住在美國，雖然平常家裡就講中文，我還是想多教女兒一些中文.
平常在她睡前, 多少有一點時間可以講故事給她聽. 想想與其講三隻小豬的故事, 不如講唐詩三百首．於是在一年多以前, 開始教女兒唸唐詩.
什麼樣的詩適合她呢？ 我自己背的第一首唐詩是"感遇"．這首詩雖然列在唐詩三百首的第一首，但是對那個時候的我和這個時候的她，都太枯燥了．想找一首不是感時傷懷，不是風花雪月，也不須太慷慨激昂．找來找去，想到了李白的下江陵．
朝辭白帝彩雲間，千里江陵一日還。
兩岸猿聲啼不住，輕舟已過萬重山。
想一想這首詩有山有水，有聽覺效果，也有視覺效果．談的話題又是旅行．應該很適合我女兒的年紀和她已經有的生活經驗．當我第一次唸給她聽的時候，她的第一個反應是：
好好聽噢！
這個反應真是出我意表之外．她直覺的知道，雖然是同一種語言，這和平常說的話大不相同．我不用太多的工夫，她就已經感興趣了．接下來的一個星期，我們聊這裡面的故事．很自然的，她就會背了．
太好了！
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
唐詩三百首－下江陵
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Long Tail Effect
People are talking about the "long tail" phenomenon.
This is not a new concept, at least not new in terms of Internet time. Based on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail), this phrase was coined in 2004 to describe certain Internet business and economic models. (Chris Anderson's article and later on his book) The name and the phenomenon are best observed in the diagram.
When I discussed this phenomenon with others, I got different responses. Some people focused on the "Winner takes all" appearance; while some appreciated the possibility of creating more choices for niche audiences, like Chris Anderson pointed out.
The winner-takes-all folks pointed to me the evidence of YouTube overtaking the video-sharing market while more than a handful of web sites offer the same feature. An even better example would be the fact that only a dozen or so Facebook applications among the five thousand (and growing) candidates enjoy 90% of daily usage. However, we could not draw a few simple rules of thumb as how and why the number one becomes number on.
The tail can be a blue ocean and yet a tough proposition. Netflix and Amazon are wonderful examples but hard to replicate. I guess if the cost structure is as low as my writing of this blog, there would be more stories to tell and songs to sing. I still remember in the early days Amazon's struggling for profitability and major investors had to reaffirm their confidence in the company to Wall Street. Look at Salesforce.com and its history of profitability. You will understand how long it takes to wag the tail.
I believe the long tail effect will be the governing law of Internet, like the Moore's law to the chip industry. There are more to be learned and leveraged, and more ingredients to be created and commoditized. I guess I am not too late for the show. Hopefully, I will get to blog more on this.
This is not a new concept, at least not new in terms of Internet time. Based on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail), this phrase was coined in 2004 to describe certain Internet business and economic models. (Chris Anderson's article and later on his book) The name and the phenomenon are best observed in the diagram.
When I discussed this phenomenon with others, I got different responses. Some people focused on the "Winner takes all" appearance; while some appreciated the possibility of creating more choices for niche audiences, like Chris Anderson pointed out.
The winner-takes-all folks pointed to me the evidence of YouTube overtaking the video-sharing market while more than a handful of web sites offer the same feature. An even better example would be the fact that only a dozen or so Facebook applications among the five thousand (and growing) candidates enjoy 90% of daily usage. However, we could not draw a few simple rules of thumb as how and why the number one becomes number on.
The tail can be a blue ocean and yet a tough proposition. Netflix and Amazon are wonderful examples but hard to replicate. I guess if the cost structure is as low as my writing of this blog, there would be more stories to tell and songs to sing. I still remember in the early days Amazon's struggling for profitability and major investors had to reaffirm their confidence in the company to Wall Street. Look at Salesforce.com and its history of profitability. You will understand how long it takes to wag the tail.
I believe the long tail effect will be the governing law of Internet, like the Moore's law to the chip industry. There are more to be learned and leveraged, and more ingredients to be created and commoditized. I guess I am not too late for the show. Hopefully, I will get to blog more on this.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Never too late to try something new
I guess I am not in the generation that grows up with Internet as a given.
Lately because of work related activities, I started to experience many new things tagged as "Web 2.0". Witnessing all the activities in the Internet community, it tickles me to participate. This is a start and I don't anticipate where this will lead me to. I reckon, however, it is never too late to learn something new.
What would I like to blog about? I am in the high tech business. I am also married with children, still working for living. This probably gives you some idea about the topics I will write. I will post in English and Chinese sometimes. This is just the nature of my thing, a different topic with a different thought in a different language.
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