Sunday, January 04, 2015

The On Demand Economy - What I am reading 1/4/2015

The Economist - Workers on tap -
(E)ven if governments adjust their policies to a more individualistic age, the on-demand economy clearly imposes more risk on individuals. People will have to master multiple skills if they are to survive in such a world—and keep those skills up to date. Professional sorts in big service firms will have to take more responsibility for educating themselves. People will also have to learn how to sell themselves, through personal networking and social media or, if they are really ambitious, turning themselves into brands. In a more fluid world, everybody will need to learn how to manage You Inc.
People having to assume more responsibility for themselves is not a bad thing and in general I have no problem with the idea of on demand service workers, but I have a profound sense of unease in the idea of building an entire economy around contract workers.  For one thing I think it discourages long term thinking and planning on the part of business leaders.  I also think it inevitably leads to loss of corporate knowledge and starts building a lot of inefficiencies  into systems when you have to start spinning workers up from ground zero all the time.  It's not my job to tell businesses how to operate but I think this model is a disaster waiting to happen.

Seclist.org - A Hacker's Hit List of American Infrastructure -
(A)ccording to cyber-security professionals, the Sony hack may be a prelude to a cyber attack on United States infrastructure that could occur in 2015, as a result of a very different, self-inflicted document dump from the Department of Homeland Security in July.
Links to a 3 page article at The Atlantic that is worth a read.  

OK, sorry for the short list again today - going to my brothers for breakfast and I am already running late.


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