(2002-12-02) Udell Linked Mirror Worlds

Jon Udell is reading David Gelernter's Mirror Worlds and Albert Laszlo Barabasi's Linked. Terminology aside, what's most compelling here is the notion that these are universal properties of Network-s of all kinds: molecular, HyperText-ual, Social Network-s, Transportation. And further, that hubs - whether they are the Chicagos and Atlantas of air travel, or the Yahoos and Googles of the Web, or the Mavens and Connectors of Malcolm Gladwell's social universe - arise inevitably, and are sources of both immense power and frightening vulnerability... How do you gain control of this unpilotable airplane (metaphor for New Economy organizations)? Pervasive instrumentation, transparency, Distributed Computing, Loosely Coupled.