Elegant Technologies

So, talking about the future of the newspaper industry is what all of the cool kids are doing.  Some have said the that the better question is not whether the newspaper industry can be saved, but whether journalism can be saved.  Ok, but let us talk about the newspaper industry.   Can the New Yorks Times, Boston Globe, and LA Times be saved?  It’s like asking whether Kodak, Poloroid, and Fuji Film can be saved.  Or Xerox.   The answer is that yes, they can be saved, but they look very, very different than they appear today, and even then, only if they are willing to go through the transformation.

As an experiment, I’ve started a discussion regarding what a mobile version of Boston.com should have here.

By the way, Apparently Arriana Huffington (sp?) has started a foundation to sponsor lone journalists – which is cool, and a start.

Brushing up on my Guerilla marketing foo, which has apparently been rebranded as Social Media.

I’m writing this post from my Mac’s email program. Not, importantly,from inside a browser window. I’ll submit this post by sending it toa secret e-mail address, where it will get posted automatically. Thisis cool. In an age where novels are written from cell-phone, contentsystems need to be more aware of ways people really want to interactwith their data, not just through the browser. Although I’m writingthis particular post on my laptop, I intend to write other post on myTreo 650 (I know – sooo, dated), and my via the new e-mail abilitiesof my iPod touch.I don’t think the future is posting via e-mail – I think the future ismulti-access. E-mail is great, what about IM? What about SMS? Whatabout reading on my iPod or on my Kindle?

Oh yah, and then there is the whole formatting issue – but I’ll savethat for another time.

I tried posting to this blog via my Treo 650 by sending an e-mail to a super secret email address. It didn’t work. I suppose that I’ll resolve the problem at some point, but regardless, the concept rocks. Imagine having a flash of insight while waiting in line for movie tickets. You whip it out, and jot down your thoughts.I suspect bi-directional communication would work better – sort of like cached Outlook access for those power travels that catch up on their e-mail while sitting on the plane.Amazon’s new Kindle calls to me – I love that it bypasses the computer altogether, yet still allows the computer to play an, optional, role.

[update 2/2009: I'm writing this update from my iPhone. This is the future. Rich smart phone apps are changing everything regarding how people imterect with the data that matters. What Blackberry did for mobile e-mail, The iPhone is doing for all the other personal data]