July 25, 2022
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Come gather ‘round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’
💬 Bob Dylan
With the financial problems ricocheting around the world - I see occasional headlines from 50 years ago.
Three day work week - bad.
Fifty Years Later : Four day work week - good.
I get the subtle shift in the back story, just an observation.
4 day work week
bob dylan
Work
archive.pf.business
July 20, 2022
Data Is The New Soil
In 2013, Mark Cameron wrote
‘Data is not the new oil, it is the new soil.’
He concludes;
“Generating business value from consumer data isn’t about technology at all. It’s about how you use data to create a fantastic experience for your customers. If you can help your customer get value from their own information they will reward you for that effort. If you continue to use data to spam your customers or provide value to your company, you may find yourself wondering where everybody went.”
💬 Mark Cameron
IMHO it’s a soft article with most of the cleverness centering on the (S)oil pun.
Data is the new …. was the theme of an article I wrote for BizCatalyst a few years ago; Time To Terminate Analogies
“Sure, we wrap the idea up in customer care and nurturing, just as one does when growing plants in a garden, but at the end of the day Cameron’s argument – which seems to emerge from the work of David McCandless who writes at Information is Beautiful is simply a clever play on ‘(s)oil’ and sits squarely in old thinking.”
💬 John Philpin
“The soil analogy is certainly better than big oil but to me, it’s still about personal data being something that’s owned and used by marketers, rather than recognizing that data is used by all of us – both individually and collectively.”
💬 StJohn Deakins
But It Just Got Better
The other day an interview with Jerry Michalski appeared in one of my feeds, where he talked about Data Is TheNew Soil - nice piece - though no mention of Mark Cameron (rightly probably).
I still think the analogy needs to die - but there was a lot more insight and thinking around the idea (definitely not surprised - Jerry is a thinker). I can highly recommend the whole article which isn’t just about the (s)oil pun, but includes many other topics, including these that tickled my particular fancy.
- Idea Superconductivity
- The Betterverse - not the Metaverse
- Linky Prose
- The importance of breaking Zettlekastens out of their private spaces
- Liquid Democracy
and a whole lot more.
Do take some time out and have a proper read.
Post Script
In case you were wondering .. yes this is the same Jerry that runs Jerry’s Brain. I am even in there - though it is clear that a few updates are needed!
Data
data
jerry michalski
soil
archive.pf.business
July 13, 2022
What Is Web5
Good question.
Putting aside Molly White’s tweet from a few weeks ago, though she does raise a very good point …
I did want to share a podcast I just listened to It’s Mike Brock of Block (seriously, filed in the ‘can’t make this up’ bucket) - and no I don’t think he is Dave Brock’s son talking with Tech Dirt’s Michael Masnick.
“Web5 is a new evolution of the Web that enables decentralized apps and protocols.”
Count me in the camp (though I am still with Molly) that this makes far more sense that anything I have heard describing the Web3 world - except isn’t that how they described Web3?
Well yes - but that isn’t what is going on. Of course whether Mike et al can make it happen remains to be seen - but at least when he talks he makes sense - and also clearly separates himswlf from the ’get rich quick / stay rich libertarian world that we keep reading about.
dave brock
jack dorsey
molly white
Technology
web3.0
web5
archive.pf.business
July 5, 2022
Trust, Autonomy, Privacy and Agency
krakenimages-Y5bvRlcCx8k-unsplash
It’s 30 seconds long and nails it.
agency
autonomy
Identity
privacy
trust
archive.pf.business
July 3, 2022
Class Action Against Uber and Lyft
paul-hanaoka-D-qq7W751vs-unsplash
For example …
- set my prices
- make informed decisions about which trips to accept
- switch freely between platforms etc etc
This lawsuit starts instead by accepting that drivers are independent, then argues that Uber and Lyft are illegally depriving their independent-contractor workers of certain forms of “economic independence” such as the ability to set prices, make informed decisions about which trips to accept, and switch freely between platforms, at a cost to both drivers and consumers.
and
“Uber and Lyft are either employers responsible to their employees under labor standards laws, or they are bound by the laws that prohibit powerful corporations from using their market power to fix prices and engage in other conduct that restrains fair competition to the detriment of both drivers and riders,” the suit argues.
Full complaint : Class Action Against Uber (pdf)
gig economy
uber
Work
archive.pf.business
June 25, 2022
The People First Newsletter
In case you aren’t subscribed …
admin
People First
archive.pf.business
June 24, 2022
Where To Keep The Family Jewels
Tower_of_London_viewed_from_the_River_Thames
Would You Keep Your Most Valuable Possessions In The Vault Of A Company That Might One Day Just Close Their Doors And Block You From Getting All Your Stuff Back?
A few years ago … let’s call at it the ‘advent of social’, common wisdom suggested
‘Email is dead … long live Social’. If you know me, you will not be surprised to learn that I disagreed with ‘common wisdom’. I even wrote how the people at the vanguard of the movement were not just wrong … they were really wrong.
Fast forward to 2022 and it is clear that email has not disappeared… in fact for the past few years it has really caught hold … with everyone.
I publish my newsletter over on Substack, a company that when it launched just 5 years ago was greeted with a general shrug of shoulders and comments that could be rolled up into the umbrella term of ‘What Are They Thinking’.
I decided that what they were thinking was really interesting and when they announced their public beta in 2018, signed up to explore more, launching my first ever Substack newsletter on February 8th, 2018.
At the time my Wordpress Blog was at people-first.net … before moving to people first.vision and then on to people first.business. But I also had a mail chimp account which I used to send occasional missives … so needed to move my subscribers from there over to Substack, but life was busy and more importantly, IMHO Substack wasn’t quite ready for what I needed.
It was a year later when I threw my entire lot in with the company, closed down my Mailchimp account and moved my subscribers and committed to a weekly missive. Since then Substack functionality has gone from strength to strength. There are still oddities in some of their design decisions … like why can’t I center text if I really want to center text .. but on the whole … all good.
Of course lots of companies have woken up to the phenomena … both on the newsletter creation side and software to generate said newsletters. The ‘arms race’ is in full swing.
It was at the end of 2021 that the Microsoft company ‘LinkedIN’ launched its own newsletter functionality. If you are on LinkedIN, you know this because you are receiving messages from many people … too many actually, to sign up for their newsletter. But it is clear that people are signing up for them - the question is - are they reading them?
(Let’s Find out)
Here’s the Challenge.
Willy Sutton was a bank robber in the United States, dying at the age of 79 in November 1980. There is an apocryphal story where a reporter asked him why he robbed banks. Willy replied;
- “ Because That’s where the money is.”
-
Willy Sutton
People often ask me why I am on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter et al
Willy knows - BUT - being there doesn’t mean these platforms are there only places where my thinking, IP, articles, ideas et al reside. All of that starts here - or over on that newsletter. In documents on my hard drive. In my Obsidian vault. Oh so many places - joined together by one common denominator.
I have control over where and how that content is managed and how it is found. No algorithms. Not ‘at the will’ of a faceless corporate bureaucrat.
Just my stuff. Where I want it. So when I want it, I can find it.
People First
archive.pf.business
June 24, 2022
People Are Visiting The Archives
Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash
After my unscheduled hiatus, I have been thinking about the podcast. It is going to be different. I mean everything is going to be different. Isn’t it? Why would the podcast not be different?
I recorded the first one earlier this week (don’t worry - you didn’t miss it - I haven’t dropped it yet). If you know me, you’ll know that I definitely err on the side of ten words where one will do … I’m working on it!
Brevity. That’s one of the changes.
It’s only 5 minutes - so far so good!
That’s also the thinking behind the newly launched ‘Short Sharp Shock’ - an ‘image lead’ sister publication that will come out weekly questioning what I am calling ‘The Status Futurus’. (Think Status Quo - except in the future.)
Meanwhile, the Blog has been redesigned to allow for easier navigation, titleless less short asides (why should everything have a title - including a Powerpoint slide) .. The book is still for sale, I am toying with a second book - similar principle - totally different topic,
And then there are the archives.
… and talking of archives and the use thereof?
Q: How do I know that people are coming given that I don’t overly bother with analytics?
A: Because people keep on writing to me telling me that a link is broken.
Sadly, yes, I know and as they are raised I either fix them or remove them.
The problem stems from using a series of People First domain changes over the past few years. Older posts pointing to people-first.net, the experimental wiki and glossary just will not work.
My sincere apologies.
We’re getting there.
admin
People First
archive.pf.business
June 24, 2022
Linking Your Thinking
I have been tracking Nick Milo and his wonderful work around Obsidian for a while. Recently he announced LYT Kit v5 and this is his overview.
Nick Milo
Technology
archive.pf.business
Archives
