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Digital Culture

Woot?

Here’s an interesting ‘net phenomenon that I hadn’t picked up on yet: Woot!

Evidently, it’s a sort of niche commercial site. The kick is that they sell one thing, every day, starting at Midnight, at really good prices. When they sell out, they’re done for the day, that’s it, no more stuff. One day, an MP3 player. The next day, a remote control car. But just the one thing, and just for 24 hours (or until they sell out). Sometimes they have 50 of something, sometimes 1000.

This is the sort of commercial enterprise that could ONLY exist on the ‘net. I think it’s a brilliant counter-point to the we-sell-everything superstores like Amazon.

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

2 replies on “Woot?”

W00t is fun (plus I always liked the name). If you’re in the market for a PC, they occasionally have some at incredibly low prices. You just have to be around to click quickly. Sometimes their stuff goes incredibly fast!

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