Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Technology / General

Cloud Computing Is Awesome – But Not Always

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In aviation, being “in the clouds” is a universal flight condition referring to a pilot’s inability to see the ground.

It’s also a common lament of parents about the troubling coordinates of a teenager’s head, which might seem to be “in the clouds.”

In the 21st century, “in the cloud” is a reference that has established itself in the marketplace vernacular as the interaction and delivery point between providers of “cloud-based” digital applications and customers.

Cloud computing is the availability of incremental processing power that resides on an application provider’s servers, instead of your hard drive. For example, community-building technology, like social media platforms. When you post something on Facebook, you’re in the cloud. When you conduct online banking, sell a stock, or hail an Uber from your smartphone, you’re doing that in the cloud. If you use Google’s G Suite of office products, or Microsoft Office 365, all are cloud-based. And, of course, hooking up on Zoom, et al, are all meetings “in the cloud.”

No question, cloud computing is another example of technology increasing business efficiencies and leverage. And for small businesses, it’s been a godsend, because [Continue Reading]

Are You Prepared For The Next Business Interruption?

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This year marks an ignominious 20th anniversary. On August 13, 2003, a single outage in the electric grid cascaded across eight northeastern states, putting 55 million people in the dark for days, and thousands of businesses out of business. The Great Blackout of ’03 was a catastrophic reminder that we’re all one nosy squirrel in a transformer away from an instantaneous, put-you-out-of-business event.

Two decades later, the evidence isn’t in favor of less exposure for the next 20 years. Consider this report from CNBC: “The FBI warned Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers.” And this one from the Department of Homeland Security: “Russian government cyber actors have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, nuclear and commercial facilities, since at least March 2016.” And more recently, experts allowed that the Chinese balloon that recently circumnavigated the U.S. could have been carrying an EMP, or electromagnetic-pulse device, that when detonated, essentially fries the electric grid below.

Prior to 2003, most businesses surveyed reported they were aware that a business disruption/interruption was possible, but incredibly, they also admitted they weren’t prepared for one. Thankfully, that response is different these days, as one of our recent online polls indicated. [Continue Reading]

How “The Cloud” Can Empower Your Small Business

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One of the greatest products of human society is the marketplace. Webster defines it as a place where goods and services are offered for sale.

Over millennia, innovations took markets from local to global, and now to the 21st-century iteration – virtual. Virtual markets are powered by “cloud computing,” aka “the cloud,” and accessed via the Internet and a handy interface program presented on a screen of some size.

Historically, as trade expanded markets, products led the way because services were difficult to convey to the last mile of consumption. But technology has helped services catch up, and now digital services are delivered efficiently from the cloud. And more than anything else, this last reality is helping small businesses compete and grow in ways that were formerly the domain of larger companies.

Here are five cloud-based resource categories that help your small business operate more efficiently, competitively, and profitably. [Continue Reading]

It’s the Digital Age – Ethically Speaking, Things Here Are Different

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As arrogant occupants of 21st-century Earth, who can rightly boast of creating exciting innovations, like the computer, talking paint, and the margarita blender, it serves us to believe we’re also the more enlightened generation.

But honesty demands an acknowledgment that contemporary applications of wisdom, morality and ethical behavior are in fact derivative of concepts first proposed long ago by the ancients.

Consider the 10,000-year-old Chinese wisdom, I Ching, The Book of Changes. Then there are the 5,000-year-old Upanishads from India. And of course, the new kid on the block, the four-millennia-old Mosaic Laws (Thou shalt not …). Indeed, no wisdom is handier than that of King Solomon, from the first millennium BCE in Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and the Psalms.

It must be noted that much of this awesome introspection and self-awareness was first contemplated at a time when receding Ice Age glaciers were still carving Scotland’s Loch Ness and the Great Lakes of North America, on the threshold of the written word.

Alas, ethically and morally speaking, we moderns are merely the new models, not necessarily the better ones. Hold that thought.  [Continue Reading]

Internet Genesis Chapter 1, verses 1-3: And it was good.

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Internet Genesis (1961-1974): Chapter 1, verse 1: On the first day, The Genius Cluster said, “Let there be a network of networks.” And they saw that it was good and named it “The Internet.”

Verse 2: On the second day, The Cluster said, “Let there be structure.” And so it was that the three building blocks – now known as the World Wide Web – were formed and mounted on The Internet:

  • HTTP, a computer language that ultimately turned code into a lever that regular people could use (like a website),
  • direct messaging,
  • and email.

Verse 3: On the third day, seeing that their creations were good, The Cluster rested.

For many generations – okay, about two – the Internet and the WWW flourished with few changes until one day a heretic said, “Let’s connect on Twitter.” [Continue Reading]

The New Pharisees

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November 7, 2020, is a date that will live in infamy. On that first Saturday following the election, an ignominious convergence of interests created a new and dangerous global force. #GODHELPUS.

Prior to the election, we asked small business owners which presidential candidate they thought would win, 71% of our respondents said Trump. After the election, we asked them how the unresolved vote-processing should play out, two-thirds said the counting process should be allowed to proceed.

Regardless of how this election ends, millions of Americans now fear that winning at the polls isn’t enough to overcome a new force: The newly organized machine made up of Big Tech, Main Stream Media, Wall Street, the state political machines, and the Deep State.

This new force is what I’ve named “The Machine.” History is replete with parochial political machines, but this one is a global, 21st-century model, and it acts like 21st-century Pharisees. The unelected group that controlled ancient Israel, Pharisees claimed the power of “binding and loosing.” In other words, they could bind you up or let you go. And “you” were whoever acted against their interests, even if it was your constitutional right to do so.

Parochial political machines, in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago, are legendary and infamous. But what’s new is that The Machine has never before been able to link up for a common purpose across virtual and geographic boundaries with the help of their fellow travelers.

Let’s take a look at the cogs in The Machine.

Global Corporate

What’s new about Corporate America is that we should now refer to it as “Global Corporate.” Never mind where they were founded or are based, their allegiance is to whoever they can gain influence from across geographic, virtual, and sovereign boundaries. From today forward, every American must understand that the U.S. Constitution, revered on Main Street, is merely part of the Global Corporate reality and one of the issues they must deal with to pursue their goals. 

Big Tech

Big Tech is also Global Corporate, but this sector has weaponry unprecedented in political machine history. They control how we use the Internet and have more money than God. For example:

  • Almost 40% of Earthlings are monthly users of Facebook;
  • Google has over 90% of online search;
  • Half of every e-commerce dollar is spent with Amazon, which creates an annual revenue that would make it 41on the U.N.’s global GDP list of 194 countries.

To use a military analogy, Big Tech can deploy aircraft carriers launching stealth fighters at whomever they oppose, who are armed merely with light infantry.

Social Media

Social media platforms are both Global Corporate and Big Tech, but they deserve their own category. Remember, barely 12 years ago, MySpace was the dominant platform as we were just learning about Facebook and Twitter. Today, hiding behind the gift called Section 230, social media platforms are impinging on the single most powerful ideal in America – speech. And because of the complicit cogs in The Machine, it appears they will be able to continue.

The Media

As of today, with the assimilation of the New York Post, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, the Mainstream Media is now just The Media. And in a dangerous alloying of Global Corporate with The Media, the richest man in the galaxy leads that e-commerce giant mentioned above, while owning one of the most powerful newspapers in the galaxy.

Somewhere around 2015, The Media began their descent from journalism into unabashed, unveiled partisanism. The behavior of The Media in 2020 has elevated George Orwell’s prophet status above even the immortal Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The State

What was once considered the “Deep State” must now be shortened to “The State.” When you combine the behavior of Comey’s FBI, the current Wray FBI, the inexplicable delay of the Durham Report, and the politicization of the CIA, any illusion of deepness evaporates. Do we still have a democratic republic when unelected bureaucrats openly impose their will on the direction of the country with impunity?

And with transparency that would be refreshing if it weren’t so unprofessional, one need only to tune into cable news to witness The State and The Media linking up, as newly-removed FBI and CIA directors undermine the institutions they just left.

The Pandemic

The 100-year global pandemic has pushed 2020 into the perfect storm category. Of course, The Machine didn’t create the coronavirus, but its agenda has used the pandemic to achieve critical mass with Rahm Emanuel’s strategy: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” By leveraging the pandemic fear, besides slanted reporting and polling, The Machine launched a national early voting, mail-in ballot campaign that would not have been possible in any non-COVID year. Only a fine-tuned apparatus could have pulled this off across the country.

Obama and I disagreed on most policies, but when he was elected, I wasn’t worried about the future of America. It was just the natural gyration of a democratic republic – something good would ultimately come from it. Besides, Obama was elected by the people, fair and square – twice. Even those of us who didn’t vote for him respected that and moved on to fight another day.

But things are different now. Yes, most of the cogs in The Machine existed in 2008, but they had not coalesced as the current, fine-tuned force, communicating over a common frequency. And in that coalescing, they’ve achieved a critical mass that should concern every American. Including Biden supporters.

A democratic republic such as ours relies on Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The “Never Trumpers” achieved relevant status by finding purchase in the give and take of political motion. Intellectual honesty demanded that these recalcitrant Republicans be regarded as an example of the health of America’s seminal and most precious ideal – free speech. But going forward, I propose two important questions that every American should be asking:

  1. How will the “Never Bidens” be treated by The Machine?
  2. What will America do when the New Pharisees block President Harris’s Twitter account?

Perhaps one benefit of this year is the end of pretense. All the cogs of The Machine are now uncloaked, sailing under the same flag and operating over a common frequency. After 2020, romance, naivete and ignorance now only exist on the TV Land channel.

Finally, to paraphrase the spirit of the powerful poem by Nazi-era German pastor Martin Niemöller: When they come for my speech and you say nothing, who will speak up when they come for yours?

America will survive Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. But will America survive The Machine and the New Pharisees?

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