As society has grown something unconsciously started occurring.  Since so much was happening everywhere it was difficult for traditional media outlets to, digest it first, then put it out in a meaningful way.  Organizations got larger to handle all of the information and through media ownership reforms we had consolidation in the environment.  This new environment has created a difficult situation.  Now suddenly what used to be news, is no longer that relevant.  It's not about a traffic accident down the road from your house.  It is now more about how the president handles peace talks.  Or how a government halfway around the world is doing business in your own local government.

This has left a void in communities within large markets.  I am sure that peace talks are important to me, but are they as important as the fact that 5 of my neighbors down the road were burglarized?  How about the fact that a local shop owner is having a fire sale and it just so happens to be a store you visit all the time?  This information never makes it to you because it's relevance by world standards is low.  Traditionally, media had to dedicate an employee to write up the story.  An editor/producer had to determine it's relevance.  Then time was spent distributing this information.  At the end of the day, it was left up to the consumer of the program or newspaper to filter out what matters to them most.

The power of the Internet and computing allows us to let sophisticated algorithms do the work for us.  They can do this work based on our preferences.  If you have ever talked with anyone in advertising, they will tell you the most important thing in their business is understanding behavior.  This has been true of media for decades and true for business for centuries.  So what is happening now, is a transition to allowing the internet to track and determine preference based on behavior.  Your cell phone is the first step to allowing this.  In a few years time, I imagine that the next big thing is a basic tracking setup on your phone.  Some might argue that this already occurs, but I imagine that this tracking will be hidden under the guise of something cool or trendy for young people.

Companies are already hard at work trying to feel around how invasive they can be.  You have several apps that the user can intentionally allow location based information to be sent.  Some are disguised as games and others are marketed as beneficial because it allows your friends to know when you are nearby or where you are located.  This is why privacy is becoming more and more of a concern but that is another article.

The next evolution won't require as much investment in time as I see it.  The next evolution has already begun.  Web 3.0 as some have called it.  You might find some overly technical explanation for it on the web but basically it will be about the silent web presence.  How the web is going to be a part of the physical world and how it will interact with you in that world.  10 years ago it was talking refrigerators, however, I think that is a little overboard.  I imagine a world that reacts and knows you and mirrors you.  A dating experience involving going to a local hangout and having a device tell you that a potential mate is there as well.  A social experience where behaviors are shaped by the way your preferences cross with other individuals.

Your smart phone won't only know that you need something to do tonight, but it will know where you should go to have the highest potential for meeting new people because, based on past behaviors, it calculates that you might need new friends.  It might remind you to lock your door because not only did you forget, but there were 5 burglaries down the street from you.

These ideas are both scary and compelling.  However, it has already happened with intangible properties like music.  Could you see yourself going back to the old model of actually having to go to a store to not only find a good artist to listen to, but to also purchase your music?  For most, I think not.

The original focus of the company was on game tools.  However that is a tough market and many of the tools fall in to open source.  So direction and winds are driving me to look for new markets to penetrate.

If you open a credit card and carry a balance you will see this effect with interest charged by your bank.  The effect of the interest earned by a credit card can be relatively small by comparison to the debt carried.  Many do not understand that their minimum payments do not even account for 90% of their overall finance charges in some situation and worse in others depending on how high your APR is.  The other nice hidden secret of the credit card account is the minimum finance charge.  If only we could have a minimum interest rate on our savings accounts.  These interest charges can add up.

On the topic of credit it is also important to understand that credit is not a necessity.  We have been conditioned to believe that life cannot work without a FICO score.  On the contrary if you choose a savings based financial strategy and choose to save now and buy later you can avoid relying on these entities for the things you want in life.  Even a mortgage can be gotten without a FICO score as long as you meet a few traditional requirements such as job history and steady income.  The idea comes from the concept of self reliance.  Building up an emergency fund to fallback on when you would have traditionally used a credit card.

Things don't happen on their own.  When someone tells me that they have no time to do the things they classify as high priorities such as spending time with kids and family, or taking time for themselves.  I tell them that they just don't make the time.  In the same idea, you have to make room in your budget for savings.  Even with mounting debt it is important to have money saved.  This will keep you from having to use the credit card again in the event of an emergency.  Saving has to be a higher priority in certain circumstances then paying debt down.  Once you have a satisfactory level of savings saved then paying down debt can become a priority.

Some financial counsolers recommend a savings of $1,000.  My personal test is the necessity failure test.  Take an item that you rely on to be there and to never fail.  A car is a good example.  Take the average cost of a pretty costly repair, such as transmission rebuilds or major engine work.  Use that as the goal of your emergency fund in the beginning of tackling debt.  If you consider the cost of some moderate auto work to be about $1,500 then that gives you an idea of how much you should have saved.  Everybody's savings goals will be different and they should be.  There is no real good rule to follow other then the one based on your own finances.

Collecting money and saving is what will give you the things you want plus the satisfaction of knowing that it is all yours and no one else can lay claim to it, but even if you have money you still have to be smart with spending and choose toys, needs, and wants wisely.  Even a million dollars can be spent in the blink of an eye when it could have provided you true independence instead of a quick scratch of an itch that can wait.

So I am going to try and see if I can handle this blogging concept.  Textclad is just a simple weblog that will provide an outlet for some thoughts and ideas that I have.  I generally do not expect to see any traffic here.  More to come.