I somehow made my way to Rags Gupta’s blog. I was curious who this "Rags" was was and about. In his "About" page he mentioned the book, "The Wisdom of Crowds", which I had heard before. Another book to add to my list. And another guy to Bloglines.
Link: Rags.
The announcement of Google Print made many librarians and archivists
ecstatic. The service announced by Google is to digitize millions of
library books into searchable Web pages.
But these same people are left to reexamine their core commitment to
spreading knowledge freely. Letting a for-profit organization like
Google mediate access to library books could open up long-hidden
reserves of human wisdom or constitute the first step toward
privatizing it.
Another concern is the exemption from copyright laws, which allows
libraries to allow many readers to use the same book. Publishers and
authors depend on the strict copyright laws to prevent copying and
reuse of their intellectual property (IP) until after they have
recouped their investments. The mass digitization of library books will
threaten to make the content portable and piracy prone (like music and
movie sharing).
Also, the very existence of libraries and the occupations of
librarians are in question. With printed knowledge now available on the
Web, where people can access it from their homes, offices, and mobile
devices, will libraries continue to exist? How will the digitization
change the habits of library go-ers? Checking out a book can become the
next legacy to fade such as visiting a travel agent to book a flight,
or sending a handwritten letter by mail.
Link: The Infinite Library.
Related: Googling irks France; France Detects a Cultural Threat in Google
In his new book, Collapse, Jared Diamond examines the reasons why some
of the famous civilizations failed. The subtitle was intriguing and
surprising: How Societies Choose to Fail. Societies choosing to fail? The
answer is very forthright, but it turns out they do.
Then I realize the same can be said for businesses. The reasons for failure
in both are similar. The book indirectly advocates the practice of scenario
planning.
Scenario planning is not about predicting the future. However,
it’s exploring possible future situations, its implications, and the decisions
that must be made. In a nutshell, it’s to better understand and prepare for the
future. I think I will post more about scenario planning later on.
Diamond concludes societies collapse when they fall on hard times and make
one or more of four fundamental minstakes:
1) They fail to anticipate problems.
Fact is, most business and entrepreneurial leaders aren’t all that great at anticipating
problems. They’re great at eventually figuring a way out of most messes we create,
but don’t ask us to forsee them. It brings us down.
2) They don’t respond promptly when problems arrive.
And
if business people are bad at predicting mishaps, they’re not always so
quick in responding to them, either. Too often we wait until a problem
becomes a full-blown crisis, then we don our asbestos coats and rush
into the flames with a fire hose and a set of rosary beads. Most
successful entrepreneurs are good enough firefighters that most of the
time they emerge from the flames with nothing more than a singed smirk
on their face — until that one time they don’t.
3) They exhibit something he calls "bad" rational behavior.
Another mistake that can cause a collapse is what
Diamond calls "bad" rational behavior. Look at the way many outfits cut costs. I
know a public company that recently announced it was reducing travel budgets
across the board by 60%. In this and most organizations, salespeople spend most
of the travel dollars. And when you tell a salesperson, "We don’t want you to do
what we’re paying you to do" (get on the road and make sales presentations),
it’s pretty demoralizing.
4) They adopt "disastrous values."
More often than not, these values may allow a company
to succeed at one phase of development, but then they may undermine it at a
later stage. For example, most successful early-stage entrepreneurial businesses
are pretty CEO-centric. In fact, research suggests that nothing is more
important in predicting the success of an early-stage venture than the quality
of its leader.
But as it grows and becomes more complex, the outfit
often needs to evolve and allow key employees to make autonomous decisions and
contribute meaningfully to its strategy. The fact that only about 1.5% of all
U.S. firms ever reach $25 million in sales suggests that too many of them hold
on too long to this — or other — disastrous values.