The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In late June I received an e-mail from Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. Mr. Anderson had for the past year been working on a book called The Long Tail, and he was looking for 100 bloggers worldwide to review this work. I had long followed his work and I love Wired Ð it is a must read for anyone who wants to keep up with the tech world Ð so I agreed to review The Long Tail on my blog. When I came back home after being gone for the entire month of July (my last four columns were filed from my camper from across Western CanadaÉ I love campgrounds that have Internet service!), I found a 240-page book waiting for me that I read over a few days. It was easy to read, and the concepts were easy to follow. Basically, Anderson's idea is that our economy is completely changing because of the Internet. Tracing it back to the original Sears and Roebuck catalogues from the late 1800s, Anderson argues that technology has now made it possible for virtual retailers to carry everything and make money on little-known niche products. He tells us about the 80/20 rule of retailing, where 20 per cent of products account for 80 per cent of profits. But, he argues, using techniques that are only available online, the long tail of products, the huge numbers that are traditionally less popular, can find a market and account for large portions of a company's profit. The main examples he uses are companies like Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, and Netflix. iTunes, for example, carries over 1.5 million different recordings. While top 100 lists are compiled, and hit songs still sell the best, by allowing people to freely listen to 30 seconds from any song before purchasing it and to recommend purchases to other buyers; and by charging only 99 cents for each song, people are more willing to explore types of music they would not have otherwise. The same is true on the other side. The Net can turn us all into producers. Through free or very cheap tools that allow us to release our writing, videos and audio files, we can all get an audience, no matter how obscure the stuff we make. With over a billion people now online, there are people interested in everything. This to me is a great advantage of having Internet access that is changing. The list of web 2.0 social software available online is constantly expanding. No matter what your interests are, the odds are vastly in your favour that you can find a group of like-minded people. Our interests do not have to be constrained by geography or the information immediately available around us. Do you like to play chess? What about obscure music from the renaissance? Play old computer games? Interested in the history of ancient China? No matter what your interests are, with a bit of work you can find people online who are interested in the same things. The Long Tail is a quick and easy read that is worth your time. The ideas behind it are starting to emerge and over the next few years, it will remodel our ideas of commerce, creation, culture and connection. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
