Disqus - Latest Comments for Bob Jacobson

Re: Playing Chicken With Consumers: Wu Calls for Cellphone Regulation

Bob Jacobson — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:12:30 -0000

The continuing consolidation of the telephone market, landline and cellular, can lead to only one thing: monopolization. Sure, in addition to a dominant one or two providers, there is a struggling train of stragglers. But there were multiple suppliers during the former AT&T;'s reign, too. No one was deceived by the existence of Podunk Telephone in Paducah that AT&T; wasn't in supreme control. All common carriage service tends to end in monopolistic market control through consolidation, collusion, or regulation. It's an axiom of business, supported by the entirety of utility history in America. To paraphrase The Who, soon, too soon, the "new" AT&T; (the former SBC) is the same as the old one. The rest hardly matter.

Re: On structural holes

Bob Jacobson — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 15:54:37 -0000

They used to call "structural holes" gatekeepers, power brokers, or wheeler-dealers. More kindly, impresarios, which is what I feel like everytime I make a LinkedIn connection. Unfortunately, the burden on those with the biggest holes is starting to dissuade them from joining, which only leaves a crater in their place. What structure can we use to bridge these voids?

Re: To Beat Google, Yahoo Needs To Change The Game

Bob Jacobson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:41:18 -0000

Neither pursuing Google in search nor dumping more bucks into increasingly passé social networking will bring Yahoo! back with a bang.

I agree that the human dimension is the wild card. People beget people; machines don't.

What everyone wants, and no one provides, is a Web-based, handy-dandy Faithful Assistant that's your digital valet, wardrobe, chauffeur, secretary, concierge, and alter ego.

A Yahoo! you don't go to to do things, but one that you put on. That you take with you via your mobile. That is viewable on big screens or in your home or hotel room, via wireless.

A Yahoo! that's more than the sum of its data parts, but actually IS the community -- the communities -- that matter to you, in which you live.

Start from the premise that there are a billion unsatisfied people online, and several billion more to come, and the investment to do this is chickenfeed.

The more difficult part is rebuilding the Yahoo! culture, which is now all about advertising and content to support it, and nothing at all about serving the user first.

Okay, Jerry, the ball's in your court. Yahoo!'s your playpen again, as it was 10 years ago. Be creative. Have fun. Make your fans proud.

Re: Twitter is a Conversation Ecosystem

Bob Jacobson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:19:53 -0000

Perhaps I didn't fully grok Twitter, but its self-selected audience -- those who want to share with others the minutiae of their daily experiences -- made Twitter less than desirable for me. An analogue is Spock, which is loaded with people who want to consolidate and then advertise all of their web activities. More power to those who are into total transparency, but to tell the truth, I'm not that interested in the Twitterers and I don't want my life to become a Truman Show. I like on-off situation awareness, not real-time immersion in others' worlds or them in mine. To each their own. I detached from Twitter and don't miss it greatly.