netactr

Nicholas Carr gave the opening keynote at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York. I have my disagreements with Mr. Carr. For starters, he has a Wall Street approach to technology, any technology. His favorite comparison is that of computing power and electrical power. Carr likes to use such terms as “raw computing power”, “efficiency”, “data manipulation”, “economies of scale” and other industrial-scale, steel-smelter and stamp-factory-style prose. He is just too cold-blooded for me; I actually thought about Big Brother when he listening to him.

If it was up to Carr, there would be one big data center with exactly five applications and everyone would be working hard on the “economies”. Now, I do have a business degree, but at least I enjoy what I am doing. I am not yet ready to become part of a commodity industry and earn my living by driving down the costs.

Carr apparently is.