THINK GEEK...
In an article titillatingly titled "In Secret hideaway, Bill Gates ponders Microsoft's Future", the Wall Street Journal puts People magazine to shame, breathlessly describing how the world's richest man "takes a helicopter or seaplane to the two-story clapboard cottage on a quiet waterfront". There he runs a technology reading marathon, or "Think Week" in a secluded cabin in the woods, fortified by "grilled cheese sandwiches and Diet Orange Crush" (sic). As the Journal's Robert Guth notes,
Four days into this Think Week, Mr. Gates had read 56 papers, working 18 hours straight some days. His record is 112 papers. "I don't know if I'll catch my record, but I'll certainly do 100," he said. Among the unread papers: "10 Crazy Ideas to Shake Up Microsoft."
What's interesting about this piece is the effort Microsoft's PR department put in to set up the article in the first place. There's even a nice graphic provided by Microsoft that highlights the general topics Chairman Bill is reading about. They include, "Computing Trends", "Education", "Languages", "Office", "Security", "Speech", and "Videogames".
The cynical amongst us can't help but think that this is a disinformation effort not unlike campaigns waged in any war through the ages. Much like the body of the allied soldier found floating in the Mediterranean by the Germans, laden with convenient maps of the D-Day landings, one wonders what this body of text may be trying to hide by omission.
For certainly, in an era when the business models ALMOST as good as Microsoft's are to be found in companies like Google, Yahoo! and eBay, one is surprised by the big gaps on the reading list. Where are the discussions of the future of search, of online advertising, and online marketplaces? Where are the ruminations on mobile computing, pervasive computing, mesh networking and optical broadband? Where is the teeth-gnashing on server-based consumer applications, and software as a web-service? And where, oh where are the discussions on the future of iPod-driven music and content free of distribution gateways? These are just SOME interesting topics off the top of my head as I'm walking and chewing gum at the same time, and I know I'm missing a bunch that would be on my reading list for a Geek Think Week.
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