confused of calcutta

a blog about information

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Entries from May 2007

on visible hands and grinding gears

May 30th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Four pillars

I was sad to hear about the death of Alfred Chandler, the professor whose works were instrumental in giving me an understanding of what suits did.
He was described as a business historian, and to an extent it was the title alone that led to my researching his works. I found his writings fascinating, more [...]

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cognitive biases

May 29th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Four pillars

Paul Downey pointed me towards this article:
http://www.healthbolt.net/2007/02/14/26-reasons-what-you-think-is-right-is-wrong/
The graphics, comments and general editorial whatchamacallit make it sufficiently different from the wikipedia entry so as to make your journey worthwhile.

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two webs or one?

May 29th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Four pillars

Liz Strauss, commenting on a recent post of mine, muses about the separation of the information web from the relationship web, one data driven, one social.
You can see her post here:
blogherald.com/2007/05/29/are-you-ready-for-a-whole-new-blog
I’m currently in the midst of moving house and will be without access to thè web for a while, except via blackberry. So my comments [...]

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Musing about nouns and verbs

May 27th, 2007 · 12 Comments · Four pillars

I was reading Stephen Smoliar’s latest post on The Google Paradigm and its Discontents, and something he said struck me harder than it ever did before, even if he’s said it a million times. Now most regular readers know Stephen by now, he’s one of the most prolific commenters here.  I agree with Stephen about [...]

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Freewheeling on organisations and platforms and Facebook

May 25th, 2007 · 9 Comments · Four pillars

A little while ago, I had the opportunity to talk to some people about multi-sided open platforms and their threat to traditional companies; the “traditional companies” I chose to speak about were eBay and Amazon, just to make a point; and I characterised the emergent competitor as follows:

25m participants, already an eighth the size of [...]

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Nicholas Carr on opensource

May 25th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Four pillars

I’ve just finished reading Nicholas Carr’s latest article, The Ignorance of Crowds, in the latest issue of Strategy & Business. (And it’s refreshing to note that Booz Allen Hamilton don’t appear to have constructed the traditional consultant paywall. For this relief much thanks.)
Carr makes a number of points succinctly and eloquently, and peppers them with [...]

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Musing about outsides and insides

May 25th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Four pillars

In a post headed Tara and the Blue Monster, Hugh discusses Tara Hunt’s comments on Microsoft’s adoption of the Blue Monster; Tara’s scepticism is something that is shared by many, and she makes a key point:
… it isn’t as simple as GM keeping Tahoe-bashing ads up on their site longer or Microsoft using a cool [...]

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Tilting at windmills

May 25th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Four pillars

Today’s Evening Standard informs me:
Windfarm owners in the country are used to facing legal challenges and complaints from nearby residents, who claim the ranks of vast windmills are an eyesore. But in Germany — Europe’s biggest user of windpower — it is the windfarms that are suing each other.
At the heart of the complaints is [...]

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Ehrlich’s Law(s)

May 24th, 2007 · 6 Comments · Four pillars

Does anyone out there know anything about the various statements purporting to be Ehrlich’s Law? I was researching a German scientist named Ehrlich when I came across this in Wikipedia:
Ehrlich’s Law:  “People pay way too much attention to things that are easily quantified.”
Seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to say, very John Allen Paulos. So I [...]

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Flexner on his version of collective intelligence

May 24th, 2007 · No Comments · Four pillars

Another quote from Abraham Flexner’s “The Usefulness of Useful Knowledge“, the kernel for my earlier post today:
….Thus it becomes obvious that one must be wary in attributing scientific discovery wholly to any one person. Almost every discovery has a long and precarious history. Someone finds a bit here, another a bit there. A third step [...]

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