Comments on: 12 Tools That Will Soon Go the Way of Fax and CDs

By: davidshumaker

davidshumaker — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:55:15 +0000

First I wanted to reinforce Michael Sauer’s comment re: the origin and context of the “Information wants to be free” quotation…. And I think the context is important to the meaning of prediction #7. I think you’ve got it partially right: librarians do need to get better tuned in to the needs of their corporate customers and provide on-target research and analysis. One organizational model that enables them to do that is “embedded librarianship”, which is the focus of my blog and my research (funded by the Special Libraries Association). At the same time, I don’t agree that the corporate librarian’s content acquisition role will go away. Information will still want to be expensive, as well as free — as Brand pointed out. (It will be almost all digital, but that’s another issue.)Some things _do_ go away, but I’m generally skeptical of such predictions, because often the new and the old coexist. The new is layered on top of the old, so to speak.Having said that, one thing I think will go away is landline phones!

By: Claude Whitmyer

Claude Whitmyer — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:22:55 +0000

Sorry… I got a little worked up there. I have been really anxious to see that book and somehow its release didn’t come into my field of vision until just now.Thanks, Dave.claude

By: Dave Pollard

Dave Pollard — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:21:41 +0000

Yes Claude, it’s renamed Finding the Sweet Spot. Lots of ‘looks inside’ coming soon.

By: Claude Whitmyer

Claude Whitmyer — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:12:00 +0000

Well, I guess maybe sweet spot might be that book, but its hard to tell without any “See Inside” pages on either Amazon or Google Books.c.Is sweet spot the book on Natural Enterprise? and is it the hands-on book promised?

By: Claude Whitmyer

Claude Whitmyer — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:00:04 +0000

Hey, Dave, You say your spending half your time coming up with alternative models for people to survice the failure of civilization and half your time having fun.Seems like you’re actually spending all your time having fun. I’ve been waiting for Natural Enterprise to come out since 2004. This is a model that seems promising and yet it languishes lost in the impossible to navigate, incredibly too many pages of your blog.Come on Dave. Sacrifice a little of that fun time and get that book out. I promise you I’ll throw you a big party as soon as its out.(I suppose it might be out and I just can’t find it in all this fun talk or on Amazon. So, if it is, I apologize for prodding you. But if it isn’t…)

By: TJP

TJP — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:35:50 +0000

These predictions, most of them, show a keen lack of understanding of how people work. 1. We will always expand to our greatest capacity.And people are “pack rats” we like to keep stuff.2. There will always be people who work better with Text and email type of communication. Besides the CYA justification is a good reason to keep text.3. People will always look to a successful company and ask – “Well how do they do it there?” This “best Practices” give the novice a chance to learn and the company a chance to show off.4. You may have a good prediction in this except for the use of E-mail as described in #25. Every company needs a a clean fresh face fro Branding ! – useful or not.Blogs by personnell are not “official or stlyistic” enough. The Face and the image website will always be needed.6. We need the intranets to combat the increased turnover in employees. Make clear the official documents and save employee wisdom.7. Ridiculous – It is in the nature of every man, woman and child to organize, classify and save information. Information is not Free – it costs time and resources.Large database and journal providers sell their products for money – not for prestige. No company will give away it’s informational assests for mere show. If they can make a dime on it they would and should. Besides, people will always be willing to pay for what they value – and – they will always value what they pay for.”You get what you pay for”Prestige can acutually come from how much is charged as a proof of quality.8. Cell Phones gone ? Watch Star Trek – ever hear of a Tricorder and a Comm Badge ?9. Yeah somtimes we need that nasty look from the teacher. Some people learn best when it is in person.10. We all like to have an excuse to travel and be in the same room with other people. With the increase of online work this need and practice will actually increase ! Travel Conferences are often considered a “perk” . Who is going to give that up ?11. People love Titles ! Watch children playing in the park – they love to give eachother titles and roles. It helps build self-esteem and describes our relative positions to each other.12. Less Offices – sure – but vanishing – I don’t think so. Ha Ha – Fax machines haven’t even vanished – they are a very important tool in everyday business.

By: Margie Garner

Margie Garner — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:08:50 +0000

YES, you forgot HUMAN INTERACTION. Any education major know online classes are a very poor substitute for face-to-face classes, and if you are telling us on some items that techno will be replaced by face-to-face, why would you tell us on other that face-to-face will be replaced by techno?

By: Michael Sauers

Michael Sauers — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:47:48 +0000

You got both the quote wrong, and who said it.[Stuart] Brand's conference remarks are transcribed in the Whole Earth Review (May 1985, p. 49) and a later form appears in 'The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT', Viking Penguin, 1987 (ISBN 0-14-009701-5), p.202:"Information Wants To Be Free. Information also wants to be expensive. ... That tension will not go away.[1]"Information wants to be free. (2008, August 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:47, August 14, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Information_wants_to_be_free&oldid=231059952

By: Judy Dewey

Judy Dewey — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:19:40 +0000

Don’t #6 and #12 have an inherent conflict? The corporate intranet is going away and person-to-person interaction will replace it, but then you say that offices are going to disappear and we’re going to work in cyberspace?

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:48:39 +0000

“The only classroom that works in the long run is the community at large.”I’m always interested in predictions about the future of technology – as a librarian I have to try to take the long view on a wide variety of information technologies – what can we afford to adopt, what can we not afford not to adopt, what kinds of things should we wait and see on? One roll that the public library is filling to a certain degree is that of the community classroom – not just a place full of books, but a place where people can gather and access knowledge in all its forms, electronically or otherwise. Information does want to be free, but anyone who is aware of copyright laws knows that the people who are making money off their information resources are loath to let them go. Back to the library as classroom – even though technology is evolving quickly, the gap between those people that quickly adopt and adapt, those people who wait and see what’s good, and those people who refuse to move ahead until forced, will continue to grow wider. There are still plenty of people who do not use computers at all, who don’t use the Internet even if they sometimes use a computer, or who can only perform basic tasks on the Internet. But even when that day comes (and it’s still twenty years off at least) that an overwhelming percentage of people have both access and basic skills enough to do basic computer/internet tasks, the forefront of that technology and most of the middle ground will be much farther away from the beginners than that same horizon is today. So, the library – where you can learn things for free, read up on the subject, ask questions, take classes, get access, meet with peers, have forums, etc. etc. etc.