Technological changes are closer than they appear

Yesterday I had a chance to chat with a couple of fellow product managers at SVPMA.  We talked about fast changing mobile technologies, social media and digital privacy.  It was interesting to share stories on how we work and play using the latest technologies that we take it so granted.  Being able to pinpoint our location using GPS system, looking up friend's phone number at moment's notice without ever having to memorize the number, and keeping up with profile changes among professional contacts at all time are some examples of what technologies enable us to do.

When I look back at my own technology purchases, it looks something like this:

How to motivate people

A couple of loosely related things that happened today.  Here's my attempt at finding common theme from both.

Visit from a friend

I had come to know an entrepreneur through my wife's introduction.  He and I had an interesting conversation on our way to SFO to catch his plane.  Although I've met him only a few times, I could see that he is a wholesome person.  I can feel that he radiates positive energy around him.  I have been wondering how.

Hidden economies of Internet

In market economy, we measure dollars exchanged for goods sold.  Higher the value to the buyer (consumer), higher the price will be paid to seller (producer).  In this traditional economy, it is straight forward to calculate the amount of value created and exchanged by following dollars.

When you look at Internet today, it is not so clear.  We customers often get our value from producers without paying directly for that value.  There are lots of examples like this.  One example will be this Blogger, Google's blogging platform.  I am getting value out of by using blog hosting service provided by Google.  But I don't directly pay for it myself.  Service is offered to me free of charge by Google.