"Whatever we discover to be the new Stupid Network value proposition, my working hypothesis is that it will be based on intelligent end user devices, intelligent customers, employees whose intelligence is valued as a corporate asset, and companies that can learn."

that article was far too intellectual and full of corporate-speak for me, an old fashioned guy.

care to translate that into common man language?

From what I can tell, success in the future is no longer corporate empires where the the corporate head makes all the decisions for the users, but rather where the end user calls their own shots and determins what makes it or loses it in the market place.

The telephone network was defined as "an intellegent network" because all of the choices were made by the mega company by how their switching software was made, and you the user accepted what they offered.

Kind of a "my way or the highway" mentality. In the stupid network you the user make all the choices and the network gives you what you choose no mater what it is.

Kind of like the Internet is today, and hopefully continues to be. Your purchasing choices determine what kind of services the Internet offers instead of some monster corporation telling you what services are offered. This is the business model of the future.

As a corporation you either get on the bus or get left behind. The problem is defending and maintaining "net neutrality." Corporations such as The Wall Street Journal want to have economic control over the Internet and go back to the old telephone company business model where they make the choices and tell you what you can and can't have on the Internet. See:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3193

From what I can see, a possible cure for the current economic condition is to give back control and choice back to the purchaser. Let the open market decide what makes it and what doesn't. I greatly favor a horizontal "buyers market" instead of a virticle empire economy.

maybe i'm missing something, but business is still based on supply and demand. i don't see how that simple rule can be changed.

if i were a businessman and wanting to play the best odds, i believe i would stick to the tried and true model.

O.K, now.
You have read all my sermons of doom and gloom. I thought that I might say something a little different, to your shock and dismay.
This economic meltdown may be the corporatists last hurrah.
Our auto industry is an example, like the telephone companies, is stuck in two dimensional thinking. The third dimension is change.
As some has noticed, I am a little bit of a historian. In every great change in technology, there has been economic fall out. Yes, there has been outlandish levels of greed, but it can be the last ditch effort of the old guard, trying to not pass away. Let me give you some examples.
The Gutenberg Press changed the rule of Kings, the rise in Protestantism, the Reformation of the Holy Church, and the Golden Age of Reason. Which culminated into the thinking that created our great nation.
Before the Great Depression, ninety percent of the American people were farmers. Yes, there was greed involved in it, but there was a shift from the agrarian age to the full industrial age. This gave the first and second world nations a new standard of living that their grand parents have not dreamed of.
The rise of the internet and the electronic age is putting communications at a level that our parents could not have dreamed of. Everyone can talk to people, around the world. Governments can not play the games on the masses, like they use too. True or not, we have a much higher level of doubt concerning 911, than we would ever had in the past.
Whether or not Barak Obama will make the changes we want, the mere fact of him getting elected, is a sign of major change has happened.
The old adage, it is always darkest before the dawn, could be applicable. The old corporate guard may be dying and the power of communication is giving the average person the knowledge to change the world.
We can be on a verge of a new age of enlightenment, a new age of reason, a new golden age, where everyone on the planet has the power to overthrow Dictators, Kings, Sheiks, Potentates, Sultans, Robber Barons. There will be no crime of humanity that the rest of the world will not know about.
As dark as I think things could get, I also think that true greatness can be right around the corner. A new thinking that will populate the solar system and no person going hungry. I just hope it happens sooner, and not later.

Well, Mike, the internet has truly changed things by making people around the world able to discuss forbidden things. But, governments could shut it down and isolate its population if it chose to.

As far as a new age, i sure wouldn't go that far. Man is just too inherently selfish and someone would grab the power.

But, maybe we can come up with something that works better than out and out capitalism. There has to be something that works better.

I am sorry. I am suppose to be the one with the narrow mind.

well, maybe i'm being narrow minded. but, we are trying to figure this all out, aren't we?

From a historical context, this is true. We are already seeing the change.
Yes, they can cut off the internet, but they will not cut it off, out of their own stupid greed. Just way too much money to be made off of it. Just look at who is the investors in Google. The same greedy creeps that is causing all the problems wouldn't dare to stop the internet.
If the Gutenberg Press made huge world changes, I find it hard to believe that the internet is any less of an influence.
The free market of ideas has become a lot more freer.
I wonder how many smaller groups or companies would step in, if the auto industry failed. We could have new people with new ideas that could leave foreign manufacturers in the dust.

Woohoo :)))) That's exactly what I wanted to see. The old faced off with the new. I love it you guys!

Yes business IS based upon supply and demand. But when the suppliers are the ones who control the demand (the old gaurd or old way of doing it) then it is no longer a free market. But it is the exchange, the transaction, the agreement, the meeting of the minds that actually causes it to work.

If you go to the market and you only have one choice in what to buy are you agreeing to the transaction or are you submitting to empirical tyranny? The idea of buying out the little guy it so control the market and thus control the buyer, thus taking away the choice and coersing you, the buyer, into a false agreement for the sake of one companies profit. It is and always has been a loose/loose situation.

Yes the Gutenberg Press did make the change but it was at the sacrifice of John Tyndale, who actually penned the first English Bible on the premise of giving the people a choice of either submitting to piece-meal handout of the church or being able to read it and find out for themselves. That is the spark that inspired Gutenberg. That is why the choice of a free market is so essential to the future of humanity.

I used to work at a boat manufacturer who adopted the Japanese method of just-in-time lean produciton; aka the Toyota way. There the idea was to maintain a horizontal and quick response method of doing business vs the european way of slow responding virtical hierarchies. The example given was to look at the inventory warehouses of BMW and Mercedes Benz.

They were massively tall warehouses with extreme virticle shelving. The ideal of that system was to duplicate the illusion of wealth and power by how high the kings storehouses were. The problem was that much of the old school businesses assets were tied up in huge immovable and depreciating inventories stacked up to the ceiling.

The Japanese learned by having just enough inventory to complete a single days produciton freed up the assets to leverage them in more profitable ways instead of depreciating in a warehouse. The result was that the supplier was kept busy all year keeping the just in time inventory stocked instead of having a 3 to 6 month produciton run and then waiting for orders. This turned out to be a win/win for all concerned.

It also increased competition and encouraged the small time supplier to get back into the market, creating a buyers market where demand controls the supply. That is a horizontal free market!

Want proof, check out the revival and renewal of the Japanese economy that occured from the 70's to present. If they had not done that they would have died off and become prey to China and be the cause of WWIII in the 80's and 90's

Keep at it fellas, I think you both have some awesome stuff going on here. Faithfull you have the a good handle on the small details of personal change, and Mike you have a good broad vision based upon history. Together I think we can win. :)

Not sure if this relates but in the last few months I had a lot of problems with my computer so I was forced to call Microsoft.

Last year I purchased their 2007 Office suites and it wasn't cheap. Well when I talked with Microsoft they convinced me that the original set up was corruped. The Microsoft rep got Hewlet Packard involved and HW charged me $99.00 for an extended warranty.

It turns out I didn't need it because my computer was still under an extended warranty and then Microsoft installed a free trial version of Office suites and I was assured I would not be charged. Three months go by and Microsoft wants me to pay to continue their service.

Since I had the original disk I tried installing it but couldn't download it. It looks like Microsoft disabled my original software. I was so angry and told myself I was not going to give Microsoft one more penny so I downloaded www.openoffice.org so I could have a word processor, power point and a spread sheet. It's completely free and so far so good and I love the idea that I was able to bypass Microsoft and their less than desirable sale tactics.

BW

Behavewell, you've brought up a great example of how individual consumers can bring down the Goliah's of corporations.

Many programmers who were fed up with Microsoft's monopolistic practices gathered together and decided to write open source software like Linux and Open Office. A thousand volunteers (or more) working together to offer a free alternative. Who knows, maybe the open source model of software will eventually be emulated in other areas of business and be the downfall of corporations as they now exist.

Now, wouldn't that be something to witness?

Hooray for our side!!! Yes BW you WON! :)

Faitfull is right, open source is the future of an open and free market, and I don't mean always free of paying for it. As he said it cost the efforts of the volunteers who created it. There is a lot of software out there that is either free or less expensive or at a pay-what-you-can price.

Open source embodies the commune ideal in technology.

I think your choice to go open source is another example of the quiet protest.

My wife and I are addicts to watching "Survivor" This seasons winner was a 57 year old physics teacher whos strategy was to make himself useful and valuable to the others.

In my opinion, one of the paths to curing the economy is for business to return to their original vision of being useful and valuable to those who buy their goods and services.

The dilema is when a company "goes public" and they begin to use the share holders money to operate on, that is when they begin to loose the original goal to satisfy the share holders instead of the customer.

Maybe we should limit the public offering process somehow? I don't know. A lot of things that we benifit from are because a company was able to go public and have the resources to develop and produce what we have today. hmmm how to keep the original vision intact...

Geomar,

The last 30 years we have seen the destruction of reponsible oversight. The SEC hasn't done their job...look at the markets. Look at DC. Retired or fired politicians than work for a lobbying firm to get paid for influence peddling.

What we need is some serious oversight and regulations that are actually enforced and not allow retired politicans become influence peddlers or perhaps I'm naive ... do away with influence peddling in DC altogether, then perhaps "we the people" will be heard. After all didn't we vote these men and women in?

behavewell, as this depression unfolds and the american people really start having it rough, i expect there will be massive demonstrations to get the attention of the lawmakers.

i wonder if the politicians realize how angry americans will get.