Jim Stogdill

Jim Stogdill is a lifelong technology practitioner. In a previous life he traveled the world with the U.S. Navy. Unfortunately from his vantage point it all looked like the inside of a submarine. He spends his free time hacking silver halides with decidedly low-tech gear. @jstogdill.

An ethical bargain

Transparency, relationships and other things corporations could learn from a small bookstore.

Most of the relationships you build with corporations are like icebergs — essentially hidden from view. But what if we could interact with “human” corporations? What would that look like? How would it work?

Quantum trading! And tunnels through the Earth!

Remember when we used to place data centers in whatever cheap abandoned warehouse was nearby? That's a quaint notion in an era where trading advantage and arbitrage depend more and more on the speed of light and link distance.

Big data: Global good or zero-sum arms race?

It remains to be seen if big data will catalyze exponential growth.

Will a big data revolution dramatically change lives, or will it instead yield a middle class feel-good machine that's irrelevant to the working poor?

Amygdala FarmVille

The people that know the most about you are the people you know the least about.

We have entered the Matrix, but it’s not our body heat companies want. They want the preference model encoded in our amygdala and a list of all the people that might influence that model — and you may not realize it, but you’re giving it to them.

Points of control = Rents

Innovation was once the sole rent source in the computer industry, but things have changed.

We love companies that innovate, even if they can extract rent from it. What we don't like is when they mature and transition to less palatable rent extraction strategies.

Better, faster, cheaper … emergent

Commentary: "Beltway bandits" are the result of government complexity.

In this response to Carl Malamud's Gov 2.0 Summit speech, Jim Stogdill says that demonizing the "beltway bandits" without addressing the root cause — the lock-in incentives inherent in a single-customer market — will just lead to new ways to lock them in. Fixing government IT means fixing incentives and making the cognitive leap to intentional emergence.

Streamlining craft in digital video

Digital video streamlines the craft of filmmaking and makes a professional look available to the amateur film maker. It's a very cool time to be a visual storyteller on a budget.

The iPad isn't a computer, it's a distribution channel

The iPhone was a relatively open phone and we accepted it, but the iPad is a relatively closed computer designed to be a controlled distribution channel, and that's a bummer. The thing is, Jobs' argument was always a bit disingenuous. Closed follows from his brain architecture, not from an argument on behalf of his customers or their network providers. Those are post facto justifications supporting an already-held point of view. And the reason the iPad is going to stay closed isn't because it is good for users, it's because it is good for Apple.

Yammer: Will viral work in the enterprise?

Yammer is getting viral adoption in the enterprise, but will it convert to sales?

Apps for Army Launches – The Hybrid Enterprise?

The Army launches Apps for Army. Contest or harbinger of the hybrid enterprise that combines planning and emergence under one roof? Apps for Army looks to uncork the Army's cognitive surplus and let soldiers start solving their own problems in code without the personal risk of going off reservation to do it.