Speaking For All Mankind

An interesting perspective on how power is shifting from government to the people.

Four months ago, I wrote about Walter Anderson’s Reality Isn’t What It Used To Be and how it perfectly described the rise of social networking even though it was published in 1992.  Essentially, Anderson argues that technology has advanced to the point that people can construct their own reality of like-minded individuals.

Rachel Winchester updates this argument with her concept of the Metanet.  She defines it as:

“The population of the internet has hit the point where we can no longer lump everything and everyone together as ‘the Internet.’ There’s the internet of things, as more and more devices come online of their own accord, and more and more sensors are added. There’s the cloud, where data is stored and processed, there’s the commerce internet, there are the walled gardens of intranets and private instances, and there’s social media, now the main way people interact with the internet. I’m starting to call these the metanet, the macronet, the micronet, and the me net.”

On a related note, I think my last paragraph of my original posting was a bit pessimistic as I asserted that social networking will lead to more groupthink and exclusionary communities.  I still think there is a danger of groupthink but the same technologies can also make it easier for people to break from groups they no longer find useful or welcome to form their own.  A key to this is how social networking technologies make it easier to raise criticisms and objections that could prevent the formation of groupthink.  Must keep an open mind on this.

From ProjectSteps:

“Can we or should we do it?
Will it make our situation simpler or more complex?
Will it help us to solve a problem or cause a problem?”
Should we do nothing?”

Watching the video tutorial about Google Buzz and its features I think that Google has quietly conceded that Google Wave wasn’t as revolutionary as they had hoped.  Notice how Google Buzz is essentially Google Wave with GMail as the platform.

UPDATE – O’Reilly Radar has also noticed the similarity between Google Wave and Google Buzz.

Charles Leadbeater (titles himself a leading innovation and creativity thinker) writes a provocative essay on five potential problems with the move toward cloud computing:

1)  Homogeneity stemming from established companies like Google and Apple.

2)  Corporate Control.

3)  Prevention of cloud formation by strict copyright controls.

4)  Government control of the cloud.

5)  The Digital Divide.

These are potentially serious issues that do warrant further exploration.  The Internet is famous for routing around controls but can it survive in a cloud environment?

Yesterday, I wrote about NASA’s new budget and how this new direction has the potential to greatly revitalize the US economy.  A fascinating project that has major potential for IT is NASA’s cloud computing platform – Nebula.  In this video, NASA’s CIO describes Nebula.

Can’t multitask.  Can’t run Flash.  No webcam.  Limited to only apps in the Apple App Store.  Seriously?

Waiting for the DroidPad which will blow the iPad away.

As I go through the various pieces of direct mail from various IT, training, and management gurus, I am reminded of this line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian:

“Brian: I am NOT the Messiah!
Arthur: I say you are Lord, and I should know. I’ve followed a few.”