I happened to come across an article from 11 years ago about a company I worked for back then, Marconi. It my second attempt at pushing forward my vision for an "Intelligent City".
These two clips from Economist article captured what we thought would be the catalyst that would provide the fuel to "boil the ocean".
I supposed its not surprising that Myspace's revenues are shrinking as its value proposition isn't clear or perhaps the perception of its value isn't clear.
I've always thought that Myspace had great potential a couple of years ago, particularly in the area of social commerce. It seemed that it was evolving to become a niche community, supporting musicians both established artists affiliated with record companies and indies looking to promote their talents using social media.
It had the chance to use its cash flow from advertising and move towards transactions. Its leadership let that slip by.
Now that its worth is slipping, I would say that it would be a good play for Apple, given that Ping as a community is worthless. The integration of Myspace and iTunes would be a huge force in the industry.
Then again, as Microsoft morphs Zune into a mobile play on phones, having a decent community like Myspace would give it a boost as well.
Comments and thoughts are always welcome.
The PC as we know it is slowly dying due to increased desire of the marketplace to be mobile. In mobility, the key factors will be the user experience, not the underlying application. Lightweight platforms (both physically and software) are not just a requirement, they will be the expectation of the next generation of users.
For wireless carriers the issue will become capacity, they need more of the wireless spectrum. Over the next couple of years the value of that spectrum will increase geometrically. Unfortunately performance will suffer as a result of overcrowding.
Over the next 2-3 years we will see startups looking to create IP around potential solutions. First will appear IP around squeezing more out of the spectrum, next will be new technologies.
Anyway you look at it, your future is a mobile one.
CHART OF THE DAY: The Real Reason AT&T Is Buying T-Mobile
An interesting article and trend, though the more interesting piece is the opportunity for a full integration of TV (or other content) and social media on the same platform. We've certainly seen examples of this such as last year's Olympics and tweets, however the technologies are not fully integrated as yet. This is an opportunity looking for an innovative leader.
A definite win for Facebook. This is a very low risk way for Facebook to keep users from drifting away from the Facebook platform. For Warner Bros, its a way to tap into the emerging social commerce industry.
Its amazing that its been over 30 years now since I was at Lincoln Lab. I will always remember how, against the odds, WBNO-AM powered up via the Sun. Back then I was convinced that by the year 2000 we would be using solar as a significant source of energy. I still believe in solar as one of a number of energy sources, however I also believe that it will take much more than organic growth and relying on our free markets system to make progress.
TUNE IN TO THE SUN!
of the Buckeye State, 50 miles west of Toledo—is
nobody's idea of "Sun City". The area has rainy summers . .
. long, harsh winters . . . and cloud covers that manage to
look ominous even when they're not dropping rain
or snow.
It was precisely this no-quarter-given climate, however,
that led to the decision to locate the world's first
solar-powered commercial radio station irk Bryan. The
concept's backers felt that, if the enterprise could
succeed in such an obviously "nonsolar" location, it would
be viable most anywhere. So, to prove the point, WBNO-AM (a
500-watt, dawn-to-dusk operation) transferred its
electrical allegiance from Toledo Edison to the sun on
August 29, 1979.
Seems to me that this is something more software vendor should be supporting, though it does depend on pricing.
Excellent post on the evolving/maturing of social media.
What we are seeing is a natural evolution of the Internet. In a sense the Internet is going through a period of “self-regulation” where most people will participate by providing transparency and ignoring the noise created by anonymous posts and those who post things that may not be relevant to the mass audience.
This is a good thing, though one has to wonder about the loss of anonymous posting since it does serve a purpose in some situations.
Unfortunately speeches and money do not create "Sputnik" moments. Leadership and vision will, but unfortunately neither is present in any branch of government right now.
When executed correctly, visionary programs led by the government with contributions from our universities and the private sector have the potential to reap far more rewards than the goal of the vision.
During World War II, American men went off to war and American women went to work in manufacturing plants. Plants that made cars and other hard goods were converted to make machines of war. The challenges were enormous. The conversions needed to happen quickly, quality was essential and assembly lines needed to accommodate product changes. The response to this challenge revolutionized the manufacturing process, decreasing costs and increasing both productivity and quality.
The Apollo program in the 1960's was a visionary program with the right balance between government involvement and the private sector. Ultimately the successful landing of a person on the moon, though a great achievement, but advances in technology, manufacturing and materials proved to be of far greater and pervasive value.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) started in the 1980's was close to being a "boil the ocean" program, but again the benefits of this program was not the goal, but the advances made in supercomputing, high-energy physics and advanced materials. Think about the Internet for a second. Most of the Internet is powered by advanced fiber optic networks which are lit by low cost high efficient lasers. Much of the intellectual property needed to build these lasers came from SDI.
I have given 3 examples of challenges that we have faced as a country in the past century where visionary programs created significant and far reaching output, much of which were never imagined when the program was started.
We are faced with many challenges in today’s world, some of which the scale is perhaps greater than any other period in history. Great leadership is required, not by one leader but by all leaders.
But many of these challenges cannot be met by leadership alone. I believe that the challenge we face in all forms of energy production and consumption is one of these. There are no simple answers in creating a solution for the world’s energy needs, nor are there solutions that will organically grow from the private sector through conventional investment cycles.
The creation of a comprehensive energy program in the same mould of the visionary programs of the past will yield results far greater than we can imagine today.
So Mr. President, with all due respect, if you want a "Sputnik Moment”, make it happen. Give America the blueprint and we will build it. Otherwise you are wasting our tax dollars.
