woensdag 30 april 2003

Business 2.0

Physician, Sell Thyself


AmeriScan's Craig Bittner wants consumers to take health care into their own hands with his high-tech medical scans. But how does an MD balance an oath to heal with a promise to pay back his creditors? It's hard to miss AmeriScan. I first notice it while standing in a Pottery Barn at San Francisco's Embarcadero Center. Across the street, draped in front of a conservative blue storefront, a large banner says, "Call 1-866-4 MY SCAN." There's also a sign that proclaims, "Now Open! No Doctor's Referral Needed." Pictures of mature, active couples wearing comfy sweaters and offering testimonials are in the window. "My full body scan was the best gift my wife ever gave me," reads the caption on one.

dinsdag 29 april 2003

Fortune

Where the Action Is


Some in Silicon Valley have learned to stop worrying and love the bust. Here's why. The blessings were bouncing off the walls of New York's Carnegie Hall. It was a late February evening, and the banquet crowd of 350, dressed in everything from jeans to suits, sat silently as six Tibetan monks chanted a guttural prayer. Once it was over, everyone dug into the sushi and waited for Marc Benioff to tell them where to go next. Benioff, the CEO of a company called Salesforce.com, had arranged the event to precede a benefit concert for New York's Tibet House, a cultural preservation group. Tall and boisterous, Benioff gave a brief talk, then led the assembled customers, analysts, press, and hangers-on into the adjacent auditorium to hear performances by David Bowie, Ray Davies, Lou Reed, and Laurie Anderson.

maandag 21 april 2003

McKinsey Quarterly

Making Sense Of Broadband


The technology�s rapid spread will affect the market structures of many industries. Be prepared! So many broadband providers disappeared after the dot-com boom that casual observers might think broadband itself has met with indifference from Internet users. Nothing could be further from the truth; in fact it has enjoyed striking growth throughout the world over the past three years. This expansion has implications not only for providers of broadband access and content but also for companies beyond the telecommunications and media sectors.
Wired

MATRIX2


Bullet Time was just the beginning. F/x guru John Gaeta reinvents cinematography with The Matrix Reloaded. I'm sitting in a former naval barracks in Alameda, California, watching the digital assembly of a human face. Bones, teeth, glistening eyes. Layer upon layer. Finally the hair and skin, the creases and tiny scars that make us who we are. The face blinks and breathes. Then it snarls, and my skin crawls.

maandag 14 april 2003

Salon

Are we doomed yet?


The computer-networked, digital world poses enormous threats to humanity that no government, no matter how totalitarian, can stop. A fully open society is our best chance for survival.
The New York Times

Searching the Web, Google Finds Riches


In the last few years, Google has risen as a force on the Internet by offering its smarter, faster searches as a free public service. Now the band of technoinsurgents who run the company are striking a blow against the business strategies of giant Web portals like America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN by rewriting the rules of Internet advertising.

zondag 13 april 2003

Business 2.0

Online Gambling's Mr. Big


John Anderson's Web casino is a profit machine. If only he could convince the U.S. government that online gambling ought to be legal. "There's something of the night about this industry," a Merrill Lynch (MER) investment banker has warned. One evening in November in the lobby of London's Landmark hotel, where the elusive operator of the world's largest online casino is about to appear, the banker's words ring true.

woensdag 9 april 2003

Strategy+Business

The Man Who Saw the Future


As the pace of change in business accelerates, the legacy of Pierre Wack, the father of scenario planning, is more relevant than ever. I had the feeling,� said Pierre Wack, �of hunting in a pack of wolves, being the eyes of the pack, and sending signals back to the rest. Now if you see something serious, and the pack doesn�t notice it, you�d better find out � are you in front?�

vrijdag 4 april 2003

Wired

Profits of Doom. Why the bust was for the best for the rest of us. (Again.)


Let us now praise famous men, the wild-eyed enthusiasts who begat the bubble-boom. Conventional wisdom, you may remember, once rode side by side with the prophets of change. When the stock market hit the puke stage, conventional wisdom turned. The whole new economy thing had been a bad thing. Time, talent, and capital were thrown away on unsustainable enterprises like point-and-click pet food; it was good for Odwalla, but not good for America.