Lots of ideas around, and not enough time to cover them. So I guess I'll just write them and maybe come to them later...
1. Social Networks... I was happy with Skype and MSN for my comms, and then there comes LinkedIn which I kind of disregard at the beginning but have come to appreciate since you can actually track people in different companies... at least to get some names. But along came Facebook, wonderful way to keep in touch with people far away or the ones you don't see often, or to share contents (pictures) and to absolutely waste time poking, quizzing, comparing, etc. An finally Microsoft values it in
US$15.000m though it has never made any profits, and buys an astonishing 1.6%(?!). I don't want to underestimate the value of this social networks, but I do believe this is crazy... The new .com bubble? I wouldn't go that far... it's a single company, but then again eBay got his piece with Skype, which led to a US$900 million
writedown (that is almost 35%!). It might not be a bubble but it looks a lot like it.... or to be more realistic, its the payback of those trying to block others growth by paying to cope all the possible scenarios.... And that is really expensive!
2. Following with this social networks... in real life people of different "tribes" have to be in contact with others that may balance their views of life... but this social networks allow a 24/7 contact only with people that think like me... I wonder if that might lead to more extreme views in the long run... fascists, religious groups, terrorists, etc. The idea of the "globalization" finally ends up being a myriad of isoletd capsules.
3. This angels, VCs, entrepreneurs, start ups... though I understand their importance, and am even seriously considering taking part among them, sometimes seem to me like a modern version of a
Ponzi scheme: every body pays more to the previous owner until some incautious ends having to write down when everything turns up to be just promises.
4. On the other hand, many of this entrepreneurs are required to have a "business model" before they go to visit this angels... I wonder if my
favorite band ever had a business model in their head... I'm sure many of this entrepreneurs should be better compare to artists requiring somebody else to take control of the business side than real business man... specially among techies and bio specialists.
5. One of the best ideas I saw around this week was about somebody that instead of "thinking big" with renewable energies simply figured a way to provide solar cells to families in Africa so they can actually have a couple of hours of light by night.... That's relatively cheap, and can be a big improvement!! More useful than a US$100 PC they have nowhere to plug to!
6.- Finally, in a Seminar I attended this week there was huge debate on the issue of privacy (by the way, wonderful tradition that of
Cambridge debates). Now that you can "Google" anything... The incumbents were talking about a future when you will be able to access almost anything: in which Bank do you have your many, What's your blood type, Your Social Security Number, etc. The thing is, most surely, it is going to happen... Some were advocating for a self regulation, since governments are so far away from this ideas that they do not have a chance to make a decent proposal... Others feared that in reaction governments will intervene (as they usually do) blowing it all. I, myself, do believe that it will happen, but it's just the result of "being a Village": in a village everybody knows who your father and your grandfather is (your blood type, even your DNA!), where do you keep your money (there's only one bank!), your name (your Social Security number), who do you date, where did you go... Yes, I'd rather have that information spread than concentrated on the government, but believing in a certain privacy of external acts and issues seems to be just wishful thinking. We thought that within the mass we could disappear, but many of us would rather not! And we'd better get used to it.
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