International Law

JP Rangaswami has a fascinating and well written post on the value of emerging social tools, which are so often written off as a waste of time.  You should read the whole piece, but here is the introduction so you get the flavour of it:

I can remember a time when people thought e-mail was a complete waste of time. I can remember a time when spreadsheets and storyboarding software were similarly disdained. In fact, I can even remember a time when no senior executive would be seen dead near a computer. You know something? It wasn?t that long ago, maybe 20 years ago?

I can remember a time when people thought the internet was a complete waste of time. When browsers had no future, when search engines were nothing more than toys. It wasn?t that long ago that Google was something that a few people played with, and the rest thought?. that they were wasting time. I can remember a time when people thought eBay was a plaything, someplace that people went?.to waste time. I can even remember a time when packages marked Amazon or Fedex were unheard-of in enterprise mail trolleys. You know something? It wasn?t that long ago, maybe 10 years ago.

I can remember a time when people thought social media, software and networks were a complete waste of time. When Facebookers were fools, Twitterers were twits, when even blogs and wikis and IM were viewed with deep suspicion, when everyone thought that the people who were using them?..were wasting time. You know something? It wasn?t that long ago. Maybe it?s still happening now.

...

Wasting time on things that have no commercial value. I know I?ve written about it before, but I feel there is a point still to be made. Is it a new point? Perhaps not. Let me remind you of some of the things that have been said ? said by powerful and important people ? in the last century or so:

?Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.? ?Marechal Ferdinand Foch

?The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?? ?David Sarnoff?s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

?Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?? --H.M. ?Harry? Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

?This ?telephone? has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.? ?Western Union internal memo, 1876.

?But what ? is it good for?? ?Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

?The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ?C,? the idea must be feasible.? ?A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith?s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found FedEx.)

Again, it's worth reading the whole post and thinking about it.  And you can read the rest here.