Cognitive Labs

I just got pinged by ZDnet...the ping reports that Google and J. Craig Venter are collaborating on a searcheable genetic database. There is a concern from some quarters about information and what is released. On the other hand, just based on my own memory, this reminds of talk in 1993-4. Back then, I was working at the venerable UPS and there was a scramble to build and deploy systems to automate shipping. Innovation will just happen. We figured out a way to eliminate international shipping documents over a 8 kbps modem. It was tried out at Dialog (my account) and then at Oracle (the acct. team that defeated FedEx) and at other places, and then became a way to track and ship using html forms. When the corporate IS bureaucracy found out, first, they said it was impossible; then they just hated it. The stealth name for this technology: 'the stanford solution' largely developed by ex-berkeley engineers and IE geeks for about $99 and sweat.) Six months later I was on the ups.com and ups online teams and similar stuff was deployed all over the U.S., but it took years. Some people said that 'package tracking' on the internet was impossible. Because, they said, 3rd parties would know when a shipper was sending something to a consignee. Huge risk of privacy issues and everything else. But, once the technical genie is out of the bottle it is out and it won't go back. We went from corporate reticence to "heck, we don't get this web thing, but if you got the handoff run as hard as you can and do good things" and then we were meeting with Netscape OEM (by the fountains) to talk about putting a tracking button on the browser. That would have been a great deal for Netscape (a buck a month out of 1.2 million pick-up accounts plus a free-hand out from a driver), less good for UPS but who knows? But, our head of sales wanted to make a deal in Redmond that didn't happen. Now of course, you can track anywhere (thanks to a guy who developed 'Internet Tools' back in 96-97)

Anyway, same thing will happen in the genetic and cognitive field. Why? It is already happening now and it is unstoppable. Check out the background. I think MyDNA.com has the same vision and has also seen this evolution of information flows over the years.