It would be a tragic mistake to underestimate the potential market power Skype is accumulating. According to Skype’s own figures from VON Canada, they’re sustaining a growth rate of 1000% a year. Just another 2 years of this growth and they would have over 200 million concurrent users online. This is not beyond plausibility given how Skype and broadband are symbiotically driving adoption of one-another; the addressable market is exploding too.
That means even if you’re a mega-telco — a Verizon or a Vodafone — you’re screwed. You can create your own Private Voice Application, and start marketing it to your early-adopter users, but who ya gonna call? Ain’t nobody but Skypers out there. Want some Skype presence in your Vodafone-branded VoIP app? Gonna cost ya!
John Muir’s Letters Online
The Wisconsin Historical Society has posted 100 original letters written by John Muir on their website. Via Ryan Foley.
Minneapolis named top “Technopolis”
Some interesting tidbits on Minneapolis in the latest eprairie newsletter, including Popular Science’s proclamation as the top “Technopolis”.
UW-Whitewater’s Literate Cities Study ranked Minneapolis #1… (Madison was #4). Take a look at their data sources, here. (I wonder what the yellow pages tells them, exactly. I never use it, frankly. The web is much faster).
I also have my doubts on the value of newspaper circulation data, now.
Milwaukee Pics Contest: Finalists
Some great Milwaukee photos, here.
Gordon Moore Interview
Larry Magid interviews Gordon Moore (mp3) on “moore’s law“.
Baldwin on Election Reform
Citizens of the Dane County area gathered at the Senior Center in Madison Saturday morning as U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, and Congressman Rush Holt, D-New Jersey, discussed the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005.
?[Promotion of voter security is] personal and something that I feel very strongly about,? Baldwin said.
Lots of Soccer at Reddan This Weekend
Teams from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and in between participated in this weekend’s spring soccer tournament at Reddan.
McDonald’s Turns 50
The fast-food franchise has now been around for half a century, and has 30,000 outlets. The original store in Illinois sold burgers for 15 cents. The company says it now serves 50 million people a day.
One must also listen to Marc Knopfler’s “Boom Like That”, which quotes McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc extensively. And, read – Fast Food Nation.
Nice move, GM – audio in on new 2006 cars
This benefit – the ability to plug your iPod or other portable audio device, into a car stereo seems trivial. Unfortunately, it’s a rarity. GM deserves credit for opening up – that is, allowing any audio device to plug into their car systems…..
Ralph Reed’s Casino Lobbying
David Kirkpatrick & Philip Shenon take a fascinating look at former Christian Coalition head, current lobbyist and lietenant governor (Georgia) candidate Ralph Reed:
In Washington, federal investigations of Mr. Abramoff, a close ally of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have revealed that Mr. Abramoff paid Mr. Reed’s consulting firm more than $4 million to help organize Christian opposition to Indian casinos in Texas and Louisiana – money that came from other Indians with rival casinos.
Mr. Reed declined to comment for this article; he has said publicly that he did not know that casino owners were paying for his services and that he has never deviated from his moral opposition to gambling. But the episode is a new blemish on the boyish face that once personified the rise of evangelical Christians to political power in America.