Fortune magazine would have chosen blogging
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Written by Atila on August 12, 2008 – 2:02 pm
Who would have thought that in 2005 Fortune magazine would have chosen blogging — plain old editing and writing — as the number one tech trend? Let’s not get carried away, though. While blogging is an interesting trend in communication, it is simply a new part of the communications mix.
The similarities between the music and technology industries are striking. Each one desperately needs a “next big thing.” Each one desperately needs to whip up a frenzy about something that is definitely going to change the world – until the next big thing comes along. Blogs are the latest “next big thing” which is going to change everything, according to some pundits. They’re going to bring big corporations to their knees and give ultimate power to the consumer and independent advocate. And these pundits have at least one reallife story to back up their latest pet theory.
“Heard about what bloggers did to Kryptonite?” they ask. Well, in September 2004, someone blogged that you could open a Kryptonite lock with a BIC pen. This claim was quickly verified by other bloggers.
The Kryptonite Bike Lock Company responded lamely by saying that the locks were still a “deterrent to theft.” The bloggers were infuriated and lambasted Kryptonite. Finally, Kryptonite was forced to recall the lock, costing an estimated ten million dollars.
At least, that’s what became the popular myth. And a nice little story it makes too. But is it the truth? Kryptonite claimed it was aware of what was happening on the Internet from day one, and that it worked flat out to come up with a solution. The truth of the story – as usual – is probably a bit more complicated than the bloggers or Kryptonite would like you to believe.
Almost exactly ten years earlier, in the autumn of 1994, a bug was discovered in the Intel Pentium processor. Someone published information on this bug on the Web and the story began to get picked up. Intel initially ignored the criticism, claiming that the bug only occurred in rare circumstances, which was true. However, the controversy just grew and grew. Finally, Intel relented, with Andrew Grove, then CEO, stating, “The past few weeks have been deeply troubling. What we view as an extremely minor technical problem has taken on a life of its own.” A no-questions-asked return policy was announced. (Hardly anyone took it up.)
