The World of the Internet

is a very informative and also surprising map showing internet usage figures across the globe.
When we consider some of the participation rates it seems evident that future growth is a reality, especially in countries like China and India.

Web 3.0: You say you’re on an infolution? Well, you know…

is an excellent commentary in Information Architects Japan » iA Notebook »
on the essence of the web and where it is headed. Oliver is right on in his assessment, which I share.

In Part 2 he presents some thought provoking stuff, not only about the web but democracy and politics at large.

Great read.

Keen vs. Weinberger: The Plot (by Amateurs) Against America

Here's a comment by John Biggs of CrunchGear

I can only wish I was able to write in as witty a style as he does and oh, yeah as a bonus he also throws in a punch at Murdoch!

Why is this man smiling?

I was on my way to the outhouse with some print-outs of the WSJ opinion page — the newsprint version is too harsh — when I noticed an interview between Andrew Keen, writer of The Cult of the Amateur, and David Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous.

Mr. Keen’s argument runs in the cranky old man watching Elvis on Ed Sullivan vein. He believes blogging and all this Web 2.0 razamatazz is a bunch of Commie hoo-ha and in his day you used to have to go to the library to look up the long-winded ramblings of an accredited critic, scientist, or guy-who-writes-encylopediast to get information on a topic, not some hoopty-doopty hippity hoppity kid out in Kansas with a keyboard and some moxie, by gum, whose only interests include letting dogs pee on Mr. Keen’s lawn and preventing him from getting a good night’s sleep thanks to all the Web 2.0 bordello parties they’re having down the street. Mr. Weinberger thinks Web 2.0 is cool.

Watch the sparks fly as these two UFC-certified intellectuals spar on Murdoch’s future dumping ground. Roar!

The Web in 1994

Found this on John Battelle's Searchblog sounds so quaint looking at it now and it seems like it was eons ago since the web first appeared on our radar.
Who still remembers Digital or the first Mosaic browser? Amazing what's happened since!

More CEOs Openly Post

reports the Journal in  Executives Get the Blogging Bug and it shows that one more web innovation has finally made it into the mainstream and like others before is still misunderstood by many who now seem to consider it the thing to do. I remember ten years ago, when every CEO under the sun suddenly cried "what's this new thing, a website, build me one of these!". Now, it's "get me blog" and most efforts are quite lame.

It's not that these people can't write but the system mostly prevents them from telling anything new or in some cases even telling the truth. Everything seems to be run past the legal department and the end result is just more corporate communications spin. OK, maybe I'm a bit harsh here, but I haven't found a compelling CEO blog yet.

I doubt the majority of blog readers will find those executive suit blogs a compelling read for the very reasons I've just outlined above. If you're prevented by corporate rules and behavior from telling the truth or reveal anything new and exciting or controversial, what's the point?

Despite these considerations, my guess is that the types of CEO blogs will proliferate and who knows, maybe down the road might even become more interesting and useful as these authors realize that participating in the conversation about their organizations that is taking place anyway, is time well spent and as a key benefit, maybe they might even learn something, provided they start to listen.

More CEOs Openly Post

reports the Journal in  Executives Get the Blogging Bug and it shows that one more web innovation has finally made it into the mainstream and like others before is still misunderstood by many who now seem to consider it the thing to do. I remember ten years ago, when every CEO under the sun suddenly cried "what's this new thing, a website, build me one of these!". Now, it's "get me blog" and most efforts are quite lame.

It's not that these people can't write but the system mostly prevents them from telling anything new or in some cases even telling the truth. Everything seems to be run past the legal department and the end result is just more corporate communications spin. OK, maybe I'm a bit harsh here, but I haven't found a compelling CEO blog yet.

I doubt the majority of blog readers will find those executive suit blogs a compelling read for the very reasons I've just outlined above. If you're prevented by corporate rules and behavior from telling the truth or reveal anything new and exciting or controversial, what's the point?

Despite these considerations, my guess is that the types of CEO blogs will proliferate and who knows, maybe down the road might even become more interesting and useful as these authors realize that participating in the conversation about their organizations that is taking place anyway, is time well spent and as a key benefit, maybe they might even learn something, provided they start to listen.

This is a new web tool that you might want to check out!

You can read a brief description of what it does right inside this box: