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Thinking Chaos, Thinking Fences
This is for those who descend into the code
and make their room a fridge for Superman
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August 18, 2003 |
I've been bemoaning the state of journalism lately, but this piece has nearly single-handedly changed my mind. This long essay in London's Daily Telegraph the best piece of journalism I've read this year (and possibly for several years):
Graham Turner spent five weeks travelling throughout America talking to all sorts of people, members of the administration, presidents of great universities, military commanders, chief executive officers of giant corporations and banks - and a host of ordinary citizens. In this three part series, he reports his findings.
He makes so many extraordinary observations and articulately re-states so many truths about the US and its increasingly imperial world view. It's lengthy (and requires free registration), but is well worth it. I'd be curious to read an American response to this piece.
6:43:47 PM
Politics The Commons
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Because my schmoozing skills always need honing, Todd and I are going to Techvibes tomorrow night. Local geeks, come join in our monthly bacchanal! In truth, this event is as far as you can get from a bacchanal without a whiteboard and a conference system.
12:39:53 PM
Technology Vancouver
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Trendwatching.com brings us this interesting new market research strategy:
The art of 'Googling' (checking people's backgrounds on the internet via search engine Google) -- which started out as a useful tool for weeding out psychopaths from the online dating game and performing a quick double-check on an applicant's claim about his or her astonishing career -- will soon be an integral part of corporate 1:1 marketing strategies.
With consumers disclosing their most intimate secrets online (voluntarily!), Google has essentially created a 'domestic database', i.e. a world-wide database loaded with your customers' details and profiles, with a depth of information your company's database can only dream of.
Of course, anybody who posts anything online is somewhat vulnerable to this approach. In truth, though, I can't imagine that this will prove a very efficient marketing strategy. It seems like it would be a lot of work to gather enough useful information on each customer. I guess it depends upon how exacting the marketers want to be. For example, it's easy to figure out that I like, say, theatre. But it's harder to determine whether my tastes include, say, opera vacations to Italy. For the record, I don't care for operas or Italy.
10:38:58 AM
Technology
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