Periodically reassessing where we are going is good

BOSTON, USA – Change is the only constant. But there comes times where the disconnect between yesterday and tomorrow is great, and we need to stop and try to understand what is going on.

One thing we don’t do here is speculate on hard core market trends, like customer numbers, market share, or revenue. We also don’t comment (much) on competitors or try to openly discuss what we think is going down and how we’re going to respond to it.

But what we can do is read what others have written and at least point it to you. That’s the idea behind these round-ups and, even more so, the articles we bookmark on our Delicious stream (and that show up in our Twitter feed).

In today’s collection of links, I have two articles that I found interesting but which I am not so comfortable discussing (for one, I am biased). That shouldn’t stop you guys from having a discussion about these articles, though. So, let’s scroll down to see what these articles were about.

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Getting what you pay for in free online services

ESPOO, Finland – I used to be one of those people who would say “you get what you pay for,” and tell folks to quit complaining when one of their “free” online services was having some service issues. Think about it: you are using a service for free and it breaks down. Why should you get mad? You don’t pay anything for it. That makes you a free-loader of some sort, right? Beggars can’t be choosy.

Wrong. And I’ve finally realized why.

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The web. Now made by hand

GLOBAL – There’re plenty of opinions flying around about the Internet and what’s going to happen beyond today. One that seems increasingly prevalent though is that the Internet is fast becoming a utility, almost as necessary as electricity. Whilst that’s true, surely it has to be more than that. The Internet as a concept on its own is fine, but what makes it special is the stuff people share using the Internet. An Internet without any traffic is like an electricity cable without power – useless.

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Internet. What Internet?

GLOBAL – When I read Charlie’s piece for OneWebDay, I pulled him up on his
crazy claim of being online for 25 years. Not possible, I reckoned, as
the web as we know it has only been around since the 90s. 25 years is a
ridiculous claim. What I failed to acknowledge (and here’s where
Charlie reveals his age) was that Charlie was in college in the US
during the 80s. And in 80s US colleges, they had things like BitNet.
Hell, they even had email addresses. No, not the web as we know it
today, but a web of sorts nonetheless. His claim now has a qualifier.

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OneWebDay and what it means to me, us, you

GLOBAL and LOCAL – OneWebDay is a sort of Earth Day for the Web. It’s a celebration of the internet, a time to reflect on how the internet has transformed our lives, and to encourage people to be responsible for the internet. This year will be the third OneWebDay and I’ve been asked to be an ambassador, getting the word out and introducing people to the celebration. As part of this, I have been asked to contribute a story to show up on the main OneWebDay pages.

Read on for our take on what the internet means to us.

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What is Web 2.0?

THE INTERNET – We’re not sure about the provenance of this video, but we do know one thing – it’s well worth a few minutes of your time to watch. It might resemble something a couple of students might have knocked together as part of their art class, but it is in fact brilliantly done. What’s more, the message is pretty important too.

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Growing Together 2008

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Over the next two days, over 100 journalists from all over the world will see how mobile devices and services are changing people’s lives across Africa.