Steven Johnson

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An Epic Fight For the Metaverse—Fortnite Takes on the Big Tech Oligopolies

You might have missed it amongst all the headlines about the U.S.P.S., the 2020 elections, and, of course, that little thing we call the pandemic, but Fortnite got kicked off Apple's App Store (and subsequently Google Play). I'm not a gamer, but I am fascinated by gaming, because, as Steven Johnson put it, "The Future is where people are having the most fun." Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic Games, Inc., which makes Fortnite, seems to be having a lot of fun. And he thinks the future is the Metaverse. Healthcare, take note. The tech giants were reacting to Epic allowing "permanent discounts" on developer fees for in-game purchases made directly, rather than going through Apple or Google. Developers thus avoid the 30% commission charged in those Stores. Mr. Sweeney has been railing about the commission level for some time, leading to the recent decision.

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In A World Without Open Source

Tim Yeaton | Wired | July 2, 2013

In the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” we see a graphic example of how small initial changes can lead to monumental consequences over a fairly short time. [...] Read More »

New York Tech-Worthy

Peter Himley | Forbes | October 14, 2012

We’re not worthy. We’re not worthy. We’re not…. Well, actually, we (the New York Tech Meetup community) are most worthy of a visit from Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer. NYTM executive director Nate Westheimer (Wayne) proclaimed: “So cool to have USA’s CTO @todd_park speaking here at #NYTM!” Read More »

Open Source Competitions And Prizes #1

mattoddchem | Intermolecular | June 7, 2013

I recently read Future Perfect by Steven Johnson. The book articulates what is meant by a person being a “Peer Progressive” – someone with a set of values based on the power of distributed networks to solve problems (a “Baran Web”) as opposed to a more regulated, centralized mechanism (a “Legrand Star”). Read More »