Competition in the Digital Age
For decades, there have been some consumers that would go to excessive lengths to skip ads. They would record shows on VCRs (by today's standards a complicated affair). They purchased DVRs. They resorted to piracy where ad-free versions of shows could be found. Overall, they engaged, not only in the program by program costs of …
Continue reading "What if TV networks embraced ad skipping?"
I've written before that successful social networks are geared towards encouraging sharing. In its desktop mode, Facebook achieved this by virtue of simplicity and a default group of circles. But in the mobile space it is struggling and I think I know the reason why. There are two broad activities that make a social network: …
Continue reading "Why Facebook needs to be baked into mobile OS"
Gizmodo are apparently done with Kickstarter. Starting today, you will not see any items from Kickstarter posted on Gizmodo. Unless we are making fun of them. Or unless Kickstarter figures out a way to up the quality of the shit on its site. We are all for rampant innovation, but, at this point, Kickstarter is …
Continue reading "'What did you expect?': Gizmodo/Kickstarter edition"
Like everyone else, I downloaded and listened to This American Life's podcast about Mike Daisey, an entertainer, who had produced a show about workers at Apple suppliers in China. When I listened to it, I didn't hear anything new. These allegations had been around for some time. What I heard was This American Life giving …
[This post was published on HBR Blogs on 19 March 2012] James Whittaker left Google and wrote about it. Long story short: Google came under "new" management (which was actually really old management returning) and started focusing on its core products rather than being "all about the technology." The staff — and this is surely not …
Continue reading "Google and the 'this time it's gonna be different mentality'"
If you haven't seen this 30 minute long video this week you are rapidly becoming a minority. The video announcing a campaign to catch Joseph Kony this year is now officially the fastest viral video of all time. It reached 100 million views in just 6 days. For such a long video, this is up …
Matt Yglesias has a new book out, The Rent is Too Damn High. I worked on housing policy back in Australia and so have bought the book but haven't had a chance to read it. What is interesting me are the Amazon reviews of the book. I took a screenshot. You can see that it …
Mac users live in a wonderful world relatively free of viruses, malware and all manner of other computer security threats. To be sure, they are there but it is very rare to be taken down by a virus. Apple, however, seem to be aware that as their star rises, so does the challenge they present …
The forthcoming Facebook IPO gives us lots to talk about. It is likely to be the largest in history (cool). It is predicated on an established business model (good), plus a future growth path into the mobile space that is uncertain (not so good). And it will make its 27-year-old founder incredibly rich (good, for …
Thursday morning, millions of Google users received an email about a change in the company’s privacy policy. Google does not seem to be collecting more information as a company. Instead the new policy makes it clear that Google, Google+, Gmail, and YouTube are owned by the same company, and providing data to one Google property …
Digitopoly 