Monthly Archives: July 2014

Time for digital emancipation

Civilization is a draft. Provisional. Scaffolded. Under construction. For example: That’s Thomas Jefferson‘s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration hasn’t changed since July 4, 1776, but the Constitution built on it has been amended thirty-three times, so far. The thirteenth of those abolished slavery, at … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Identity, infrastructure, Personal clouds, Places, Social, Technology, Travel, VRM | 8 Comments

The cliff personal clouds need to climb

This speed test was done in London, but it’s typical of everywhere: It shows a Net biased for downstream, and minimized for upstream. If we’re going to do any serious personal work in clouds, we need better upstream than this. … Continue reading

Posted in infrastructure, Internet, Personal clouds, problems, Technology | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, Pop.

My father, Allen H. Searls, would have turned 106 today. It’s not inconceivable that he might have lived this long. His mother lived almost to 108, and his little sister died at 101 just last December. But Pop made it to 70, which still … Continue reading

Posted in Family, history, Personal | Leave a comment

Urban originals

It would have been great to visit the Egyptian Spice Market in Istanbul with my old friend Stephen Lewis, whose knowledge that city runs deep and long. But I was just passing through the Old City by chance, waylaid en … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Blogging, Culture, Family, Geography, infrastructure, Past, Personal, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Thinking outside the pipes

For several years now I’ve been participating with Pew Internet in research on the Internet and its future — mostly by providing my thinking on various matters. The latest round is the Future of the Internet Survey VI, for which … Continue reading

Posted in Berkman, Business, Cluetrain, infrastructure, Internet | 1 Comment