Cindy Packer

There isn’t much information about Google’s GPhone - it seems to come in little news tidbits, but the company has said it will release the phone in 2008.  Google will preload its services such as interactive maps, email and its search engine right onto the phone.  My guess is that some version of YouTube will be available as well. 

What’s in it for Google?  Google, after all, is in the advertising business…so there is huge potential to broker ads on mobile phones.  Google - being the forever altruistic one - even envisions its phone network to be free, supported entirely through ad revenue.

Google has even suggested that Joe Public would benefit by breaking the wireless carriers’ lock on the industry, and cause them to open up their networks.  While I must admit Google is the King of positive spin, the company’s strategy still remains unclear. Or are they just looking for global domination? We’ll need to keep up with the growth of this major corporation…I like altruism, but I also live in the real world!

Today is the World Wide Web’s Birthday - well not really - the date August 6th, 2001 marks the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet.  That version of the Web turns 16 today.

We’ve watched and cheered the net’s growth from its awkward, text-heavy infancy into the capable, hardworking information network it is now.  But like most prodigies, the net likes to work hard and play hard.  And while most of that play is fun and light, there is a real dark side - forming the duality in current Internet culture.

While we need to be careful of stunting the net’s growth with overbearing restrictions, and need to let the technology and culture of the net evolve learning its own hard life lessons, we still need remember to watch from the sidelines to guide and protect.

Congratulations Tim Berners-Lee - your baby is growing up…but we have not seen what your baby will mature into…fingers crossed…

“The time is always right to do what is right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr

“the reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.”
Japanese Proverb

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world was watching.”
Thomas Jefferson

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world.”
George Bernard Shaw

Make sure you take some time to escape cyberspace.

“As we express out gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.”
Immanuel Kant