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Understanding the New Economy ... Part 2

Earlier this week I posted about "Understanding the New Economy" and linked some podcasts that spoke to how our legal system was stifling innovation .. and an Oxford educated newspaper man's trip from that industry to obtaining a MBA from Harvard B School (see post).

Everyone now needs to read today's post from the Offical Google Blog. It gives a great example how a musician is benefiting in a huge way (read cold hard cash) from the wedding march video which a couple from Minnesota posted to YouTube. Here is an excerpt:

"Last week the world watched in wonder as Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's wedding party transformed a familiar and predictable tradition into something spontaneous and just flat-out fun. The video, set to R&B star Chris Brown's hypnotic dance jam "Forever," became an overnight sensation, accumulating more than 10 million views on YouTube in less than one week. But as with all great YouTube videos, there's more to this story than simple view counts." (read more ... and how an artist who understands how to make a profit from the new economy is raking in the money ... rather than the old paradigm of fighting a copyright battle)(click to view the screenshot at full size)

Understanding the New Economy

Yesterday I drive up and back to Duluth (5 hours total driving time). Like always during my drive, I listen to a lot of podcasts ranging from 60 Minutes to Car Talk. Normally, I have a few miscellaneous podcasts which I find which get added to my play list. Yesterday's additions included interviews with two authors on their new books:

• Remix (Making Art and Commerce Thrive in Hybrid Economy)
  (and)
• Ahead of the Curve (Two Years at Harvard Business School)

In Remix, Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig who I first heard at Wikimania, speaks to how "ancient" copyright laws are harming the new economy. This is a fascinating "listen", and more importantly "dead-on" in terms how bad laws stifle innovation.

In the second interview, you are presented with the fascinating views of Oxford educated Philip Broughton. He (the author) left a very safe position in 2004 as the Paris bureau chief of London's Daily Telegraph newspaper to attend Harvard Business School. Learn of his impressions of both the American business models as taught by Harvard, and his desire to transform himself given his professional background developed in a dying industry.

Both podcasts help one better understand the transformation taking place in the "new economy".

 

Gilligan is Marooned ... Way past Alpha Centauri!

Are you an alien? If you lived on the star Alpha Centauri ... relatively close ... you saw Michael Jackson perform in the Super Bowl five years ago. However, if you live near the star Aldebaran, you just learned about World War II. One of my favorite blogs (Map Scroll) just posted an interesting star chart ... click to maximize the image and give it some thought ... this is our culture. I'm not sure I would initiate contact with humans!

Watson ... I need you! (Google Voice)

Given my kids are all in college, or out in the working world, my wife and I decided that after 25 years with the same land-based phone number ... we went cell phone only. Monday morning when I woke up the old familiar dial tone was gone, and the phones around our house were really just archaic art work!

This morning, by happenstance I received an invite to Google Voice ... reminds you of the early days of GMail. I'm a somebody ... Google Voice wants me! (learn about Google voice)

Anyhow, I signed up and activated a phone number (no charge). The service is free in terms of received phone calls and allows me to screen callers. It will even try to translate phone messages into text and send me an email when I receive a new call. Want to try the service? Leave me a message ... I'll try to post some of the better comments here (either in audio or text mode).

• Call my Google Voice Number: 763-445-9155
  (you'll get my voice mail by default)
  

Comment upon any of these items (or pick your own topic):

• Does Google Voice scare you?
• Give an opinion about this blog?
• Do you remember Apollo 11?
• What blog posts would like to see from the Northstar Nerd?

Watch a short video about Google Voice (less than two minutes long). Here also are two screen shots from one of my calls (voice mail notification). Click to view full sized.

The End of Blinkdagger Engineering & Martians

One of my favorite engineering blogs has died ... because of web 2.0 concerns on the part of MathWorks. In one sense the story behind Blinkdagger's demise is both happy and sad. Mathworks, the manufacturer of MATLAB and Simulink liked the this blog so much, they hired one of the two blog owners. However, Mathworks found it difficult to support an "open web" strategy once they made that hire. Read more via the Blinkdagger blog. Coincidentally Bill Ives just published a post which has links to employee social media policies for  IBM, Intel and Sun.

I will very much miss posts such as MATLAB and Martians. However, Marvin lives!