Jeroen's Repository

Jobs of the future will be more social, interesting, and creative

Clay Shirky thinks that the rise of social software will mean the demise of a lot of traditional jobs. From an IMterview with io9:

Anything where there is a production bottleneck. So the obvious ones are non-litigation lawyering, librarians, anyone in the media distribution business, but also the info managing pieces of things like industrial design, medical decision making, etc.

I'm an optimist so I think this means we will be able to focus on creating value and social interaction instead of bookkeeping and creating more and more managerial layers in organizations. His ideas about content creators being rewarded for their work are slightly more troubling to me:

Another part is that, on average people won't get paid, because the pool of creators has gotten too large. But significant talent will still be rewarded. Wedding photographers and stock photo people are going to get creamed. But Herb Ritts' fees may go up. When the bottleneck is not longer worth paying for (because it mostly doesn't exist) talent becomes the only differentiating metric.

I actually think that the model for content creators will change. Or actually, it's changing already. Lots and lots of people will make money creating valuable content, but many won't make a full-time living doing so. That's fine. There's no accounting for taste and some people's talent will only appreciated by a certain niche. So your books may not be bestsellers, your music isn't in the charts, and your art won't be displayed at the Guggenheim museum. But a profitable side-business? I think so. People will increasingly be engaged in various forms of labour instead of a single job. Work will mean someting different than it is now, and may end up being a more satisfying for a vast body of knowledge workers.

I just ordered Shirky's book, Here Comes Everybody : The Power of Organizing without Organizations, about this subject as the concepts he describes are tremendously interesting and important. I just wonder how society will respond.

Ralph Nader once again displays a total lack of political realism

Now look, Nader's political ideas are much closer to mine than either Clinton's or Obama's. But really, he stands no chance of winning this thing and will pilfer away liberal votes that would have gone to Clinton or Obama instead. It shows the limitations of a two party system, but Nader should be aware of that and decide not to run. Running as an independent will result in even less of his ideals ever becoming policy. Idiot.

Al Gore on the Daily Show

To add some more context and comedy to my previous post on The Assault on Reason, here's a recent interview with Jon Stewart:

Part 2 after the jump.

Reason, it all makes sense now

I'm halfway through Al Gore's new book The Assault on Reason. Or rather, I'm listening to Al's new book on my iPod (makes the daily train trip that much more interesting). So far it has been really good. Gore doesn't really break any new ground here, but he does piece together the various elements that undermine the American democratic process (Hint: TV). His ideas may not be new, but like An Inconvenient Truth it excels in proper, elegant, and reasoned presentation. Composition is something that is taught in every good academic curriculum, but few do it as well as the former next president of the United States of America. The book convincingly argues why American democracy is in such a decrepit state as it currently is. More notes and thoughts to follow.

[Read an excerpt on time.com]

Thank you EU!

Everyone who knows a little bit about me politically is aware that I'm so pro-EU that it hurts (really EU-naysayers come to my house and beat me up). I scoff at those who say that the the EU never did anything for them. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury I present to you exhibit A:

BBC -EU caps roaming mobile phone fees:

The cost of making mobile phone calls in Europe is set to fall substantially after lawmakers backed plans to cap so-called "roaming" charges. The amount mobile customers are charged by local phone operators for using their handsets while abroad should now fall by as much as 75%. [...] The changes still need to be approved by the European Commission and member governments of the 27-nation bloc, although these approvals are considered a formality.

Wow look at that. Result!

The Kerry Controversy: The Actual Story

Showing that the republican propaganda machine stops at nothing to make the Democrats look bad. Even if, in the end, it makes them look bad.

Europe falling behind Asia in education?

An interesting article on the BBC News website points out that:

Europe is falling behind Asia in terms of education and skills, a report published by the Brussels-based Lisbon Council think-tank says. It blames France and Germany which are criticised for mediocre education systems and their inherent class bias.  China and India, on the other hand, are starting to deliver "high skills at low costs and at an ever increasing pace.

Should we as Europeans be worried? Hell, yeah! Knowledge is just about the only competitive edge we have left. Educations should be among our very first priorities. The article gives a few considerations about what could be done about this (some of which are very sound, and some..not so much). Well worth a read.

Michael Moore responds to Katrina aid in an open letter to George W. Bush. Does anyone else find it amazing that Clinton was to be impeached because he lied about a blowjob, but that George W. Bush gets away with all this crap?

French voters say "Non" to EU Constitution

While the French say no, this shouldn't deter us (the Dutch) from saying yes. If nothing else we should do it just to make France the laughing stock of Europe. Yes, it's shallow. No, I don't really have anything against the French. Yes, I do feel strongly about the EU constitution so I'll use anything to motivate people to vote in favor of it.

American High School Students Do Not Value First Amendment

A research project commisioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation shows that over one third of American High School students "think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees". That's pretty scary for a country that has freedom of expression as one of its underlying principles. The research shows that "the more students are exposed to the First Amendment and use the news media in the classroom, and the more involved they are in student journalism, the greater their appreciation of First Amendment rights." Perhaps, the U.S. should pay more attention towards educating its own people on civil liberties instead of just trying to educate the rest of the world. (Found at MetaFilter)