Archive for May, 2009
5 Wishes For Apple Computers
May 30th
Dear Apple Computers,
With your World Wide Developers Conference coming up next week, I wanted to take a minute to send you my top five wishes for announcements. I have been a fan and user of your products for years and would really like to see these items get addressed in your product line.
- Bring back firewire on all of your laptops and desktops. I need to use my camcorder!
- Produce a desktop widget for OS X that allows me to use iPhone applications on my macs just like I do on the phone. Plus, allow me to buy apps in the app store for my desktop without having to own an iPhone.
- Produce a sub $500 netbook. (Not just a tablet – I want the keyboard)
- Release a $700 MacBook. My kids need laptops for school and yours cost twice as much as a PC!
- Release a headless iMac for $899. I love my monitor, but cannot afford nor need the power of a MacPro.
Oh, one more… Mr. Steve Jobs, please get well soon and come back strong. The Information Technology world needs at least one leader who is more concerned about doing the right thing than just making money. You are a unique force in the Information Age and we miss your direct influence.
How many other Mac fans do we have in our community? If you could, would you use them for work? Why don’t you like them? What else is on your wish list?
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 30, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .
The Intersection Of Two Revolutions
May 29th
Recently, I have written extensively about how Information Professionals are at ground zero of the currently ongoing revolution in computing that we call the onset of the Information Age. There can be no doubt that our world is transitioning, quickly, from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. The signs of a discontinuity are all around us in our economy, education, society, technology, and workplaces. While, we have discussed how the start date is in question, the reality that we are swimming in a whole new sea cannot be debated. Just the acknowledgment that your desktop computer has the storage capacity of every written library on the planet, can surf to anyplace online, and processes data quickly enough to land an entire fleet of Apollo Spaceships on the moon simultaneously while your parents did not exist should convince everyone.
Today, as I tried to explain why Twitter and Facebook were also revolutionary forces in our Information Age, I began to question whether they were actually even part of the same revolution. It occurred to me that maybe the real conundrum is that there might have two separate, but simultaneous revolutions in human affairs happening. I think that the second one is a revolution in social communications. For the first time in history technology has permitted us to interact with anyone, at anytime, asynchronously, in both a point to point, or multicast means. These two tools permit you to know the thoughts of your favorite movie star, mother, priest, and President as they occur, but only at the times that you desire. The revolution is that groups of the willing, focused on any topic can form, interact, and disband without any need for previous coordination, knowledge, or geographic proximity. I believe that these two revolutions are mistakenly grouped together because they happen to be linked to the same tools: computers, smart phones, and the Internet. I think that the technology and what they enable, the communication, are really two different phenomena that are better viewed as separate.
When you view the information and social communication revolutions as unique, it allows you to focus on the differences in them both. Clearly, Information Professionals are the experts needed for coping with the information event, but may not be the right tool for the social media job. Communications, media, public affairs, and marketing professionals would be better suited to that environment. Many online refer to this new expert as a Social Media Consultant. The difference? Social Media Consultants don’t care about the hardware or software involved, but with the content being transmitted and received by them.
The next time that you, as an Information Professional, are called in to address your organization’s response or strategy for creating competitive advantage from the Information Age, evaluate the question or problem statement. Maybe, you are actually being asked about the revolution in social communications. Maybe, you really need to bring in a social media consultant instead.
Do you agree that there are two revolutions underway? Are Information Professionals the ones to deal with both? Please share your ideas with us.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 29, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .
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News Commentary: Wolfram Alpha – Game Changer
May 31st
Posted by Scott Coughlin in Information Age
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On Sundays, I pick a news story that I found particularly interesting and relevant to Information Professionals to comment on. This is a stunning example of that trend.
It is truly a rare day that something completely new concerning the Information Age is added to our world. This week marked the launch of Wolfram | Alpha. [Ed note: The pipe (|) is part of the official name] This is the latest creation of Dr. Stephen Wolfram. He is a world renowned computational physicist who created Mathematica. As many of you know, Mathematica is pretty much the universal language of computer based math, physics, and science throughout the research, academic, and R&D worlds. Wolfram | Alpha is his next leap in creation. This how they describe it on their site:
Google is the world’s best search engine. Wolfram Alpha is defiantly not a search engine as many in the media have characterized it as. Search engines, by their name, allow you to find information that already exists somewhere on the Internet. While some of the information that you uncover with Google may be unknown to you, it is always historic in that someone or something has already created it. Wolfram Alpha creates knowledge. That’s right – you put a question into it that is possible to determine with math and it finds the data or data feeds needed to calculate it and it reports a new answer just for you. The query need not have ever been done before to produce a result. Don’t take my word only for it. The below story is a terrific introduction to the idea.
CBSnews.com: Wolfram Alpha Does What Google Can’t
Google News Summary
I was tipped off to this story by Leo Leporte. He was able to interview Dr. Stephen Wolfram on launch day. I highly recommend all of his journalism, but this interview is especially relevant to our community.
The easiest way to know a happening in the InfoWorld is disruptive is that experts have trouble explaining it or boxing in its limitations. If you cannot find the edges of something in the Information Age, you should respect it. Just as the web placed communications and information into the hands of laymen, cameras made the world photographers, and IPods created a world of DJs, Wolfram Alpha will permit anyone to conduct scientifically verifiable computational research. Where that will lead is anyone’s guess. I am sure though that out there is a smart graduate student who is about to become the next Einstein as his mental ideations get transformed into actionable, reportable, confirmable findings on the way a new facet of our universe works. I can’t wait.
Information Professionals everywhere need to learn about this new innovation.
What do you think about this story? Is it the transformational event that I suggest it is? Are there other stories like this out there? Please share your ideas with us.
P.S. By the way, the picture accompanying this story is the results from my use of Wolfram Alpha to determine the distance between Mars and Pluto this morning. I put my query in there and got one number. Amazingly, it was corrected for their current orbital positions based upon the date. I put the same question in Google and got tons of tables, but then had to drill down to find what I wanted. As you might guess, most of the Google results were the distance between Earth and those planets. All of Google’s results were historic and would have not been correct for today. Really fascinating stuff! I am sold.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 31, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .