As I am blogging my way through the various aspects of a transition to the Information Age I am still keeping in mind that eventually I would like to gather up all the material into a book. So here is possible outline for such a book. Would love to get feedback on what’s missing (or too much), different possible orders and anything else that comes to mind. So please fire away with comments! 1. Introduction / Motivation — fundamental premise: industrial -> information is a transition as import...

As I am blogging my way through the various aspects of a transition to the Information Age I am still keeping in mind that eventually I would like to gather up all the material into a book. So here is possible outline for such a book. Would love to get feedback on what’s missing (or too much), different possible orders and anything else that comes to mind. So please fire away with comments! 1. Introduction / Motivation — fundamental premise: industrial -> information is a transition as import...

This weekend we are holding a two-day computer bootcamp for our kids, some friends of theirs and a handful of adults. Here is a recap of the first day both as a reminder and reference for those who participated and as an outline for anybody else who wants to try this. We started by watching the first minute or so of a clip showing NASA mission control. I then explained that for the Apollo 11 program NASA had five mainframes from IBM (System 360 Model 75 with 0.034 MIPS and 1 MB of main memory...

This weekend we are holding a two-day computer bootcamp for our kids, some friends of theirs and a handful of adults. Here is a recap of the first day both as a reminder and reference for those who participated and as an outline for anybody else who wants to try this. We started by watching the first minute or so of a clip showing NASA mission control. I then explained that for the Apollo 11 program NASA had five mainframes from IBM (System 360 Model 75 with 0.034 MIPS and 1 MB of main memory...

Shapeways is a partner for Google’s brand new MadeWithCode initiative aimed at getting more girls excited about coding and computational thinking. What is important about this initiative is that it will broaden the understanding of what can be done with code. Code is not just games or websites. Increasingly it is everything and everywhere (even in a long piece on computational thinking in MotherJones). So what I am particularly excited about is how this initiative will introduce a many more p...

Shapeways is a partner for Google’s brand new MadeWithCode initiative aimed at getting more girls excited about coding and computational thinking. What is important about this initiative is that it will broaden the understanding of what can be done with code. Code is not just games or websites. Increasingly it is everything and everywhere (even in a long piece on computational thinking in MotherJones). So what I am particularly excited about is how this initiative will introduce a many more p...

Last week I posted a draft outline for my planned book on “The Coming Information Age” with a proposed chapter on the “Unbundling of the Job.” This is an idea that first occurred to me when I attended a workshop at MIT on Work and Value in the Digital Economy at MIT in late 2012. At the time here is what I wrote:Do people need jobs or can we deliver what jobs provide some other way and in a potentially unbundled fashion? The “jobs of a job” include income, structure, social connections, meani...

Last week I posted a draft outline for my planned book on “The Coming Information Age” with a proposed chapter on the “Unbundling of the Job.” This is an idea that first occurred to me when I attended a workshop at MIT on Work and Value in the Digital Economy at MIT in late 2012. At the time here is what I wrote:Do people need jobs or can we deliver what jobs provide some other way and in a potentially unbundled fashion? The “jobs of a job” include income, structure, social connections, meani...

Yesterday’s post on the impact of computers on the return of capital didn’t mention the shift from producer to consumer surplus. Tren Griffin rightly called this out on Twitter. I have written a lot about the rising importance of consumer surplus and should have mentioned it in this context as well. This shift will definitely reduce the return on capital in the long run as we move more information into the commons and as information becomes more important than physical capital or output. It i...

Yesterday’s post on the impact of computers on the return of capital didn’t mention the shift from producer to consumer surplus. Tren Griffin rightly called this out on Twitter. I have written a lot about the rising importance of consumer surplus and should have mentioned it in this context as well. This shift will definitely reduce the return on capital in the long run as we move more information into the commons and as information becomes more important than physical capital or output. It i...

One of the things we have been emphasizing in homeschooling our children is the importance of giving back. So I am incredibly thrilled that our daughter has launched a Crowdrise fundraiser to support girls at schools in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Lewa was one of the places we visited on our trip to Africa earlier this year and we spent a day visiting one of the schools. The funds will help with various initiatives at the school aimed at keeping girls in school. At present the number of gi...

One of the things we have been emphasizing in homeschooling our children is the importance of giving back. So I am incredibly thrilled that our daughter has launched a Crowdrise fundraiser to support girls at schools in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Lewa was one of the places we visited on our trip to Africa earlier this year and we spent a day visiting one of the schools. The funds will help with various initiatives at the school aimed at keeping girls in school. At present the number of gi...

Just as a quick recap. I have argued in Computers and the Return on Capital that having cheaper information flows will in the long run drive the risk free rate of return to the time preference. I then examined how technology is likely reducing time preference for individuals through a variety of different mechanisms. In reply to that post Marc tweeted And yet tech companies keep raising giant rounds of funding and spitting off huge gushers of cash :-).That would suggest tech companies need mo...

Just as a quick recap. I have argued in Computers and the Return on Capital that having cheaper information flows will in the long run drive the risk free rate of return to the time preference. I then examined how technology is likely reducing time preference for individuals through a variety of different mechanisms. In reply to that post Marc tweeted And yet tech companies keep raising giant rounds of funding and spitting off huge gushers of cash :-).That would suggest tech companies need mo...

We like to put things in categories: public versus private company; for profit versus charity; professional versus amateur; creator versus consumer; journalist versus blogger; teacher versus student; and so much more. Of course not all categorizations are binary. In academia, for instance, we have the faculties (e.g., chemistry, biology, physics) and degrees (Bachelor, Master, Doctor). Categories are a way of aggregating information. If I tell you that a company is public that is a shorthand ...

We like to put things in categories: public versus private company; for profit versus charity; professional versus amateur; creator versus consumer; journalist versus blogger; teacher versus student; and so much more. Of course not all categorizations are binary. In academia, for instance, we have the faculties (e.g., chemistry, biology, physics) and degrees (Bachelor, Master, Doctor). Categories are a way of aggregating information. If I tell you that a company is public that is a shorthand ...

Today a broad campaign called Reset The Net has launched with the tagline “Don’t ask for Your privacy. Take it back.” Today also marks the one year anniversary of the Edward Snowden leaks that showed the extent of the NSA data collection and surveillance activities. Reset The Net is meant to be a citizen and corporate response that uses technological means to thwart the NSA and other agencies like it. The basics of Reset the Net are indisputably good practices. Sites should use SSL to avoid s...

Today a broad campaign called Reset The Net has launched with the tagline “Don’t ask for Your privacy. Take it back.” Today also marks the one year anniversary of the Edward Snowden leaks that showed the extent of the NSA data collection and surveillance activities. Reset The Net is meant to be a citizen and corporate response that uses technological means to thwart the NSA and other agencies like it. The basics of Reset the Net are indisputably good practices. Sites should use SSL to avoid s...

In my post on Computers and the Return on Capital I made the point that cheaper and more ubiquitous flows of information will drive the risk free return on capital towards the time preference (assuming that capital can also flow freely). But I didn’t really explain what that meant or how it was determined. Let’s start with an extreme case to illustrate the basic idea. Suppose that everyone everywhere was happy with how much they can spend out of their current income (that includes individuals...

In my post on Computers and the Return on Capital I made the point that cheaper and more ubiquitous flows of information will drive the risk free return on capital towards the time preference (assuming that capital can also flow freely). But I didn’t really explain what that meant or how it was determined. Let’s start with an extreme case to illustrate the basic idea. Suppose that everyone everywhere was happy with how much they can spend out of their current income (that includes individuals...