This article is designed to generate interest in the magical next-gen tools behind Vista. The so-called 'software factory' approach, if memory serves...
MSFT can do itself -- and the world -- an enormous service by recasting itself as a provider of customized education and career services, the industry Peter Drucker and other smart folks say will be the world's biggest within thirty years.
Of course, this recasting will take some adapting, as the basis of competition in CECS will differ from MSFT's historic competitive environment.
Which means there is a great opportunity for a CECS startup to benefit from a lucrative acquisition by MSFT.
Toward this end, you are all cordially invited to steal my Amazon.com-/Microsoft-approved business plan for a CECS provider, which can be found at Landof.OpportuniTV.com.
Didn't mean to get into that level of detail, but since I pasted in the Christensen quote, I may as well clarify its relevance.
Re: customization:
"There has been a huge swing to custom programmes," says Fiona van Haeringen of IESE, who attended a recent annual conference of business-education providers in America. "The market is very aggressive, very competitive and the power is with the buyer." Don Kuhn, executive director of Unicon, a group of about 75 business schools around the world that offer executive education, says that a survey of about 40 members found that three-quarters of them said overall revenues had grown between 2002 and 2003, but the remaining quarter said they had declined. Looking to this year, most saw growth coming mainly from customised education tailored for one company. "It's just knocking the cover off the ball," rejoices Richard Vietor, who was until recently in charge of executive education for Harvard Business School.
...because 1) edu/career svcs is a HUGE global market, and 2) open source software is, in Clayton Christensen-speak, a sustaining innovation for edu/career svcs providers, as access to source is both educational and foundational for demonstrating competencies...
Re: the edu/career svcs market, consider:
"The continuing professional education of adults is the No. 1 gross industry in the next 30 years."
Peter Drucker
Business 2.0
September 2000
"[New York University economist William] Baumol has predicted that the share of gross domestic product...spent on education will rise from 6.7 percent to 29 percent [in 2040]."
The Atlantic
January/February 2004
"If history is any guide...customized programs will continue to improve until they threaten even the most famous educational institutions."
Clayton Christensen
Professor, Harvard Business School
2003
"In the 1990s, the fastest growing business services were those provided by
Professional Employee Organizations (PEOs).
...[The PEO's] clients, even the biggest, [lack] the critical mass...to manage, place and satisfy the highly specialized knowledge [worker]...This is what the PEO can provide...[Moreover,] PEOs can take care of almost every task in employee management and relations: record keeping and legal compliance; hiring, training, placements, promotions, firings, and layoffs; and retirement plans and pension payments.
...In a PEO full-service contract...it is expressly provided that the PEO has the duty and the right to place people in the jobs and companies where they best fit."
Peter Drucker
Harvard Business Review
April 2002
"Temp work is no longer just about the assembly line or order entry. More and more highly skilled professionals...are turning to temp agencies while they struggle with a tough labor market. These accomplished workers--lawyers, accountants, engineers, biochemists--make up the fastest-growing segment of the temporary work force and account for as much as a third of the business of large temp firms.
...The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the staffing industry will add 1.8 million new jobs between 2002 and 2012, a 54% increase, with professional [temp] jobs growing 68%."
So what is to prevent him, or me, or anybody, from setting up a Weblogsinc-style collection of blogs and arb...er, ad-bitraging away most of your $600/day?
A Small Business Administration study found that nearly 77 percent of the 6.9 million jobs created from 1990 to 1995 were created by small businesses.
Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
"Technology companies are seeing a rebound in business, but top executives this week said any jobs added to meet growing demand will likely be in countries where labor is cheaper than the United States."
Reuters
February 27, 2004
So, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.
When I had this discussion with MSFTie Rob Scoble, he wrote:
Microsoft money does create jobs. 5000 in the past year alone (mine was among them).
And I replied:
This not a counterargument, because 'Microsoft money' is an aggregate of revenues from BigCos and SmallCos. My supposition is that money from SmallCos can produce more jobs if it stays in the hands of SmallCo execs/owners.
Also, when BigCos pay license fees to MSFT the net effect on American jobs creation is nil, statistically, as money moving from a BigCo to a proprietary IT BigCo is not money that becomes more likely to create American jobs as a result.
"Google's strategy is to move quickly while Microsoft is still developing its Longhorn version of Windows, adding programs and services like its recently announced Gmail electronic mail program. The intent, say people who are aware of the company's strategy, is to lower its vulnerability to Microsoft by adding businesses that are "sticky" - in other words, businesses that create strong customer loyalty or are hard to switch away from."
A provider of customized lifelong learning and career services (CLLCS) -- can achieve runaway market leadership in three stages:
Supply fee-based virtual internships (i.e. the intern pays, like people pay for certification training, test prep, etc.) that will prepare interns to work for private equity firms that specialize in corporate turnarounds. This internship program will be the first of its kind, and will appeal to the most desirable CLLCS consumers: people who aspire to be CxOs (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, etc.) of next-generation companies (i.e. Digital Organizations (.pdf)).
Synergize the internship program (and subsequent professional success-increasers) with romance- and laughs-increasing services. Also synergize the romance- and laughs-increasers. Each class of offering, then, will increase demand for the others. These positive feedbacks will lock in 1.0 clients.
Lock in 2.0 clients by providing unique opportunities to network -- professionally and socially -- with 1.0 clients (who will happily cooperate, as doing so will enhance their CLLCS pedigree). Lock in 3.0ers via access to 1.0ers and 2.0ers, and so on.
[The Opportunity Services Group]'s internships for 1.0ers will be set at our online social networking service, code-named Go_Ogle.
The earliest internships will focus on Go_Ogle's leading-edge technology for searching social networks, which is also a 'must-use' in corporate
turnarounds.
We will market our interns, suppliers, intern employers, Go_Ogle and OSG through profitable comedy programming, online and on television. The initial television program -- The Secret Life of Windows of Opportunity -- will center on the comic plight of OSG's CEO: like many men, he wants to succeed in my professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance:
is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the early CLLCS [i.e. Customized Lifelong Learning and Career Services] market.
will be further complicated by OSG-affiliated actresses and models, who will routinely employ their beauty, their charms more generally, and the latest innovations from the burgeoning sciences of enhancing desirability, to make a favorable impression on him.
The online complement to the sitcom -- Windows of Opportunity -- will chronicle, among other storylines, the variations on the CEO's experience
that will characterize interactions between OSG-affiliated actors/actresses/models and OSG employees at all levels of the company.
A Small Business Administration study found that nearly 77 percent of the 6.9 million jobs created from 1990 to 1995 were created by small businesses.
Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
"Technology companies are seeing a rebound in business, but top executives this week said any jobs added to meet growing demand will likely be in countries where labor is cheaper than the United States."
Reuters
February 27, 2004
So, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.
When I had this discussion with MSFTie Rob Scoble, he wrote:
>Microsoft money does create jobs. 5000 in the >past year alone (mine was among them).
And I replied:
This not a counterargument, because 'Microsoft money' is an aggregate of revenues from BigCos and SmallCos. My supposition is that money from SmallCos can produce more jobs if it stays in the hands of SmallCo execs/owners.
Also, when BigCos pay license fees to MSFT the net effect on American jobs creation is nil, statistically, as money moving from a BigCo to a proprietary IT BigCo is not money that becomes more likely to create American jobs as a result.
Small businesses create most jobs (A Small Business Administration study found that nearly 77 percent of the 6.9 million jobs created from 1990 to 1995 were created by small businesses).
Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
"Technology companies are seeing a rebound in business, but top executives this week said any jobs added to meet growing demand will likely be in countries where labor is cheaper than the United States."
Reuters
February 27, 2004
So the OSS community should bring out its own heavy artillery, and just RELENTLESSLY hammer home the point that, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.
That is a message that will RESONATE, and hence make it politically untenable to allow MSFT et al. to practice such underhandedness with impunity...
IMHO:-)
Frank Ruscica 3/6/04; 3:40:29 PM
Frank, the problem is, that argument doesn't wash completely. Look at Greg Reinacker. He created a new company around Microsoft technology. And he's getting paid for it.
Most people don't understand how Linux creates jobs when it's given away for free.
Especially when they are getting fired from their jobs cause WalMart wants their products for less than it costs them to produce them.
Robert Scoble 3/6/04; 3:53:10 PM
Robert,
I lost you there...
Let's follow the money: if a small company uses LAMP technologies, the money it saves will go toward growing the business -- and hence, will generate jobs (that's how Linux creates jobs when it's given away for free). If the company buys licenses from a BigCo, the above-cited Reuters article tells us the money will not generate jobs for Americans.
My takeaway, then, is: whenever a small company can substitute OSS for proprietary software, the American job market benefits.
If Greg Reinacker is building atop MSFT technology for which no OSS substitute exists, he does not embody a true counterargument.
If he is building atop MSFT technology for which an OSS substitute does exist, he is hurting the U.S. job market...
Where Wal-Mart fits into this, I have no idea...
Frank Ruscica 3/6/04; 7:18:54 PM
Frank: that's a good theory. But, if a company can't afford Windows licenses, don't you think it's likely to offshore its labor too?
Microsoft money does create jobs. 5000 in the past year alone (mine was among them).
Also, the argument is that you can get the same done with open source software that you can with stuff you pay for. Really? I didn't know that GIMP is as good as Photoshop. I don't know any print shop that accepts files from an open-source version of Illustrator. There's tons of things that you simply can't do with open source. Also, if you're a small company you probably can't afford a Linux geek to be on staff. When I helped run a camera store, I surely couldn't afford a geek on staff.
Most of the cost of software is NOT in the acquisition of it. If it were, your argument might have some merit.
Robert Scoble 3/7/04; 3:04:23 AM
Robert,
You wrote:
>Also, the argument is that you can get the
>same done with open source software that you
>can with stuff you pay for.
Incorrect. I wrote:
"My takeaway, then, is: whenever a small company can substitute OSS for proprietary software, the American job market benefits."
Also, to be clear, by 'substitute' I implicitly mean(t): replace at
You wrote:
>if a company can't afford Windows licenses, >don't you think it's likely to offshore its >labor too?
From the standpoint of making a data-driven determination, of course all we have to go on here is historical precedent. But the log
...a site for searching/navigating FOAF-encoded digital social networks. In particular, Go_Ogle will support searching along paths, Friendster-style, and global querying, SQL-style.
As a result, the online dating revenue model will shift from subscriptions to advertising.
So you are right to be pessimistic about subscription-based Friendster...
Of course, Friendster could always embrace Go_Ogle, via 'Powered by Go_Ogle' search, in which case Friendster would keep 80% of the ad revenue, and likely eliminate the need to charge a subscription fee...
According to The Boston Consulting Group's Summer 2002 survey of open source developers, the three ways project initiators can best serve developers are:
create the initial code base (cited as one of the top three ways by 48.6% of respondents)
continue to contribute code throughout the duration of the project (34.3%)
Searching For The Next Reality TV Hit? Try Go_Ogle.
The CEO of the company behind open source software for online matchmaking, code-named Go_Ogle, has a bad case of comic plight: like many men, he wants to succeed in his professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the market for online matchmaking software.
And will be further complicated by company-affiliated actresses, who will routinely employ their beauty, and their charms more generally, to make a favorable impression on him.
To learn why leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades, see this prototype of the web site that will launch when the TV show is announced.
To learn why company-affiliated actresses will go to great lengths to make a favorable impression on the CEO -- and more about why they will be effective -- click here.
To learn how the CEO and his girlfriend will creatively struggle to make their relationship work, click here.
Thoughts? Is Hollywood ripe for an open source comedy?
I'm suggesting that when it comes to delivering profits to investors, giving customers what their behavior tells you they want is a pretty sober approach.
26M Americans visited an online dating site during 12/02
"Personals Comprise the Largest Paid Content Category on the Internet: According to a [12/02] study...the Personals category grew 387 percent to become the largest online paid content category among consumers in the third quarter of 2002, surpassing Business Content." (source: comScore Media Metrix)
"'I have 43 employees, and we'll bring in $43 million this year. That's $1 million per employee,' [uDate president Martin] Clifford said. 'We have zero cost of sales within our business...The margins are almost super-margins.'" (source: MSNBC.com)
Google+Blogger is an ideal combination for serving this market.
Once Google goes public, here's how I think Go_Ogle will happen:
Soon, Google will improve the searchability of "blogspace" by making it easy for bloggers to annotate their blogs with information about themselves and their blogger friends. This information will be encoded in an RDF dialect called FOAF (Friend of a Friend).
It will then dawn on people that the FOAF file is effectively a static online profile, while the associated blog is akin to a living profile (in the 'living document' sense).
With this, Googling people will come to encompass both researching people you have met -- already a common practice -- and researching people you would like to meet.
The upside potential of this, as introduced above, will prove too substantial for publicly held Google to ignore. (In addition, I believe leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades. Toward understanding the relationship between the two markets, consider: according to a recent American Demographics survey, couples in the U.S. meet primarily at work (36%) or school (27%). More on 'online dating software -> LLCS' here ).
Google will then acquire the best makers of RDF query tools and launch Go_Ogle, the mother of all online dating sites.
Hello all. I'm Frank Ruscica, founder of The Opportunity Services Group, a startup provider of lifelong learning and career services. Not long ago our business plan was circulated internally at Microsoft. Soon after, I received the following email from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:
"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea."
"An American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups," a senior American counterintelligence official said recently, "And it is a very effective tool." So the months and years ahead may be a dangerous time for coalition troops and corresponding civilian populations.
How dangerous depends in no small part on we civilians.
As the counterintelligence official makes plain, a big part of winning the war on terrorism is convincing potential terrorist recruits and supporters that their interests are being served by America and her allies. People are at their most convinced when they are psychologically addicted. Psychological addiction takes shape in the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is fired by the prospects of professional success, romance and laughs.
By definition, providers of lifelong learning and career services (LLCS) will focus on increasing their clients' professional success. In particular, providers will race to develop and fund their own student loan programs, as most customers will need financing in order to consume their initial bundle of LLCS, and will be drawn to the provider offering the best loan package. These loan programs will, in time, democratize access to LLCS -- and hence, expand prospects of professional success to all who might otherwise become terrorist recruits or supporters.
Credibly sustainable providers will also enable their clients to enjoy more romance and laughs (see opportunityservices.com for details).
Turbocharging maturation of the LLCS market, then, should be a big part of how we civilians support our troops and fight the war on terrorism at home.
One lucrative complement to open source is career services, starting with for-profit internships. The most lucrative complement to career services is lifelong learning. Is integrated LLCS hot? Yep. And getting much hotter (see ThinkEquity's weekly newsletter, via sector analyst Trace Urdan, for details). Will LLCS drive tech consumption/innovation, a la Walmart? According to my Microsoft-approved business plan LLCS will.
Not long ago my business plan for an LLCS provider was circulated internally at Microsoft. Soon after, I received the following email from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:
"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea.")
Portentously, Microsoft appears to be headed in the LLCS direction. Consider, for example, their updated mission statement: to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.
Or this remark by Jeff Raikes, Microsoft Group Vice-President of Productivity and Business Services:
"I want to grow the information worker business...For the growth we can achieve this decade, about one-third will be from continuing to grow and enhance Office, while two-thirds will come from creating new categories of application value and services to support information work."
Or the TV commercials with the line drawing overlaying the video, and the off-screen voice talking about Microsoft's passion for helping people realize their full potential.
So what will happen re: open source and LLCS?
I suspect MS will end up going the route of the providers of retail financial services. Namely, their differentiator will be the utility of their technology-enabled services, not the enabling technology. Return on money wins in financial services. Return on productivity time will win in LLCS. If open source underlies, a la Hotmail, fine. The LLCS-centered MSFT will be technology-agnostic. (Although not until they have to be. No sense killing off the cash cows prematurely.)
Beyond this, lots more can be said, so I will confine additional remarks to responses to questions or comments.
Enjoy,
Frank Ruscica
Founder
The Opportunity Services Group:: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com
How are you? I hope all is as well as can be expected. I am writing to ask your opinion of an Op-Ed article that I am preparing to circulate. The article can be seen at www.opportunityservices.com/oped.html (I tried to include it here, but Slashdot's "Lameness Filter"(?) objected).
Thanks for any consideration you can extend, and best of luck in the days and months ahead.
Regards,
Frank Ruscica
Founder
The Opportunity Services Group:: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com
Slashdot Mirror
This article is designed to generate interest in the magical next-gen tools behind Vista. The so-called 'software factory' approach, if memory serves...
Of course, this recasting will take some adapting, as the basis of competition in CECS will differ from MSFT's historic competitive environment.
Which means there is a great opportunity for a CECS startup to benefit from a lucrative acquisition by MSFT.
Toward this end, you are all cordially invited to steal my Amazon.com-/Microsoft-approved business plan for a CECS provider, which can be found at Landof.OpportuniTV.com.
Good luck!
Re: customization:
"There has been a huge swing to custom programmes," says Fiona van Haeringen of IESE, who attended a recent annual conference of business-education providers in America. "The market is very aggressive, very competitive and the power is with the buyer." Don Kuhn, executive director of Unicon, a group of about 75 business schools around the world that offer executive education, says that a survey of about 40 members found that three-quarters of them said overall revenues had grown between 2002 and 2003, but the remaining quarter said they had declined. Looking to this year, most saw growth coming mainly from customised education tailored for one company. "It's just knocking the cover off the ball," rejoices Richard Vietor, who was until recently in charge of executive education for Harvard Business School.
The Economist
May 20, 2004
Re: the edu/career svcs market, consider:
Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
So, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.When I had this discussion with MSFTie Rob Scoble, he wrote:
And I replied: Q.E.D.Feel free to send a resume to fruscica at jobczar.us if you like the plan...
"Google's strategy is to move quickly while Microsoft is still developing its Longhorn version of Windows, adding programs and services like its recently announced Gmail electronic mail program. The intent, say people who are aware of the company's strategy, is to lower its vulnerability to Microsoft by adding businesses that are "sticky" - in other words, businesses that create strong customer loyalty or are hard to switch away from."
From our business plan for Go_Ogle, a next-gen 'Friendster meets Blogger':
A provider of customized lifelong learning and career services (CLLCS) -- can achieve runaway market leadership in three stages:
Better still, when it comes time for me to invoke legal precedent in support of my defense, I'll cite Google v. Googol!
Mercy thy name is, um...line please? ;-)
Excerpt:
[The Opportunity Services Group]'s internships for 1.0ers will be set at our online social networking service, code-named Go_Ogle.
The earliest internships will focus on Go_Ogle's leading-edge technology for searching social networks, which is also a 'must-use' in corporate turnarounds.
We will market our interns, suppliers, intern employers, Go_Ogle and OSG through profitable comedy programming, online and on television. The initial television program -- The Secret Life of Windows of Opportunity -- will center on the comic plight of OSG's CEO: like many men, he wants to succeed in my professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance:
- is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the early CLLCS [i.e. Customized Lifelong Learning and Career Services] market.
- will be further complicated by OSG-affiliated actresses and models, who will routinely employ their beauty, their charms more generally, and the latest innovations from the burgeoning sciences of enhancing desirability, to make a favorable impression on him.
The online complement to the sitcom -- Windows of Opportunity -- will chronicle, among other storylines, the variations on the CEO's experience that will characterize interactions between OSG-affiliated actors/actresses/models and OSG employees at all levels of the company.Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
So, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.When I had this discussion with MSFTie Rob Scoble, he wrote:
>Microsoft money does create jobs. 5000 in the
>past year alone (mine was among them).
And I replied:
This not a counterargument, because 'Microsoft money' is an aggregate of revenues from BigCos and SmallCos. My supposition is that money from SmallCos can produce more jobs if it stays in the hands of SmallCo execs/owners.
Also, when BigCos pay license fees to MSFT the net effect on American jobs creation is nil, statistically, as money moving from a BigCo to a proprietary IT BigCo is not money that becomes more likely to create American jobs as a result.
Q.E.D. :-)
I know, I know: OSS == jobs... I wrote the subject header in two installments, and at first I wasn't trying to shorthand via code syntax...
Small businesses create most jobs (A Small Business Administration study found that nearly 77 percent of the 6.9 million jobs created from 1990 to 1995 were created by small businesses).
Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
So the OSS community should bring out its own heavy artillery, and just RELENTLESSLY hammer home the point that, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.
That is a message that will RESONATE, and hence make it politically untenable to allow MSFT et al. to practice such underhandedness with impunity...
IMHO :-)
Frank Ruscica 3/6/04; 3:40:29 PM
Frank, the problem is, that argument doesn't wash completely. Look at Greg Reinacker. He created a new company around Microsoft technology. And he's getting paid for it.
Most people don't understand how Linux creates jobs when it's given away for free.
Especially when they are getting fired from their jobs cause WalMart wants their products for less than it costs them to produce them.
Robert Scoble 3/6/04; 3:53:10 PM
Robert,
I lost you there...
Let's follow the money: if a small company uses LAMP technologies, the money it saves will go toward growing the business -- and hence, will generate jobs (that's how Linux creates jobs when it's given away for free). If the company buys licenses from a BigCo, the above-cited Reuters article tells us the money will not generate jobs for Americans.
My takeaway, then, is: whenever a small company can substitute OSS for proprietary software, the American job market benefits.
If Greg Reinacker is building atop MSFT technology for which no OSS substitute exists, he does not embody a true counterargument.
If he is building atop MSFT technology for which an OSS substitute does exist, he is hurting the U.S. job market...
Where Wal-Mart fits into this, I have no idea...
Frank Ruscica 3/6/04; 7:18:54 PM
Frank: that's a good theory. But, if a company can't afford Windows licenses, don't you think it's likely to offshore its labor too?
Microsoft money does create jobs. 5000 in the past year alone (mine was among them).
Also, the argument is that you can get the same done with open source software that you can with stuff you pay for. Really? I didn't know that GIMP is as good as Photoshop. I don't know any print shop that accepts files from an open-source version of Illustrator. There's tons of things that you simply can't do with open source. Also, if you're a small company you probably can't afford a Linux geek to be on staff. When I helped run a camera store, I surely couldn't afford a geek on staff.
Most of the cost of software is NOT in the acquisition of it. If it were, your argument might have some merit.
Robert Scoble 3/7/04; 3:04:23 AM
Robert,
You wrote:
>Also, the argument is that you can get the
>same done with open source software that you
>can with stuff you pay for.
Incorrect. I wrote:
"My takeaway, then, is: whenever a small company can substitute OSS for proprietary software, the American job market benefits."
Also, to be clear, by 'substitute' I implicitly mean(t): replace at You wrote:
>if a company can't afford Windows licenses,
>don't you think it's likely to offshore its
>labor too?
From the standpoint of making a data-driven determination, of course all we have to go on here is historical precedent. But the log
How is this not a tacit acknowledgement that Linux is going to completely disrupt MS in the server space?
Thanks kindly for any insight.
As a result, the online dating revenue model will shift from subscriptions to advertising.
So you are right to be pessimistic about subscription-based Friendster...
Of course, Friendster could always embrace Go_Ogle, via 'Powered by Go_Ogle' search, in which case Friendster would keep 80% of the ad revenue, and likely eliminate the need to charge a subscription fee...
More here
If so, this might be a reason for the mandate...
Let's see what happens...
Searching For The Next Reality TV Hit? Try Go_Ogle.
The CEO of the company behind open source software for online matchmaking, code-named Go_Ogle, has a bad case of comic plight: like many men, he wants to succeed in his professional life and also be the best boyfriend, and later husband and father, he can. In his case, achieving this balance is complicated by the magnitude of the stakes in the market for online matchmaking software.
And will be further complicated by company-affiliated actresses, who will routinely employ their beauty, and their charms more generally, to make a favorable impression on him.
To learn why leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades, see this prototype of the web site that will launch when the TV show is announced.
To learn why company-affiliated actresses will go to great lengths to make a favorable impression on the CEO -- and more about why they will be effective -- click here.
To learn how the CEO and his girlfriend will creatively struggle to make their relationship work, click here.
Thoughts? Is Hollywood ripe for an open source comedy?
And what does online dating have to do with porn?
- 26M Americans visited an online dating site during 12/02
- "Personals Comprise the Largest Paid Content Category on the Internet: According to a [12/02] study...the Personals category grew 387 percent to become the largest online paid content category among consumers in the third quarter of 2002, surpassing Business Content." (source: comScore Media Metrix)
- "'I have 43 employees, and we'll bring in $43 million this year. That's $1 million per employee,' [uDate president Martin] Clifford said. 'We have zero cost of sales within our business...The margins are almost super-margins.'" (source: MSNBC.com)
Google+Blogger is an ideal combination for serving this market.Once Google goes public, here's how I think Go_Ogle will happen:
Soon, Google will improve the searchability of "blogspace" by making it easy for bloggers to annotate their blogs with information about themselves and their blogger friends. This information will be encoded in an RDF dialect called FOAF (Friend of a Friend).
It will then dawn on people that the FOAF file is effectively a static online profile, while the associated blog is akin to a living profile (in the 'living document' sense).
With this, Googling people will come to encompass both researching people you have met -- already a common practice -- and researching people you would like to meet.
The upside potential of this, as introduced above, will prove too substantial for publicly held Google to ignore. (In addition, I believe leadership of the market for online matchmaking software is the gateway to early leadership of the market for lifelong learning and career services, which will be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars in the coming decades. Toward understanding the relationship between the two markets, consider: according to a recent American Demographics survey, couples in the U.S. meet primarily at work (36%) or school (27%). More on 'online dating software -> LLCS' here ).
Google will then acquire the best makers of RDF query tools and launch Go_Ogle, the mother of all online dating sites.
Thoughts?
Are you not aware that people are dying all over the place these days!?
Focus, my (wo)man, focus...
Why?
"An American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups," a senior American counterintelligence official said recently, "And it is a very effective tool." So the months and years ahead may be a dangerous time for coalition troops and corresponding civilian populations.
How dangerous depends in no small part on we civilians.
As the counterintelligence official makes plain, a big part of winning the war on terrorism is convincing potential terrorist recruits and supporters that their interests are being served by America and her allies. People are at their most convinced when they are psychologically addicted. Psychological addiction takes shape in the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is fired by the prospects of professional success, romance and laughs.
By definition, providers of lifelong learning and career services (LLCS) will focus on increasing their clients' professional success. In particular, providers will race to develop and fund their own student loan programs, as most customers will need financing in order to consume their initial bundle of LLCS, and will be drawn to the provider offering the best loan package. These loan programs will, in time, democratize access to LLCS -- and hence, expand prospects of professional success to all who might otherwise become terrorist recruits or supporters.
Credibly sustainable providers will also enable their clients to enjoy more romance and laughs (see opportunityservices.com for details).
Turbocharging maturation of the LLCS market, then, should be a big part of how we civilians support our troops and fight the war on terrorism at home.
Let's Roll (out LLCS startups)! :^)
Details at www.opportunityservices.com.
(What do I mean Microsoft-approved?
Not long ago my business plan for an LLCS provider was circulated internally at Microsoft. Soon after, I received the following email from Randy Hinrichs, Manager of Microsoft Research's Learning Sciences and Technology Group:
"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea.")
Portentously, Microsoft appears to be headed in the LLCS direction. Consider, for example, their updated mission statement: to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.
Or this remark by Jeff Raikes, Microsoft Group Vice-President of Productivity and Business Services:
"I want to grow the information worker business...For the growth we can achieve this decade, about one-third will be from continuing to grow and enhance Office, while two-thirds will come from creating new categories of application value and services to support information work."
Or the TV commercials with the line drawing overlaying the video, and the off-screen voice talking about Microsoft's passion for helping people realize their full potential.
So what will happen re: open source and LLCS?
I suspect MS will end up going the route of the providers of retail financial services. Namely, their differentiator will be the utility of their technology-enabled services, not the enabling technology. Return on money wins in financial services. Return on productivity time will win in LLCS. If open source underlies, a la Hotmail, fine. The LLCS-centered MSFT will be technology-agnostic. (Although not until they have to be. No sense killing off the cash cows prematurely.)
Beyond this, lots more can be said, so I will confine additional remarks to responses to questions or comments.
Enjoy,
Frank Ruscica
Founder :: Have Fun to Get Ready
The Opportunity Services Group
www.opportunityservices.com
How are you? I hope all is as well as can be expected. I am writing to ask your opinion of an Op-Ed article that I am preparing to circulate. The article can be seen at www.opportunityservices.com/oped.html (I tried to include it here, but Slashdot's "Lameness Filter"(?) objected).
Thanks for any consideration you can extend, and best of luck in the days and months ahead.
Regards,
Frank Ruscica :: Have Fun to Get Ready
Founder
The Opportunity Services Group
www.opportunityservices.com