Post Bundle: Microsoft, NDS/DigitalMe, FREEDOM..
William Gates and Steve Balmer recently reorganized Microsoft to focus more concretely on the "totally out there" opportunities spawned by the Internet.
This essentially means they've acknowledged that their proprietary Windows strategy will have to be dismantled bit by bit over time.
Microsoft's investments in TCI, Comcast, WebTv, Nextel, Apple and other platforms are proof positive that the "next platform" will NOT be Windows.
What is "the next platform?"
The Internet, period.
The Internet will evolve over time to becoming the central nervous system for ALL networks. It will contain ALL the intelligence in the form of OPEN controls which drive everything.
The race is on to control those controls.
Innovation at Microsoft is a misnomer for their central focus has always been about CONTROL. Control the hooks and you control the platform. Change the hooks inside Windows and you can impede/restrict innovation because the hooks MS changes have historically mapped to products and services THEY - not the competition - control.
Can MS control the Internet?
Well, their "watermark" innovation was a good faith down payment to Uncle Sam for it gives our government access to the beginnings of an audit trail which can be used against us. This "hook" was planted 2 years ago while the Internet was just beginning to really take off.
To me, the DOJ's case against MS makes good copy, but it does nothing to remove the honey - the control - which was given over to government in MS first downpayment - i.e. the watermark. This bargain was made on the backs of our freedom, our trust, our liberty, our energies, our ideas.
This would be like me giving the membership records - addresses, phone numbers, donations, etc. - of the church we attend over to my alderman in return for his ongoing support. The city may be suing me, but I have a powerful voice inside City Hall who's going to go to bat for me.
NDS and DigitalMe represents the SINGLE greatest threat to Microsoft's control over personal information, access and content in our digital world. Why is this? Because NDS/DigitalMe "goes higher" than the Windows platform. In effect, it checkmates MS's control for with NDS/DigitalMe ALL power and control shifts to end users in Virtual Space that extend from all the vaults, servers and devices that drive the Internet.
CONTROL = POWER
The problem with Microsoft is that the Internet has unleashed a massive new energy that is shifting control to end users - INDIVIDUALS. The keys to the Virtual Kingdom have been thrown to the IP winds and now it's up to INDIVIDUALS to make sure those keys don't get stolen by some thief in the night.
Microsoft and the government is banking on the inability of INDIVIDUALS to organize a coherent strategy with the right amount of energy and publicity that states very simply and clearly what's at stake here: FREEDOM/LIBERTY.
Be wary of the thief in the night. There's a Old Energy out there that's gotten a lot of attention over the past several years: SPIN. Here's my definition:
"The art of countering the truth with unrelated information which 1) does not admit the truth; 2)doesn't answer the question; and 3) counters with unrelated information or questions which attacks and derogates the individual(s) that attempt to bring attention to the truth."
FREEDOM is our TRUTH. It's what millions of people around the world should be looking up to us to represent. But the forces of FREEDOM, even in this Internet age of ours, are being challenged more than ever before. The non quid pro quo energy of FREEDOM is what's driving the Internet: people helping people - helping and serving others.
SERVICE has replaced BUSINESS as the new paradigm of growth. SERVICE is the "third rail" which is impossible to measure, control, restrict, limit. It's about relationships and referrals. It's about the only two things that really matter in the world: our TIME AND TRUST.
It's TIME for technology and all those who puport to invent, support and develop it over time to EARN our TRUST. The tools and power within NDS/DigitalMe could represent the BIG BANG that takes us into the promised land which can secure and earn our TIME and TRUST.
NDS/DigitalMe will give INDIVIDUALS a platform to CONTROL their Virtual Worlds. NDS/DigitalMe will give Virtual Communities the tools to enforce rights and restrictions. NDS/DigitalMe will give companies the tools to define more strategically how the information they produce, gather and transform can be extended to where it can be leveraged for the greatest value-added impact: end users, INDIVIDUALS.
Leveraging NDS/DigitalMe means leveraging individual power and control. And the energy which leverages individual power and control better than anything the world has ever known converges into ONE thing: FREEDOM.
I have to give credit to Todd Siler for this (get his book, Think Like A Genius), but I'm going to amplify on something he modified from Albert E. to explain the state of ALL technology development worldwide into a basic simple equation:
Albert's famous equation:
E (energy) = m (mass) X c (the speed of light) squared
The energy and direction behind all innovation - read, technology development:
M (meaning) = I (information) X T (transformations - ie. thought, spirit, creativity, intuition, love)
The IP Revolution is this Tsunami of New Energy which is being unleashed ALL over the world. The "new" energy is humble, free, unconditional, spiritual. This "new" energy embraces the Universal Law of audundance which says "there are no limits." This "new" energy is yelling "nothing is impossible."
Hundreds of millions of people are being influenced, directly or indirectly, by this energy because the little positive acts - transformations - of creativity, innovation, intuition are being shared with a much greater audience than ever before in world history. INDIVIDUALS, not companies, are sharing e-mail, html content, audio/video data in new transforming ways which takes basic information and holds it in a "new light".
Example. Here is a piece of glass. Eureka!! I creatively think that it can also happen to be a cup. A cup can contain water. Water allows me to live. More cups of water can help many others in an ongoing positive sequence which can sustain growth.
Albert's equation provided the basis for understanding a nuclear reaction which led to the bomb which has the capability of destroying our planet.
But here's secret: Albert's equation also contains the basis for understanding a reaction of positive worldwide energy which, like a nuclear reaction, can unleash a MASSIVE new wave of good which can radically transform our world.
The world needs more people to "transform" more information in ways which add more meaning which encourages people to share more information which can be transformed which duplicates and repeats the reaction.
Just as in the days prior to the birth of our great nation, INDIVIDUALS need to declare their independence from control, restrictions and power. These new technologies has finally exposed THE INDIVIDUAL at the source of ALL power and control.
The question remains: will we claim this power; will we claim this control; will we embrace the energy of FREEDOM that is rightfully ours?
Old vs. New.
CONTROL vs. FREEDOM
Nothing could be simpler.
This is why there is a "deep hunger" for more of an understanding about what technology means to the average person in this world.
This story is not being told. It all makes Common Sense.
So much good can come when control is lifted and new fields of FREEDOM are plowed for all to share in new harvests of ideas which can add more value create more meaning in our lives.
This is just one man's point of view. I share these thoughts after "sitting in my" tree watching the world below.
The IP Revolution is underway and the seige is on. Will Microsoft's bargain enable them and those they share information with to retain control? Or will the REAL story behind NDS/DigitalMe finally get articulated among INDIVIDUALS?
This discussion deserves a much broader airing. Hmmmmmmm.
Peace.
GO!!
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