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Me in the elevator [Flickr]Me in the elevator [Flickr]Me in the elevator [Flickr] 02/01/2005 08:45 PM mathowie posted a photo:
At the library, self-portrait where I held the camera out and guessed that I was in frame This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)Me in the elevator [Flickr]Grok Headline matches for Me in the elevator [Flickr]Kay in the elevator [Flickr]Kay in the elevator [Flickr] 02/01/2005 08:45 PM mathowie posted a photo:
At the library Elevator SimulatorElevator Simulator 05/23/2004 03:04 PM ElevatorSim 0.2 Released Space ElevatorSpace Elevator 06/25/2004 11:33 PM
Wikipedia has a huge article on this concept, in which they say this: A space elevator would present a considerable navigational hazard, both to aircraft and spacecraft. Aircraft could be dealt with [...], but spacecraft are a more difficult problem. Over a long period of time all satellites with perigees below geostationary altitude would eventually collide with the space elevator, as their orbits precess around Earth. Yeah, that sounds safe. Click here to comment on this entry Elevator:2010Elevator:2010 09/06/2004 11:15 PM Elevator 2010: Move over XPrize, Elevator:2010 is here. They're offering $50,000 to the best "climber" prototype, with a couple of other contests for some other pieces of the puzzle.
We've talked about space elevators before, and we weren't too optimistic about them. Via Metafilter. Click here to comment on this entry Space elevator in 15 years?Space elevator in 15 years? 06/26/2004 07:29 AM USA Today Jun 26 2004 12:07PM GMT Space Elevator UpdateSpace Elevator Update 04/09/2005 10:52 PM Deliveryman Stuck in Elevator Four Days
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 In last week's post on
Assembling
the Team for Natural Enterprise* I promised that I would present
an Elevator
Pitch
for such enterprises. Although this post is too long to deliver in an
elevator ride, it does explain what Natural Enterprise is and why you
might want to set one up or join one.What is Natural Enterprise? A form of self-organized, self-managed, community-based business partnership in which two or more people agree to make a living together as collaborators and peers, to strive to attain what each member needs to achieve for his or her personal well-being, to accept substantial responsibility for each other, and to respect and help the community or communities in which the enterprise operates. It is 'natural' because this form of socio-economic activity occurs ubiquitously in hunter-gatherer cultures and in non-human animal cultures. Why is it different?
What's the catch? Natural Enterprise could be to the modern economy what the Internet has become to modern politics and society -- an anti-hierarchal mechanism that democratizes and liberates economic power and opportunity the same way the Internet has democratized and liberated social and political power and opportunity. Both innovations fundamentally threaten established power, authority, 'wisdom' and control, by undermining them and rendering their hierarchies vulnerable and potentially obsolete. Large corporate oligopolies will recognize Natural Enterprises as threats to their power and profitability, and, much as they have responded to labour unions, will attempt to ignore, circumvent, weaken or crush them. For at least a generation, pionering Natural Enterprises, much like the fledgling Internet of the 1980s, will have to be content to play a minor role. Charles Handy envisions this as being like the relationship of the flea to the elephant -- Natural Enterprise will contract mainly with large corporations as suppliers, and will be to some extent dependent on these large corporations' largesse and their increased proclivity for outsourcing, along with the Natural Enterprises' own innovativeness and agility. As Handy says, such uneven contracts will at least be an improvement on the wage-slave employer-employee contracts they supersede. And eventually Natural Enterprises will become so numerous, and specialized and adept in so many industries and aspects of business, that they will start networking and contracting and associating with each other, using the power of the Internet. And much as specialty stores undermined and largely replaced the large, cumbersome, general-purpose department store, Natural Enterprises could ultimately eliminate the need for and replace large, cumbersome corporations. Just as the Internet created a socio-political and information 'World of Ends', where central control and authority are not needed and all value is created at the 'ends', so, too could Natural Enterprise create an economic 'World of Ends' where corporatism, oligopoly and massive size are not needed in economic entities and where all value is created at the 'ends' -- face to face with customers. It's a revolutionary and powerful and liberating idea, but it will take time, patience and energy to bring it about. How do I set one up? The Handbook is now being written. The framework is illustrated above. You can learn more about them here.  * What's In a Name? I have used the terms New Collaborative Enterprise, Existential Enterprise (Charles Handy's term), and New Tribal Ventures (Daniel Quinn's term) to describe such enterprises. The 'new' in these terms suggests there are 'old' collaborative enterprises, the term 'existential' has been voted off the island by readers of this blog as too highfalutin' and intimidating a term, and terms like 'tribal' conjure up images of war paint and noble savages. Autopoietic Enterprise (it means self-creating and self-managing) is accurate but unpronounceable and would probably be perceived as pretentious. Readers have suggested the terms 'Natural Enterprise' (Harold Jarche) and 'Organic Enterprise' (Don Dwiggins), which I like because they're simple and descriptive. I like Natural better because its opposite (unnatural) is exactly what the modern corporation is, while the term 'organic' is a bit ambiguous (it means 'related to organs', 'related to organisms', 'carbon-based', and 'instrumental', of which only the second definition is a propos). I' almost decided to keep 'Collaborative' in the term for two reasons: To stress that these enterprises entail more than one person working together (a sole proprietor, to me, does not an enterprise make, even if s/he is a powerful networker -- enterprises are about people making a living together), and because it would allow me to continue using the acronym NCE, which has gained some common parlance over the past year. But in the end, simpler is better, Natural Enterprise is inherently collaborative, and I was taught 'when in doubt, leave it out'. So Natural Enterprise it is -- thanks to Harold for the inspiration. |
It's an exquisitely well designed Web application, certainly one of the best I've ever seen, full of smart interface choices and nice little finishing touches that let you know that the developers who've built it are also heavy users of their own handiwork.
Tiny example: I noticed Flickr was dating the photos based on the date I uploaded them, so I went in to change a bunch of dates to reflect when the photos were taken. The page contained this helpful message: "The date posted is the date & time you physically published your photo on Flickr, not the date the photo was taken. We are currently storing the date that your photo was taken in the database, so rest assured you won't need to modify every photo later... There will soon be a way to sort your photos based on the date the photo was taken. Stay tuned!" So I didn't waste my time. That's what I call a considerate piece of software. And along the way you learn that Flickr is respectfully storing each photo's metadata (date, type of camera used, all that EXIF stuff that you almost never need to look at, except when you do).
It's easy to get started with Flickr, and then when you want to push it and do more with it, it leads you gently into its depths. It has a whole layer of social software -- profiles, groups, and so forth -- but since its primary function is photo sharing, that social software actually has a raison d'etre, so you don't just sit there (as with so many other ventures in this area) and wonder "Now that we're here and we know each other's hobbies and marital status, what exactly do we do?"
I am generally distrustful of using Web applications as anything
more than conveniences for away-from-home access. I want my data close
at hand, and most Web interfaces are still too clunky to allow for
fast and complex organizing of serious quantities of stuff. But I'm
seriously thinking about making Flickr my photo home base -- it's that
good. And if Flickr's speedy evolution in a mere six months is any
indication, the thing is going to improve -- and grow -- at an intense
rate.
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