Comments on: The World is Scary http://gregcohn.com/blog/business-models/2007/08/the-world-is-scary/ An Echo Park Yahoo's place for thoughts on life and the web Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:05:10 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: greg http://gregcohn.com/blog/business-models/2007/08/the-world-is-scary/comment-page-1/#comment-20412 greg Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:04:03 +0000 http://gregcohn.com/blog/business-models/2007/08/the-world-is-scary/#comment-20412 Thanks for challenging the point. What I find scary is not the issue of economic sustainability, but rather the cultural hegemony of "multinationals" and the imposition of banality over distinctive places and identities. The idea that a person in India could help my child with her homework is very exciting to me and seems like an opportunity to create cultural engagement - why would I want a tutor to fake a midwestern American accent and change her name from Deepa to Debbie? When I think about what has always excited me about the internet, it's the idea of opening powerful tools and markets up to the individual and the distinct. So anyone on ebay or craiglist can reach the entire internet with their unique offer. Any programmer can build on widely accepted standards and platforms (etc. and other variations of the long-tail theme). "Maker" culture has been completely reborn as a consequence of the distribution now available, and, imho, is having a great impact on culture; there has been a similar renaissance in personal expression and individuality empowered by the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world. But serving water bottled by Coke to workers taking accent neutralization classes in Bangalore, while presumably efficient from a consolidated supply chain standpoint, bugs me - it is the opposite of Etsy. Thanks for challenging the point. What I find scary is not the issue of economic sustainability, but rather the cultural hegemony of “multinationals” and the imposition of banality over distinctive places and identities. The idea that a person in India could help my child with her homework is very exciting to me and seems like an opportunity to create cultural engagement – why would I want a tutor to fake a midwestern American accent and change her name from Deepa to Debbie?

When I think about what has always excited me about the internet, it’s the idea of opening powerful tools and markets up to the individual and the distinct. So anyone on ebay or craiglist can reach the entire internet with their unique offer. Any programmer can build on widely accepted standards and platforms (etc. and other variations of the long-tail theme). “Maker” culture has been completely reborn as a consequence of the distribution now available, and, imho, is having a great impact on culture; there has been a similar renaissance in personal expression and individuality empowered by the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world.

But serving water bottled by Coke to workers taking accent neutralization classes in Bangalore, while presumably efficient from a consolidated supply chain standpoint, bugs me – it is the opposite of Etsy.

]]> By: Alex Iskold http://gregcohn.com/blog/business-models/2007/08/the-world-is-scary/comment-page-1/#comment-20410 Alex Iskold Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:52:22 +0000 http://gregcohn.com/blog/business-models/2007/08/the-world-is-scary/#comment-20410 Does this scare you because you do not think it is sustainable? Alex Does this scare you because you do not think it is sustainable?

Alex

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