It’s unbelievable to me that everyone continues to watch football when we know that men are getting genuinely, permanently, brain damaged. The game is tantamount to cockfighting, only with people instead of animals. The NFL has finally admitted the problem, to the extent it is poised to be the largest funding source for research about trauma to the brain. But still, the game encourages brain trauma. And people cheer. I can understand if it’s like smoking. You’re addicted, you can’t stop. But what about bringing your kids to the game? What about all the people who make the Superbowl a…
Inc 19
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Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist
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Check-up for self-delusion
7 Feb 2010 | 9:41 pm -
Chat with me tonight, live, via video.
3 Feb 2010 | 7:43 amIs this even a good headline for a blog post? I don't know. Do you want to know what I'm like unedited? Read this blog post. I never post unedited, but my editor has a day job, and he has no time to deal with manufactured emergencies like this one, so I'm just posting this post as is. I'm supposed to be doing a web chat thing tonight. I had this idea that this would be a good format for me. And I had this idea that I could stick to a schedule. But look. It's the day of my video chat and I have not even announced it. Because I'm nervous. I'm nervous about a… -
Frugality is a career tool
1 Feb 2010 | 11:02 amI have earned a lot of money in my life. But I have never had an extravagant life. I don’t own a house. I’ve never bought a new car. I’ve never bought a new piece of living room furniture, and I do not own a single piece of real jewelry. What I have spent money on was always intended to help me with my career. That was so I know that I can always earn money doing something I love. I leased a BMW when it was clear that that mattered when it came to making deals in LA. I hired a stylist when I realized my clothes were holding me back in NYC. In Madison I have tons of household help so my… -
Being an expert takes time, not talent
28 Jan 2010 | 9:39 pmI've been walking around with the July/August 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review constantly, for close to three years. Sometimes, if I’m getting on a plane, I’ll put it with the other heavy stuff into my luggage, and then get it out later. When my last car broke down in the middle of an intersection, I got the magazine out of the trunk before I abandoned the car. The article that I’m attached to is The Making of an Expert by Anders Ericsson, Michael Prietula and Edward Cokely. I would not normally bother to tell you all three authors for one article in my blog. This is not a… -
Workplace news you cannot use
25 Jan 2010 | 8:23 pmI collect data points constantly, and I index them by topic, and I always hope that they will come together in an interesting, useful way. Lots of times, that doesn’t happen, and I just have to throw ideas away, because I have a rule for myself that I have to be useful in every post. But today I’m trying something new. I’m doing a post that is useless to you. Here are four ideas I was just about to toss out as incurably useless, but instead, I bring them to you: 1. Law firms are making concessions for women. One of the top law firms in the world, Allen Overy, just announced they are…
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How To Change the World
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How to Avoid Gullibility
8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pmWe’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice. -
How to Be Empathetic
4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pmBy definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pmAmber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips. -
The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging
27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pmWant to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps. -
How to follow the Apple announcement
27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 amFollow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.
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Signal vs. Noise
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PHOTO: Stewart Butterfield's resignation letter
9 Feb 2010 | 8:12 amStewart Butterfield’s resignation letter from Yahoo (from Watching the birth of Flickr co-founder’s gaming start-up) -
PHOTO: There's quality control for you. This is
8 Feb 2010 | 4:06 pmThere’s quality control for you. This is the latest entries in the Entertainment category on iTunes. -
The App Store: Quality control without the quality
8 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pmI love my iPhone and I love Apple (cue images of flag pins and “I love muh countray!”), but I believe they’re blowing it with the App Store gate keeping. That’s of course not a new opinion. Developers left and right have been decrying the broken process. But there’s nothing like feeling it on your own bones to make the point. We have a couple of new features in the wing for Campfire. They’ve been done for more than 10 days now. Why haven’t we released them yet? Because the iPhone app Ember needed to have a simple regular expression updated to support… -
Scope a variable to a block in your template code
8 Feb 2010 | 10:38 amSometimes you are coding a template and you need to refer to the same method chain over and over. For example, you’re coding a template that summarizes activity on recent messages. You iterate through a block of messages, and for each message you want to display some information pertaining to the last comment. You could do it like this: <div class="active_messages"> <% @active_messages.each do |message| %> <h1><%= message.title %></h1> <div class="latest_comment"> <div class="avatar"> <%= avatar_for(message.comments.last.creator) %>… -
Descriptive words and phrases found on a $6 bottle of hand soap
8 Feb 2010 | 9:38 amExtremely mild Richly foaming Naturally gentle Deeply cleanses Nourishes Pure and soothing Synergistically Refresh and restore Skin radiance Cool soothing Protects and restores balance Harmonize and replenish Additional moisturizing benefit What doesn’t this stuff do? Lather up and this naturally gentle, richly foaming, pure and soothing nourishing cleanser will synergistically refresh, harmonize, replenish, protect and restore balance with cool soothing botanicals. Kinda ridiculous, isn’t it? Reading this should remind you to read your own site, your own marketing copy, your own…
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Blog Maverick
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Why Have So Many Internet People Lost Touch With Reality ?
4 Feb 2010 | 9:16 amSometimes its hard to tell if people are trying to be funny, mean, interesting, provocative or are just plain stupid or completely out of touch with reality. I know I get accused of being all of the above all the time. The other day in New York I gave a speech at the AlwaysOn Conference which AdWeek summarized nicely here. The audience was primarily newspapers and people related to their business. So as I do when I speak to a group like this, rather than just shilling a product, service or position as many, if not most keynote speakers do, I try to put myself in the business shoes of the… -
Why Google is Bad for the Newspaper Business
3 Feb 2010 | 11:44 amOne of the key core competencies of a publication is the process of selecting “all the news thats fit to print”. No one can read every news story. Instead of even trying to consume everything, we all have a process we go through for discovery of news, information and topics of interest to us. We have sources we trust for our news and information. It may be a printed paper or magazine, a website, tv news, facebook or twitter updates, or some combination of everything we have access to. No matter how we get information there is one certainty, there is a finite number of sources… -
The Simplicity Test: A Simple Policy Guide for Job Growth
31 Jan 2010 | 9:04 amThe simplest way to create more jobs is to allow small business and entrepreneurs to spend less time and money on lawyers and accountants and redirect that intellectual and financial capital to the core competencies of their business. Any new government policy that requires the hiring of lawyers and accountants will not lead to new jobs, it will lead to time and money being wasted and fewer jobs being created. Like the administration before it, the current administration seems to have no concept of what it takes to start, run and grow a small business. None. Here is a hint. If you want to… -
Talking the IPad, Kids, Making Money and Video
28 Jan 2010 | 4:34 pmI cant wait to get my hands on the IPad. Its going to be a HUGE hit. You can book it right now that it will be the product that kids of this generation grow up with and look back on with affection just like we did with the first video games. Video games changed how we grew up. The IPad will change how kids grow up. Apple was brilliant in how they cultivated apps for the IPhone and Touch. With so many apps for kids, any parent with young kids and either of these 2 devices will tell you that their kids use and love them. In fact, it was this very reason that I helped create Puzzle Palace… -
Why are we condemning Jeff Zucker & NBC over Leno ?
18 Jan 2010 | 1:11 pmIf you want to know why its going to take longer than people hope or expect to get out this great recession, look no further than media and corporate response to Jeff Zuckers move of Jay Leno to primetime. What Zucker and NBC did was the EXACT RIGHT MOVE. Business environments change. When they do, as broadcast network television has, and continues to, there are two basic choices. You can do it the way it’s always been done, or you can challenge yourself to change the game. In the case of NBC, Jeff Zucker chose to take a risk and move Jay Leno from late night television to primetime.
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Matt Mullenweg
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Jay-Z
8 Feb 2010 | 5:43 pmAs I noted on Twitter, Jay-Z now has a WordPress-powered blog. It’s bare right now, but hopefully they really start to stretch WP soon. By the by, Jay, let’s grab a bite and talk tech and design. Hat tip: Michael Koenig. -
Seven on Seven – Rhizome
8 Feb 2010 | 5:36 pmIn April I’m going to be participating in an event called Seven on Seven put on by Rhizome. “Seven on Seven will pair seven leading artists with seven game-changing technologists in teams of two, and challenge them to develop something new — be it an application, social media, artwork, product, or whatever they imagine — over the course of a single day. The seven teams will unveil their ideas at a one-day event at the New Museum on April 17th.” -
Start Project
3 Feb 2010 | 6:27 pmAs reported on BoomTown, I’m joining some cool folks including Biz Stone, Chris Sacca, Mike Tatum, and David Liu as an adviser to The Start Project. -
WPtogo is now WordPress Android
2 Feb 2010 | 4:29 pmWe’ve just released WordPress for Android 1.0 which is a continuation of the WpToGo development now under an official WordPress banner, and of course as Free Software. Congrats to Dan and the team on making this happen. Mobile stuff is really starting to come together for WordPress. I’ve been playing with this on my Nexus One for about a week and loving it. -
Better Firefox Checker
1 Feb 2010 | 5:58 pmAfter the Deadline, the enhanced spelling and grammar checker, has just released a new extension for Firefox that enables AtD functionality on any textarea on the web, which is really killer. This is one of the possibilities I was most excited about when we acquired AtD. For more check out the coverage on Download Squad and Lifehacker.
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Altimeter Group
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Welcome to new Altimeter Group partners: Alan Webber and Lora Cecere
26 Jan 2010 | 10:00 amI’m pleased to announce that Altimeter Group has brought on two additional partners to meet the growing demand of our clients, which now number over 40 retained clients. Alan Webber and Lora Cecere each bring with them unique areas of expertise, but what makes them great partners for Altimeter is their ability to help clients understand and address opportunities and problems created by emerging technologies. Trends such as open government and supply chain/demand orchestration disrupt traditional business and organizational models, creating both problems as well as opportunities. We… -
“Socialgraphics” webinar slides and recording now available
20 Jan 2010 | 11:59 pmThanks to everyone who attended the webinar we held today on “Understanding Your Customers’ Social Behaviors“. Many people wanted to attend the webinar but weren’t able to because of schedule conflicts. So we’re making the slides and a video recording (slides and audio) available here. You can also download from Slideshare.net (for slides) and drop.io (for the recording). Also, there was a vibrant conversation taking place on sites like Twitter, using the hashtag #socialgraphics (for search of just the tweets on the day of the Webiner, use this link). Understand… -
Webinar introducing "Socialgraphics", a customer-centric approach to social strategy
11 Jan 2010 | 6:16 pmJeremiah Owyang and I will be running a free Webinar introducing how we are thinking about how companies can understand their customers through what we are calling "socialgraphics". To register for the Webinar: Register for Free Webinar: Understand Your Customers’ Social Behaviors, Hosted by Altimeter Group Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM PST Beware of plans or proposals that start with “Twitter Strategy” or “Facebook Strategy” Instead, they should have a “Customer Strategy” that focuses in on how customers behave… -
From the Cockpit: Altimeter Updates
2 Dec 2009 | 4:21 pmFrom time to time, we want to keep our community updated with what’s happening at the Altimeter Group, we’re continuing to grow, having fun, and will have more announcements in the upcoming future. Here’s a partial snapshot of the partners progress to date: Ray has taken on new clients focused on the Social CRM space, and continues to be a global traveler, keynoting the SAP user group conference in UK and France. He was recently accepted as the latest member of the Enterprise Irregulars, a collection of the top minds in the Enterprise Software Market. Deborah has… -
Saleforce.com integrates social with Chatter launch
18 Nov 2009 | 6:21 amAt its Dreamforce conference, Salesforce.com announced the launch of Chatter Collaboration Cloud. On the surface, it may look like merely Twitter integrated deeply into Salesforce.com’s offerings, but it’s really a social platform that can integrate multiple inputs that will accelerate the opening up of enterprise applications. I was pre-briefed about the announcement, so will walk you through major highlights and also discuss a few implications. Overview Chatter Collaboration Cloud reflects a recent expansion in Salesforce.com’s offering, continuing where Sales Cloud 2,…
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Howard Lindzon
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StockTwits TV – Interview with John Borthwick of betaworks
9 Feb 2010 | 3:54 amRecently, I sat down with John Borthwick , co founder of Betaworks (wicked cool real-time companies). John and his partner Andy Weissman build things, buy things and they invest in things….bitly and chartbeat , Summize (Twitter twit search). We chat about all of the above, managing a fast growing business, chaos, disruption, the early web and of course porn. -
Israel Loves Forex
7 Feb 2010 | 2:23 amIt has been a long, fun week here is Israel. I am looking forward to getting home, but will also miss Israel. It has been almost 25 years since I last visited, but I think Israel will be a yearly visit now. The web and telco has helped shrink our world infinitely, but this week I was reminded of the importance of expanding my comfort zone. Ben Weiss of the Greylock Israel team invited me to meet a ton of companies involved in Israeli Fintech. The themes I see are Forex and Binary Options. I am bullish on both industries but not sure how I will directly participate. I will though. I would not… -
StockTwits TV: Interview with James D Robinson @jdrive
2 Feb 2010 | 5:47 pmI sat down with James D. Robinson of RRE Ventures (@jdrive on Twitter). Through RRE, he has made investments in companies such as Adaptive Blue (Glue), betaworks, and drop.io, to name a few. It was great to chat with him about investing strategy and process as well as some of the areas where he sees disruption occurring in the future. -
Overheard on StockTwits: Collective Befuddlement
2 Feb 2010 | 9:10 amAfter the last few week’s selloff, we’ve started this week with a rally. This has left traders stuck between two opposing questions: Was the selloff for real or is the rally going to continue? Here’s what the StockTwits stream is talking about today: It’s Groundhog Day today and the StockTwits traders are having some fun. How do you play 6 more weeks of winter? The combination of good Pending Homes Sales data and great earnings from DRH is helping lead the market and the homebuilders higher: GS is hovering right around brick wall resistance as I type: Traders are… -
StockTwits TV: Interview with Chris Dixon of Hunch
2 Feb 2010 | 5:14 amYesterday, I sat down with entrepreneur and early-stage investor, Chris Dixon. We chatted about his background, the current VC landscape, and his latest venture, Hunch.
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The Jason Calacanis Weblog
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Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover w/Brooklyn Decker 2010 http://bit.ly/9wvivT
9 Feb 2010 | 10:35 amSports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover w/Brooklyn Decker 2010 http://bit.ly/9wvivT -
Bush “miss me yet?” billboard is real… photos:
9 Feb 2010 | 9:53 amA picture of a billboard featuring a picture of former President George W. Bush and the words "Miss Me Yet?" began circulating via e-mail on Monday, February 8, 2010. At first, many assumed that the billboard was a photoshopped image, however it was confirmed to be real and stands along I-35 near the town of Wyoming, in the state of Minnesota. Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio confirmed seeing the billboard along I-35. The mayor of Wyoming, Sheldon Anderson, said he has received a lot inquiries over the Bush billboard but said he did not know who set up the billboard or who… -
Water pollution in China is stunning & sad NYTIMES
9 Feb 2010 | 9:50 amhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/world/asia/10pollute.html?hp -
AUDIO: Howard Stern talks about becoming judge on American Idol http://bit.ly/abEjFr
9 Feb 2010 | 7:31 amHoward Stern to replace Simon Cowel on American Idolhttp://www.mahalo.com/howard-stern-american-idol shock-jock Howard Stern confirmed that FOX was courting him to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol. During his show on February 8, 2010. Addressing the recent rumors that Stern may become a judge on Idol, Stern told his listeners, "There's not a better job on the planet than judging that f—-ng karaoke contest." He went on to say, "It might be possible, we'll see," and "They'd have to pay me a ton of dough because I already make a ton of… -
Brilliant: Super Gay Superbowl Photo–literally.
9 Feb 2010 | 7:23 am
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The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
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Random Episode 8 – 2010 Resolutions with Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss
17 Jan 2010 | 10:52 amThis new, long overdue Random episode covers our personal resolutions–personal, business, physical, and otherwise–as well as favorite recent gifts (both given and received). The video is recorded on two cameras, including Glenn’s new experimental HD delight. Topics include: - Chocolate - Powerlifting - Filtering false friends - Funny hats - The art of the decline … and naked ladies. Best to give the video 10-20 minutes to buffer before watching. It’s a big ‘un. Please let us know in the comments what you’d like our next show topic to be! If you missed… -
The First Time Online – Enjoy While You Can
8 Jan 2010 | 2:00 amMost of you have never seen this. I really hope you enjoy it. To download, just sign into Vimeo and you’re set. If you Final Cut it up, please set to a Crystal Method or Sevendust soundtrack :) In other breaking news: I need only 120 more Amazon reviews to beat The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a dream I’ve had since 2007! Not because I dislike him, but precisely the opposite — he’s one of my writing role models and I long viewed his book as untouchable. If you’ve read the 4HWW but haven’t left a short review on Amazon, please take 30 seconds and help… -
Thank You, Facebook Bankruptcy, and Late Christmas Presents
6 Jan 2010 | 3:08 am(Photo: source) Thank you… Thank you… Thank you! The last two blog posts have moved me more than any others, and the new expanded 4-Hour Workweek has hit #4 on The New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today Money list! In a future post, I will explain exactly what I did in PR and marketing (including recordings and screenshots) to help it happen, but the reality is: you made it happen. You all rock. For buying the book? No. For making this community what it is. For helping one another and sharing your stories and lessons learned. For teaching me more than I can ever… -
Cold Remedy: 18 Real-World Lifestyle Design Case Studies (Now It’s Your Turn)
31 Dec 2009 | 2:18 amIf not in 2010, then when? (Photo: jphilipson) The video case studies that I asked for in the last post really caught me unprepared. I…am…so happy that it’s hard to put it into words. From Denmark to India, from college students to retirees, from yoga instructors to engineers, the stories poured in. Narrowing them down to finalists, even with several people, was excruciating, but below you will find 15 of our favorites. Many more are worth watching (I watched them all) and can be found here, or by searching “4hww success” on YouTube. There are also 150 comments… -
Cold Remedy: Free Flights Anywhere in the World
22 Dec 2009 | 8:38 amWhere would you go if you had a free ticket anywhere? The island of Bohol in the Philippines? (source: WisDoc) Not long ago, I received the following comment — edited for length — from Ryan N.: I hate you Tim. I had a secure future ahead of me, and I left my job, my reasonably well paying professional career all because of your book. Best thing I’ve ever done!! I was wondering if you might be able to put up a blog post where people could post their ideas or muses as case studies. I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who would like to share their stories and listen to…
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Paul Graham: Essays
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Apple's Mistake
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What Startups Are Really Like
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Persuade xor Discover
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Post-Medium Publishing
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The List of N Things
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Seth's Blog
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TEDthink
9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 amCan you factor this? If you're like most people, you get a little queasy at the thought. And when you were in tenth grade, you surely wondered why they were bothering you.(the answer is (x-2) times (x-2), in case you were curious.)It turns out that the real reason you needed to do this work was to be able to play with numbers in your head. Abstract numerical thought is an important skill among educated people.Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It's going on right now. Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea...it's probably… -
Frightened, clueless or uninformed?
8 Feb 2010 | 2:57 amIn the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three. If you're going to be of assistance, it helps to know which one.Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it's a temporary state.Clueless people don't know what to do and they don't know that they don't know what to do. They don't know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the… -
The least I could do
7 Feb 2010 | 3:35 amOne way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that. That's actually what they spent most of my time at business school teaching me.No sense putting more on that pizza, sending more staff to that event, answering the phone in fewer rings... what's the point? No sense being kind, looking people in the eye, being open or welcoming or grateful. Doing the least acceptable amount is the way to maximize short term profit.Of course, there's a different strategy, a crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the… -
iPad app of my dreams: the digital talking pad
6 Feb 2010 | 8:10 amHere's the spec. If you build it and it's great, I'll use it and I'll blog it.A while ago, I posted about the talking pad and a modern version of it.I think there's a killer app version of this for the iPad, and I hope someone will build it. The talking pad is an interactive presentation tool for smart people.OverviewIt's a very simple concept: a collection of pages (slides, images, type, let's call them pages) that are easy to navigate in a non-linear way. Along with the standard zoom features, I'd like to be able to write on any of them in real time using my finger. I can also call up, on… -
The relentless search for "tell me what to do"
6 Feb 2010 | 2:26 amIf you've ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe."When asked, resist.
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A VC
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Twilio
9 Feb 2010 | 7:52 amWhile everyone was on the holiday break at the end of last year, Twilio wrote a blog post that very few people noticed. They announced that our firm, Union Square Ventures, had become an investor in Twilio. Twilio is not a services for the masses. Yet. It's a service that web developers can use to build telephony apps or build telephony into their app. This image on Twilio's home page says it all. In the "Areas of Interest" post that I wrote at the start of the year, I wrote: Developers are the new power users. If you cater to them, you can build a large user base with significant network… -
The Time Value Of Money
9 Feb 2010 | 2:34 amIt's Monday, time for MBA Mondays. Last week, I posted about The Present Value Of Future Cash Flows and in the comments Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote: That being said, before even covering NPV, I would have first talked about the time value of money. To me, time value of money is one of the top 3 concepts that blew my mind in business school and that should be common knowledge. When you think about it, all of finance, but also much of business, is underpinned by that. Once you understand time value of money, you understand opportunity costs, you understand sunk costs, you just view the… -
Flash, HTML5, and Mobile Apps
7 Feb 2010 | 6:12 amAbout a year ago, I wrote a post about Apple's "blind spot" for Flash. I took more heat for that post than anything else I've written here other than political posts. It opened my eyes to the fact that Flash vs HTML5 is one of the most politically heated topics in the tech business. The third rail, as it were. The choice of what technology web developers use to produce rich browser based applications is a big deal with a lot of important ramifications for companies, investors, and most importantly users. Jeremy Allaire, creator of ColdFusion and Brightcove, addresses this issue today on… -
Lightweight Advocacy
6 Feb 2010 | 4:18 amI was at a board meeting of a non profit this week and the talk turned to "advocacy" and whether or not the non profit should be doing any of that. I had to ask what the definition of advocacy was just to be clear what we were talking about. It's not something I've traditionally been involved in. When I think of advocacy, I think of politics, lobbying, public relations, and a bunch of other "heavyweight" behaviors that I abhor. Wikipedia's definition of advocacy is: Advocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes — including public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political,… -
NYC BigApps Winners Announced
5 Feb 2010 | 3:40 amI've posted about the NYC BigApps contest a few times here. And you all helped me with my chore of judging all 85 apps. Thank you for that. Last night I walked up The Highline to IAC Headquarters to attend an event where the winners were announced. I also manned the "Investors Bar" where a number of fellow venture and angel investors sat and talked to the entrepreneurs in attendance. Kind of like the genius bar, but the geniuses were on the other side lining up to talk to us. The winners were (cutting and pasting from the NY Times here): WayFinder NYC: An application…
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O'Reilly Radar
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Ignite, Syndicated Events, and Social Media Marketing
9 Feb 2010 | 5:41 amAs we approach Global Ignite Week, a collection of Ignite events around the world during the first week of March, I can't help but think about the future of conferences, one of O'Reilly's major businesses. Here are some of the things we're learning from Ignite. People love the rapid-fire format. Steven Levy once said that Foo Camp is the wiki of conferences, an unstructured space where the attendees make things happen. Well, by that measure, Ignite is the Twitter of conferences, a way to quickly share information and spark enthusiasm. The Ignite slogan: "Enlighten us, but make it quick." is a… -
Four short links: 9 February 2010
9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 amTrack DC -- informative drill-down report from Washington DC government about the different departments. (via Sunlight Labs blog) Errors in Scientific Software -- a 1994 study of scientific software that found inconsistent interfaces (1 in 7 for Fortran, 1 in 37 for C) and poor use of arithmetic such that significant figures declined from 6sf in the data to 1sf in the result. (via "If you're going to do good science, release the computer code too" in the Guardian) How Farmville Scales -- 75M players/month (28M/day), 1/4 of disk activity is writes, 50% higher load spikes, 3G/s traffic go… -
Flickr Photos In Google Street View
8 Feb 2010 | 10:05 pmGoogle Maps has added more user photos to its Street View (above). Now the Yahoo-owned Flickr is joining the Google-owned Panoramio and Picasa photo sites as a supplier of alternative street views. GeoBloggers reported it earlier today and also noted that the photos are available in the Panoramio 3D view (below). This is significant for two reasons: 1) Flickr has millions of geotagged photos (2.3 million photos with location data were uploaded this month; 95,634,285 in total as this writing). These photos document the earth and with the addition of location metadata they can become useful for… -
Four Steps to Gov 2.0: A Guide for Agencies
8 Feb 2010 | 6:15 amWhat Does the World Look Like When the Work of Government is Driven by the People? Gov 2.0 has a lot of definitions, but in observing the exciting breadth of projects currently being built, it feels a little like the Blind Men and the Elephant, where everyone defines it based on their first hand experience, but not from a holistic view. In its essence, Tim O’Reilly’s definition of Gov 2.0 is where government acts as the catalyst to let others build upon its work h — and most importantly, to multiply its impact. For the first time in history, we’re really at a point… -
Google Book Settlement Round 2
8 Feb 2010 | 12:06 amThe US government filed its Statement of Interest regarding the revised Google settlement yesterday with the District Court in New York. While the statement was signed by an attorney from the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, several agencies including the Copyright Office reportedly contributed to it. As you may recall, the judge has only 2 choices: he can approve the settlement, or send it back to the parties for revision. He cannot modify it himself. The US government statement advises the judge that the public interest would be best served by sending the settlement back, and…
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TechCrunch
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Gowalla To Roll Out API Today
9 Feb 2010 | 10:35 amAs location-based social networks gain serious traction, its inevitable that that these applications will become full-fledged platforms. Like Twitter, these networks can become ecosystems. Plus, they have a better chance of continuing to survive when Facebook enters the location ring. Foursquare released its API in November. And now Gowalla will be releasing its API today, we’ve heard. We will update with more details when the announcement is made. We originally reported on the impending release here, with Gowalla working on adjusting privacy setting for users as as third-party services… -
Google Street View Goes To The Top Of The Mountain
9 Feb 2010 | 10:31 amGoogle’s Street View has gone to many strange places, even off-road. But in preparation for the Winter Olympics it equipped a snowmobile with 360-degree cameras and took it to the top of Whistler, the Canadian ski resort where the Games will take place. The slope-side views can be seen in the map on Google’s new Winter Olympics information page. Google should do this for all major ski mountains. It’s a great way to see if you really want to go up to the top of that double black diamond chair lift. Here is a video showing how they got the images: -
Morning Buzz: Live From Google’s Major Step Into The Social Spotlight
9 Feb 2010 | 9:57 amThis morning, Google is hosting an event at its Mountain View, CA headquarters to show off a new social product it has been working on. Google VP of Product Management Bradley Horowitz, VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra, and product manager Todd Jackson are on hand to show it off. Below, follow our live notes (paraphrased): They’ve announced it will start in a few minutes, waiting for people in traffic, etc… Horowitz: Exciting news to share this morning. This is exactly the right audience. Next 45 minutes to hour we’re going to be showing off something. I bet many of you are… -
DotNetNuke Scores Another $8 Million In Series B Funding
9 Feb 2010 | 9:09 amDotNetNuke Corporation, the owner and maintainer of the open source web application framework that goes by the same name, has raised $8 Million Series B funding from new investor UV Partners and prior backers August Capital and Sierra Ventures. The company had earlier raised an undisclosed amount of financing from the latter two investors back in November 2008. DotNetNuke offers a flexible Web Content Management Platform for Microsoft .NET, available in a free Community and subscription-based Professional, Elite and Elite Premier Editions (click here for more info). DotNetNuke’s CMS is… -
Bubble Motion Launches Twitter-Like Voice Blogging Service For Mobile Phones
9 Feb 2010 | 8:57 amSequoia-backed voice messaging company Bubble Motion is getting into the microblogging space today, that is the voice-based microblogging space. The startup is launching Bubbly, a voice-blogging social network built for mobile phones. With Bubbly, you can record and broadcast messages from any mobile device. When a users records audio messages and updates, followers can listen in whenever they want. To start voice-blogging, you enter a short code onto your phone, and start recording your messages. To follow another voice-blogger, users dial the phone number for whomever they want to follow.
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Scripting News
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Is Manhattan exempt from snowstorms?
9 Feb 2010 | 7:28 amOkay this time they say there really is a snowstorm headed for NYC. And I'm nestled in my West Village apartment, with almost no food in the fridge, thinking -- "What does this mean to me?" Last time I was caught in a snowstorm was in Cambridge, MA. I was staying at the luxurious Charles Hotel, after participating in a conference about the future of news put on by Shorenstein Center. I didn't worry about food, I assumed the hotel would take care of it, and I wasn't disappointed. A group of delayed conference-goers ventured into the snow, across the street to the now-defunct Bombay Club… -
Twitter-killing follow-up
9 Feb 2010 | 6:42 amYesterday's piece started quite a discussion, and for the most part people agree that it's time for some new stuff in TwitterLand. That tells you that it's not only time, it's past time. In the past, there would have been a lot of comments about how the limits of Twitter are what make it so perfect. If you still believe that, watch this NSFW puppet "interview" with "Walt Mossberg" and "Steve Jobs." It's hilarious, and shows how the tech industry falls for what puppet Steve calls "an obvious crock of shit." Anyway... There's more to producing a Twitter-killer than just adding features that… -
Must-have features for Twitter-killing
8 Feb 2010 | 5:03 pmIn October 2009, after 2.5 years of using Twitter every day, I wrote a piece that explained the limits of Twitter that we'll have to look past Twitter to see solved, because Twitter doesn't seem to be trying to solve them. Tomorrow, we hear, Google will announce a product that aims to take on Twitter. If so, here's a list of features to look for. Any of these features would give Google a serious edge over Twitter. Maybe they thought of some things I don't have on my list. It's always nice to put your stake in the ground. I did it with the iPad with some hilarious results. So here's the list… -
Who dat just won the whole thing!
7 Feb 2010 | 11:39 pmA brief note of congratulations to the City that Care Forgot. It's so wonderful that the Saints won the Super Bowl! This will go down as one of the big moments of sports history, imho. As the 1969 Mets undid the betrayal of NY fans by the Dodgers, the Saints give hope to a city that was betrayed in so many ways. From what I know of New Orleans, this victory will be the stuff of legend for a long time to come. It's a city with a great sense of history, and destiny. And humor. Until 2005 its destiny was to be devastated by a monster hurricane and the failure of the rest of the country to come… -
My first full day in NYC
7 Feb 2010 | 5:37 pmI spent my first full day living in NYC since 1977. Lots of observations, but I only have time to share one. In other cities, the places you drive to are places you walk to in Manhattan. There's every kind of restaurant within a block of my apartment. In Palo Alto, you can get it all (but the pizza isn't as good) but you have to drive everywhere unless you live off University Avenue. Same in Berkeley. And the walking in Manhattan is amazing. It's huge and has so much variety. And everywhere you go the buildings reach the sky. In every other city I've lived in, they might have had a few…
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cnewmark
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Using gaming to engage people in gov't?
9 Feb 2010 | 5:05 amWell, fun works, and maybe Dustin Haisler from Manor Labs has the right idea. He speculates about two ways that might build on existing approaches to get people involved in Does gaming have a place in government?Let’s say we built an online game that was as engaging as [Zynga’s FarmVille game, but incorporated real governmental concepts in the process. Which concepts are important to start with? Taxation: Have the gamer adjust taxes but also have it tied to public opinion (similar to Sim City, but less complex). Cost of Service: Have responding to police calls, water line breaks, etc.,… -
Spring in Cole Valley Heights #1
8 Feb 2010 | 7:42 amRight in back, and yes, the gf's got a much better eye than me.Click for larger. -
Survey of US Gov't web sites show increasingly happy public
8 Feb 2010 | 4:51 amHey, looks like some serious survey was work done looking at how people feel about Federal sites, comparing that with commercial sites. Looks like all the ongoing work is getting noticed. Here's a pretty good summary from NextGov. Citizen satisfaction with federal Web sites increased significantly in 2009, indicating that efforts by the Obama administration to increase transparency in government are getting noticed. For the last quarter of 2009, more than 250,000 citizens surveyed gave federal Web sites a satisfaction rating of 75.2 out of 100 points, according to a report released by… -
A view of Hogwart's, I mean, Trinity College Dublin
7 Feb 2010 | 9:38 amThis is a dining hall, long rows of long tables.At the podium (not too visible), Voldemort reads something in Latin to open and close dinner. -
Rate of job loss, Bush v Obama (fact checked)
7 Feb 2010 | 8:25 amUPDATE: just got factchecked, report and raw data (Courtesy of howardweaver)
