Gardens
Copyright continues to be under fire. Our colleagues Hugh Logue and Tatiana Khayrullina wrote about the impact of two recent rulings; one more focused on the broader implications for content owners, the other about the impact specifically for the standards portion of our industry.
A client also sent a link to a piece by Fast Company saying what looks like setbacks might in fact be a trail of crumbs for copyright owners to follow, and to pave the way to win. Either way it’s a push-me-pull-you out there.
Outsell colleague David Worlock is waiting for the interview between Matthew Price, the CEO of Cloudflare and Tim O’Reilly, due on 14 July, saying Tim has been a big advocate of data provenance, talking about AI developers as “Colonialists,” living on the unpaid labor of others. Hackles are up.
On one hand we have Cloudflare protecting and enabling fair access, while more big buzz sounds around software development to make websites more attractive to AI search bots. This goes on while AI search delivers answers replacing Google’s lists of results.
Search traffic falling off. Steal the IP. Don’t send traffic back. Not much to like in either scenario while we watch the re-wiring of the web in high relief.
So, on the one hand we have people protecting their data from AI unless it can be acknowledged and paid for, and on the other we have people making their data more attractive to AI by a sort of SEO to make their advertising or marketing more effective.
David says it’s a contrast well worth covering, and I have to agree. I am also dizzy by the persistent march of acronyms to reflect what is happening. LLM SEO, LLMO, AIO — a whole new vocabulary is emerging.
Business models that began circa 2006 are now 20 years old. That’s like a century in internet time. The dog-years that happen with technology obsolescence is the natural order of things. In 2013, Steve Jobs famously shared how these rhythms work, and it is happening again at lightning speed.
We are living in a perfect storm of change. Another big wave of technology; big moves in geopolitics and the economic environment, the continued heartburn in private equity which is ever more present that it was when Steve Jobs made his remarks. Big tech marches along with unfettered power whether in the stock market or in life.
Businesses are like gardens. They are planted, tended, fed, pruned, snipped, watered. With flowers and vegetables they are harvested. There are times entire sections need to go because they simply don’t grow, or the elements are hostile. Some plants whither or die and new plants take their place. Other times the aphids, snails, moles, squirrels, or deer have their way. Sometimes designers are brought in to lay a whole new plan.
They are organic, living, evolving, and fueled by positive conditions. Everything has a season and whether it’s our gardens, our businesses, or Mr. Job’s predictions for technology — the persistent pace of change marches on.