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Tag: culture
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State of the Internet
A fun, visual-rich view of the overwhelming numbers being produced on the internet today:
Most recognize Fareed Zakaria from his CNN show Fareed Zakaria GPS. His book The Post-American World is an enjoyable read. The bottom line: The US is not falling behind but rather (quite simply) the world is catching up. Some amazing technologies are lifting the citizens of the poorest third world countries.
The biggest elephant called out in his book is America’s educational system. It needs a much required re-boot in order to compete against tomorrow’s globalized students who have access to free, powerful computing tools including Linux, or new technology like water pumps in Africa. He references Tom Friedman‘s The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century which I found to be a great read as well.
Zakaria is able to simply convey that America remains the top country for innovation, technology and intellectual property but India and China are catching up fast by introducing more of their citizens to the global economy. India is first only in population growth while their level of poverty slowly dropped.
While true to some extent the reader may be surprised to see the detail about how splintered Al-Qaeda has become. In Iraq for example the aim of this terrorist group has moved from targeting American and Israel to fighting other Muslim warlords and religious groups for control of Al-Qaeda’s future.
It should be noted Zakaria also addresses the issues of global climante and energy. But to again point to Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America not a lot of new ideas or information.
Overall Zakaria’s book is a gentle wake up call for America and is much smoother on the American reader than Mark Steyn’s America Alone. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan while critical, reveals Al-Qaeda‘s struggle since 9/11 to deliver any significant violence on American soil. Why? Zakaria’s position is that Bin Laden has been so tightly curtailed, his organization still under a microscope has evolved into a communications company and is no longer a true terrorist organization.
Mark Steyn has written a clever book America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. In a post 9/11 world America, according to Steyn must “go it alone” against the impact Muslims have in today’s world. A lot of his knowledge is coming from outside the mainstream of US media organizations and many will be surprised to learn the real state of affairs between a fading Anglo-America and a rising Muslim world.
Steyn begins simply with demography as the basis for his argument that Islam will outgrow the Anglo-American world. The American birth rate is 2.4 while Muslim countries like Pakistan have a birth rate of 4.5 and given time some countries like England and Spain which have rates under 1.5 will simply fall off the earth in the next century.
He points out that eastern European countries like Russia have abortion rates as high as 70%, and acknowledges that countries are killing themselves in the long run while Muslims are set to flourish for the next two to three generations.
At the same time the medium age in some parts of the Muslim world is just 15. Steyn argues that this very young minority will grow to see democratic countries and institutions will shift to the law and culture of Islam.
Is the Muslim world gaining political strength in a post 9/11 world? Steyn writes about how the growth of Muslim populations in Europe still lead to isolation, not assimilation in their Anglo-countries and slowly over time how Governments have begun to accommodate their growing communities. Want proof?
The recent release of Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi the Lockerbie bomber made headlines around the world. Freed from jail by Scotland al Megrahi returned home to Libya a hero. Was it all for cheap oil? The US Government condemned this release. But who is holding power here?
Tags: America Alone, Mark Steyn, education, Muslim, Demography, culture, trends
Chris Anderson visits Google to present his book “Free” This event took place on July 9, 2009, as part of the Authors@Google series. My book review of Free.
From the Google Author Series:
He makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company’s survival.
The costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate. Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long. Just think that in 1961, a single transistor cost $10; now Intel’s latest chip has two billion transistors and sells for $300 (or 0.000015 cents per transistor–effectively too cheap to price). The traditional economics of scarcity just don’t apply to bandwidth, processing power, and hard-drive storage.
Yet this is just one engine behind the new Free, a reality that goes beyond a marketing gimmick or a cross-subsidy. Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of Free; and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you’re trying to sell.
I found Chris’ idea really is not so radical given today’s economy. It will benefit those companies smart enough to recognize the innovative opportunity to grow their customer base.
Tags: Chris Anderson, Free: The future of a Radical Price, marketing, Google Author, copyright, internet, economy, innovation, ideas, business, radical, reading, trends