[http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005123.html]
Chris Anderson - Mr. Long Tail, editor of Wired Magazine - makes a great decision here at Pop!tech: assuming that everyone in the audience has either read The Long Tail or knows the argument, he gives a different talk: “What Happens When Things Get Free?” (It covers much of the same ground as the book, but draws a different narrative through many of the same examples.)
He starts with a photo of Dr. Carver Mead. Mead started thinking about what happens as semiconductors get cheap to the point where they’re free. The answer is, “you should waste them.” This insight led to VLSI - Very Large Scale Intergration - chips that included thousands of transitors, not just single ones.
Chris walks us through the most linked sites on the Internet according to Technorati, pointing out that the four “punks” behind BoingBoing are now more influential than Fortune, Reuters or the Chicago Tribune. (He doesn’t mention that they’re more influential for the small set of bloggers, not for everyone on the planet…)
Chris tells us that he’s trying a new management philosophy - “I do whatever my interns tell me to do.” This is leading him towards carrying out book signings in Second Life. He doesn’t know if it’s really a good use of his time… but it’s what the grassroots are telling him to do.
He closes with an excellent viral video, The Day of the Long Tail - always a good thing when you coin a term successful enough that folks will make videos for you.
