New York Times March 22 1876
… Thus the telephone, by bringing music and ministries into every home, will empty the concert-halls and the churches …

New York Times November 7 1877
… The telephone was justly regarded as an ingenious invention when it was first brought before the public, but it is destined to be entirely eclipsed by the new invention of the phonograph. The former transmitted sound. The latter bottles it up for future use …

I’m looking forward to riding this wave although I’m still trying to wrap my head around it…watching the video now to help fill in the blanks.

oh yeah, the story of stuff was something else. It’s a neat video to help get folks thinking. Again, enjoyed the write up man, thanks for sharing and putting the effort in writing this piece. Also, how else might Wordpress change in light of the various social media trends and success? I know about buddy press, could do be more?

-Mig

We all have important choices to make. While it is NOT simple to decide not to use Microsoft and go with Ubuntu or another Unix based system it is possible. I looked for a long time for a search engine better than Google and finally found it in DuckDuckGo. I love WordPress but if they sell out to Google I’ll move to something else.

I have a unique background that has allowed me to see a much larger picture than most can observe for themselves. I’ve written recently about the dangers of relying on ppc and organic traffic from Google and how easy it is for Google to destroy small businesses at their whim the same way Wal-Mart destroyed the businesses in towns across America.

When America was thriving there were careers with full benefits, retirement employees did not have to contribute to and health care for life without cost. Those employees had disposable incomes that benefited their communities. When those incomes got spent at Wal-Mart instead other corporations cut wages so they could compete and now few have prosperity. Was it not obvious that when most made less they would have less to spend long before we arrived where we are today?

When we buy products because they are cheap we need to ask ourselves WHY they cost so little. Whose child and slave labor in sweatshops in some other country are we benefiting from and would we want our own families taken advantage of in that way?

Every time we decide to support multi-national corporations instead of small businesses we reduce prosperity for all. History has always warned us of the dangers of monopolies because they take away our choices. If we want to preserve our freedom we need to think about the futures our decisions are creating.

I have linked a post I wrote some time ago about When Free is NOT Free to this comment. The reason most don’t see competitors for Google is because they are offering valuable products “for free” and few feel they can afford to give away what they create. That is what Open Source is all about. Google products are NOT free – we are trading our privacy, our prosperity and our freedom for them. (Read that post for more details.)

By the time we can look back and ask ourselves whether it was worth it it will be too late. More of us really have to look wider and further into the future and see the obvious path we are on while there is still time to change it.

@GrowMap – I tweeted this link yesterday http://www.storyofstuff.com. It really shows some of the stuff you are talking about, about what happens when we support all these big companies. Google kind of has a monopoly on the traffic I get from search engines and I try to experiment with stuff that I think might improve my Google rankings. I still have Twitter / Stumble / RSS etc. in case that Google suddenly decides to change something but I will do what I think might improve my chances in the future as I think this Wave will be big when it gets released.

Thanks for the write up Marko, I probably never would have went for it if you weren’t so convincing. :p