As I begin this weblog, I'd like to thank Mr. Stephen O'Grady at the ever-excellent RedMonk for introducing me to blogging and its attendant technologies about a year ago. Hitherto, I had read the web manually; from then on, in an automated fashion, as Mr. Winer ably explained last week. I still look forward to each tecosystem post.

Here I'll keep notes on political and technological ecosystems. Mr. O'Grady's combination of technological and ecological concepts immediately endeared me to him. The fusion reminded me of a chapter called "On Tools" in a book and by an author who's names I've forgotten. (Help.) The argument that the hand-ax changed humanity as much as humanity changed the stone for the axe particularly impressed me. Axes changed our understanding of ourselves vis-a-vis the ecosystem: fearsome predators became our food and the old power balance gave way to our global dominance. The hand-ax's success in that history enabled new tools. Hand-axes became fossils. Though rigor nourishes and keeps us healthy, rhetoric tastes good: "The killer app in the technological ecosystem becomes prey as the new ecosystem that it created, and defined, enables competitors to emerge. The guys in finance blow bubbles." I hope you find something interesting here as we consider hand-axes, organizations, new killer apps, and our fearless race forward.  ¶ 3:40 PM