Timed monography about the Internet

At last !

Thanks to the excellent EH.net portal (Economical History, it means), here is a review of a book about the history of the internet : Paul E. Ceruzzi, Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945 to 2005. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.

How is technology “rooted in place” ? How do “defense spending, land use policies, highway construction and suburbanization” intertwine ? Read further : “Ceruzzi does a remarkable job exploring the intersection between defense spending, land use policies, highway construction and suburbanization. He ends with a futuristic glance. Edge cities like Tysons Corner today are challenged by larger demographic trends, as transportation systems feel the strain. As people drive through Tysons Corner, they likely don’t see the enigmatic buildings around them, prompting questions about how technology is rooted in place — but only see the bumper in front of them. (…)“.

& :
- Innovation and the Growth of High Tech (another EH.net review) | Economic History resources (EH.net unfolded).
- Eco on WebOL.

Markets’ broader scope

Oliver Williamson is renowned for his transaction cost economics, in the wake of Robert Coase and Herbert Simon. Elinor Ostrom works at the crossroads of economics and political science. Their works just honoured by the Nobel Prize go far beyond the superficial criticism of markets.

Few tips :
- FT’s editorial for the clearest short presentation | Nobel prize’s rationales | NYTimes’s article | Econoclaste’s post (in french).
- Econoclaste’s Introduction to “Economie de l’entreprise“  (in french too) | EcOL’s The other hand of Adam Smith.
- OW’s page (Berkeley Univ., US) | EO’s page (Indiana Univ., US).
- (…)

How much free is free

Chris Anderson is renowned for his best-seller The Long Tail (his own blog nicknamed alike too). Editor of Wired, his new opus deals with gratuity, free economy, abundance and scarcity : one article (February 2009), another one (June 2009). His book can be read for free but only when one browses it in the USA.

Any articulate idea deserves discussion. Malcolm Gladwell published a very good and critical paper in the New Yorker (July 2009). For french readers, here are Rue89’s comments, quoting Les Inrocks’s ones.

Googlenomics

How to generate revenue ? What is the adequate revenue mechanism ? These are questions relevant to anyone working on Business Models, far beyond IT domain.

Wired has just published a long paper on Google, explaining how Google’s economical pattern has just turned to auction. The article is written in the typical wired style, fuzzy which verges on “tired” sometimes, but the reading is very much worth it.

Moreover, the theme of this month’s issue is The New New Economy. Another article is about the reinvention of the American car industry (worth reading quickly, just once), and the third one is called “Socialism Redefined“ (not very convincing). But the one about Google is the best, simply put.

& :
- Today (20090618)’s FT publishes a Digital economy separate section, available online as well.
- IT + Eco @workOL.

Digital business

Digital business is a buzz word, as the FT proposes a new series of podcasts. But is this business in digital age, or business of digital technologies ?

Let’s open our ears to know more of it. Of course, there is more to read on their website as well.

& :
- IT + Eco @workOL.

Meanings of a crisis

Recession and depression ? What is a leverage by depth ? For or against bail-outs for failing banks ?

Robert M. Solow has just written a thoughtful article in the New York Review of Books.

& :
- RS’s Nobel Prize page | AS’s Nobel Prize page.
- Samuel Brittan’s recent excellent FT article on capitalism, which is not the same as market nor finance.
–@ecOL : Manifold hands of Adam Smith, a historical perspective courtesy of Amartya Sen | La crise bancaire pour les nuls | Financial hurricane (extensive press review, at least selection).

de Rosnay & l’Internet-d’aujourd’hui

En passant 18 minutes durant, le futurologue vulgarisateur Joël de Rosnay parle de l’Internet-du-Futur-déjà-plus-ou-moins-là-mais-vous-n’avez-encore-rien-vu. Son interlocuteur en seconde partie est Richard Collin (Grenoble Ecole de Management).

La vidéo a en effet deux volets :
- Le premier fait honneur à son talent de vulgarisateur. C’est une excellente présentation de l’abscons et polysémique Internet-du-Futur (pour lequel un site pan-européen est une porte d’entrée privilégié).
- Le second a toutes les limites du prospectiviste, à grands coups de serpe (“toutes choses égales par ailleurs” comme est souvent la Science Fiction) notamment pour l’éducation. Cela énoncé, il y a des idées à approfondir, surtout sur l’énergie, la mise en réseau et le rôle de courtier (broker).

Ajoutons une remarque, qui demandera développement. Il y a, chez de Rosnay, une hypothèse forte : le web sera structuré comme le cerveau, avec le non-dit de savoir comment est précisément agencé le cerveau, comment on modélise son fonctionnement, etc. En 1945, Von Neumann a défini le principe toujours en cours du fonctionnement de l’ordinateur (séparation unité central, mémoire vive, mémoire de masse) avec la même ambition de prendre le cerveau comme référence (ce qui explique d’ailleurs le choix du binaire). Bref, à suivre tant c’est passionnant au second degré, c’est-à-dire au niveau de l’étude.

& :
- @itOL de manière aléatoire et sur un mode polyglotte : The Internet of Things, Webbed Mobility, IT Business, IT Economics, SENSEI, Digital Ethnography, IT-Towns of nowadays, Mobility but with traceability, Réseaux expliqués, Designing the Internet of Things for Workplace Realities, Homo numericus.
- @workOL pour compléter : Donna Harraway, Innovation & Growth in High Tech, Netted privacy, etc.
- Merci à Fabrice Forest d’UmanLab pour l’annonce.

American History in Video

It seems to be a time limited offer, up to 30th April 2009. According to EH.net (Economic History Resources),

“American History in Video is live! This new online resource for teaching and research is growing to include thousands of of rare newsreels from 1929 through the 1960s, including the entire series of both Universal and United. You’ll also find the historic Longine Chronoscope broadcasts and hundreds of hours of documentaries from leading producers such as The History Channel.

It’s all in streaming video—just point your browser and click—with synchronized, scrolling transcripts alongside. Make custom clips, which will live at permanent URLs. Put your clips into playlists and share. And much more…“

What will happen thereafter ?

& :
- Europeana (@WebOL), the pan-european digital archive project.
- INA, the french Institut National de l’Audiovisuel.
- Economic History Resources (@WebOL), with some insights into EH.net.

Business Models Experiment

Alexander Osterwalder edits a blog called Business Model Design & Innovation. It is both a common but active blog of an expert of management issues plus a portal to a community committed to comment and discuss interactively on a book-on-the-making.

One of the most interesting post is a reflexive one about to innovate and how to publish.

& :
- What is a Business Model ? (by A. Osterwalder).
- Latest post @WorkOL/Eco about Business Models & Ecosystems.

Business Models + Ecosystems

Trendy terms, old issue : how doing Business interconnected with others ? As often, even the good works in management are short of history insights.

Nonetheless, The Keystone advantage (What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability) is a rich account of extensive field inquiry by Harvard Business School researchers. The authors are Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien.

The presentation of this opus is online : “Fundamentally, [keystone organizations] aim to improve the overall health of their ecosystems by providing a stable and predictable set of common assets—think of Wal-Mart’s procurement system and Microsoft’s Windows operating system and tools—that other organizations use to build their own offerings. (…) [T]he first requirement usually involves the creation of a platform, an asset in the form of services, tools, or technologies that offers solutions to others in the ecosystem. (…) The second requirement for keystones’ success is that they share throughout the ecosystem much of the value they have created, balancing their generosity with the need to keep some of that value for themselves. (…)“.

& :
- HBS’s workshop called Working Knowledge which is “a forum for innovation in business practice, offering readers a first look at cutting-edge thinking and the opportunity to both influence and use these concepts before they enter mainstream management practice.“
- Business Ecosystems @Wikipedia.
- More to come on an innovative editorial endeavour by Alexander Osterwalder.
- More resources @WebOL/Eco.
- History, you mean ? To justify the “history tag” for this post, note that resources are available @HBS and @HBS-WK.