Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category

Monday, April 30th, 2012

Making Money from Scoops

Here is an ethical question.

Can a news source make money from its scoops – beyond the obvious – and will I keep reading the source if they continue to scoop?

The question is raised by Felix Salmon, the finance blogger on Reuters – somewhat facetiously I thought…until I thought about it and read the comments posted around his own posting.

Read on:
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/04/24/could-the-nyt-make-money-from-its-scoops/

Bottom line – companies pay for access to information. In today’s world they pay for access to ever more relevant and ever more instant sources. If I hired a research company to unearth that same information few would argue that I don’t have the right to benefit from it. But a news source? A storied institution like the New York Times? Don’t they have a compact with the public? Don’t all credible news institutions have that same sense of accountability?

Yet already I can pay the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and others to get digital access to their news and thus get it faster and before the print edition is even composed. And, if I go back in time – isn’t buying a daily subscription the same thing? I get it early in the morning – read it with my coffee and muffin and get a jump on the guy who picks it up on the way in. In fact I remember stories of people who would wait outside the printing plants to get the first copy of a given newspaper in the old days.

So – it would seem, at first glance, that in our digital world there is no additional ethical or moral issue – like most things it’s just an evolution and adaptation of understood and accepted behavior.

Or is it? HMMMMMMM….

Read the posts and tell me what you think.

My going in view was much the same as one of the contributors – a trusted news source has to be held to a different standard than a scandal rag – and I might be tempted to add that in a world where credibility, relevance and trust are becoming blurred subjects, I might feel even more strongly about that point and hope that they hew to a more rigorous interpretation of their charter.

In fact I might argue that if they fall prey to the temptation it actually lowers their future competitive advantage.

Last point – notice all the anonymity in the postings – my position on that has never changed – unless you are in a country where you fear for your life the opportunity to misuse hiding behind a curtain is too tempting for too many…and adds to the danger of having no credible sources left for benchmarking information and, yes, even behavior.

Listen:

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
Samuel Johnson

I think this about sums it up. Interestingly, many weighed in on this, from the Greek and Roman philosophers to Benjamin Franklin to many of today’s most famous pundits.

Not a problem created by our age but one still very relevant and very much on people’s minds.

What do you think?

Posted by David on 04/30 at 06:43 PM
  • It is interesting how many sites are now making the move from freeview into pay for content models - most recently was the Times UK. I guess most people expect that the publications online should be free, whilst paper copies should not - however a business is a business and any profit made off the back of covering operating costs ...
    Read more >
    Posted by Suzanne Donovan on 2012-05-07 04:36:56
Monday, February 13th, 2012

Amazon? Google? Who Would Have Thunk?

Who would have thunk….

Google is going to have a physical bricks-and-mortar – old-fashioned – GPS-findable – swipe- your-credit-card-or-pay-cash – salespeople to help you – store!

IMAGINE THAT!!!!

What are they going to sell?

Check out the Google online store to get an idea.  The top 10 items?  Chotchkes!!!!  Baby bibs and T-shirts!  And as you can see by the map – there doesn’t even seem to be a regional or local skew!  HMMMMMMM.

Now to be fair – they also had a small retail presence selling Chrome laptops — the Chromebook – not particularly successful, but they made a go of it.

Apple Stores need no big introduction – if you haven’t been in one, you should.  Great service – open 24/7 – like the Web – and a great place to play and demo.

Microsoft has also entered the fray – and although nascent by comparison to Apple – their retail empire is expanding.

eBay has also joined the game – and there is a thriving business of eBay drop-off stores that provide services to prospective sellers. …and by the way…they’ve also started advertising…god for bid…on TV.

And now Amazon – already big in mail – a powerhouse in cloud – is also looking to own the avenue….

What does this all mean? Is digital losing steam? Can it be that as Facebook goes public the rest of the world regresses?

In my view? It’s all very simple….

Digital is everything – but not everything is digital.  I will repeat that – digital is everything – but not everything is digital.

We place orders for food online and have it delivered to our office or home; we order clothing online and wear it…in real time; we buy movie tickets – movie tickets! – with our mobile devices and actually sit in theaters munching popcorn with the masses; we stream or save or otherwise access video content and view it on all sorts of screens – God forbid we mistake that for TV; we check for purchase information online – we check price and inventory live in our neighborhoods – and then buy the stuff and carry it home; and on and on and on….

Meanwhile Wal-Mart is trying to figure out how to sell through digital channels

Digital is everything – makes no difference today what we do, what we buy, what we want, what we believe – it all has some digital component – some digital foundation or infrastructure – some digital building blocks….

But here is the thing – not everything is digital.  We don’t eat digital or wear digital; digital doesn’t replace sitting around a big screen during a championship game with your buds; digital buying isn’t the same as being face-to-face with a fashion expert as you try on new clothing; and who cares if you call it TV – just give me my favorite show to watch.  Analysts and other so- called experts take note…please.

In my view the world is now really getting exciting – Wal-Mart moves toward Amazon moving toward Wal-Mart and Barnes and Noble, as Apple moves toward Best Buy who is moving toward Amazon – you get the picture.

Meanwhile you and I can still go to the movies….

So what’s it all about?

Listen?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Charles Darwin

(FYI – I used this same quote almost four years ago…when the financial system was turned at its core …take a look…rules are always changing…)

Take note, all – it’s not the one that says all is changing – it’s the one that is the most adaptable to change – big difference.

Personally? Now it’s really getting interesting….

What do you think?

Posted by David on 02/13 at 04:41 PM
Monday, January 30th, 2012

Driverless Cars

So the story goes….

In 1895, or so, there were only two cars in Ohio and they managed to hit head on….

Maybe it was Illinois….

Truth is I heard this story when I was younger – could never find its source – assume it’s apocryphal – but maybe it has a point….

Looks like Google’s driverless cars had their first accident – now – is the story apocryphal? Judge for yourself – but I figure that it’s only a matter of time anyway.

Cars are the new iPads. Ford uses the Consumer Electronic Show, in Las Vegas, to showcase and introduce its latest and greatest, and let me tell you their technology is amazing.

Some Fords can park themselves; have radar for your blind spots; use voice control and on and on. Critical to them, by the way, is that everything they do allows you to have 2 hands on the wheel – always.

But that is for now. The ultimate driving experience will be when we sit back – enjoy the technology – probably mostly speaking and texting – in one form or another while the car drives itself. And, when you look at Ford and BMW and others, there is no doubt we are on the way – despite the 2-hand limitation of today.

Legislation in the US already allows driverless cars on the roads – in some states – and more will follow.

There is also a new legal expertise being developed – who do you sue in case of an accident? How do you insure? Can a cop pull you over? Sounds trivial but think about it…

Seems to me the real question though is the loss of human skill and intervention. Look – clearly – we haven’t done that great a job – too many people still die in needless car accidents – usually because of human fault – drunkenness, negligence, tiredness, whatever…

But here is a scenario – the GPS satellites that “drive” the cars get hacked – what happens? Frankly the possible outcomes are too scary to think about.

Bottom line – it will come when it does – and no doubt there will be glitches and accidents and sadly deaths – make no mistake…

But my issue isn’t with fear of the technology – it’s the fear of losing touch – the human element that while not perfect…is exactly why it’s so perfect and in my opinion never actually duplicable.

It’s my total worship of Sully and Flight 1549 – no computer could have saved those people – and it’s my admiration for the Waldorf Schools and the insight that the Tech Elite have in sending their kids there.

And I love what one of the kids had to say:

“Besides, if you learn to write on paper, you can still write if water spills on the computer or the power goes out.”
Finn Heilig, 10, whose father works at Google

One day we will be passengers in a High Tech cocoon interacting not with the road but with the environment – at least until we have teleports…

However…listen

“Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.”
Louis Gerstner

Now I’m pushing it – I know – but maybe not – many people are emotionally attached to their cars…LOL…but that wasn’t my point.

As we get more and more dependent on computers doing our work – let’s never lose sight of the humanity in anything…

I write this from Berlin – where today I toured the Holocaust Museum and kept wondering how much greater the horror would have been had they had computers…..

Never lose sight…..

What do you think?

 

 

Posted by David on 01/30 at 05:48 PM