Would Shakespeare tweet?

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From: The Domino Project powered by Amazon <sethgodin@thedominoproject.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 4:42 PM
Subject: Would Shakespeare tweet?
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Would Shakespeare tweet?

Scott Turow, beloved novelist and now head of the Authors Guild, argues in the Times that Shakespeare might have had trouble surviving in the world of the web, a place of “speedy, secret transmission of stolen goods.” Apparently, once you start working with the Author’s Guild, something changes in your outlook. In the past, the Guild has spoken out against Amazon selling used books, against public libraries and against devices that allow people to have devices that enable the books they own to be digitally read to them.

The irony is thick here. First, Shakespeare never got a royalty check. Second, the only reason most people have even heard of the bard is that his plays can be produced for free, his plays are easily and cheaply found in many forms and editions and people can turn his work into movies without asking first. Shakespeare made a living based on people paying to come to his shows, live. Sort of the way a new breed of successful musicians are doing it today.

The music industry has been transformed by the spread of music online. The industry is reeling, but there’s more music than ever before, listened to more often by more people. No, I don’t expect the folks at Motown and BMG to like that, but it’s true.

The freelance writing industry has been transformed by the rise of blogs as well. No longer can writers expect to earn a living getting paid by the word to write for magazines that were the only way to reach people. I think we can agree that there isn’t a shortage of non-fiction expository writing, even though the industry has changed. Writers don’t have to like that, but it’s true.

Scott and his peers, arguing to maintain the status quo, are repeating the failed strategy of the RIAA and the record business instead of realizing what an opportunity the connectivity of the internet creates. All these readers! All these opportunities to build direct connections with them. All these chances to have your ideas spread…

Scott writes, [progress is] “… the result of abiding by rules that were carefully constructed and practices that were begun by people living in the long shadow of the Dark Ages. We tamper with those rules at our peril.” He’s a much better writer than I will ever be. But he’s a lousy student of history. There are plenty of practices that were invented in the shadow of the Dark Ages that we’re much better off without. Bloodletting, for example.

In a world where attention is the scarce resource, the enemy as Tim O’Reilly put it, is obscurity, not piracy. Particularly for the vast majority of the membership of the Author’s Guild. You can’t sue your way to attention, and we shouldn’t legislate writing back to a world of scarcity.

 
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Watch an Apple Engineer Recreate a 2,000-Year-Old Computer Using Legos | Co.Design

via fastcodesign.com

This is freaking amazing. I've read about the original mechanism in Nature, but it was hard to picture the movement through illustration. Seeing it in Lego's and with the exploded view animations really bring it to life!

Seth's Blog: The forever recession

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The forever recession

There are two recessions going on.

One is gradually ending. This is the cyclical recession, we have them all the time, they come and they go. Not fun, but not permanent.

The other one, I fear, is here forever. This is the recession of the industrial age, the receding wave of bounty that workers and businesses got as a result of rising productivity but imperfect market communication.

In short: if you're local, we need to buy from you. If you work in town, we need to hire you. If you can do a craft, we can't replace you with a machine.

No longer.

The lowest price for any good worth pricing is now available to anyone, anywhere. Which makes the market for boring stuff a lot more perfect than it used to be.

Since the 'factory' work we did is now being mechanized, outsourced or eliminated, it's hard to pay extra for it. And since buyers have so many choices (and much more perfect information about pricing and availability) it's hard to charge extra.

Thus, middle class jobs that existed because companies had no choice are now gone.

Protectionism isn't going to fix this problem. Neither is stimulus of old factories or yelling in frustration and anger. No, the only useful response is to view this as an opportunity. To poorly paraphrase Clay Shirky, every revolution destroys the last thing before it turns a profit on a new thing.

The networked revolution is creating huge profits, significant opportunities and a lot of change. What it's not doing is providing millions of brain-dead, corner office, follow-the-manual middle class jobs. And it's not going to.

Fast, smart and flexible are embraced by the network. Linchpin behavior. People and companies we can't live without (because if I can live without you, I'm sure going to try if the alternative is to save money).

The sad irony is that everything we do to prop up the last economy (more obedience, more compliance, cheaper yet average) gets in the way of profiting from this one.

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Posted by Seth Godin on September 21, 2010 | Permalink

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Seth Godin has the ability to distill very complex societal changes into easy to digest posts. Many people will intuitively see the effects of the networked generation changing everything we come into contact with, but I appreciate Seth's "get your ass off the couch" attitude.

Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation

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Only from a European company...

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trendwatching.com's September 2010 Trend Briefing covering "MATURIALISM"

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Good stuff from Trend Watching as usual. I could sense the shift that brands have been taking over the last few years, it was pretty obvious, especially after Old Spice, but even after some of the slapstick Superbowl commercials from the last few years. This briefing starts to put it in perspective and is a good read.

Tagged advertising trends trendwatching

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Browser cookies have inherently been both a blessing and a curse to both advertisers and end users alike. It's interesting to see companies try to use Flash and now HTML 5 to fix the "curse" (for the advertiser) of when users clear cookies. I think the benefit for end users in traditional cookies, is that it was reasonable easy to understand how they both helped sites keep track of your cart/login preferences etc, but it was still easy to get ride of them when you wanted to (user choice should reign after all). I foresee these new methods of creating "zombie" cookies (its already a bad thing that they've been branded), as backfiring on the companies trying to use them.

Tagged advertising digital thoughts tracking

Hasta la vista...

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After a number of dark, rainy years of bike commuting in Seattle, I
had to let go of her in order to make room for a new bike that is more
capable of hauling cargo and pulling bike trailers. Updates to come
soon!