Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Why blogs are still more important than Twitter, Facebook and all that noise-making machines

In a post about how blog search engines died, giving Google blogsearch an easily-won monopoly, Doc Searls writes about howThe Near-Death of Blog Search
 I hope they keep it (Google Blogsearch) going, because it's an essential resource for finding the kind of news that's syndicated live, still curates itself, and isn't just about pushing or riding whatever happens to be buzzing at the moment.
And how Twitter and Facebook have changed news (for the worse)
(Twitter and Facebook)'ve buried real news — stuff worth keeping around — under a mountain of buzz, all of which melts away after minutes, weeks or, at the most, months.


Related: Why Blogging still rules and reports about its demise are incorrect

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We are all in showbiz, we are all selling, we are Generation Sell

Probably the best description of a society in the age of social media marketing (Twitter, Facebook), search engine optimization (Google), where our likes, shares, tweets, et all, have to mean something, have to sell something. Read it in full here.

Best part #1 (sorry for over-aggregation, but can't help it)

....we’re all in showbiz now, walking on eggshells, relentlessly tending our customer base. We’re all selling something today, because even if we aren’t literally selling something (though thanks to the Internet as well as the entrepreneurial ideal, more and more of us are), we’re always selling ourselves. We use social media to create a product — to create a brand — and the product is us. We treat ourselves like little businesses, something to be managed and promoted.

And, the best part #2:
Bands are still bands, but now they’re little businesses, as well: self-produced, self-published, self-managed. When I hear from young people who want to get off the careerist treadmill and do something meaningful, they talk, most often, about opening a restaurant. Nonprofits are still hip, but students don’t dream about joining one, they dream about starting one. In any case, what’s really hip is social entrepreneurship — companies that try to make money responsibly, then give it all away.

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What Success Really Looks Like


Success is rarely a straight line thing. Very few people see life as they script it. But, Success is a skill. You must do all you can.
Via 

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How long before we make our own phones and tablets?

How long before we make our own phones and tablets, using material easily available in the market? How long before we go to places like Nehru Place (Delhi) and order our phones or Tablets? In India, we get people to assemble our PCs. We pick all materials a-la-carte from the shelf . We haven't yet reached the point where everyone opts for Ubuntu. Windows XP does just fine.

Like branded PCs, Branded phones come with crap of all variety - from expensive Walled Garden (Apple),  and pre-loaded crap that you can't easily uninstall (battery-draining Android-based machines from Samsung etc.), to unnecessarily expensive Windows phones on Nokia (we just need someone to make an easily installable version of Windows for DIY phones).

Recent market developments may be pointing towards such possibilities - witness, for example, the glut of Tablet PCs in the market, so much so that the literature on these machines (online) shows us where each part inside was made and how much did each cost - LCD, touchscreen, the basic board, memory cards, Android 4.0...All you need is some opportunistic wholesale buyer to flood the market with these. This will give more jobs to those kids passing out from mobile repair schools.

But, will the governments aid such a move, which threatens the cause of big business? For example, how will we deal with the necessity of authorized IMEI numbers?

Related:

Will the US Mobile Industry please open up?
Notes on the ideal cellphone


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