Although I missed Infocomm Technology Roadmap 2 weeks ago in Singapore (I was at ETech), the folks here have recorded the session. So earlier this week, I spend sometime watching John Seely Brown speech on The Common Sense Model.
1. Supply Push –> Demand Pull, e.g. Mass Media –> Search Driven Ads
2. New Forms of Social Capital & Knowledge Sharing, e.g. Open Source and Wikipedia
3. Entertainment – from Passive to Active, e.g. MMORPG (3 slides on Warcraft1 :-)
4. Extended Forms of Literacy, moving from learning to read/write text to watch/create multimedia content
5. Rise of the Creative Class, e.g. The Long Tail, Pro-Am(atuer)
Nothing surprisingly to many of us here but John did a great job delivering the message.
Most important of all, much of the ITR5 are very hardcore technology about IT infrastructure, wireless, wired nano-tech, bio-tech and very little on actually how people are using the technology so John’s talk certain brings in that balance. And it really makes my job a lot easier now – I was told the ideas I have are too “soft” but hey, the “soft” one is where all the exciting stuff is happening!
And I really like the word “Common Sense Model”. It would be very nice if the world is guided by the “common sense principle” rather then by obscure rules. Frankly speaking, I don’t know what is in section 251(d)(3) of Communication Act of 1934, as amended (see FCC text) but most importantly, does the decision meet the common sense test? Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. *sigh*
But of course, I suppose “Common Sense” also depends who you speaking for. For consumer, the common sense would be that anything that encourage competitions (lower price!), freedom of innovation (better product & service!) is common sense. That would not be so if you are a corporation who is losing control of the market. (Hint: It is time to review your business when you have to sue/fight your customers).
Lets hope Common Sense prevailed.
1 Incidently, I got my WoW during my US Trip. Both my wife and myself are now addicted to it.
