Kos nicely sums up how the blogosphere corrects itself when blogs go wrong. Basically, if the audience doesn't like what it reads, they will strongly object to the blogger to try to get her to change her ways, or they will stop reading the blog and the blog will either die or continue but become irrelevant. Kos also gives an explanation as to why traditional media is attacking blogs. It's the same reason why the music and movie industries are attacking file sharing programs - they're scared of this new, innovative, blow-them-out-of-the-water competition. Since traditional mammoth corporations are way too big to quickly come up with the next big thing, they throw their money at legal and marketing solutions to attack and discredit their competition. [Link][comments?][Karma: 47 ( + / - )]
The crime rate in many major cities has either continued to drop or has remained stable despite the fact that the job market is tougher, police officers have taken on added duties for homeland security, and social services budgets have been cut, all factors thought to contribute to a rise in the crime rate. So why is crime holding steady or dropping? It could be because policy are more effectively analyzing information. This article in today's Christian Science Monitor says that in June 2003, Chicago's police department changed the way they fight crime: "The police began using technology that showed crime trends as they occurred, and deployed officers to violent areas." The department observes drug activity neighborhood by neighborhood, videotapes the activity using street-corner cameras, and swoops in for arrests. Similarly, New York City uses a system called ComStat, which supplies precinct commanders with real-time information. These systems are not perfect, but hopefully with an increase of information will come better ideas about how to prevent crime instead of react to it. [Link][1 comments][Karma: 40 ( + / - )]
Even though I continue to boycott Wal*Mart because it's exerting a downward pressure onto salaries and benefits, I'm still always impressed with how they gather and analyze information. This article in the New York Times shows us a glimpse at how executives at Wal*Mart observed what sold and what didn't sell during the Christmas shopping season. Managers and executives at every store shot Blackberry messages to each other every hour to determine what was moving and what should be have been discounted. Then they gathered ideas on how to keep merchandise moving from employees from all levels of the company. The executives realize that hourly employees might have ideas too, as the hourly employees are their eyes on the ground. |
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