InternetRetailer writes:

Now that it has taken the Internet search market by storm, Google is heading toward capturing the next e-commerce paradigm—using search to buy anything from anyone, anywhere, Safa Rashtchy, senior research analyst at investment firm Piper Jaffray & Co., tells InternetRetailer.com. “Google will be a Craigslist on steroids—a very potent and dangerous challenge to where eBay wants to go,” Rashtchy says.

While eBay has brought millions into online commerce, it is still too complicated for sellers who balk at the listing process and for buyers who don’t want purchase from someone located far away, he adds.

Craigslist Inc.’s CraigsList.com has pioneered a new form of e-commerce, which Rashtchy and others call “e-commerce 3.0,” that connects consumers with sellers of products and services in local communities.

E-commerce 1.0 was defined by early efforts by dot-coms at excessive branding and advertising, but without a sustainable platform or customer base, Rashtchy says. E-commerce 2.0 debuted with the advent of Internet search, which provided the necessary connection between e-retailers and large volumes of consumers, and 3.0 will take that to a local level.

Dion Hinchcliffe writes:

Here are some clear, canonical examples that I think convey the full scope of what RSS does for us in a Web 2.0 world:

Notification: Need to inform a lot of people about changes to information? Don't want central control? Want to enable self-service? Use RSS.

Syndication: Publishing new information regularly? Put it into an RSS feed. This flows out to the world your blog entries, news articles, podcasts, videos, job posts, weather reports, financial updates, bug reports, etc. The software you use should be able to take your information and make it into an RSS feed.

Glue: Need to connect any service to another service on the Web (or anywhere else)? Trying to mash together data? Building supply chains? There is generally no need to ever ask anyone to stand up a new web service. Pull everything you need via its RSS feed.

RSS creates the Web 2.0 information ecosystem by enabling interconnectedness, network effects, emergent behavior, and much more as well. And RSS doesn't demand control of the other end of the conversation. This is a big enabler all by itself and is a classic Web 2.0 force. By letting consumers of RSS use any tool or service they want on their side, barriers are eliminated and connectivity is encouraged.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger of IBM provides an update three years after its launch:

When we announced On Demand, we were convinced that one of the biggest changes coming to computing was in how customers acquired and paid for IT and IT-enabled business processes. This was the logical outgrowth of several widespread changes: an increasingly powerful and reliable IT infrastructure; the continuing acceptance of open standards all the way to the business process level; and the growing economic and competitive pressures faced by every business. In the previously referenced Information Week article Sam Palmisano said: "If businesses are going to become more flexible and variable, they're going to need more flexible and variable ways to acquire and pay for information technology. A pay-as-you-go delivery model … lets [customers] concentrate on their core business and tap into computing resources far beyond what they could reasonably own or manage."

People initially seized on this concept of "pay-as-you-go" and equated it with On Demand. In the last three years, however, we have gotten past having to defend On Demand as being more than just "utility computing." There is wide acceptance of On Demand as a state in which every company focuses on what it does best and partners for the rest, in order to remain flexible and to keep adapting to changing market conditions. This major trend has been very well captured in a recent paper from IBM's Institute for Business Value which said, "In this environment, only specialization - a laser-like focus on the few activities that confer real advantage and profit - will enable firms to deliver full value to their key stakeholder groups of customers, employees and shareholders."

Oliver Starr writes: "No one wants a network! (except maybe the network engineers) What they want are clear calls, excellent multi-media, richer applications, faster downloads, quicker online gaming reactivity, better streaming video, crystal clear audio and anything else that a really robust, high bandwidth, flawlessly engineered network can deliver - oh yeah, and REALLY COOL PHONES. People don't want a network, but they DEMAND the benefits a great network delivers."

As a consumer that loves mobile phones and the media that makes them so special, I only want a few basic things:

* I want a variety of phones that allow me to do anything the network can support
* I want fair pricing with plans that let me use the system the way I want to without going bankrupt
* I want to be reachable whenever I want to be reached
* I want to be connected anywhere I want to connect
* When something breaks, gets lost or stolen or I need help using it I want to reach help on the first try, quickly, and I want a solution without waiting for a week to get a package in the mail.

Robin Good writes:

Consumers become producers of content, and niche content surpasses by orders of magnitude the value of traditionally labelled commercial television and film.

The value is not anymore in the best seller or in the blockbuster.

The value is in infinite choice of content and in the opportunity for the consumer to see content when she wants it:
prime time is anytime, and anytime is prime time.

The last book I want to discuss in this series was one given to me by Dr. Aniruddha Malpani. It is “Raising Alex: Teaching a Child to Make Smart Choices” by Steve Reilly. It is a slim book (100-odd pages) but the messages runs deep. As one who became a father recently, I found it a fascinating read – with also the hope that I can use the advice in raising Abhishek.

Reilly writes the book as a parent raising his daughter Alexis. As he mentions in the book, he is not a trained child psychologist – he is just Alex’s dad. His learnings come from his own mistakes. As he puts it: “I have taken the time, however, to think long and hard about the this topic, because I care more about being a father to Alex than anything else I do.”

The book is peppered with incidents most parents will be relate to. Reilly’s handling of these situations is very instructive. Here is one where Reilly and Alex are outside a video arcade (not for the first time).

Again I gave Alex five dollars and reminded her we would leave when she'd used up her money. She ran into the arcade. I watched her from a distance. She was walking around with her bulging pocketful of quarters trying to decide which games to play. (She was trying to determine which game would give her the most tickets - she loved getting those tickets.) The closer she got to using up her quarters, the more intensely she looked around at the games. She was trying to decide. Finally she was down to her last two quarters.

"Which one do you think I should play, Dad?" she asked in frustration.
"I don't know, Alex. Which game is the most fun and gives you the most tickets?"

She finally decided on Skiball and won a few tickets. Turning to me she pleaded, "One more dollar? Dad, can I have one more dollar? I promise I won't ask for any more." "No, Alex. Like I said, when you're done, you're done. Let's go for our walk now ... "

Children need adults to tell them "No." I believe they often want us to say it as well. When Alex stood outside the arcade pestering me for quarters, tears streaking her face, I think on some level she appreciated my not giving in to her. Those tears might have given Alex more control over her dad, but not over her life.

I admit it was difficult saying no to her and it was tough to watch her struggle with the choices she was trying to make. But that is the dilemma we all face as parents. I love Alex so much it is painful to watch her struggle with her choices. But I would rather help Alex grapple with the choices she makes while she is still young. After all, how many years can we "control" our children? I expect I'll have Alex's attention until she is, oh, perhaps twelve years old. After that (maybe even earlier), other influences - her peer group, television, and (God forbid) boyfriends - will begin to outweigh mine. So I figure I had better teach Alex to make good decisions before she turns twelve. Attempting it later on would only frustrate us both.

Reilly’s advice is very practical and easy to understand. As he puts it: “As parents we want our kids to grow up safe; and yet, we want them to feel loved. But more than that, our children need to develop judgment – their own judgment – so they can take care of themselves when we aren’t around. We need to teach our children to get along without us.”