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Entries from June 2008

Wondering about damage and repair

June 19th, 2008 · 20 Comments · Four pillars

Ever since I first heard Clay Shirky talk about the cost of damage and the cost of repair, I have been very taken with the idea. I believe he was talking about Wikipedia at the time. The more I think about it, anything that is a commons will have this tendency to retain and increase [...]

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Pre-release piracy: another appalling term

June 17th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Four pillars

I’ve been following a perplexingly fascinating case for about a year or so; one of those cases where truth way beats fiction. Simply put, one of the biggest companies in the music business, Universal Music Group, was suing the delightfully-named Roast Beast Music Collectibles, or more specifically Troy Augusto, who trades as roastbeastmusic on eBay, [...]

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Musing about the Whose Data Is It question

June 17th, 2008 · 9 Comments · Four pillars

I’m a pretty gregarious kind of person; I like spending time with people, stay awake all kinds of hours, travel quite a bit (on business as well as pleasure). So I know a lot of people, and a lot of people know me.
Which means I land up with a lot of information about how to [...]

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Not cricket? Of course it is

June 15th, 2008 · 12 Comments · Cricket

I love cricket. [As if you haven't noticed]. Been a fervent follower of the game for over 40 years, been privileged to watch may great cricketers during that time.
The years haven’t been short of controversy. The first I can remember was the D’Oliviera incident in 1968, when the South African tour was cancelled after Basil [...]

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Musing about Wounded Knee and Wikipedia and the US Open

June 15th, 2008 · 3 Comments · golf, history, wikipedia

As a child and as a boy, I’d heard about the Battle of Wounded Knee, about Sitting Bull and about Big Foot, but as seen through the eyes of cowboy comics illustrators. My real knowledge about the battle didn’t amount to much as a result.
Today, reading newspaper reports about Tiger Woods and the US Open, [...]

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What does bad look like? And related questions

June 15th, 2008 · No Comments · Identity, Trust, humour

I was in conversation with an old colleague, Sean Park, a few days ago; with a little bit of luck, we’ll be able to spend a little time together next week in San Francisco, at Supernova. During the conversation, this post by Chris Skinner came up.
First, a few disclaimers.
One, I am not against cyberlibertarians. I [...]

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Musing about lazy Saturdays and unGoogleable things

June 14th, 2008 · 13 Comments · Cricket, Nostalgia, humour

I grew up in a family where we were intense, almost obsessive, about many strange things. During my mid-to-late teens, I don’t think a day passed without there being a “session” at home. What do I mean by “session”? A gathering of people, numbering greater than 10, all focused on some activity or the other. [...]

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Self-fulfilling prophecies? Or trends before their tipping points?

June 13th, 2008 · No Comments · Four pillars

I’ve been spending some time reading The Internet and Consumer Choice, a report produced by the Pew Internet and American Life Project a month or two ago.
The report makes four key statements:

The internet helps music buyers connect with artists and learn more about music, but it doesn’t strongly influence what or how they buy
The internet [...]

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Continuing with ramblings about syndication in the enterprise

June 12th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Four pillars

When I started talking about the Four Pillars model (search, syndication, conversation and fulfilment) four or five years ago, I had some very specific views about syndication. And, as I see the new generation start entering the workforce, if anything those views have been reinforced.
Let’s take reports and enquiries. In this context, when I use [...]

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Demonstrating Moore’s Law: A sideways view

June 12th, 2008 · 8 Comments · Four pillars

Here’s the start of the wikipedia entry for Moore’s Law:
Moore’s law describes an important trend in the history of computer hardware: that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasing exponentially, doubling approximately every two years.[1] The observation was first made by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore in [...]

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