February 9, 2000
Fortune: Why This Fan May Say Sayonara to Sony.
Stewart Alsop. I quote from the manual: "The OpenMG technology allows you to enjoy digital music while maintaining the copyrights of its holders." Who cares? Maybe some copyright lawyers buy the thing because of its great copyright protection; I bought it to enjoy music. Silly me. Sony seems so concerned about copyright that it has made getting music onto the Clip a pain.
NY Times: Regarding Customers as Business Collaborators.
Of course, businesses have always tried to figure out their customers. But the Internet world allows customers to take initiative, to talk back, assert preferences and flow quickly to the most responsive sellers. The new task for business is discovering how to channel that power.
Fast Company: Clued In? Sign On!
Review of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Rather, it offers the potential to reframe some fundamental questions about business. Don't just ask, "How should our company interact with its customers?" Ask instead, "How can our people join conversations about products, markets, and value that are already taking place?"
News.Com: Andersen details its protégé plan.
The plan underlines the growing trend of the privately held "Big Five" accounting firms, as well as more conservative management consulting firms such as McKinsey, to take equity in lieu of payment from cash-strapped start-up clients.
SJ Mercury: NTT bows to pressure for cut in Internet fees.
Japanese telecoms giant NTT said on Wednesday it plans to cut its charges for unlimited Internet access by half as early as May, bowing to criticism both at home and abroad that its hefty fees are stifling Internet use in Japan.
Business Week: The Privacy War of Richard Smith.
Last fall, Smith quit his job at Phar Lap to take a sabbatical and devote himself full-time to privacy issues. He says he's alarmed by the steady erosion of personal privacy online and wants to raise consumer awareness of the threat.
Upside: CBS MarketWatch Bolts.
While the Wall Street Journal dickers around with its Web site -- What should be free? Does Dow Jones News count? How do we keep from cannibalizing our newspaper subscriptions? -- CBSMarketWatch.com has been forging ahead, becoming the Web site of record for business and financial news.
Editor & Publisher: Online Content Is Getting Commonplace in Print.
Steve Outing. Where once print editors distrusted content originating from online content companies, now there is much more acceptance that online content can be every bit as good, if not better, than content acquired from traditional media sources.
CNNfn: Oil data moving online.
[Ian Miller, president of EDS' Energy Industries Group] "It's going to be infinitely cheaper for these companies to buy this information online rather than go out and find it on their own," he said, noting that the average petroleum engineer now typically spends 60 percent of their time trying to find the information they need rather than evaluating it.
Fast Company: Information as if Understanding Mattered.
Richard Saul Wurman and 12 information architects spent one year and $1 million to produce a book that creates useful information on everything from crime and politics to business and the Net. The real lesson: Design forms understanding.
Upside: Should We Protect Our Data?
Today, fully 70 percent of databases are produced by the private sector -- a testimony to the profitability of compiling and disseminating databases. Given the amount of money to be made by compiling and disseminating data, it comes as no surprise that Congress is considering two different database protection bills.
News.Com: Borders.com will upgrade site behind closed doors.
Borders.com, the Net division of the Borders Group and the third-largest bookseller online, today said it will close its site beginning at 6 p.m. EST on Friday and will reopen sometime Monday morning.
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