A couple of weeks ago, when I spoke at Duke University, I met a smart dude named Andy Russell. He is a historian of technology and Research Fellow at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. After my talk, Andy went to dinner with me a the whole crew from the conference. He and I got to talking about how much Google means to our daily lives. I told him that in the process of composing this book I am going "all in." I try to use Google Docs as much as I can. I do many searches per day just to see how things are changing. I experiment with almost every service.
He has a different idea. It's not that he hates Google. But he does want to get a sense of its penetration in our lives. So Andy has declare this month to be his March Away From Google.
... I am going to spend March Away From Google.Between now and the end of February I will outline how I use Google on a regular basis, what I plan to do in order to March Away, and what I think I might learn. I haven’t the least desire to take part in flame wars about whether or not Google is turning evil or not. I actually don’t really have a strong opinion on the matter–although this experiment has been inspired in part by a conversation with Siva Vaidhyanathan, who has some very strong opinions. As far as I know, I don’t know anybody who works for (or even used to work for) Google, so I don’t have any sort of personal agenda or disclaimer at all. I am just curious to see what happens when one tries to exit Google.
If you want to join me–if you also want a March Away From Google–let me know and we can trade notes. ...
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