Wikinomics, Part 1

So I finally got hold of a copy of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything from the library, after reaching the top of the waiting list. One of the basic premises of the book is outlined in this paragraph, at the bottom of page 19:

The pace of change and the evolving demands of customers are such that firms can no longer depend only on internal capabilities to meet external needs. Nor can they depend only on tightly coupled relationships with a handful of business partners to keep up with customer desires for speed, innovation, and control. Instead, firms must engage and cocreate in a dynamic fashion with everyone – partners, competitors, educators, government, and most of all, customers.

I can easily see how a firm that accepts ideas and effort from millions of Internet users has a competitive advantage over one that only employs in-house brainpower. But my question is this: how will individuals survive in this new work environment? Sure, we might find new exciting ways to work in the Web 2.0 world – but we still have to live, eat, and pay bills in the old-fashioned world. I don’t see yet how it will be possible to earn a living using Web 2.0 technology (unless you’re one of the lucky few who builds the next YouTube or Facebook).

I’ll keep reading the book – maybe it has answers to this rather difficult question.

(For more ideas on this subject, you might want to check out Rohan Jayasekera’s Web 2.0 blog.)

Humongous disversification

Got this in the mail today. All spelling mistakes are theirs, not mine:

Accept a large decrease on your prescriptoins

honorable sorts, top-notch quality.

humongous disversification, including laborious to find drugs
No doc ordinance required.
Private with No waiting space or appointments esential

Purchase in bundle and Save! when in addition

Dating for nobs and snobs

Are you startlingly beautiful or staggeringly wealthy, and still single? Here’s the place for you!

(Sorry I haven’t written here much – I’m trying to do more creative writing. And it mostly sucks. Sigh.)

Why is CityPulse ignoring the Blue Jays?

Recently, I’ve noticed something strange about the CityPulse news screens in Toronto subway stations.

On these screens, there’s a small amount of screen real estate dedicated to sports scores, which allows people waiting for the train to catch up on how things are going in the American League and elsewhere. I’ve noticed something strange: the sports score window never shows the score of any Jays game in progress. The screen cycles briskly through the other American League games, the National League games, and the NBA or NHL games that are still going. But the Jays score is deliberately left out.

Why is that? Are the Jays scores considered important enough to put on the main screen? Or is this some sort of weird struggle between the twin media empires of CHUM/City and Rogers? What is going on here?

Hmmm

A sign that the housing boom in Toronto has reached an extreme: somebody is building luxury townhouses across the street from the Connaught streetcar loop (on Queen Street). According to the sign, these houses will cost about $450,000, despite the fact that they will be right next to a site on which streetcars will be whining and screeching 24 hours a day.

The positive explosion of condos and townhouses (or, as they’re usually called, “townhomes”) must mean that there are a whole lot of people with hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend. Which leads me to my next question: where did I go wrong?

Try the veal

I was cleaning out an old box of papers today, and found the following list of artists scheduled to appear at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Ledyard, Connecticut, during June and July of 1997:

June 4: Donald O’Connor
June 6: Kathy Mattea
June 7: Tower of Power
June 8: George Jones
June 10: Miss Connecticut Pageant
June 15: Live Boxing ESPN (Don Diego Poeder vs. Terry Ray)
June 16: Kingston Trio
June 18: Live Kick Boxing (Jeff “The Duke” Roufus vs. Pat Smith)
June 20-21: Victor Borge
June 22-23: Randy Travis
June 24-25: The McGuire Sisters
June 26-27: Crosby, Stills, Nash
June 28: Jay Leno
July 7-8: Sawyer Brown
July 9-10: Joe Walsh
July 12: Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and Bobby Rydell
July 15: Marty Stuart and Lee-Roy Parnell
July 18-19: Engelbert Humperdinck
July 20: Jeff Foxworthy
July 24: Patti LaBelle
July 25-26: Willie Nelson
July 30-Aug 3: Barry Manilow

What I got in my mailbox this morning, Part 2

According to my bank, my Visa card rate is apparently lower – down from 18.5% to 10%. I received this reduction because I am a valued cardholder in solid financial standing. Gosh, I never knew. (Solid financial standing. Ha ha ha. Sorry, I digress.)

The letter informing me of this happy news contained two fascinating sentences. Number one:

And you can feel secure, because while the Prime Rate may fluctuate over time, the Prime Rate portion of your total annual interest rate will never rise above 9%.

I hate to be churlish, but what about the other portions of my total annual interest rate? I’m now being offered Prime plus 4% as my annual interest rate – presumably, the 4% could rise to 5, 6, or whatever.

And then there’s this:

Now that you have this new lower rate, you could consider doing some of the things you may have been thinking about – such as upgrading your home entertainment system, taking a weekend getaway to visit family or friends or perhaps buying a new computer.

Nice try, Mister Visa Dude, but I am not going to buy anything large until I can afford it. (Tentatively, this is scheduled for 2010 or my senescence, whichever comes first.)

What I got in my mailbox this morning

So I got something strange and unusual in my snail mail this morning. It was postmarked from Austin, Texas, and was two copies of a pamphlet by Wayne Alan Brenner called “Five Simple Steps To Greater Joy In This World Of Sorrow”.

The steps, summarized, are:

Step One: Let this document fall.
Step Two: Empty your mind of all unkind thoughts.
Step Three: Call your best friend.
Step Four: Drink a glass of water.
Step Five: Pass this document to the next person you see.

The back of each document (and the envelope) contain an official-looking form with three check boxes to choose from:

This document is known to be
_ Gravitationally Secure
_ Gravitationally Corrupt
_ Currently Untested

Verified in strict accordance with the Revised Manual of Gravitational Assurance, Chapter 6, Paragraph 11, Second Edition of June 2001.

Then there’s a signature and a stamp.

I’m not sure why someone went to the trouble of sending me this, or what it’s about. If you’re curious, Wayne Alan Brenner’s website is here. And here is an excerpt of Steps One and Two. (If you’re reading this, and you sent the pamphlet to me, please let me know!)

I didn’t know that

Today’s fascinating fact is courtesy of a Globe and Mail article on desktop dining:

Opting for a bite at your desk can save time during a hectic work day, but there’s an unhealthy downside to eating at your desk. And it has nothing to do with the lingering smell of a co-worker’s tuna sandwich or microwave popcorn. Desktop dining could leave you feeling ill, lethargic, and carrying a few more pounds than you’d like.

Consider this: the average desktop is home to 100 times more bacteria than a kitchen table and 400 times more than the average toilet seat. That’s what a team of microbiologists from the University of Arizona learned when they measured bacterial levels inside offices located in New York, San Francisco, Tucson and Tampa.

The five most germ-contaminated spots were (in order) phones, desktops, water fountain handles, microwave door handles and keyboards. The office toilet seat had the lowest bacteria levels of the 12 surfaces tested.

Which reminds me of a germ-avoidance tip I once read: don’t bother worrying about public toilet seats, but never, never shake hands with your doctor.

The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog

I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned this before, but I love this site to pieces.

The site is currently displaying a picture of a pawn shop that was taken in 1899. Their motto: “You Can Pawn from a Shoe String to a Locomotive”. This picture is now my desktop background.