Change is good
« June 25, 2006 - July 1, 2006 | Main | July 9, 2006 - July 15, 2006 »
Over at The Long Tail, Chris Anderson points to yet-another piece of proof that his thesis is correct.
His thesis, in case you've been under a rock, is that sales of niche goods are rising, and those of best-sellers are falling.
The chart, at right, shows that sales of "best seller" CDs are falling in Denmark, while sales of "niche" products are rising by an equivalent amount.
It's true.
But is this a cause or effect?
Right now telecommunications law is based on silos.
There’s a cable silo. There’s a telephone silo. There’s a broadcast silo. There’s a wireless silo. There’s an Internet silo.
Each silo has its own rules. Most have their own taxes. Each has its own monopolists.
The time has come to break up the silos.
Bits are bits. Cable sends digital bits that are turned into TV pictures. Broadcasters are going digital to send HDTV. Telephony switched to bits long ago. Wireless bits are all around us, on both licensed and unlicensed frequencies.
So the time has come for the government, and the market, to treat bits as bits. Since everyone is selling bits, all they really need are incentives to sell more. And since there’s no shortage of bits, there is no longer an excuse for content regulation. Put the power to censor at the edge, alongside the power to explore.
Europe is already moving in this direction, at least in relation to telecomm. The U.S. Senate, on the other hand, is moving in the opposite direction, toward entrenching the monopolies and forbidding even the people, through their local government, from competing with them.
This is a recipe for national economic disaster. It’s regulation in the Mexican style, and I don’t think Canada will take all of us in.
Bob Frankston says we should all own our own infrastructure. Bob Cringely calls for people to own their own last mile.
I agree, but I’m into simplicity. I say, free the bits.
Hindery, a former cable executive, then a hosting operator who sold out, says that "portals" are going to "die out," replaced by content and distributors.
By distributors, read phone and cable companies.
Mike at Techdirt, from whom I got this news, did a good job taking apart the idea that distributors mean anything.
Let me throw a history lesson at the first claim.
One thing I keep having to repeat about a generational crisis is that it’s no small thing.
In the face of such an Armageddon, one of the first things to happen is that the people within the ruling coalition go a little bit mad. We saw this 40 years ago, when many liberals became extremists of one kind or another. We saw it in the Depression, where some Republicans insisted on Smoot-Hawley, while others simply abandoned the party. We saw it in the 1890s with the Populists, a true third party movement (for those who think it can’t happen here). And, of course, we saw it in the late 1850s, when Filibusters committed acts of real murder.
No small thing, any of this. Why do liberals think it would be any different now?
You ask yourself, how do they justify themselves? The same way the Filibusters did, through projection. They’re going to take your slaves away. They’re going to make you marry one. All this while white Southerners were in Bloody Kansas murdering and raping those who felt differently from them. That’s how.
So when the White House and Republican Congress shout “treason” at The New York Times we should rejoice a little. It means their end is near.
More signs of the coming crack-up. A Fox commentator calls for stringing-up the editor of The Times , incites Fox followers to riot and murder, yet she is not reprimanded. She would also be welcome on other channels, because talk of murder by the right is no longer considered, crazy, but mainstream.
Americans still have no clue about the World Cup, or of soccer in general.
The U.S. announcers are horrible. They talk about everything but the game in front of them. They repeat the back-story endlessly. They assume the ending and look two games ahead. They talk about other shows to be on the next day or the next week.
When they do get to the game the result is always about someone’s mistake. They assume teams aren’t trying when they are. No one really wins, someone always blows it. The game is “still goaless” or, if a goal has been scored, it’s practically over, and they’re looking at the next match-up.
While I understand little Spanish I had to swtich to Univision, even during that wonderful France-Brazil match, where Zidane (above) turned back the clock for 90 minutes, where the whole French team took on the best team in the world, one of the greatest every put on the field, and beat them to nearly every ball, nothing certain until the final whistle.
There’s a British beer commercial on now, making fun of the Ameican announcers, but the satire doesn’t go far enough. Having watched games myself for many years, I can tell they don’t know the first thing.
So what’s the first thing?
Well, if you have a rooting interest any game is fascinating and nerve-racking. It’s the bottom of the 9th, two out from the first kick. When you get the goal you go crazy, and you stay crazy, until things settle down and the other team starts coming at you – they always do – and then it’s back to pins-and-needles, screaming and singing and hoping and worrying. Because at any moment – any moment – it can all come undone.
As a neutral, the game is something different. You can watch stinker after stinker after stinker, praying for one game, one half, where both teams really get after it, where magic happens. It can be a 4-3 goal-fest (those are always fun) or a 1-nil where every pass is challenged. It can even be a draw.
And magic can happen anywhere. It doesn’t have to be the World Cup. I remember a few years ago taking my daughter to a WUSA play-off game, the Atlanta Beat against San Diego. Atlanta fell behind early, and stayed behind, and my daughter Robin wanted to leave. Stick around, I said. You never know, it’s a funny old game. Then, in extra time, on the last kick of the game, the Beat scored, they tied it. “This is why you stay,” I screamed, and Robin screamed in return. Then, a few minutes into overtime, the Beat did it again. They won. We were both thrilled.
But that is far from the best game I’ve ever seen. Far from it.
Want to hear a story?
Recent Comments