Sponsor's Message

Offices that used to be home to a raft of casually dressed "entrepreneurs" living a champagne and caviar lifestyle on the back of venture capitalists are now either shut or filled with conservative "suits" counting beans.

The scooters that lined the halls of new start-ups are gone, replaced by the occasional potted rubber tree plant.

Oh, how boring things have become!

Even spam has gotten boring and, try as they might, those Nigerians are finding it harder to spin an interesting or even plausible tale in their quests to dupe the stupid and the greedy.

Goodness me, what are we going to do? The Internet industry has become just like a thousand others where people sit at desks, doing the same job day in and day out while managers and accountants ponder the books and marketing strategies.

Okay, so there have been a few little glimmers of excitement -- such as the ingenious folks who have set up community WiFi broadband networks based on pringles cans and cheap PC cards. Some of these anarchistic networks even provide levels of service that rival those offered by billion-dollar telcos.

However, I get the feeling that the "buzz" has gone -- or maybe it's just that today's a Friday and it's been a long week.

Where are all the exciting new ideas? The crazy new websites that intrigue and captivate? The fools who knew they were onto a good thing because they had invested in something-or-other dot-com?

Does anyone know what will be "the next big thing?"

And, will it even involve the Net at all, or will it be something completely different?

If I had a crystal ball, not only would it make me walk funny, but it would also make me very rich -- for he who can predict the next big thing can also make a lot of money.

Unfortunately, I'm left scratching my head because I really don't have a clue. However, if you look at recent history, you'll notice that most of the "big things" CB Radio, Cellphones, The Net, etc, have involved person-to-person communications. Where to from here though?

Share your insight by telling everyone what you think "the next big thing" might be in today's forum.

Lighten Up?
Come on folks -- where are all those lighten-up suggestions. I only received one contribution this week so I'm holding that over until next week in the hope that you'll all delve into your bookmarks and find plenty of funny, stupid or just plain interesting sites to share.

If any Aardvark readers have an opinion on today's column or want to add something you're also invited to chip in and have your say in The Aardvark Forums or, if you prefer, you can contact me directly.

Contacting Aardvark
As always, readers are invited to submit their comments on material covered in this column. If you'd like your comments published here then please be sure to use this form and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!