There are times for all of us that events occur and we recognize them and put them together because of the relationships or context. I don’t normally blog about these situations for me personally because I feel that it is difficult to accurately and effectively convey the events in meaningful way. In other words I normally write about subject areas that I believe are meaningful for not just me but you. The reason I do this is because when I am reading something I always find myself either aligning to it in some way or not. If I am aligning myself to it, I am seeking the utility of it. What does it mean to me? How can I use this? How will this help me or my friends, family or coworkers?
This year I have been reading a lot about how our minds work. I have some great thinking friends who share my passion for understanding our humanity and how this understanding relates to our day to day personal interactions. The reason I am writing this here and now is because I plan on sharing some of these concepts on this blog. Since I write mostly about technology concepts and I keep my writing fairly generic with the intent of some utility I am letting you know that I resultant writing may vary at this point.
If for some reason any of the areas or ideas that I post offend or strike a chord please understand ahead of time that my intent is not to be confrontational but thought provoking.
I am currently reading a document that intertwines religious concepts and ideas in relation to how the mind works (thanks Dave). I will be writing about this very soon. In the meantime I am posting something that was introduced to me the other day called The Cluetrain Manifesto . I am still in the middle of trying to sort it all out but I think it applies to the ideas and concepts of human to human connectivity and the relationship with technology. As the person who shared this with me instructed, I will pass on the same information. He said ” Read the wiki first, then read the manifesto.” With that I am including the manifesto.
The Cluetrain Manifesto Feedback is welcome.
The Cohenization Project 
This idea of markets being in tune with conversations is not new at all, it is in fact as old as the beginning of man. Some of the first products used by humans were made by hand such as a spear head or an axe out of a stone. These were not mass produced as we human’s managed to do later in the industrial age, they were done individually and had special features or flaws that each person put on them, but what we don’t know for fact but can surmise is that when one person made any improvements upon this axe or spear head, that word got around and the feature was duplicated or at least the method of making it was talked about. This is conversations as markets as well. What this author or group of authors are expounding has some future worries as well as some potential for a better world. I am working on a paper right now call “Flash Jobs”. This is about what a few of us are seeing as the way of the future in businesses in general when it comes to intellectual property and maybe even in specific functions performed for one or two customers at a time instead of mass production.
What we are seeing now is potential for tailor made products and no longer one of a kinds as being necessary for production efficiencies, but we are not there yet. Let me clarify this statement, I was a product manager once in another life outside of government and I worked in basically a commodities chemical product line. We were always trying to find niche markets with derivatives of our commodity products We couldn’t afford one of a kinds in the industrial age, as factories couldn’t retool quickly and it took a long time to get standards resolved between vendors etc. With the information age, all this will be much quicker, in fact I believe that the current long standing companies of today will not be able to survive. The differentiation of a commodity product is that it can be produced in more than one place or one organization (usually several places and organizations) competitively which makes it very price sensitive. Today if it wasn’t for certain patent laws, reproduction of products could be made almost overnight within this information age. Don’t get me wrong, we still need standards but they will become more foundational in my view where for example plug-ins remain the same but the software behind the plug-ins can be changed without changing the structure of the connections. This of course will be until other power sources are found besides electricity.
As well I believe for the same reason we will see legacy programs become overtaken by innovation and new methods, materials, and processes that don’t require maintenance of coherent production standards for product quality and speed of production but instead we will need good communications with the customers directly and trust. We are already seeing third world countries that can rise almost over night because they don’t have to maintain this level of coherent production and can move quickly to adapt to the markets; implementing the newest of technologies. And what is the building block for this revolution… the internet maybe but the internet doesn’t consume the knowledge, it is the understanding of the users of the information and that my friends is eduction and understanding of diversity. America has always had an edge on diversity being a new continent with peoples all over the world coming to live and work. But eduction is also necessary for understanding in reading, writing and mathematics. We are slipping away from these foundational factors, but there is hope. When it comes to innovation, diversity trumps formal education. How many of us know people from different religions; races; cultures; etc? These make for very good conversations and thus new market opportunities. This is why our country is still looked at for innovation, however it is quickly copied elsewhere.
Keep questioning Howie, there is a pony under the pile, just as you remind me almost daily not to quit and give in to the big government machine, likewise don’t give up looking.
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