Technological Revolutions And Financial Capital

Bubbles & Golden Ages peq2 I talked about this book yesterday on stage at Disrupt and got a bunch of requests via email and Twitter for details so I thought I'd blog about it today.

Back in 2003, when Brad and I were starting USV, we were struggling to make sense of the bubble and its aftermath, what it meant for technology and what it meant for venture capital. If we were going to start a new venture capital firm, we wanted to start one that would be relevant, that would have a coherent investment thesis, and one that would make money for our investors.

Brad got this book from someone, not sure who, and when he finished it, he said "you have to read this." I did and it became the basis for much of our investment thesis. We concluded that the period of building and investing in the infrastructure of the Internet revolution had passed and it was time to invest in the application layer. But much more than that important and simple insight, this book gave us a framework to think about what the Internet was doing to markets, society, and business. We still refer to it frequently. And I think it is still very relevant to the environment we are operating in right now because the Internet is the mother of all technological revolutions and it is important to understand exactly what that means.

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. JimHirshfield

    ” Internet is the mother of all technological revolutions” – love it!

    1. fredwilson

      probably a better line that calling google, facebook, and twitter bitches

      1. Dave W Baldwin

        guess you guys better get more women in tech… then there would be a more balanced reference between bitches and bastards   ;D

        1. fredwilson

          believe me, i am working on it. and so is the gotham gal. we’ve got a ton ofstuff going on that front.

          1. karen_e

            Gotham Gal’s blog is on fire — she has written so many great profiles of women in tech lately. It’s wonderful to be introduced to the people she is meeting.

          2. paramendra

            On that note I need to go pay a little visit. 

          3. ShanaC

            So true

          4. paramendra

            Disagreed. “Don’t be a Google bitch, don’t be a Facebook bitch, be your own bitch” is an anti sexist line. I like calling guys – particularly, exclusively guys – bitches so as to blunt the sexism behind the term. For example: Donald Trump: Racist Bitch Motherfucker, Jackass, Punk http://bit.ly/jhiavj 

          5. Donna Brewington White

            Hurry.

        2. Carl Rahn Griffith

          We need fewer pseudo ‘Rock Stars’ also. Is just a younger ‘hip’ version of legacy WASP ‘values’.More humility and creativity would go a long way to better utilising what we’re in the midst of, for one and all.

          1. Dave W Baldwin

            Very true. I’ve had an interesting time sending logical timelines/blueprints which probably get turned into me being supposedly cocky…then those same folks turn $$ attention to pseudo Rock Stars.Since the VC/Angel side is so male dominated, they cannot see past the toy… they do not realize the female is in search of the tool.@fredwilson:disqus @JLM:disqus   

          2. Donna Brewington White

            “… they do not realize the female is in search of the tool.”Wow, Dave.  Have intuitively sensed this distinction between toy and tool…but couldn’t quite pinpoint it…very interesting.I keep thinking there has to be more technology out there that would actually help me function better in this complex, multifaceted world that I have created.It’s frustrating because I know these tools are possible even if I don’t yet know what they are!Somebody help!!!

        3. Donna Brewington White

          I’m thinking that “bitch” has become generic in certain circles, equally applicable to male and female.  But agree with your premise…

          1. Dave W Baldwin

            Just a joke, have had to tell a gal who apologized to me that we’re all bitches and bastards…Per the tool thing, DM your e-mail and I’ll forward a funny, raunchy story or two on some things I’ve had to explain regarding Artificial General Intelligence.Otherwise, patience regarding the tool you speak of… it is going to happen.

      2. David Semeria

        I loved that line Fred, props.Personally I use: “don’t build your house on someone else’s land”

        1. Carl Rahn Griffith

          Freehold = Proprietary. Leasehold = Beholden.Best to be Nomadic, I guess? 😉

          1. David Semeria

            At least with leasehold there is a contact.It’s more like, “sorry mate, we didn’t sign anything, so it’s time for you to f**k off”….

          2. Carl Rahn Griffith

            I am often surprised that the ‘Grandfathering’ legal principle doesn’t apply in such scenarios – has anyone ever tried it?

          3. PhilipSugar

            Or as Clarence says in Robocop: “bitches leave”I thought that was a good line by Fred.The last thing I ever want to see is to get the lawyers involved.

          4. JLM

            In the past we learned that if it flies, floats or fornicates — rent it.Moore’s Law — not in the context of only semiconductor development but also in the implementation of technology in general from innovators to laggards — argues for renting everything.Superimpose the potential for gravitating everything to the cloud and, in effect, renting everything and the future looks quite different.

          5. joeagliozzo

            JLM – I have always accepted that as a truth as well – but how come the owning those assets and renting them out is often such a good business?  Look at aircraft leasing for example, those guy have made a fortune!  How would you play the rent model as an owner of assets in these trends in technology?

          6. Dave W Baldwin

            First to @joeagliozzo:disqus don’t bury yourself too far in the past… for it will come down to who has the best receipt/storage/sorting/delivery related to the cloud…enables you to charge the best strategic price gaining true LTVs…achieve that and be on the ready to get better again, because-@fredwilson:disqus @wmoug:disqus  JLM, the only difference between Moore’s and Accelerating is that the time span between each ‘doubling’ decreases, hence the sharp curve upward in progress after the long flat line.That said, what will be important is those that think they can produce the marketing message, yet suck in delivery will be whooped by the one who delivers what the consumer wants… then knowing how to market from there. The successful ones need to understand the time period they can sit and party is a short one, for the faster ‘doublings’ will catch them off guard faster than they think.In the end, the connection to enabling the best cloud service will be the coming most important innovation…autonomous independent AI.  

      3. JimHirshfield

        Ha!

      4. gbattle

        Actually, you said don’t be a “bitch” on Google, Facebook or Twitter, with respect to platform dependence.  Real talk.

      5. paramendra

        I disagree. “Don’t be a Google bitch, don’t be a Facebook bitch, be your own bitch” was the take home quote from your appearance. I understood that to mean don’t go work for Google/Facebook or try to imitate them, become a trailblazer instead. Point taken.  

      6. Donna Brewington White

        not so sure about that…at least not as fun(although this new one is being added to my favorite quotes)

  2. Ivan Walsh

    Internet is the mother of all technological revolutionsGreat line but… is it true?See this from The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/t

    1. fredwilson

      i think so because its impact is going to be felt across all sectors of theeconomy and globally in plces that other technological revolutions didn’timpact

      1. Peter Sullivan

        people tend not to see how huge the impact is on society because they are so infused in it during daily life. The South Park episode where the internet drys up  really puts it in to perspective. 

      2. paramendra

        The Internet is the mother of all technological revolutions BY A WIDE MARGIN. 

      3. JamesHRH

        Oil as an energy source is the mother of all technological revolutions and it is not even close.The chip is the mother of all digital technological revolutions and it is not even close.Infrastructure that enables change has the largest impact. There is a reason that Rockefeller and Gates were the wealthiest people of their times – they commercialized the key component of great technical infrastructure revolutions.

        1. fredwilson

          that’s a great topic for debate for sure

        2. kidmercury

          energy technology and biotechnology will embarrass the internet in terms of importance to society. 

          1. Dave W Baldwin

            Actually bio/nano/robot, the infusion each discipline will have on the other… the burning of things to produce energy is here, just gov barricades…otherwise the CPU for solar will just have to get to low enough level that it will take care of itself.The time period 2015-2018 will definately show what I speak.

        3. JLM

          Or is it the internal combustion engine and electricity?

    2. raycote

      No..No… it is most definitely true!And just for good measure let me heap a little more rhetorical kindling on the cliche fire.The network-effect is the very substrate of our new economic reality, the new penny in the currency of all human affairs.

      1. Ivan Walsh

        rhetorical kindling on the cliche fire.another great line 🙂

      2. Hu Man

        I like it I like it ++1 point to you! Where can you spend it though? Here’s an “apple” you can’t eat. 6 billion may starve so that 1 billion may type!

  3. Peter Sullivan

    Fred, do you guys still have the investment focus on “networks of highly engaged users” or has that shifted at all?

    1. fredwilson

      that’s our current thesis

      1. Peter Sullivan

        Do you feel there is a soft spot in your portfolio for an industry that you would like to be in, but aren’t?

        1. fredwilson

          education is not represented enoughwe need to fix that

          1. Peter Sullivan

            I am sure there is a good educational Q&A platform that would fit your thesis and the industry

          2. kidmercury

            careful boss. that’s government turf you’re thinking about. 

          3. Hu Man

            no no, he said education

          4. Mark Essel

            bonus points to @twitter-59645133:disqus

          5. RocketSpace

            Kauffman Labs are supporting a number of Entrepreneurs in that sector.

      2. Artem

        I am curious what you think of this point, Fred: Paradoxically, I believe that Facebook has made this network thesis somewhat less relevant for everyone but itself, at least for many areas. This is because it provides the underlying social graph, and thus commoditizes it, removing it as a very strong competitive advantage. In other words, before if some social website/app came along (say to share your music tastes with friends), and could get a network of people to join, that would be a great advantage of network effects, but these days they just place a Facebook Connect widget and they are largely done. Of course their competitors can now do the same, so more apps essentially become utilities on top of the network. The areas where this thesis still applies are any areas where you don’t want to share with a subset of your usual network. This is true for us for example, where with weight loss you might want the support of other people who lost weight and not your usual friend group.But I do think it changes the dynamic for a whole lot of businesses, that used to invest very heavily at-all-costs in building out the user base and thus the network effects. Now those effects are weaker. What do you think, has the thesis aged at all?

        1. touchyourdream

          Hi! ArtemYou pinpointed the critical point which can newly create another social network.I believe it’s time to build up innovative network in order to increase social network effects instead of simply making friends or exchanging informations. I hope to have an opportunity to discuss more about that

        2. Dave W Baldwin

          It truly comes down to ease of interface… otherwise, you have a lot of ‘me tooisms’.

        3. fredwilson

          i think facebook is simply the walmart or mcdonalds of large networks. the largest and least fulfilling. there will be so many of these

  4. Dave W Baldwin

    Everyone should read the Amazon info re the book.   You have to develop a product that looks at the future so the product fits the changing parameters (delivery vehicles, economics of market….), remembering the Law of Accelerating Returns applies to all the parallel disciplines.  KEY-  the other disciplines are NOT truly parallel, but slightly angled inward delivering a bond somewhere on the timeline! For that reason, I had made reference to explaining Bio, Nano, Robo, AI/AGI, Longevity not long ago.To me this is important, for doing the blueprint the right way offers the ability to pivot your product in a more reverse engineering way vs. one of desperation.

  5. Guest

    “I want to invest in the cultural revolution of the internet” Fred, that’s why I see you as my favorite investor. Your investment into the startup world is beyond financial support. Thank you for that!

    1. fredwilson

      i really do want to do that. i’m sure it is coming. i need some ideas for ways to do that

      1. kidmercury

        the cultural revolution requires a political revolution. the reward is enormous, but only for those who are interested in playing a role in the transformation to the post nation-state world, IMHO.  

        1. fredwilson

          i’ll invest in that too then

          1. kidmercury

            doubt it, IMO you guys are WAY off base politically. obama, schumer…..not revolutionary, 100% establishment candidates, as evidenced by their voting records. but even if you are down with a political revolution of sorts and understand that such a revolution goes hand in hand with a cultural revolution (which in turn leads strategic and economic revolutions), your VC colleagues most certainly are not so you have no one to invest with. and so the bubble cycle marches on….at least until the whole house comes crashing down (with each crash being bigger than the preceding one)but the revolution will come no matter who chooses to ignore it. as is customary it will start at the fringe and work its way in. the process has already begun and it will only accelerate.  

          2. fredwilson

            how can any politician be revolutionary?

          3. kidmercury

            thomas jefferson, john f kennedy….though agreed, better route for realrevolutionaries is outside of govt (gandhi, mlk jr). IMHO revolutionariesare political, but not necessarily governmental On May 26, 2011 7:28 AM, “Disqus” <>

          4. Guest

            Was just tempted to join this conversation. Kidmercury, Aristotle once said there are only three position people can take: lead, follow or be neutral. Even though politics stands for one of these roles, the role of technology in particular through the web is the essence of  leadership and often more influential than politics. Look at Google. I believe in innovation leadership as it is executing/ changing while politicians just verbalize/ theorize. Check out Kevin Kelly’s “Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, & the Economic World”

          1. kidmercury

            yes, i basically think black market economies will grow to replace/subvertthe “legitimate” economies. as they grow, though, they will need to take ongreater political identities and express cultural values, in my opinion. abit similar to how organizations labelled as terrorists often operate.

          2. BillSeitz

            Yes, the way that Hamas gained credibility by becoming a de-facto social services organization.Hmm, maybe that Catholic Church could do that if they were willing to part with some luchre…

      2. Guest

        we are on the same mission. what I send you recently is predetermined to do that

      3. Guest

        My innovation method LALIAFLIA has shown me that most world changing innovations are abstractions of life. I call them LIA’s. Google is a technological abstraction of our search behavior, Facebook an abstraction of friendship and Twitter an abstraction of thoughts (if you will). To create a big cultural change online we just need to transform a phenomenon from life into an application.What is the most dominant behavior that controls everyones life? Hunger & Thirst?Check out my article the “Trinity of Innovation” for more inspiration:bit.ly/m04TzL

  6. Joe Yevoli

    Definitely adding this to the reading list.  Seems like a good book for the entrepreneur book club to read next.Thanks for blogging about it, Fred.

  7. Carl Rahn Griffith

    Sounds a great read – I must get a copy.The Industrial Revolution was (sorry to use the expression but it’s still useful, at times) a ‘paradigm shift’ in values, society, demographics – and was accelerated by the advent of war and the deployment of ‘industrial’ levels of technology for the purposes of destruction. Our recent/current Technological Revolution is much more subtle and a much more equitable affair, yet equally as significant – and in a far more constructive sense.We just need to understand how to leverage it better – but, somehow, tools find their own relevance in life if they warrant a key place at the table of this peaceful revolution – eg, the ever-growing significance of Twitter.

    1. Dave W Baldwin

      Just need to keep the push.  We are moving somewhat full circle where you have the soldier request design to fullfill need in real time… not spending mega millions on DARPA.As you read this, the circle is happening where the people are communicating with each other and the old guard/media/money are looking more and more stupified (deer in the headlights).

    2. FAKE GRIMLOCK

      INTERNET REVOLUTION SEEM GREAT ONLY BECAUSE IT NOT FULLY WEAPONIZED YET.

  8. andyswan

    Ordered.Side note:  You really should get an AMZN affiliate ID for these kinds of links.  I’m sure it would increase your AVC ad revenues that you donate to charity…and it’s super easy.

    1. kidmercury

      yeah that was the first comment i made, had to diss fred for not even monetizing this endorsement. embarrassing. 

      1. Mark Essel

        Baby Howard Lindzon weeps.

        1. BillSeitz

          Yikes not loving the UX from that: http://webseitz.fluxent.com…

    2. fredwilson

      i used to do that. the amount of money it brought in was so small it was annoying

  9. ShanaC

    On my book buying list….

  10. William Mougayar

    I remember that book. You understood the macro segmentation well and executed on it. There’s actually 3 layers:- Infrastructure- Middleware- Applications 

    1. Dave W Baldwin

      -Infrastructure/Middleware-How about an independent OS within an OS?

      1. William Mougayar

        That’s a middleware I think.Note Middleware is distinct from Infrastructure.

        1. Dave W Baldwin

          Yup. 

  11. RichardF

    Shame there is no Kindle version.  Although I have just loaded “The Double Bubble at the Turn of the Century: Technological Roots and Structural Implications” by Carlota Perez and skimmed it, which is here http://cje.oxfordjournals.o… and was an interesting read.As Carlota points out in that article it’s time to put technology to use to increase real GDP, employment and well being.  I wonder how many of the techcrunch disrupt competitors have that in mind as they go into the “Battlefield”

    1. fredwilson

      yeah, i wanted to link to the kindle version and there isn’t one. bummer

  12. Aviah Laor

    IN                             OUT========               ===========Product                   Presentations and documents about productsGoogle docs            Ms-OfficeContent                   FormCasual                    TiesIterations                 5 years biz plan spreadsheetsStack-exchange      ResumesHuman                  Call center scripts for the repsEngage                 White papers

    1. andyidsinga

      thanks for putting white papers in the out bucket ….so true.

    2. fredwilson

      product over presentations for sure!

    3. Nuno Maia

      nothing i like better than self defeating bull,Content IN and form is OUT…and the next line you specify why form is IN by saying ties are OUT.but hey, by all means, keep evangelizing your bull.

  13. Dave W Baldwin

    Forgot… here is a link to something that you can still read for free.  It is actually a Thesis written for PhD back in the earlier part of the mid ’80s: http://e-drexler.com/d/06/0…

  14. zerobeta

    Great book.  Sean Park first turned me onto it.  Very relevant today.

  15. parkparadigm

    It’s been a big influence on me too and was part of the intellectual foundations of the Digital Markets business @jobsworth and I tried to build at DrKW in the mid-noughties, which ultimately led me down the path to founding Anthemis Group.  Indeed, the first iteration of what was to become Anthemis I named Sixth Paradigm LLP, as in the sixth – eg next – techno-economic paradigm as per Carlota’s thesis (but almost everyone told me it was a stupid name and too hard to pronounce so we moved on in terms of name…but not in terms of thesis!)Fwiw, and I’m not sure if it makes sense as a standalone (without my running commentary), if you are a Perez fan I thought you might enjoy this presentation I did last fall for the top executives of a big insurance company on the huge (epochal) transition from Industrial to Information economy we are currently living through: http://prezi.com/3oygcmx8_9…Anyhow it’s a very important book and her framework is an extraordinary one through which to try to understand the forest and not get lost in the trees.  Finally in terms of trying to call the dawn/defining moment of the sixth paradigm, I put a marker down on the launch of AWS, heralding the dawn of the Age of Networks – http://www.parkparadigm.com… – can’t wait for the next 20 years or so to see if I was even remotely close!

    1. fredwilson

      i’m thinking cultural revolution is next

      1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

        MASS CULTURE OVER.NEXT REVOLUTION MICRO CULTURE.

        1. JamesHRH

          +1

        2. Dave W Baldwin

          @fredwilson:disqus You are on to something, but most will be blind when thinking micro not realizing ability to do multi micros… I’m amazed how niche everyone is.

          1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

            FUTURE IS NICHE EVERYTHING, MASS NOTHING. 

          2. Dave W Baldwin

            @fredwilson:disqus I know what you’re going for, but move to a higher ledge and look out over the horizon.  For the smarter one can see with the tool that handles all niches the customer wants at any moment is the one that will have more customers.This has been the hard one to explain, due to our paranoia blocking the ability to understand AI on a more bio level.  But with the more Bio AI, it is able to multitask and anticipate as a personal assistant… then you can let the others kill themselves spending money niche by niche.Otherwise, doing the niche is based on keeping the masses at a disadvantage so those driven by greed can force a niche on them… nothing more than doing it en masse.

  16. paramendra

    When you mentioned the book at disrupt – I had never heard of it before – I got reminded of this blog post of mine: My Web Diagram http://bit.ly/iMXzIh

  17. Lukas Hartwich

    Looking forward to reading, thanks for sharing!

  18. kidmercury

    not even putting in an affiliate link, or using a script that auto-affs it for you. disappointing boss. 

    1. fredwilson

      used to do that. the amount of money it brought in was tiny

  19. ABP53

    I offer to your attention a film about six priorities of the generalized instruments of management by countries and people of Earth.Six Principles of Global Manipulationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fF3TQ0lJnUAnti-Qur’an Strategy of the Bible Project Wheeler-Dealershttp://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1wXgXwj3MI

  20. Avi Deitcher

    On a barely relevant side note, except as far as following technological revolutions…… what do people use to follow Fred’s blog and the comments, as well as join comment threads?On the Web, I use Google Reader, in which to follow the comment thread or comment myself, I need to click on the link, which opens a new browser tab, wherein I may or may not be remembered by disqus, all of which makes reading and participating almost impossible on mobile. So… what are people here using to stay active?

    1. CJ

      Mobile is always the trouble for me, on the desktop I have AVC set as an App Tab in Chrome, I check it every day and Disqus always remembers me.  On the phone, I have to type in my ridiculously long password to login to Disqus and because of the way the login box works, I often login at Disqus.com first and then refresh AVC.  It sucks so I hardly ever comment via mobile.

      1. Donna Brewington White

        I keep thinking this mobile problem will be solved by switching over to Android.  Are you on Android?If so, then I’m stuffed.

        1. CJ

          Yeah, I’m on Android but I have a similar issue on the iPad.  I ended up downloading Perfect Browser there to mitigate it.

    2. FAKE GRIMLOCK

      USE DISQUS!GRIMLOCK FOLLOW MOST INTERESTING COMMENTERS. NOT BOTHER WITH THREAD UNTIL ENOUGH INTERESTING PEOPLE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

  21. Donna Brewington White

    And yet another addition to the “Fred Wilson Recommends” stack on my nightstand.  Now for more time…BTW, I’m still thinking an AVC online book club might be fun.It could be powered by DailyLit.  Keep it in the family.

  22. martinowen

    Late to this article – but anyone who has the ability to watch on BBC iPalyer should watch Monday’s  “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” – the new documetary film by Alan Curtis that links Ayn Rand, Suharto and China to economic booms, slumps and tech investment.To the less fortunate (or people who stay legal in their media consumption) you have to make do with the review:http://www.guardian.co.uk/t

  23. rfreeborn

    Interesting that you had this post yesterday and today McKinsey pushes out some research re: the ‘nets effect on GDPhttp://www.mckinseyquarterl…

  24. JLM

    The creation of wealth by getting in front of society’s “technological” changes has always been the secret since Marco Polo found his way to China to bring silk back to Italy.One could easily conclude that financial wealth is a proxy for technological wealth by simply looking at neighborhoods and assessing the amount of computing capacity per capita.Most of the folks on this blog are incredibly wealthy in terms of computing capacity — desk tops, lap tops, tablets, smart phones — and when coupled with the application layer, the wealth is boundless.Most folks on this blog literally live in a faux real estate geography which literally is worldwide.Conversely, those in technical poverty suffer from an almost complete absence of connection to any aspect of the world beyond their eye sight.  Literally.Perhaps eyesight leveraged by television and radio but not really much more and unlikely that they control the “remote control” of their own line of sight.One’s entire perspective depends upon how one is connected to “their own” times.Who is the greatest golfer of all time?  Bobby Jones, Jack or Tiger?  It all depends on what you actually know.  Few 20-somethings have ever seen Bobby Jones swing a club or know that he never turned pro.There is a charming naivete about folks who fail to see that change is the constant and that we what we all know — or think we know — is but a slice of our own times.The current generation did not invent sex, my generation did.  But hey I could be wrong about that.

    1. JamesHRH

      This is also reflected in the ‘invention’ or ‘insight’ that every generation creates. It Is just their flavor of previous wisdom.

    2. fredwilson

      Bobby Jones without questionhe did what he did while running a law firmimagine tiger doing that

  25. Josh Hanson

    Another great book to look at – The Americans by Daniel Boorstin – shows that Democracy was the mother of all technological revolutions. The book reveals that the democratic experience of the 19th century created the conditions where, “novelty ceased to be astonishing and unusual and became normal and expected…when invention became the mother of industry, invention soon became the mother of necessity…And Americans were finding solutions for which they had not yet discovered the problems. Americans had turned on the tap of novelty. Would they, or could they, turn it off?” Great stuff!

  26. Dave W Baldwin

    @kidmercury:disqus @fredwilson:disqus @JLM:disqus @FakeGrimlock:disqus @wmoug:disqus This is a late post in this blog entry, but saw this headline last night: China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work… ^ http://m.guardian.co.uk/wor…Goes to a point I’ve wanted to make kidmercury regarding Virtual Money.  I understand your veiwpoint, however, it will not change the bigger problems related to greed/power and so on.  Even if China were to crackdown on this, there will be others doing the same, be it slaves in SAsia for example.The only way to truly improve the world is to do it thru the people of the world.  The only logical way is to truly enable the world’s population with tools that bring growth in their households and community.Setting to the side prisoners and slaves, there are tech pushes that don’t deliver what the end run customer doesn’t know (either convenient/ignorant).  They utilize the sweat shop.  The marketing had those with purchasing power think they have something that takes advantage of sweat from those without.Do the well off care?  Probably not.  It is a matter of someone has to give a rip.  So, in my case, there are those who think me the flake and/or cocky.  I just simply worked over the past 3 years putting the pieces together that enable real progress.In my realm, we have the redefinition of the Virtual Assistant being dumbed down to using Biological labor (promoted on ABC over to hiring temp secretaries for a couple of hours).  Unfortunately, this enables wild claims and ignorant sheep behavior from those that don’t know better, but rewards false claims.My take on the whole mess is to enable the Sweat Shop Servant the ability to do more with less, enabling their doing side projects that will enable their leaving the greedy bastard’s Sweat Cave.  Once again, call me a flake and/or cocky…but it is the only logical thing to do.Then I’ll be able to turn intense focus over to pleasing the well off with the designs related to truly improving Education/Therapy (Virtual Tutors that are virtual), going to Mars for less cash with delivery of a lot more specimen, allowing improved R&D scenarios that will deliver world changing progress at an earlier date and so on.In looking forward, we can do more than produce the same thing and call it something else.  Luckily I’m not alone in this realization and we will make it happen.How about that for transparency?  Have a good weekend!@donnawhite:disqus @mlloyd:disqus @andyswan:disqus

  27. jnickhughes

    Hey Fred, without knowing you spoke about this at Disrupt, I wrote about the book on SAI the other day.  Check it out – http://www.businessinsider….

  28. Tom

    you should have let us publish it then you could buy from the author webpage and the author could make the full profit

  29. ShanaC

    Why Don’t you think that the medium-long term will end up treating broadband the way we treated phonelines (and later cellular?)

  30. Niyi

    I agree that the infrastructure revolution is still alive and well.For example, with over 150mln people, Africa’s most populous country still faces huge deficiencies in its IT infrastructure, with Internet infrastructure, payment systems, and e-government utilities attracting most of the technology related capital expenditure.The apps space is also completely different compared to the US. For example, in telephony, RIM and Nokia rule while Apple is non-existent. The killer app is currently Blackberry’s Messenger because it enables virtually free comms. iPhones are a still a rarity presumably because many of the apps are not localised to African markets.

  31. Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam

    Yes. I agree completely and think it may choke the mother.If smartphones becomes affordable to this 5-billion then only we will see thereal explosion on the internet. 

  32. kidmercury

    i believe the primary obstacle to creating the new infrastructure layer is the governance of spectrum rights. as such i do not think infrastructure layer 2.0 can be created until there is a new means by which spectrum can be governed. a new world order is needed! bottom up or top down, that is the question…… 

  33. Dave W Baldwin

    It takes truly organized capital to do broadband via phone lines directly to 5 billion people.Remember, we have an evolving in the US where many have dumped the phone line going strictly mobile.  Across the sea, they are already mobile. We have to be realistic in the US where the world is not going to follow the US starting at the back of the bus moving up seat by seat.Seeing this has been around http://www.youtube.com/watc… @wmoug:disqus @fredwilson:disqus @twitter-30963:disqus

  34. ShanaC

    In terms of a dual system of access – if broadband becomes widespread…