The "geek" and "nerd" population is a minority in the American News Audience. While it may seem that there are more people with technical degrees and working in technical fields than ever before, the largest component of the population is still people born shortly after World War II. These folks have different tastes as far as how they get their news, how it is presented, and what is on the front page.
As for Monica Lewinsky, the geek/nerd constituent is apathetic. Yes, Silicon Valley feels disconnected from the White House. This is our own fault -- the "head in the sand" approach does not affect our political engine -- it merely gives the Meat and Potatoes folks a larger segment of the vote.
Many newspapers are publishing their papers on the web, verbatim. This is their initial response to the proliferation of computer networks. Lets see the effort continue with clued coverage of technology. What we don't need is the junk that cable news networks and broadcasting companies are putting on the web under the auspices of "fast reporting". Some of these sites should get an award for "best investigative paragraph".
Affect the news industry with your money and your vote. This is all you can do. Most of us do neither.
I haven't read this book, but the elite company of engineers struggling against the always counterproductive "management" idea is not a new one. Ever read Player Piano? Of course we don't have the Reeks and the Recks here -- or the Socialism!:-)
The risk of choosing an albatross for an information technology solution is increased in the OSS area. Sure, we have seen some very overpopularized examples (Apache/Linux) but IBM and Microsoft have, for the most part, withstood the test of time. If I'm a CIO and my Microsoft product flakes, I know that this company has resources beyond my imagination and in the end, they will make the product work (though maybe requiring more time and idiots).
I love the OSS movement, too, but the establishment isn't going to vanish quite yet. OSS is going to need more demonstrable successes.
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The "geek" and "nerd" population is a minority in the American News Audience. While it may seem that there are more people with technical degrees and working in technical fields than ever before, the largest component of the population is still people born shortly after World War II. These folks have different tastes as far as how they get their news, how it is presented, and what is on the front page.
As for Monica Lewinsky, the geek/nerd constituent is apathetic. Yes, Silicon Valley feels disconnected from the White House. This is our own fault -- the "head in the sand" approach does not affect our political engine -- it merely gives the Meat and Potatoes folks a larger segment of the vote.
Many newspapers are publishing their papers on the web, verbatim. This is their initial response to the proliferation of computer networks. Lets see the effort continue with clued coverage of technology. What we don't need is the junk that cable news networks and broadcasting companies are putting on the web under the auspices of "fast reporting". Some of these sites should get an award for "best investigative paragraph".
Affect the news industry with your money and your vote. This is all you can do. Most of us do neither.
I haven't read this book, but the elite company of engineers struggling against the always counterproductive "management" idea is not a new one. Ever read Player Piano? Of course we don't have the Reeks and the Recks here -- or the Socialism! :-)
The risk of choosing an albatross for an information technology solution is increased in the OSS area. Sure, we have seen some very overpopularized examples (Apache/Linux) but IBM and Microsoft have, for the most part, withstood the test of time. If I'm a CIO and my Microsoft product flakes, I know that this company has resources beyond my imagination and in the end, they will make the product work (though maybe requiring more time and idiots).
I love the OSS movement, too, but the establishment isn't going to vanish quite yet.
OSS is going to need more demonstrable successes.