I can trace my Internet roots back to 1995 when I joined Simon & Schuster as the head of architecture and advanced technology. Amongst other things like SAP and Y2K, this included laying the foundation for our Internet activities. Being at an old school media company meant we had to evangelize the new media message. Not an easy task – aside from cave walls and papyrus you don’t get much more old school media than book publishing. But we had to convert the nonbelievers to fund the high tech plumbing budget needed to make it real. As with any missionary work you need a good book to preach from, and for me that was “Being Digital” by Nicholas Negroponte. The distinction between atoms and bits and the internets impact on bit based businesses was insightful – and as it turns out prophetic.
That was 15 years ago and while we have made a lot of progress toward being digital, we still have a long way to go. We have converted atoms to bits and exploited the Internet as a digital distribution platform but we have only scratched the surface of the Internet as a medium.
So what’s next on the journey to being digital? Being global, being mobile, being local and being social – Being GloMoLoSo. Yeah, I know – a brand marketer I am NOT, but it stands for something and the domain was available so it works for me. And who knows – maybe it will catch on.
Shout outs to the Simon & Schuster crew – Rob Berkley, Bob Blau, Joe Quinlan, Mark Richards, Michael Packer, Rick Hopfer – Internet pioneers with arrow scars on our backs to prove it.
