Posts tagged Pinboard

What Google's Move Against Spotify Could Mean for Music - Businessweek

Of course, the music industry has a long tradition of separating a song’s profit from its creators. Still, wrote Krukowski, “the ways in which musicians are screwed have changed qualitatively, from individualized swindles to systemic ones.”

Some nuggets: Charting technology’s new directions: A conversation with MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson

You’d like to see that happening again now. But the data show that it just isn’t happening as fast. We’re having the automation and the job destruction; we’re not having the creation at the same pace. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to find these new jobs. It may be that machines are better than that.

That said, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, because ultimately the purpose of economic progress and technological progress is to be able to create more wealth with less work. I mean, isn’t that what we want? More wealth with less work? So, if we are in a Star-Trek economy, where replicators create all the essentials that we need, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing if we can have an economic system that matches to it and find a way that people can share in that benefit. And people can still continue to find meaning and value in life.

Filling In The Gaps With Tim O’Reilly: some great insights (hat tip to Dug Campbell)

O’Reilly argues that the concept of a business that exists solely for the purpose of making money for its shareholders is fundamentally flawed. Every business has an obligation to create value.

Gerd adds: great summary of where the future of capitalism is going !

The Global Youth Jobless Crisis: A Tragic Mess That Is Not Getting Any Better (via TheAtlantic)

A new study from the International Labor Organization takes a global tour of youth joblessness and finds that what’s gone up won’t come down in the next five years. The youth unemployment rate* among the richest countries is projected to flat-line, rather than fall, before 2018. As a result, the global Millennial generation could be uniquely scarred by the economic downturn. Research by Lisa Kahn has showed that people graduating into a recession have typically faced a lifetime of lower wages.

Google Now, Anticipatory Systems, and the Future of Big Data | MIT

If the last century was marked by the ability to observe the interactions of physical matter—think of technologies like x-ray and radar—this century, he says, is going to be defined by the ability to observe people through the data they share…”
Really not sure I am willing to extend the Faustian bargain that far (adds Gerd)

Big Data Gets Bigger: Now Google Trends Can Predict The Market - Forbes

Yesterday three economists, (Tobias Preis of Warwick Business School in the U.K., Helen Susannah Moat of University College London, and H. Eugene Stanley of Boston University) published an eye-opening paper that said Google Trends data was useful in predicting daily price moves in the Dow Jones industrial average, which consists of 30 stocks.

Gerd adds: yet another reason why the current form of stock markets won’t exist in 5 years;)

The Store Is Media And Media Is The Store (brilliant piece by Retailprophet Doug Stephens)

In a post-Internet, post-mobile world of one click access, the distribution of products has all but ceased to be the issue. When one of something can be efficiently shipped to anyone, anywhere, the question of where the sale takes place is rapidly becoming moot. In other words, in the long-term, sales of product simply can’t be the primary strategic purpose or metric for the store.
Some of the world’s largest retailers are struggling with this jarring reality already. “Stack it high and watch it fly” has abruptly turned into “stack it low and hope it goes” as big box stores scramble to lower inventories in the face of flat or declining sales. The knee-jerk reaction among some is to simply downsize and marginalize the role of the store. Others are adopting the buzzword of omni-channel – resigning to the idea that all channels now act as one – which I would argue risks oversimplifying what’s really happening.

You see, what’s actually evolving is a new and far more complex role for the store, and online brands like Google, Bonobos and Warby Parker are affirming it, as they each embark on creating their own, branded, physical stores. They along with a growing number of other online pure-plays recognize that in order to “fully actualize” their brands, they need to animate a physical presence and visceral experience for their consumers, not to move products but more critically, to move hearts and minds – to sell the idea, essence and values of the brand – all of which has more traditionally been viewed as the role of media. And therein lies the critical point.

The physical store is becoming media.

How to become internet famous for $68 (Santiago Swallow story sheds light on fake Internet fame - made me think)

There’s just one thing about Santiago Swallow that you won’t easily find online: I made him up. Everything above is true. He really does have a Twitter feed with tens of thousands of followers, he really does have a Wikipedia biography, and he really does have an official web site. But he has never been to TED or South By South West and is not writing a book. I—or rather he—flat out lied about that…”

Gerd adds: great story indeed.

Belgacom m2m event in Brussels April 18 - meet me there

During the Belgacom m2m event we will present Belgacom’s current and future strategy in terms of Machine-To-machine (m2m), together with the m2m solutions and the new management platform.

We will have the pleasure to welcome Gerd Leonhard, famous visionair who will talk about the importance and the evolution of the ‘Internet of Things’.

;)) look forward to it too

The Swiss Miracle? interesting piece on Switzerland (where I live)

At their root, Europe’s economic and political problems result from a crisis of legitimacy. In Europe, the common economic zone and currency were created without an accompanying federal government. And the union itself controls less than two percent of the combined national GDPs of the 27 EU member states and is thus largely inoperative. National governments have retained their legitimacy but are bound to a hapless and unpopular union…”

Gerd adds: some good points here. Sometimes, however, this idyllic stability also means incredible isolation;)

With Big Data, we are creating artificial intelligences that no human can understand (made me think)

Big data will require a new group of people to take on this role. Perhaps they will be called “algorithmists.” They could take two forms—independent entities to monitor firms from outside, and employees or departments to monitor them from within—just as companies have in-house accountants as well as outside auditors who review their finances.

No Future: Present Shock and Why Our Now-Fixation Has Changed Everything From Advertising To Politics (Douglas Rushkoff book)

Says Doug in his book:
Our society has reoriented itself to the present moment. Everything is live, real time, and always-on. It’s not a mere speeding up, however much our lifestyles and technologies have accelerated the rate at which we attempt to do things. It’s more of a diminishment of anything that isn’t happening right now—and the onslaught of everything that supposedly is.”

5 Brands Winning at Crowdsourcing | Digiday

PepsiCo
When thinking of PepsiCo and crowdsourcing, the first thing that comes to mind is the company’s Pepsi Refresh program, which got almost 61 million votes. The 2010 initiative awarded $20 million in grants to individuals, businesses and non-profits that came up with ideas that have a positive impact on their community, state, or the nation as a whole.

Additionally, Pepsi’s Frito-Lay took crowdsourcing to a new level, when the potato chip brand asked consumers to help come up with a new flavor. The “Do Us a Flavor” campaign awarded $1 million to the person who submitted the winning flavor.

Uber, Data Darwinism and the future of work (Om Malik)

the challenges of the connected future are less technical and more legislative, political and philsophical. The shift from a generation that started out un-connected to one that is growing up connected will result in conflicts, disruption and eventually the redrawing of our societal expectations. The human race has experienced these shifts before — just not at the speed and scale of this shift.

The End of Cable TV? How Everyone Will Watch Television In The Future – ReadWrite

How much attention is OTT getting? The Interpret LLC’s New Media Measure syndicated report sets the number of US consumers age 18-65 that own an Internet-enabled set top box (like a Roku player, Apple TV, Slingbox, Vudu box, etc.) at 13.6%, reported a company spokesperson. Less than 14% may not sound like much, but OTT has been around for only three years. And Interpret’s numbers don’t include the millions of users watching alternate video sources like YouTube and Vimeo.