Category: Internet and web

Ideas, anyone?

Looks like I’m going to be a panelist at next week’s CASE District VI Conference in sunny Kansas City, Mo. The subject: “Horizon Issues Being Explored by CASE.” I and two of my district VI colleagues — John Amato of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Michael Johnson of the University of Northern Colorado Alumni Association — will discuss big issues alongside CASE President John Lippincott. Lippincott is as astute as anyone when it comes to assessing where higher education is going, but Amato, Johnson and I need to come up with some ideas of our own — Amato for trends in fundraising, Johnson for the same in alumni relations, and I for trends in communications and marketing.

And that’s where you come in. I’m exercising blogger’s prerogative here and seeing the wisdom of crowds.

What do you see as the big issues facing higher ed marketing and communications? Help me out here, readers. Throw me a bone. The session is Monday. I’m not panicked or anything. But I’d love to hear your thoughts about trends in marketing, branding, PR, communications, new media, old media, graphic design — any and all of it.

It’s good to be Google

Just in case there was any doubt in your mind, Google is now king of all things computer.

So says Rich Skrenta, co-founder of Topix.net, just one of any number of search engine/news aggregators scampering beneath Google’s behemoth feet. Google is more than the king of “the third age of computing,” according to Skrenta. It is also the environment in which we operate, the very air that we breathe. He writes:

Google has won both the online search and advertising markets. They hold a considerable technological lead, both with algorithms as well as their astonishing web-scale computing platform. Beyond this, however, network effects around their industry position and brand will prevent any competitor from capturing market share from them — even if it were possible to match their technology platform. To paraphrase an old comment about IBM, made during its 30 year dominance of the enterprise mainframe market, Google is not your competition, Google is the environment.

In case you forgot about life before Google, the kings of the first two ages of computing were IBM (1950-1980) and Microsoft (1984-1998). Google’s reign began in 2001.

The interregnum between the end of the PC era and the rise of the online world has concluded, and Google is the new king of forward market growth in computing and software technology. Major companies will succeed by working within the framework of Google’s industry dominance, and smaller players will operate in niches or in service to the giant.

“I for one welcome our new insect overlords.”

(Hat tip to if:book).