Magazine Articles to Read

I subscribe to a handful of magazines. Business Week, Fast Company, and Wired are the ones I read with any regularity.  Add the slew of online publications from which I receive information daily, and I find it really tough to keep up. 

I’m writing this as I sit on an airplane returning home to Los Angeles after a business trip.  I’ve been catching up on my reading and I’ve actually stopped for a moment to transfer some of the content spewing from my brain onto virtual paper.  I just finished some incredibly thought provoking stories and I had to share.  Look, if you are like me, you like it when someone says, “You have to read this!” - with the exclamation point thrown in to give you that visual of your friend insisting that you do so, immediately!

Here are a couple must reads…

The App Economy – Business Week – Cover story of the November 2 issue (page 45) – Link
This is a great article about how applications for iPhones, Android phones, Facebook, and soon websites like Yahoo! are proliferating at an astronomical rate.  According to the article it says the app market is $1 Billion dollars today and headed towards $4 Billion by 2012.    Amazing for a business that didn’t exist 3 years ago. 

The Answer Factory – Wired – November 2009 issues (page 158) - Link
On the flight out to my business meeting yesterday I looked over at the woman next to me on the plane and she was reading USA Today.  I saw that there was an article about eHow.  I’ll admit, I often sing the praises of eHow and other “how to” websites.  If you want to know how to do almost anything, these sites will show you how.  Both in written word and with video.  The USA Today article was a good overview of Richard Rosenblatt, the CEO of eHow’s parent company Demand Media.  It’s a good read and you can see it HERE.  But if you want to dive in more and understand the landscape of the rapid expansion of “how to” websites and specifically Demand Media’s network and eHow.com, this article is a must read.  Demand Media pays people about $20 to create “how to” videos and $15 per article.  Demand has published 170,000 videos to YouTube and Rosenblatt’s vision is to publish 1 million videos per month by next summer.  That in itself is amazing, but the way that Demand determines what to publish is even more fascinating.  Using algorithms, they determine what people are searching for and they immediately commission videos to answer those questions. When asked what is the most valuable topic in Demand’s arsenal, the company’s chief innovation officer answered, “Where can I donate a car in Dallas?”

An Epidemic of Fear –Wired – Cover story of November 2009 issue (page 128) - Link
This article is not related to technology, it’s about the battle between science and parents.  This one hit home for me because I have a two year old son and immunization is a very real and present topic.  The article discusses how science has proven that immunizations are vital and not dangerous but that big voices like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claim that immunizations are causing autism.  The article is riveting.  It’s long.  It’s packed with information.  It really makes you think.  In my social circle I hear both sides.  I’ll admit, when my wife tells me about the schedule of immunization shots that our son has to endure, it’s daunting.  And I know people who refuse to immunize their children.  I’m not taking a stance here, just recommending you read this article if you have children and you are trying to gather all the facts.  They do a lot of that for you. 

Okay, back to reading.