Two very important quotes in this article which may have forever changed the way I think about the Internet and communications. To give you context in case you don’t know, routers control Internet traffic throughout the world (which is why Cisco became a dot com darling). Because we are still dependent on routers, dictators can kill communication in their country by telling ISPs to shut down. Give people access to information and give them a voice and amazing things happen.
“I was sitting in front of Secretary Clinton and when she asked me a question I said, “Secretary Clinton, the last bastion of dictatorship is the router.” That night seeded some of the ideas that were core to Secretary Clinton’s important Internet Freedoms Speech on January 21, 2010.”
“Free communications is an essential human right. The 21st Century will be defined by the idea that no Government, no power shall ever block or filter the right of all men and women to communicate together again.”
Last weekend it was a cold and wet outside so Christina and I went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. It probably wouldn’t have been Christina’s first choice of things to do on a Saturday but I really had a good time and truth be told I think I brought out the inner geek in her and she had a good time too. The museum itself is great, it starts with the abacus and takes visitors all of the way to modern day computing. In some ways it made me feel old because I remember a lot of the “older” technology from when I was growing up. I think my favorite part was the video game section where I whooped Christina at Pong on the big screen but she beat me at Space Invaders two out of three times. If you don’t think you’ll ever make it there Woz did a great job giving a tour of the museum via Robert Scoble’s video below.
Walking through computer history with Apple cofounder Woz at the Computer History Museum
This documentary looks great and they have Seth Godin in it so you know it will be great (Seth is brilliant).
About the documentary: “The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.”
Visit http://www.presspauseplay.com for more info, screening dates, and sneak peeks.
Christina and I went to Red Rock Coffee yesterday in Mountain View and they served up a fantastic latte. I say easily one of the 10 best lattes I’ve had, and I’ve had a good number!
My parents let me know last night they had to put Otis down which surprisingly came as quite a shock. Otis has been a part of the Person family since I was in high school in Maryland. Otis was always my mom’s dog as Maggie was my dad’s. I will always remember the day my parents brought Otis home, he had never felt grass before so when they put him in the grass he didn’t quite know how to react to it. For the next twenty or so minutes he tentatively ran around the back yard exploring a new world outside of what he previously knew (a cage). I also remember he didn’t look real when I first saw him, he looked like a little stuffed animal and I could palm his whole body in my hand. Otis lived a really long and good life with us kids and my parents. A lot has happened while Otis was around, as you can see in some of my pictures. I don’t know how old Otis was but I know I graduated High School in ’96 and he was around then so he was at least 13 or 14 years old. Otis was also one of the first of many people and animals to fall victim to my photography obsession.
My first camera was an Olympus 1.3 MP camera and I loved taking pictures of Otis with it. Otis never complained (unlike everyone else who I wanted to take pictures of) so I have lots of pictures of my old friend. I used to love giving him his “brain massages”, he loved them. I knew he was getting older and every time I came home I could see he was doing OK but getting old. Each time I left I wasn’t sure if I would see him again but I made extra sure to say goodbye the last few times I saw him. Every dog is special and each dog becomes part of your family so if you have an animal in your family give them an extra hug and kiss because they don’t stay around forever so enjoy them while you can.
I commented on a LinkedIn discussion board comment/question today and wanted to share it.
Q:
The alpha version of qwiki (search engine that builds interactive videos on the fly) is pretty exciting. What do you think a corporate version could do to juice up employee or investor communications?
A:
Engaging content is definitely the future. You want to know the interesting thing in my mind though? Everyone says content is king and I agree. Corporations can have great tools, but only if they have great content. If you are interested try and remind me to talk with you in about a month. I’ll need to get clearance to show it to you but we are working on a knowledge sharing tool within the company and it has some really interesting social gaming aspects to it.
My hope is in the coming years we can use these types of tools as a basis for merit increases and performance reviews. That type of thinking is counter culture to many organizations but social tools can help break down information silos and encourage collaboration like never before. They “can” also show you who your team players are in the organization meaning those who are helping others and not just themselves. If we reward and recognize via virtual currency and in the future provide monetary incentives, it will be very interesting to see what happens as a result. Whether you have a LinkedIn discussion board, a blog, or a survey people are busy and often hesitant to share.
Want to see a dramatic increase in our discussion board usage? Send out a message to membership telling them if they post at least one comment or post on the discussion board they will get 25% (50%, 75%, 100%…whatever) off their next conference fee. My point is some people will share but many will do so only when rewarded or recognized.
The other interesting thing I like about Qwiki is they are using it as a platform. I was fascinated by what they are looking at as a future alarm clock (see video link below). I’d imagine it won’t be too many more years before our bathroom mirrors are huge rear projection touch sensitive screens which let us see news, weather, or any other gadget/widget we want to subscribe to. Same thing with the business world. I’d imagine it won’t be long before E-ink type screens will allow us to have constantly updated information presented to us to interact with throughout the day. But we can only have these tools if we have the content which means employees will need to write and contribute that content.
This may be the all-time funniest comment on my Facebook page thus far. He is missing the word “melt” but it is still hilarious. I never really thought about it. I guess because we flew over a few lakes?
