JCL Blog

Glad I Don't Use Gmail

Well I do have a gmail account but I have not gotten in the habit of using it.  I experiment with as many Google products as I can because I am a big fan of innovation and I am always thrilled when I find evidence of it.

Fred Wilson had a great post today on the virtues of Explicit vs Implicit communicating and specifically what happens when you combine email with a social network -- like Google did this week with Buzz.

Real people all have multiple social circles that overlap and interact in extremely complex ways. So far no one has figured out an elegant way to model the complexity of real relationships -- and I suspect it will be a long time before such a thing comes about. A social media system fails when the makers think it actually replicates real life. So the bigger and more self assured makers of systems get, Google would be the biggest and most self assured, the less likely they will be to create a system of value.

Now all the buzz is about how Buzz is sharing too much information with too many people with too little approval or awareness by the person sharing.  I have to say I am pretty glad I am not one of the unwitting sharers. 

The DVR Killed the Superbowl (for me anyway)

I admit that I am not a big pro football fan.  Either way, I have always enjoyed big sporting events and the drama leading up to them.  The Masters, the US Open (Tennis or Golf), and the Rose Bowl were always on my TV watching calendar.  

A few years back I started using a DVR and did so for the sporting events too.  At least half the time I knew the outcome before watching the game -- how can one avoid knowing who won the superbowl withing 5 minutes of the end of the game?

Part of my interest was certainly the big personalities involved, and the way the story unfolded.  Another part comes from the fear of missing the best game ever.  Believe it or not, there was a time not long ago when if you missed the game that went into overtime -- you really did miss it.  You got to read about it in the paper but the chance to experience it yourself was lost.

We are clearly not in that time anymore.  Knowing that I can go back and see the best game ever -- any time I want -- has left me with just about no interest in watching the game.  I am not exactly sure how that happened.

I find myself reading much more now that the DVR killed the Superbowl.