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Hi all,

Now that election fever has passed (wish I could say the same for the financial mess) I plan on getting back into the stuff I love writing about. Yahoo’s Y!OS is at the top of my list because I think it has fantastic potential and hasn’t been properly analyzed. I can’t speak for Yahoo!’s ability to stay focused and execute their strategy, so I’ll stay focused on their strategy presentation.

See you soon,
Dave

PS – I announced on Twitter / Facebook yesterday that I’m leaving Etsy. Help me find a new job! My resume is here- http://bit.ly/3DYPq5

Josh Porter wrote an article about the co-evolution of humans and technology, which I think should be expanded further. To start, a little background from the one semester class I took with Hod Lipson when I was in school (see his TED talk for self-evolving robots). Co-evolution is a feedback loop where the fitness function of one actor is defined by the fitness function of the other. You can think of it as symbiotic or parasitic. A symbiotic example would be the bacteria in your digestive tract evolving to help you digest while your body evolves to require their presence for healthy digestion. A parasitic example would be the arms race between antibodies and antigens – each continues to evolve to outpace the other. (There is an interesting discussion about the influence of evolving man-made pharmaceuticals and other biotechnologies on the natual co-evolution of antibodies and antigens, but I’ll leave that aside.)

To get back to Josh’s article, I think he didn’t go far enough. Yes, individual’s behavior does change in response to technology, but what if we think about it generationally. Compare children today vs. people born in the 1950s or 1930s. They have a technological intuition that is astounding compared to their parents or grandparents. How is that happening? Now, I’m not arguing that there is some genetically detectable evolution going on with regards to the cognition of technology. I do think there is a behavioral co-evolution (in the same sense that Josh intends) where technology creates a generation of children who intuitively grasp that technology, and as that generation ages will produce even more advanced technology (leading to yet another generation of children more intuitive than the previous).

Where does that leave us? I’m not sure, but I do look forward to an ever-increasing rate of radical innovation in technology.

Tags: co-evolution, science, technology

Leak: More Evidence of Comcast’s Non-Net Neutrality

This might push me to cancel my comcast subscription.  Collecting metrics about bandwidth demographics and mix is OK with me, as is various Security features, but controlling bandwidth is a no-no (even if it is for “non-Comcast customers”.

The utility companies scale with consumer needs. Why shouldn’t ISPs?

Blogged with Flock

Tags: netneutrality, comcast

Senators Threatening Telcos With Probe Over Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is important, so tell your friends. I’m not one for pushing agendas, but the internet is the gateway to the world’s knowledge. The ISPs cannot be allowed to control access.

Blogged with Flock

Yahoo Internet Cafes Launch in Vietnam

I can’t say enough about this – I think one of the most valuable ways to invest in the future is giving people access to the Internet. Yes, even in the poorest areas. I rank it up there with giving people access to clean water.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Yahoo, education, internet