FOLIO: Personalities -- The Blog People Page

I've been writing speculative (okay, "wish More...

I woke up today to hear two NPR stories about the iPad.

Story one was a technology analyst blasting the device because it doesn’t have a camera and so, therefore, isn’t taking advantage of social media.

Story two was a publishing analyst describing the device as a savior of book publishing.

Of course, both of these analysts are right—and wrong.

The first analyst sees the iPad as a Swiss Army Knife that left off a cork screw and being a wine lover, he can’t understand why anyone would want a Swiss Army Knife without a cork screw.

The second analyst sees the iPad as a Kindle with color and video that wi More...

Why is the lightbulb the symbol for having an idea?

The obvious reason is that it symbolizes a light turning on in your brain at that “aha” moment.

I think the lightbulb is a great symbol for another reason. For how it was invented—and then the way it became what we know it is today.

First off, the inventor of the lightbulb is not who you think. At least 22 inventors before Thomas Edison “invented” a form of incandescent lamp. However, it was Edison who invented the entire channel necessary for the lightbulb to li More...

With its recent redesign (which I like), Newsweek.com cloned one of the lesser known but truly incredible parts of the New York Times Web site: an encyclopedia-like organization of its archives—including in most cases, an introductory overview—called “Topics,” that can be found at the easy-to-remember URL, http://topics.nytimes.com. Newsweek calls its clone Newsweekopedia but uses the Times-like URL: http://topics.newsweek.com.

That’s where all similarities end.

Newsweek broke rule #1 of building an encyclop More...

I've done them. You've done them. Every magazine has done them: the year end list. Other than creating them—and claiming not to like them—I had never really given these ubiquitous lists too much thought until several years ago, when I ran across—and became totally addicted to—a Web site called Fimoculous.com that collects and organizes an annual mega-list of such lists. Since then—perhaps because we discovered we not only share the same first name, but also several mutual friends—I've gotten to know the list-guru behind Fimoculous.com, Rex More...