Quality vs. Connectivity

« VC Cliche of the Week | Main | links for 2005-06-09 »

Quality vs. Connectivity

I remember back to the early days of file sharing.

It was 1998 or 1999 and I had just gotten my Rio mp3 player and found Napster.

I remember thinking that the quality of the mp3s were pretty bad and that the CDs were so much better.

But I could put the MP3s on my Rio and I hadn't yet figured out that I could rip music from the CDs.

And I could get a bunch of music in mp3 format that I really wanted to check out before buying the CD.

So connectivity won out over quality and I adopted the mp3 format without looking back.

Today I regularly choose to play music on my laptop via Rhapsody (streaming over the Internet) even though I have the music available in CD format and can play it in much higher quality in my high end audio system with very little extra effort. I am in fact doing that right now (Thievery Cosmic Game).

Connectivity wins over quality.

I have found the same thing to be true in photography.

I found the simplicity of moving jpegs so superior to the pain of getting film printed that I switched to a digital camera and never looked back a few years ago.

These days I am carrying around a Canon SD500 and a Treo 650 in my pocket.

The Canon is an amazing camera. 7 megapixels and a really nice small form factor. The menus are easy to navigate and the picture quality in most circumstances is spectacular. It even does well at night. And I almost never get blurry pictures.

But I regularly pull out the Treo to shoot something when the Canon is in the other pocket. The Treo is a terrible camera when compared to the Canon. I don't even know how many megapixels it has (if it even gets to a megapixel). The pictures are often blurry. The menus are clunky and the pictures are terrible in low light.

But, the Treo allows me to send photos via email and MMS. I can send them instantly to Flickr and Foundcity and anywhere else they should go in an instant.

Connectivity wins over quality.

The New York Times has world class journalists and covers most stories incredibly well. Yet I almost never read it anymore. I get most of the news I need from blogs.

Blogs are oftern poorly written and rarely comprehensive and objective.

But blogs allow me to comment, link, link back, tag, subscribe, and connect.

Connectivity wins over quality.

I suppose if I keep going I could prove that's ultimately true in all forms of media. But I'll leave enough alone and welcome any additional comments from all of you who are reading this.

Comments (6) | | TrackBack (8)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b2c969e200e550367a698834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Quality vs. Connectivity:

» Fred Wilson nails it again from J. Michael Arrington
This post really nailed it for me - something I'd been thinking about in the back of my mind but hadn't articulated to myself yet - I am willing to deal with lower quality audio on my iPOD because of the huge other benefits. It's why I watch the Daily ... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 8, 2005 8:36:47 PM

» Quality v. Connectivity from The Importance of...
A VC argues that connectivity beats quality (Quality vs. Connectivity).... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 8, 2005 10:40:39 PM

» How much does quality matter? from The River
Fred Wilson offersa great post in which he compares/contrasts different methods of media consumption and creation, and concludes that connectivity trumps quality (of sound file, of image, etc.). I totally agree. I, too, find myself grabbing for my crap... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 9, 2005 12:10:21 PM

» How much does quality matter? from The River
Fred Wilson offers a great post in which he compares/contrasts different methods of media consumption and creation, and concludes that connectivity trumps quality (of sound file, of image, etc.). I totally agree. I, too, find myself grabbing for my crappy [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 9, 2005 12:31:05 PM

» Threads of connectivity from pondering reality
Just finished reading Rick Segal's recent posts (here and here) exuberantly gushing about his experience with Boeing's Connexion enroute high-speed Internet access on a SAS flight to Europe. "Exuberantly gushing" is probably more tactful than saying "t... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 9, 2005 10:20:40 PM

Tracked on Jun 9, 2005 10:22:41 PM

Tracked on Jun 9, 2005 10:27:59 PM

» Quality v. Connectivity from The Importance of...
A VC argues that connectivity beats quality (Quality vs. Connectivity).... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 10, 2005 1:37:52 AM

Posted June 8, 2005 in Venture Capital and Technology

Comments

Its 3AM and you're at a bar. The person you're with is cute... maybe... barely, given the right lighting (read: total darnkess) and they're the only person left paying attention to your sorry hide. You know you're asking them to come home with you, for no other reason then they're there and they're available.

Connectivity versus quality. :)

Posted by: Charlie O'Donnell | Jun 9, 2005 12:13:45 AM

Great post. My favourite ever from A VC, or a(ny) VC for that matter ! (except maybe Brad Feld's early post on why he invested in RSS, the segments, and the market leaders whose products he likes - which has led me to set up an RSS business in Australia focused on an ajax reader and tagging solution ala delicious for australians - local tags are better often.)

Connectivity over quality. Great line.

My university history professor would have given this post 19/20 :)

I think we might have underestimated how important always on broadband is to this ajax, tagged up, social sharing web that is being created. (especially here in Australia which is only recent and still vslow)

As you mention, one way media whatever the source eg New York Times is no longer going to confer market leadership. It doesnt impress us.

Look at CNN wondering why Yahoo is number 1 - Maybe, der, because it provides a range of news services that i can subscribe to, read, and then share and increasingly 'remix' or tag how i see fit (and still really early days for this)

Like doing a search on simply hired and i can see who in my linkedin profile is connected to the company (the old vc line - if you dont know someone who knows me i may not need to know u)

For me, finding RSS (i use feedtagger.com - web based rss ajax feed tagging) and delicious have totally reinvigorated my internet experience (and business)

It's making search engines and the search engine industry increasingly seem dull, yet still at the centre of things, but not innovating by making search an amazing experience for advertisers or consumers. They are now the hunted not the hunter (i would find 90% of new links thru delicious or feedtagger)

And even smart people in their media company or portal ivory tower dismiss other symptoms of this (death of 1000 cuts) Take podcasting, once you go there, radio is dull. Yahoo Music Engine's personal radio ditto : They say podcasting is 'Another radio' 'one way' 'you cant click on it' 'amateur' as Jobs said a few days ago.

Get into podcasting and Eureka.

I sit here in Australia listening to a New York VC introduce his family and then play some Australian music (Ben Lee)

Only the always on internet would allow such a thing.

The Internet is becoming like a late night jazz club, revolving musicians on stage, following a search to the unfound, unique chord.

The riffing of Blogs, podcasts, tags, rss - its only the start, and I think the enterprise applications are not even started.

Connectivity over quality, I love it.

So what is the next post ajax, rss, podcast, tagging application/play in the next 6-9 months I wonder ?

Posted by: Ben Barren | Jun 9, 2005 4:55:01 AM

Not a black or white issue at all...

Won't rehash earlier debates, but with music it's connectivity when quality is not possible. Quality WHENEVER possible. Music is art, not just information. You can do with it what you like including using it for background noise while you work, bike, etc... but, you're really missing something if you don't find the time to do nothing but listen, and when you listen "Tony Alva" style, memorable things are possible.

News... I'm a big fan of blogs and get a great deal of my news from them, but still read the paper and news magazines. The net effect of going to blogs for news is that by the end of the day, my need to watch local or network news on TV has been eliminated, unless there's a big braking story. This is great because I can better use that hour or so to hang with my kid. Having said that, there is no substitute for a well crafted and well thought out news piece. I'd say these hard copy formats are undergoing a change in purpose.

Bottom line, I like and employ it all, not one over the other.

Posted by: Tony Alva | Jun 9, 2005 9:57:42 AM

I am so saddened by this post I can't even come up with an itelligent response, thanks Tony for giving my tears a voice.....

Might as well sell all my gear I guess, it's over.....why bother if nobody cares?

Posted by: jackson | Jun 9, 2005 10:34:31 AM

I totally agree - and I'm glad to see this opinion out there!

Related is that "ease of use" or "immediacy" wins out over quality.

Posted by: Chris Hamoen | Jun 13, 2005 3:07:27 PM

directx - disegni - divx - dolci - download - downloads - edonkey - emoticons - emulatore - emulatori - emule - ferrari

Posted by: directx | Sep 29, 2005 10:36:45 AM

A VC

Musings of a VC in NYC