Most of my use of the internet concerns researching pretty dire academic papers and books through still largely restricted access. It's much cheaper than buying the stuff directly, particularly as 99% of what shows up is dross. I've played with the rest to find out what is there. Search is a big plus compared with rooting through stuff in a university library. Now, much google search just turns up dross I don't want.
In an academic project we are interested in what is on the net generally - in terms of how much of general consciousness this represents. Rational discussion is a tiny part of what is on the net. Techies spend a lot of time looking for cut and paste code and ways we might automate this sweep. There is a background idea that we are looking for new ways to do 'expert knowledge' on the metaphor of people not being able to build cars but able to drive them with a bit of training. My own bad is 'big data' as a new language that would bring a different speed to human discourse and potentially control of the means of production. Lately, I'm interested in the lack of a business model for anything except trash. I can join a site where a couple of young women will send me off-the-peg clothes on approval to ensure my sartorial elegance, though don't. There are plenty of interesting Moochs, but I don't have time. I bank n line and have the joy of never seeing a bank clerk. Shopping can be done in the same manner as shops don't interest me at all. My insurance renewals are always 30% higher than I can get the same cover for via one of the broker sites on the day. I do electronic teaching. So I'm no longer racked by whatever diseases undergraduate classes try to kill me with. And I never see a boss or have to attend a useless staff meeting, or have my classes flooded as the students discover I'm an easier touch and tell jokes. The work is more or less pre-prepared and my timetable is not changed at ridiculous short notice and I don't have to take time to teach kids from other classes, at my door because they can't get anywhere with the guy supposed to help. I can watch television and films through illegal sites, but would really prefer to pay for channels where I could select from much wider material without packaging. The current business model encourages loads of channels with the same (usually old) dross, or stuff like Netflix with only 1% I'd want to see and don't want to pay to support. Sports channels require me to pay for soccer I don't want. Tony has done more for me in a few minutes (neglecting his production time) than Sky Arts bores ever could. We lack a business model of actual choice. With one, insanestream news and other entertainment, the crap science pornography of the BBC, Discovery and so on, would be things of my past. In chronic business terms, I wonder how they do market segmentation at all. I am sick of Blue Peter (kids programme here) presentation. One can imagine plenty of people like the best through this group wanting something very different and something large enough not to be a part of when time presses and so on. Uber, properly supervised against racist drivers, could bring very radical change - I meet few who can explain why - though we have not yet worked out that technology could massively reduce what we currently call work and planet burning. In the meantime we can't even set up a discussion group without Gabby (and everyone really) worrying on the curtain shades. Give us a twirl then girl, like one of those doxies Bruce Forsythe used to encourage. I can see something of a business model, starting with Chris' 'attractors'. The eventual key is content for a sophisticated audience - remembering very few people do education without any kind of accreditation pay-off and the means to pay for organisation does not move easily from free. Current strategies are advertising and the begging bowl. -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
