I am literally lost in PC or electronic Bling Bling space – here there are no ready guides and postings to lead me along like there was for 20-25 years of the PC revolution. The same may also be happening in the IT world. What precepitated this reactions was the attempt to find info onlinking my Treo with GPS_Global Positioning to record the info on my digital camera. I was all over the newstands, library and Internet plunging into PCWorld, eWeek, Publish, Popular Photography, Wired, and two dozen usually reliable sources. I Googled and gaggled every permutatin on the three major blasted blings I wanted to connect (I had dropped my PC as out of the loop very early in the search). Let me suggest a real exercise in frustration as no place was a source like say Byte or PCMagazine used to be. Lets face it – not just newspapers but a broad range of printed media are on the wane. Three dreaded phenomenona are taking place:
1)maturation and consolidation. Look when Gartner, Forrester and Bloor all agree that consolidation is needed in the IT markets one can suspect that an innovation plateau has been reached.
2)Fragmentation and specialization. While consolidation is being espoused there is also heavy fragementation into spcialized markets, process, and inevitably media coverage of the same. So 20 years ago when Byte proclaimed – everybody listened. Now Coffee and eWeek have to strain to make their voice heard.
3)Googlization and open access. While I love open access to information at unprecedented depth and breadth I also hate that I can barely charge for my services on the Web. So do the NYTimes and whole lot of newspapers and other publications which see their revenue being siphoned off by Google, Yahoo and their ilk.
But as Google link ads take away increasing chunks of the printed (and other media pie), coverage of important trends in eletronics and the whole “incorporate chip-smarts and communication capabilities into every product” phenomenon gets sporadic and incomplete coverage unless you consider Gizmodo or Engadget complete.Net results – there are barely any leading magazines/Websites that speak with authority in the IT/PC/Electronic Bling-Bling space. I hardly thought I would say – but it is pity.
(c)JBSurveyer 2006