Dan Gillmor continues to provide great insights into media, this time in a speech at Columbia University that points to the issues of Net Neutrality and the future of journalism. I especially like the ideas he has about publishing news in a way that allows revisions and for the public to see how the written word was revised. Heck, I’d like it for my own records too.
I also enjoyed the engineers-and-managers story, quoted here:
Here’s a story I once heard. Or maybe I saw it on the Internet. Whatever, it’s not original with me.
So it’s lunchtime, and some managers at a software company are on
their way out to a local restaurant. One of them peers up at the flag,
waving in a mild breeze, and wonders aloud how tall the flagpole is.
Now this is Silicon Valley, where when you have an idea you’re supposed
to act on it. One of them has a tape measure in his car, which he
retrieves. The managers start hoisting each other up, attempting to
measure the height of the thing, but they’re falling all over each
other and generally making a mess of it.Meanwhile, a couple of software engineers have stopped to observe
the somewhat chaotic scene. They look at each other and nod, then tell
the managers to stand out of the way for a second, which by now they
are only too glad to do. The engineers lift the pole out of its stand,
lay it flat on the grass, take the tape and measure the thing. They
give the answer to the managers and head off to their own lunch.One of the managers looks to the others, shakes his head and says,
“Typical engineers. We want the height and they give us the length.”I’m not an engineer, and I’m definitely not a corporate manager. But
I like that story, because it reminds me how easily we see things in
certain ways and fail to recognize or appreciate the alternatives.
Always look at many angles. Always always always.
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