Anatomy of a Bubble
I have had a worsening tooth ache since I started looking at blogs and discussions involving them. They way you'd read it, they are going to make us smarter, more productive, more in touch with those we love...no doubt funnier and better dancers, too.. Reminds me of two things - why shy teens drink and bubble economics.
We just lived through one of the biggest bubbles in recent times. Both excessive IT and management heroism in the 1990's promised a new economy where the old rules didn't matter. Trouble is... they do... and when we - the market - realized there was plenty enough power in the PC and network we had on the one hand and that paying managers their choice of ridiculous wages or ree-diculous wages on the other, Humpty Dumpty came a tumbling down around about April 2000. Still not able to put it back together again - because you never can. Some folks may have already forgotten the lesson.
Bubbles are more than a bunch of bad deals - like all those guys still paying real money for
Platinum Blonde albums. It takes the assertion and acceptance of a number of things:
There is a lot of whoodooism at play. Many things are called called blogs and what is being ascribed as new in blogs can be found in venerable internet structures as bulletin boards, intranets, email lists and usenet groups. Sometimes the capabilties of the entire intranet or web are ascribed to blogs either in in general or specifically in relation to education or business and marketing. Sometimes the graphs get complicated.
Beyond claptrapism, based on these claims of a new way, people start selling subscriptions for access to blogs and household tips for better blogging. Others forget they still live in unsafe and unfree places. Then come the consultants and newsletters.
It's just peanuts now and while I am worried, I am not alone in this.
