The Gang - Part 2
Richard Shulman via Facebook email — quoted with permission
Towards the end of part two in the discussion about social networks, we were treated to classic Steve Gillmor in the way of “The garden isn’t walled right now” and “.. there is no technical lock-in”.
I discovered your podcasts in 2006, part of the treat of listening to you (when I was able to understand at least half of what you were talking about) was listening to the pronouncements that provoked cries of disbelief, incomprehension and outrage from the group. “office is dead” was the best example. Podcast participants would try calmly (or not) to explain to you the obvious facts of Office’s dominance, health and rosy prospects to no avail. “Office is dead” you would repeat with absolute certainty and perhaps a bit of disdain for those who couldn’t see what was so obviously clear to you.
At first I joined in with those who shook their head at the silliness of the declaration, but slowly over time I started to understand both the point and the process. You peer into the future seeking to understand how technology can alter the paradigms of the present. You look at what might possibly be and once you have a vision of that future it is transformed into the present tense. Seeing that Microsoft’s dominance of the desktop would change in importance once the platform changed from the desktop to the cloud and how office-like services could be provided separate from the operating system that was their lock on applications, you declared “Office is dead”. What was in your mind’s eye became the obvious present truth and usage facts and revenue figures be damned.
Now it’s the data lock-in of a walled garden. You’ve seen the technology that allows data to flow from one application to another and the paradigm changes that will come from that and therefore confidently declare “The garden isn’t walled right now”. Of course others on the show focused on the here and now argue in disbelief that the opposite is true and that you (not being a user) just don’t understand. A classic Gillmor moment. I loved it.
The first step in understanding you sometimes is not figuring out whether you’re right or wrong but guessing what unique time zone half of you is operating in. Whenever it is, keep straddling between the then and now. Keep doing the show. It’s always an education.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:39 am
Reminds me of post I wrote last year.
http://nicksnotes.wordpress.com/2006/05/09/gillmor-like-baudrillard/
“Reading Steve Gillmor reminds me of reading Jean Baudrillard. On one level (the detail, perhaps) I have no idea what he’s talking about and yet on another more vague and amorphous one he makes so much sense it hurts.
He writes just ahead of the beat. While most commentators speak eloquently on the present and most recent past, Gillmor inhabits the space just in front of now. Not the future. That’s for theorists. Gillmor speaks and acts an exhilarating fraction ahead of the snare crack. Far enough in front to see what’s coming and close enough to now to take us with him.”