May 29, 2008

The Net is a way to work around the silos that substitute for it.

This came to me after seeing “Twitter is over capacity.” for the Nth time.

Twitter will be better off when it’s the best of its own breed, rather than the only place to do what can only be done there.

That’s why questions like Dave’s are essential.

Not saying that exclusivity, or exclusive advantages, are wrong and should not be rewarded. I am saying that walled gardens are inherently inadequate in a networked world.

Twitter is a terrific tool that needs to be just as open at the back end as Dave wants it to be at the front. Not sure how to do that, but I am sure it needs to be done.

It was a clear morning yesterday when I flew out of Boston, and almost identical when I landed in San Francisco. For  oddball reasons of season and perspective, many of the sights on the outbound looked like the coast of Mexico or Brazil. In fact the above is Plum Island and its inlet on the North Shore near Ipswich.

Anyway, a fun set. Many more coming. See the slide show version here.

Good news.

Yesterday on the drive from SFO to Palo Alto, I hit SCAN on the rental car radio. Aside from the sports shows and the still-awesome KPIG (with a little signal on 1510 out of Oakland… check it out), most of what I heard was partisanship at all costs.

Eventually you get slips like this one on Fox News, by the formerly substantive journalist Liz Trotta. What began as a slip of the tongue ended with a slip of the mind that is just freaking scary.

Sez Trotta,

… but saying things which, at some level, we still mean. That level in this case is a warped and degraded form of conservatism, dressed as news and delivered as entertainment. Again, partisanship at all costs.

What Liz Trotta told her audience was to hate Obama as much as it hates Osama. And to trivalize the advice, all in one move. Were any unhinged future assassins watching? Let’s hope not.