems Policy Project....hope to convince Congress that strict copy-protection legislation that sets technological mandates would stifle innovation, harm consumers and threaten an already suffering tech industry." Heather Fleming --Tech Industry to Take on Hollywood over Digital RulesMercury News)

Before you jump up and down cheering, note that Microsoft is one of the companies behind this new legal strategy. The end result will be to put more power in the hands of technology monopolists, instead of the publishers of entertainment media. So either way, you'll still have to pay to let Hollywood entertain you.

"Big media barons are routinely accused of dominating markets, dumbing down the news to plump up the bottom line, and forcing U.S. content on world audiences. But these companies are not as big, bad, dominant, or American as critics claim. And company size is largely irrelevant to many of the problems facing today's Fourth Estate." Benjamin Compaine

--Global MediaForeign Policy)

Since I've devoted class time and blog bits to lamenting the reach of multimedia corporations, it seems only fair to link to this opposing view. Interesting quotation from the article: "A merger of Time Inc. with Warner Communications and then with America Online dominates headlines, but the incremental growth of smaller companies from the bottom does not." Weblogs are apt vehicles for promulgating the "media convergence is bad" meme, but if Compaine is right, then the growth of weblogs themselves is an argument against the idea that convergence is the dominant model. Another quote from the article: "Make no mistake: an activist with a dial-up Internet connection and 10 megabytes of Web server space cannot easily challenge Disney for audiences. But an individual or a small group can reach the whole world and, with a little work and less money, can actually find an audience." That sounds more like the point of view expressed in the blogosphere.

"Throughout the 1990s, my basic philosophy was this: Work=Boring, but Work+Speed+Risk=Cool. Speed and risk transformed the experience into something so stimulating, so exciting, so intense, that we began to believe that those qualities defined 'good work.' Now, betrayed by the reality of economic uncertainty and global instability, we're casting about for what really matters when it comes to work." Po Bronson --What Should I Do With My LifeFast Company)

This essay wins my prize for "best cultural reflection written by somebody sharing the name of a Teletubbie."