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METAFORIX MAIL Volume 1, Issue 36 April 10, 2001 Thanks
to you, our readership is growing. Please pass this issue along to a friend
or colleague who may find a useful data nugget within it. CONTENTS AT A GLANCE: ON
MY MIND: e-Volution ON MY MIND [From the Editor] Rathernots to Wannadots The Times of London has called Rosabeth Moss Kanter one of the fifty most powerful women in the world. A professor at the Harvard Business School and highly influential management consultant, Dr. Kanter can always be counted on for lively, down-to-earth prose, communicated with zest and sprinkled with humor.Her new book, Evolve!: Succeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow, delivers her take on e-culture, the "human side of the global information era," based on surveys, interviews, and in-depth case studies of 785 businesses worldwide. For starters, Kanter posits that there are -- or soon will be -- only three kinds of companies and organizations: dotcoms, dotcom-enablers, and wannadots. Dotcoms operate primarily, sometimes completely, in virtual space. Successful examples include eBay and Amazon.com, which have transformed the dynamics of industry, and America Online, which has devoured real-world giant TimeWarner. Dotcom-enablers are "the technology and science providers that spread the Internet gospel." The success of these "change agent" companies, such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, and Razorfish, depends on convincing as many other companies as possible to do business on the Web. Wannadots is the catchall category for everybody else -- "old economy" companies, schools, hospitals, government, and others that live entirely, or almost entirely, in the physical world. Wannadots, whether "pacesetters" or "laggards" on the inevitable road to cyberspace, are distinguished from the other two groups by their level of enthusiasm for rapid change. Pacesetters approach the Web with curiosity and a willingness to improvise their way toward systemic innovation. Laggards start with denial, treat the Web as a tag-on or afterthought, and resist systemic change as long as possible. Both are much more cautious about cyberventures than their counterpart dotcoms and dotcom-enablers. Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Kanter give a talk on her new book. She spoke without notes or PowerPoint, paced through the audience talk-show style, and concluded with a spirited rendition of the rap song she wrote to "translate the themes of the book into poetic form" to make them accessible to young people. During the Q&A, I noted my interest in her three categories and asked, "What about the rathernots?" (You know, those organizations peopled by folks who sit stonefaced, arms folded across their chests, hoping that they can make it until retirement without having to deal with the Internet.) In her response to my question, Kanter essentially characterized the rathernots as laggards, only more so. Although Kanter's survey was widely publicized among companies and organizations of all sizes, the respondents selected themselves. As Kanter points out in an appendix to Evolve!, people interested in the Internet were overrepresented in her "opportunistic, suggestive," non-random, non-representative sample, which she designed and used to "generate hypotheses and glean insights." Almost a third of the organizations were publicly-traded corporations, over half were "Information Age companies" (defined as twenty years old or newer), and only six percent were government or nonprofit organizations. I can't help wondering how the picture of rathernots might have developed if the sample had been a bit different. What if there had been more governments and nonprofits, more solo entrepreneurs and non-Internet-based small businesses and others lacking the time, inclination, and/or money to read the publications or visit the Web sites or attend the conferences where Kanter's study was publicized? My guess is that the rathernots would look a lot more like the small businesses and nonprofits and solo entrepreneurs I interact with. A significant number of these clients and potential clients see the Internet as a necessary evil, an energy drain, a nuisance, or even as something to be completely avoided. If these people have the luxury of sufficient staff, they may delegate electronic communications to someone else. If they do not have that luxury, they may learn as little about the Internet as absolutely necessary, and learn it as late as possible. They may keep themselves and their businesses as far away from the Web as they can. They may refuse to recognize the opportunity cost of treating the Internet as though it will be gone when they wake up tomorrow morning. Granted, I find the Internet a cool tool, a delighfully nonlinear playground, and a fascinating cultural phenomenon. I can't expect everyone else to feel the same way. But I do know that the Internet is no longer an option. And even those of my clients who came kicking and screaming into cyberspace have the imagination to know it, as well. So, for the remainder of the conference where I heard Rosabeth Moss Kanter speak, I changed my elevator speech. When people asked, "What does Metaforix do?" I replied, "We help rathernots become wannadots." You know, the pacesetting kind.
Cordially, Lois C.
Ambash, Editor
MEDIA Freestyle The line
between editorial and advertising content is becoming increasingly blurred
-- not only on the Internet, but in more traditional media, as well. To view
the music video, tune in to MTV starting April 11. You can see the commercial
online at:
Access previous issues of Metaforix Mail by date by visiting our archives. Or use the search box on any page of the Metaforix site (www.metaforix.com) to search by keywords. INFORMATICON "A Touchstone
for the Intellectual Property Debate" "The trend these days is toward treating books, albums and everything else going digital more like software and less like physical objects. Because digital content is so easy to copy, we now have laws like 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, passed in some states and under consideration in others. Combine those laws with upcoming technologies -- including systems built right into hard drives intended to foil pirating -- and it's getting more difficult to share information even for legitimate purposes."
CYBERSPEAK Blogs in the Wheels of Cyberspace A blog
-- also known as a Web log or weblog -- is an online journal or diary
available for public consumption. According to word maven Michael
Quinion, blogging began in 1998, but didn't really take off until
last year.
National Public Radio Before I moved to New York City, I did a lot of driving. I don't miss the commute or the traffic. But, as a person who works best when it's quiet, one thing I don't get to do so much anymore is listen to the radio. And my radio station of choice, wherever I find myself in the US, is National Public Radio.NPR is appealing both for its familiar features syndicated around the nation and the unique local touches supplied by its member stations. News, commentary, audio documentaries, the wacky yet authoritative "Car Talk," music from Celtic to classical: it's all there and always a treat. And now I can find it whenever I want to at www.npr.org. The site offers programs in real time, along with a rich archive of tapes and transcripts. There are chat rooms, staff bios, links to member stations, and more. It's especially useful to e-mail clips from radio programs in the same way as magazine articles or web pages. Whether you're new to NPR or a long-time fan, the site is worth a visit at: www.npr.org
Guest Columnists and Interviewees Wanted! Metaforix
Mail seeks your opinions on how information technologies are (or are not)
changing your world of work.
Please note that the links contained in Metaforix Mail are current as of the time of publication. Some of them may no longer be operative at the time you access past issues. To
Volume 1, Issue 35 April 3, 2001 |
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