NUCLEAR IS AN ALTERNATIVE
I don't want to seem like a fan of Tom Evslin's (just an admiring reader), but he has another great post over at AlwaysOn:
Can Anyone say “Nuclear”?
Having grown up in a NY Times home (at least on most Sundays), it pains me how poor the thinking often is on the editorial page.
The premise in a recent Sunday editorial "Energy Impasse," which first cites Iran’s nuclear backsliding and the difficulty of getting the world to confront bad behavior from a major oil producer, is impeccable:
"America cannot win President Bush's much-vaunted war on terrorism as long as it is sending billions of dollars abroad for oil purchases every day. It cannot establish democracy in the Middle East because governments rich in oil revenue do not want democracy. And it will never have the geopolitical leverage it needs as long as it is dependent on unstable foreign sources for fuel."
Amen.
But the prescription doesn’t fit the diagnosis. After disavowing any further drilling in Alaska, the Times suggests: "A much better answer would be a national commitment to more efficient vehicles and to the rapid deployment of new energy sources like biofuels."
Yeah. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
If the editorial writers would read the news pages more carefully or even pay more attention to columnist Thomas Friedman, they would realize that the world’s appetite for energy is going to continue to accelerate even if we all start going to work on roller skates. Biomass, at best, will meet only a tiny fraction of that need – there just aren’t enough acres available to plant with the right crops. In fact, the Times also ran a story on how food prices are increasing because of the use of corn to produce ethanol which the editorial writers might have missed.
The hard truth is that the United States cannot afford continued unilateral nuclear (power) disarmament. France gets the majority of its power from nukes (give praise where it’s due); North Korea has some claim that it needs nuclear power even if they can’t be trusted with it; the Germans are reconsidering their plans to decommission existing nukes and forswear new ones; the Chinese are not hesitating to build nukes as well as dam rivers. The Iranians don’t need nukes with all their oil but want them (or the by-products) so badly that they’re building them anyway no matter what anyone thinks. And, in the United States, nuclear power is so politically incorrect that it isn’t even MENTIONED in a NY Times article about energy independence.
Not that the Times is alone in sticking its head in non-nuclear sand. Michael Moe blogging on AlwayOn tells of super-VC John Doerr saying that the real issue is "How do we create a sensible long-term energy plan?"
OK. And the answer?
"Alternative energy such as wind, solar, and hydro are key to this as are fuel cells and biomass." In just 15 short years, the post says, wind farms can go from providing energy for 1.6 million homes today to 16 million homes. Gee. (full post)
Junto Boyz
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
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RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"Alito sworn in as member of Supreme Court"
"Coretta Scott King Dies at 78"
"Toshiba says it's ready to buy Westinghouse as profits soar"
"Good Technology sued over wireless patents"
"Report: Napster in talks with Google"
"Microsoft releases IE 7 beta to public"
"So, what's next? Why, Web 2.0, naturally"
"Torvalds: No GPL 3 for Linux"
"Iran Warns Referral Would End Diplomacy"
"North Korea Renews Commitment to Talks"
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"Alito sworn in as member of Supreme Court"
"Coretta Scott King Dies at 78"
"Toshiba says it's ready to buy Westinghouse as profits soar"
"Good Technology sued over wireless patents"
"Report: Napster in talks with Google"
"Microsoft releases IE 7 beta to public"
"So, what's next? Why, Web 2.0, naturally"
"Torvalds: No GPL 3 for Linux"
"Iran Warns Referral Would End Diplomacy"
"North Korea Renews Commitment to Talks"
SOME THOUGHTS ON GREENSPAN'S DEPARTURE
MSN has opposing viewpoints posted on the outgoing Federal Reserve chairman term.
How Greenspan got it right
The outgoing Federal Reserve chairman will be remembered for his strong, yet opaque, manner of speaking and the restraint and pragmatism shown as he maneuvered through various crises.
Greenspan: The worst Fed chief ever
The Fed chairman thinks the central bank has done a fabulous job during his tenure. I beg to differ. Let's set the record straight.
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MSN has opposing viewpoints posted on the outgoing Federal Reserve chairman term.
How Greenspan got it right
The outgoing Federal Reserve chairman will be remembered for his strong, yet opaque, manner of speaking and the restraint and pragmatism shown as he maneuvered through various crises.
Greenspan: The worst Fed chief ever
The Fed chairman thinks the central bank has done a fabulous job during his tenure. I beg to differ. Let's set the record straight.
Monday, January 30, 2006
REFORM VENTURE CAPITAL? WINER STYLE?... UM, I'LL PASS
I came across Dave Winer's post, "How to reform the VC industry," and found it to be interesting enough to respond.
We don’t need the partners, limited or general, they gum up the works. We need money to start new ventures. Luckily we know the people with the money, they’re the users. And we need people to validate the ideas. Same people, the users.
User money? How are you going to accumulate enough capital from users to rapidly develop and grow a company? Does he really believe people will give enough money to sustain a company or even allow its employees to live more than three months in the Bay Area? Maybe, just maybe Vietnam, which I heard is developing its technology-related entrepreneurial activities.
Creating an imaginary scenario, if Friendster's 18 million users (assuming these are not all a crazed group of millionaires) during its heyday donated $1 each, that $18 million still wouldn't have been enough to keep it afloat beyond this year. More realistic numbers might assume 5% of Friendster's user base (900,000 people) donates $25 each (average donation for a political campaign), that's $22.5 million. Still not enough to save Friendster. Think about the hundred of startups with only a few hundred thousand users. Can you imagine all the cereal, Hormel products, and dollar menu meals that would be eaten with Winer's model versus the existing VC model?
Also what users is he referring to? I assume these are users of Web 2.0 companies? Those on the outer fringe of consumer behavior patterns like me that join 20 different online social networks, read 30 blogs a day and use 5 different tagging systems? Yeah, this is the REAL market I want to tap to blow out GoingOn Networks. I would soon be going back to my favorite college meals of Vienna Sausages, chili mac, and Ponderosa buffets.
So what did the middlemen do exactly? They invested in all kinds of idiotic things. Anyone could have made the bets they did. The users hadn’t had time to fully absorb the Internet in the 1990s so they bought all the garbage the middlemen shipped, leading to online pet food companies with market caps exceeding the largest industrial companies.
I wonder what Dave would have invested in back in the boom times? Anyway, not really a fair assessment. Venture capital is a home run approach, so you have to expect investments gone nowhere or sour. What venture capitalists do, if you get a smart one, is add value to a company in obvious ways that I don't need to list here. If a handful of people approach me, who is on the bottom of the entrepreneurial totem pole, every month for informal advice or asking me to be an advisor, there is an obvious desire and need from entrepreneurs that seek out valued advice, thinking and access to a better professional network than their own.
Matt Mullenweg hasn’t taken on any VC to start wordpress.com
Not knocking on Matt Mullenweg, but he is not my entrepreneurial hero nor is Dave Winer. Some startups actually need a lot of capital outside of Dave's realm and require sophisticated thinking, which some VCs can add. I wonder if Dave went through a capital raising or company building process with VCs that turned sour?
This thing will be public from day one. The purpose of the company will be to invest in promising young Internet companies, chosen by the users, nurture them through startup, get them liquid through acquisition or IPO and distribute dividends to the shareholders accordingly.
Definitely living in a Web 2.0 cushioned room. In Dave's world, I assume "users" would invest in del.icio.us and a countless other no-business model startups that are out there. If Microsoft, Google or Yahoo! don't acquire them, Silicon Valley would become a wasteland of fool's gold and technology for a very niche group of people... like me :)
UPDATE: Another reason why I like the guys at alarm:clock...
Web 2.0 honchos quickly beat the meme horse to death with the notion that the VC model is broken and that the solution might be that VC firms should take more of a shotgun approach and make more, smaller investments. Dave Winer takes the lead by labelling VCs useless 'middlemen,"...
From conversations we've had with VCs, many don't like Web 2.0 companies because they have low barriers to entry, and so far there have not been overwhelming liquidity events.
Through our glasses, we think the stink about the VC model being broken reflects the fact that thousands of Web 2.0 startups are looking for funding and don't understand why they can't get it. The argument that the VC model is broken is silly and boring. Next meme please. (full post)
Michael Arrington at his CrunchNotes blog has a more serious response here. He also led me to John Roberts' post here and Robert Scoble's post here.
UPDATE II: Another reason why I love Tom Evslin's blog and his insights. A well written response to Dave Winer's post:
Short answers:
Two big changes are the lower cost of getting started (means less need for VCs early and more for them to look at later) and VCs blogging (a good thing if you’re an entrepreneur).
The VC industry has been disrupted by compression of the time between when a company first needs money and the time it is an acquisition candidate, Even if an initial round is needed, a second may not be. Harder, then, for VCs to put money to work. Moreover, it is likely that the initial round needed will be small, so an extensive and expensive round of contract writing and due diligence simply isn’t justified. The best VCs are learning how to efficiently put up smaller sums.
Although I would love to have Dave as an advisor (and have benefited from his advice in the distant past) and Rick sounds like a very good VC and both of them have correctly diagnosed industry problems, I don’t agree with either prescription. I’m afraid being funded by a public shell would lead to private startups having many of the reporting problems and transparancy issues of public companies without the (dubious) benefits of being public. Publicly traded holding companies for startups have been notable failures in the past. And a board of advisors – even the brilliant ones that Rick suggests – is still a committee. Entrepreneurs come to VCs for money. Committee time is wasted time at best and a dangerous distraction at worst. (full post)
LAST UPDATE: There have been so many posts surrounding Dave Winer's original post, but I'm posting two that captured my attention.
One excellent and insightful post by Jeff Nolan, "The "broken" VC model"
After 8 years in the venture capital business, which I think still makes me a rookie, I have the following observations to share with you:
-Venture capital is a cottage industry and whenever too much money comes into the system there is an imbalance which shifts the investment model from demand driven to supply driven. Enter the bubble.
.....
-The serial entrepreneurs are key to the whole mix and really have a lot of power. Their market power increases exponentially as they bring additional people with them, in other words transitioning from a serial entreprenuer to a serial team. They have pricing power and can often pick from several funds competing to get into their deals.
-The best venture funds are well ahead of the curve, case in point is Brad Feld and his investments in companies like Newsgator and Feedburner... he wasn't sitting around talking about how great RSS was, he was out putting money to work when most VC's were googling RSS to find out what it was. (full post)
The last point I copied and pasted is so money. Brad and other great VCs are ahead of the curve, and others just try to follow what these guys are doing.
Christopher Allen, who just commented on this post, has an indirectly related post that provides some good thoughts on being an angel investor. Check these out.
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I came across Dave Winer's post, "How to reform the VC industry," and found it to be interesting enough to respond.
We don’t need the partners, limited or general, they gum up the works. We need money to start new ventures. Luckily we know the people with the money, they’re the users. And we need people to validate the ideas. Same people, the users.
User money? How are you going to accumulate enough capital from users to rapidly develop and grow a company? Does he really believe people will give enough money to sustain a company or even allow its employees to live more than three months in the Bay Area? Maybe, just maybe Vietnam, which I heard is developing its technology-related entrepreneurial activities.
Creating an imaginary scenario, if Friendster's 18 million users (assuming these are not all a crazed group of millionaires) during its heyday donated $1 each, that $18 million still wouldn't have been enough to keep it afloat beyond this year. More realistic numbers might assume 5% of Friendster's user base (900,000 people) donates $25 each (average donation for a political campaign), that's $22.5 million. Still not enough to save Friendster. Think about the hundred of startups with only a few hundred thousand users. Can you imagine all the cereal, Hormel products, and dollar menu meals that would be eaten with Winer's model versus the existing VC model?
Also what users is he referring to? I assume these are users of Web 2.0 companies? Those on the outer fringe of consumer behavior patterns like me that join 20 different online social networks, read 30 blogs a day and use 5 different tagging systems? Yeah, this is the REAL market I want to tap to blow out GoingOn Networks. I would soon be going back to my favorite college meals of Vienna Sausages, chili mac, and Ponderosa buffets.
So what did the middlemen do exactly? They invested in all kinds of idiotic things. Anyone could have made the bets they did. The users hadn’t had time to fully absorb the Internet in the 1990s so they bought all the garbage the middlemen shipped, leading to online pet food companies with market caps exceeding the largest industrial companies.
I wonder what Dave would have invested in back in the boom times? Anyway, not really a fair assessment. Venture capital is a home run approach, so you have to expect investments gone nowhere or sour. What venture capitalists do, if you get a smart one, is add value to a company in obvious ways that I don't need to list here. If a handful of people approach me, who is on the bottom of the entrepreneurial totem pole, every month for informal advice or asking me to be an advisor, there is an obvious desire and need from entrepreneurs that seek out valued advice, thinking and access to a better professional network than their own.
Matt Mullenweg hasn’t taken on any VC to start wordpress.com
Not knocking on Matt Mullenweg, but he is not my entrepreneurial hero nor is Dave Winer. Some startups actually need a lot of capital outside of Dave's realm and require sophisticated thinking, which some VCs can add. I wonder if Dave went through a capital raising or company building process with VCs that turned sour?
This thing will be public from day one. The purpose of the company will be to invest in promising young Internet companies, chosen by the users, nurture them through startup, get them liquid through acquisition or IPO and distribute dividends to the shareholders accordingly.
Definitely living in a Web 2.0 cushioned room. In Dave's world, I assume "users" would invest in del.icio.us and a countless other no-business model startups that are out there. If Microsoft, Google or Yahoo! don't acquire them, Silicon Valley would become a wasteland of fool's gold and technology for a very niche group of people... like me :)
UPDATE: Another reason why I like the guys at alarm:clock...
Web 2.0 honchos quickly beat the meme horse to death with the notion that the VC model is broken and that the solution might be that VC firms should take more of a shotgun approach and make more, smaller investments. Dave Winer takes the lead by labelling VCs useless 'middlemen,"...
From conversations we've had with VCs, many don't like Web 2.0 companies because they have low barriers to entry, and so far there have not been overwhelming liquidity events.
Through our glasses, we think the stink about the VC model being broken reflects the fact that thousands of Web 2.0 startups are looking for funding and don't understand why they can't get it. The argument that the VC model is broken is silly and boring. Next meme please. (full post)
Michael Arrington at his CrunchNotes blog has a more serious response here. He also led me to John Roberts' post here and Robert Scoble's post here.
UPDATE II: Another reason why I love Tom Evslin's blog and his insights. A well written response to Dave Winer's post:
Short answers:
Two big changes are the lower cost of getting started (means less need for VCs early and more for them to look at later) and VCs blogging (a good thing if you’re an entrepreneur).
The VC industry has been disrupted by compression of the time between when a company first needs money and the time it is an acquisition candidate, Even if an initial round is needed, a second may not be. Harder, then, for VCs to put money to work. Moreover, it is likely that the initial round needed will be small, so an extensive and expensive round of contract writing and due diligence simply isn’t justified. The best VCs are learning how to efficiently put up smaller sums.
Although I would love to have Dave as an advisor (and have benefited from his advice in the distant past) and Rick sounds like a very good VC and both of them have correctly diagnosed industry problems, I don’t agree with either prescription. I’m afraid being funded by a public shell would lead to private startups having many of the reporting problems and transparancy issues of public companies without the (dubious) benefits of being public. Publicly traded holding companies for startups have been notable failures in the past. And a board of advisors – even the brilliant ones that Rick suggests – is still a committee. Entrepreneurs come to VCs for money. Committee time is wasted time at best and a dangerous distraction at worst. (full post)
LAST UPDATE: There have been so many posts surrounding Dave Winer's original post, but I'm posting two that captured my attention.
One excellent and insightful post by Jeff Nolan, "The "broken" VC model"
After 8 years in the venture capital business, which I think still makes me a rookie, I have the following observations to share with you:
-Venture capital is a cottage industry and whenever too much money comes into the system there is an imbalance which shifts the investment model from demand driven to supply driven. Enter the bubble.
.....
-The serial entrepreneurs are key to the whole mix and really have a lot of power. Their market power increases exponentially as they bring additional people with them, in other words transitioning from a serial entreprenuer to a serial team. They have pricing power and can often pick from several funds competing to get into their deals.
-The best venture funds are well ahead of the curve, case in point is Brad Feld and his investments in companies like Newsgator and Feedburner... he wasn't sitting around talking about how great RSS was, he was out putting money to work when most VC's were googling RSS to find out what it was. (full post)
The last point I copied and pasted is so money. Brad and other great VCs are ahead of the curve, and others just try to follow what these guys are doing.
Christopher Allen, who just commented on this post, has an indirectly related post that provides some good thoughts on being an angel investor. Check these out.
HO HUM WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM... NOTES AND NEWS FROM DAVOS
Gate Reminds Skype's Niklas Why He's Still Ruler of the Tech Domain
There hasn't been much drama over at the World Economic Forum this year. It closed without much bang and noise from Davos. No Easton Jordan with a loose tongue, and I didn't get any inside scoop since Tony couldn't attend this year since his wife is expecting soon. I assume the Accel/Google/(AlwaysOn... not this year) party was still one of the hot parties.
SixApart's Loïc Le Meur was the official blogger for the World Economic Forum this year and he had a fair amount of good interviews with various attendees, so check out the WEF blog. Here is his final interview with Klaus Schwab, the founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF.
Fortune had their, "Davos Dispatches from the World Economic Forum," where I found one incident a bit amusing:
Zennstrom, who recently sold his Skype Internet phone service to Ebay for $2.6 billion, says that Skype has been in business for 3-1/2 years... and in that time has signed up 75 million users. I'm floored by the sheer scale of that, until Gates brings us back to earth. He jumps in and asks, How many of the 75 million are paying customers? Zennstrom doesn't say (or mumbles it out in a way I can't catch) but their exchange launches a terrific conversation about building free Web products that generate truly enormous user bases then monetize them.
Tom Evslin has some notes, links, and an excerpt from his blook related to the World Economic Forum, which is very entertaining.
Finally, the WEF has a summary of notes from this year's event here.
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Gate Reminds Skype's Niklas Why He's Still Ruler of the Tech Domain
There hasn't been much drama over at the World Economic Forum this year. It closed without much bang and noise from Davos. No Easton Jordan with a loose tongue, and I didn't get any inside scoop since Tony couldn't attend this year since his wife is expecting soon. I assume the Accel/Google/(AlwaysOn... not this year) party was still one of the hot parties.
SixApart's Loïc Le Meur was the official blogger for the World Economic Forum this year and he had a fair amount of good interviews with various attendees, so check out the WEF blog. Here is his final interview with Klaus Schwab, the founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF.
Fortune had their, "Davos Dispatches from the World Economic Forum," where I found one incident a bit amusing:
Zennstrom, who recently sold his Skype Internet phone service to Ebay for $2.6 billion, says that Skype has been in business for 3-1/2 years... and in that time has signed up 75 million users. I'm floored by the sheer scale of that, until Gates brings us back to earth. He jumps in and asks, How many of the 75 million are paying customers? Zennstrom doesn't say (or mumbles it out in a way I can't catch) but their exchange launches a terrific conversation about building free Web products that generate truly enormous user bases then monetize them.
Tom Evslin has some notes, links, and an excerpt from his blook related to the World Economic Forum, which is very entertaining.
Finally, the WEF has a summary of notes from this year's event here.
101 DUMBEST MOMENTS IN BUSINESS
From Business 2.0. A couple examples:
Winner, Dumbest Moment, Accounting
The irony is rich. Shareholders, alas, are not.
In June, H&R Block announces a review of its recent financial statements, estimating it will find discrepancies in its favor of about $19 million. Two months later it reveals that the review found $77 million in errors -- in the other direction. The company explains that it had "insufficient resources" to identify and report complex transactions in its corporate tax accounting.
Winner, Dumbest Moment, Marketing
No joke here. Just suffice it to say that the literal translation of the Spanish word cajeta is "little box."
With the help of Latin pop sensation Thalia Sodi, Hershey introduces Cajeta Elegancita, a new candy bar for the Hispanic market. Though the wrapper features a picture of Sodi, apparently she neglects to fill her Yanqui partners in on a subtlety of Spanish: In Mexico, "cajeta" can be used to mean "nougat." Elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world, however, it's slang for female anatomy. (full list)
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From Business 2.0. A couple examples:
Winner, Dumbest Moment, Accounting
The irony is rich. Shareholders, alas, are not.
In June, H&R Block announces a review of its recent financial statements, estimating it will find discrepancies in its favor of about $19 million. Two months later it reveals that the review found $77 million in errors -- in the other direction. The company explains that it had "insufficient resources" to identify and report complex transactions in its corporate tax accounting.
Winner, Dumbest Moment, Marketing
No joke here. Just suffice it to say that the literal translation of the Spanish word cajeta is "little box."
With the help of Latin pop sensation Thalia Sodi, Hershey introduces Cajeta Elegancita, a new candy bar for the Hispanic market. Though the wrapper features a picture of Sodi, apparently she neglects to fill her Yanqui partners in on a subtlety of Spanish: In Mexico, "cajeta" can be used to mean "nougat." Elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world, however, it's slang for female anatomy. (full list)
Saturday, January 28, 2006
JAMES FREY LIAR, OPRAH BUYER, DOUBLEDAY HIGHER, PUBLIC DIRE
I don't know if you've been keeping up with all the noise and emotion around James Frey, author of "A Million Little Pieces" and victim of The Smoking Gun's truth and sleuth reporting, but this has turned into an amusing drama.
Frey writes this "nonfiction" book, gets on Oprah, she cries and loves it, her October 26, 2005 show propels Frey's book to the top of The New York Times bestseller list, it sells almost 2 million copies because of Oprah, Frey gets rich, Doubleday's revenue increases, and the world is a happier place.
Then The Smoking Gun (bless them:) reveals its investigative story on January 8, 2006, "A Million Little Lies," exposing James Frey for the liar, lunatic, and loser that he is.
What does Oprah do? She tried to keep the shine on her honor by defending James Frey by calling in on his interview with Larry King (who throws softballs once again. why is he considered such a great interviewer? maybe i missed his early years, but he doesn't ask the hard questions or the right questions.). She did the expected response of an executive of a company, but not the right thing. When more information came out and the heat rose, then she got Frey on her show for a public tongue lashing. A bit late, but the right move by Oprah to save face and the credibility of her book club.
My question is what is Frey and Doubleday going to do? The right thing in my opinion is to return most, if not all, of the money from the book sales to the people that bought it. Or take the profits and donate it to an institute that helps cure pathologic liars or recovering losers. Anyway, here are some more articles and commentary on this story:
"Oprah exacts her pound of flesh" by LA Times' Tim Rutten.
"Did Nan Talese Lie To Oprah?" by Slate's Timothy Noah.
"Questions for Others in Frey Scandal" by The NY Times' Edward Wyatt.
"One more reason to love Oprah" by Freakonomics Blog's Steven D. Levitt.
FoxTrot by Bill Amend
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I don't know if you've been keeping up with all the noise and emotion around James Frey, author of "A Million Little Pieces" and victim of The Smoking Gun's truth and sleuth reporting, but this has turned into an amusing drama.
Frey writes this "nonfiction" book, gets on Oprah, she cries and loves it, her October 26, 2005 show propels Frey's book to the top of The New York Times bestseller list, it sells almost 2 million copies because of Oprah, Frey gets rich, Doubleday's revenue increases, and the world is a happier place.
Then The Smoking Gun (bless them:) reveals its investigative story on January 8, 2006, "A Million Little Lies," exposing James Frey for the liar, lunatic, and loser that he is.
What does Oprah do? She tried to keep the shine on her honor by defending James Frey by calling in on his interview with Larry King (who throws softballs once again. why is he considered such a great interviewer? maybe i missed his early years, but he doesn't ask the hard questions or the right questions.). She did the expected response of an executive of a company, but not the right thing. When more information came out and the heat rose, then she got Frey on her show for a public tongue lashing. A bit late, but the right move by Oprah to save face and the credibility of her book club.
My question is what is Frey and Doubleday going to do? The right thing in my opinion is to return most, if not all, of the money from the book sales to the people that bought it. Or take the profits and donate it to an institute that helps cure pathologic liars or recovering losers. Anyway, here are some more articles and commentary on this story:
"Oprah exacts her pound of flesh" by LA Times' Tim Rutten.
"Did Nan Talese Lie To Oprah?" by Slate's Timothy Noah.
"Questions for Others in Frey Scandal" by The NY Times' Edward Wyatt.
"One more reason to love Oprah" by Freakonomics Blog's Steven D. Levitt.
FoxTrot by Bill Amend
Friday, January 27, 2006
A MAN IN A BALLON... FOR YOU INVESTMENT BANKERS OUT THERE
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below.
Descending a bit more he shouted, "Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago BUT I do not know where I am."
The woman replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40/41 degrees latitude, north, and 59/60 degrees west, longitude."
"You must be an investment banking analyst", said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well", answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct but I have no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all, if anything, you have delayed my trip."
The woman below responded, "You must be a Managing Director."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "But how did you know?"
"Well," replied the woman, "You don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problem. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it is my fault."
Hahaha... so true. My former managing director was exactly like this. One example is after working on a document for hours with an associate, he rips into the document on how much work it needs. After a couple hours, we get back the document and he says to us, "I'm so glad that I corrected this document or it would have reflected poorly to our clients." The associate and I looked through the document and found a couple grammar changes and a sentence or two were reworded. It was only a couple months into my time with this firm, but in the open office space I stated to the associate out loud, "What was that? What was that drama over nothing? Does he add so little value to this firm that he needs to pretend he's actually doing something?"
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A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below.
Descending a bit more he shouted, "Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago BUT I do not know where I am."
The woman replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40/41 degrees latitude, north, and 59/60 degrees west, longitude."
"You must be an investment banking analyst", said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well", answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct but I have no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all, if anything, you have delayed my trip."
The woman below responded, "You must be a Managing Director."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "But how did you know?"
"Well," replied the woman, "You don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problem. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it is my fault."
Hahaha... so true. My former managing director was exactly like this. One example is after working on a document for hours with an associate, he rips into the document on how much work it needs. After a couple hours, we get back the document and he says to us, "I'm so glad that I corrected this document or it would have reflected poorly to our clients." The associate and I looked through the document and found a couple grammar changes and a sentence or two were reworded. It was only a couple months into my time with this firm, but in the open office space I stated to the associate out loud, "What was that? What was that drama over nothing? Does he add so little value to this firm that he needs to pretend he's actually doing something?"
GOOGLE FIGHT!... EVIL OR NOT!
I came across a couple amusing sites related to Google. The first is Google Fight. You enter two items that you want to see a "fight" with and the site brings up the total number of results on Google for each. The winner of course is the one with the most results. So here I did "George Bush" and "Saddam Hussein" with George kicking Saddam's butt 184,000,000 results to 45,200,000 results.
HatTip to Ashish, who on his "To be fair to Google" (an ex-Microsoft's critique of Google's business model:) post linked to Google: Evil or Not? This site compiles news on Google daily and allows visitor to vote on each news item whether they believe Google was being evil or not. Both sites will probably provide 2 minutes of escape for your Friday morning... maybe 5 minutes tops. Have a great weekend :)
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I came across a couple amusing sites related to Google. The first is Google Fight. You enter two items that you want to see a "fight" with and the site brings up the total number of results on Google for each. The winner of course is the one with the most results. So here I did "George Bush" and "Saddam Hussein" with George kicking Saddam's butt 184,000,000 results to 45,200,000 results.
HatTip to Ashish, who on his "To be fair to Google" (an ex-Microsoft's critique of Google's business model:) post linked to Google: Evil or Not? This site compiles news on Google daily and allows visitor to vote on each news item whether they believe Google was being evil or not. Both sites will probably provide 2 minutes of escape for your Friday morning... maybe 5 minutes tops. Have a great weekend :)
Thursday, January 26, 2006
BURNHAM'S THEORY OF THE NEXT WEB
Bill Burnham has a great post titled, "A Unified Theory of Search, Social Networking, Structured Blogging, RSS and the Active Web." Insightful and strongly reflective of what we're building at GoingOn.
The web has traditionally offered a very passive experience: If you want something, you have to go get it. Sure, there are lots of interesting information and useful services out there, it’s just up to you to figure out where they are and how to use them.
RSS is exciting because it is the first widely accepted (and increasingly deployed) standard for transforming the web into more an active entity. With RSS, you can now “listen” to the web and automatically receive updates without having to go looking for them. But RSS is primarily a demand-side innovation. It benefits consumers of information/services but not suppliers.
The real innovations yet to emerge are coming on the supply side of web. And they are coming into being primarily as a result of the confluence of three important trends: social networking, search, structured blogging.
Much More Than Dating
I must admit, while I have written about social networking in the past, I really didn’t understand its potential significance until a few months ago. I am not talking about the 1st generation “Do you know who I know?” sites such as Friendster and Orkut, but about the second generation “hang out” spots such as MySpace and Facebook. Up until recently I had pretty much pigeon-holed such sites as just 2nd generation online dating sites.
While this is probably a valid short term characterization, these sites are likely to evolve over time into something more substantial. Specifically, these sites (as well as sites such as MSN’s Spaces and Yahoo’s 360) are highly likely to evolve into an all encompassing digital identify for each user. People will use these sites not just as a way to socialize, but as a hub to manage their broader digital identify on the web. Part blog, part digital cubby hole, these sites will provide each human being with a digital homestead from which they can manage their entire digital identify on the web. (full post)
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Bill Burnham has a great post titled, "A Unified Theory of Search, Social Networking, Structured Blogging, RSS and the Active Web." Insightful and strongly reflective of what we're building at GoingOn.
The web has traditionally offered a very passive experience: If you want something, you have to go get it. Sure, there are lots of interesting information and useful services out there, it’s just up to you to figure out where they are and how to use them.
RSS is exciting because it is the first widely accepted (and increasingly deployed) standard for transforming the web into more an active entity. With RSS, you can now “listen” to the web and automatically receive updates without having to go looking for them. But RSS is primarily a demand-side innovation. It benefits consumers of information/services but not suppliers.
The real innovations yet to emerge are coming on the supply side of web. And they are coming into being primarily as a result of the confluence of three important trends: social networking, search, structured blogging.
Much More Than Dating
I must admit, while I have written about social networking in the past, I really didn’t understand its potential significance until a few months ago. I am not talking about the 1st generation “Do you know who I know?” sites such as Friendster and Orkut, but about the second generation “hang out” spots such as MySpace and Facebook. Up until recently I had pretty much pigeon-holed such sites as just 2nd generation online dating sites.
While this is probably a valid short term characterization, these sites are likely to evolve over time into something more substantial. Specifically, these sites (as well as sites such as MSN’s Spaces and Yahoo’s 360) are highly likely to evolve into an all encompassing digital identify for each user. People will use these sites not just as a way to socialize, but as a hub to manage their broader digital identify on the web. Part blog, part digital cubby hole, these sites will provide each human being with a digital homestead from which they can manage their entire digital identify on the web. (full post)
FIVE EASY QUESTIONS WITH TOM EVSLIN
Jason Boog, who has a new gig with Know More Media, has an interview with one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Tom Evslin. Check it out here.
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Jason Boog, who has a new gig with Know More Media, has an interview with one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Tom Evslin. Check it out here.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
GOOGLE IS THE TOP BRAND IN 2005... SKYPE IS #3? AND FIREFOX #8??
Google tops Apple in 2005, but an odd thing for me was to hear that Skype was voted the third most influential brand in the world and Firefox was number eight. Really?
I was initially impressed by Skype's number three slot, but when I read that Firefox was the eighth "most influential brand in the world" doubt creeped into my mind. The people surveyed definitely are more tech savvy than the average consumer out in the world. Then I read that the survey was conducted online. Okay, huge bias. Obviously, this was not the most scientific survey that would accurately reflect the thinking behind the average marketing professional. I wonder how a more comprehensive survey effort would change the results for this top global brands list.
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Google tops Apple in 2005, but an odd thing for me was to hear that Skype was voted the third most influential brand in the world and Firefox was number eight. Really?
I was initially impressed by Skype's number three slot, but when I read that Firefox was the eighth "most influential brand in the world" doubt creeped into my mind. The people surveyed definitely are more tech savvy than the average consumer out in the world. Then I read that the survey was conducted online. Okay, huge bias. Obviously, this was not the most scientific survey that would accurately reflect the thinking behind the average marketing professional. I wonder how a more comprehensive survey effort would change the results for this top global brands list.
DISNEY ACQUISITION OF PIXAR
Wow. Years ago people thought this deal should have been done with some other movie studios buying out their animation partners, but the timing of this Disney deal with Pixar is in a very different context. iPod's music and now video distribution power defines digital distribution for the old guard and Pixar was simply a cash cow (moooooo! baby!) for Disney. How much better positioning could Steve Jobs get on this deal? Wow. Steve Jobs is 'da man'... at least for the week in my mind.
CNET has a collection of good articles on this new marriage, and some more info from Om Malik.
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Wow. Years ago people thought this deal should have been done with some other movie studios buying out their animation partners, but the timing of this Disney deal with Pixar is in a very different context. iPod's music and now video distribution power defines digital distribution for the old guard and Pixar was simply a cash cow (moooooo! baby!) for Disney. How much better positioning could Steve Jobs get on this deal? Wow. Steve Jobs is 'da man'... at least for the week in my mind.
CNET has a collection of good articles on this new marriage, and some more info from Om Malik.
REVVER, YOUTUBE, STICKAM, FIREANT... EVENTS AND CALENDARS WERE NOTHING
Yeah, this is my first post of the day since I was busy all day. Actually, I'm taking a break from work (it's 11pm pst) by blogging. Yeah, blogging is one method of getting away... I must have some deeply rooted issues :)
Anyway, last week through work, I came across Revver, which I thought was cool but very similar to YouTube (TechCrunch profile).
This week I came across Stickam, which has a video communication tool targeted towards bloggers and social networking platforms. I just opened an account, but really haven't played around with it yet. Here's my Stickam player though:
So lately for me it seems as if "America's Funniest Home Videos" is invading the blogosphere shores. Video directory and sharing sites, video blogging directories, video communicaton tools, videos of video directory employees burning their iPods (yeah, i made the last one up:)...
Michael over at TechCrunch raves about FireAnt today, which is a video blog directory. While doing a search on Revver, I came across an older post of Michael's that compared the "Flickrs of Video" back in November 2005. Pretty cool and useful chart he created for the post.
I guess I'll be playing around with all these products over the next few months.
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Yeah, this is my first post of the day since I was busy all day. Actually, I'm taking a break from work (it's 11pm pst) by blogging. Yeah, blogging is one method of getting away... I must have some deeply rooted issues :)
Anyway, last week through work, I came across Revver, which I thought was cool but very similar to YouTube (TechCrunch profile).
This week I came across Stickam, which has a video communication tool targeted towards bloggers and social networking platforms. I just opened an account, but really haven't played around with it yet. Here's my Stickam player though:
| Get Stickam for Free |
So lately for me it seems as if "America's Funniest Home Videos" is invading the blogosphere shores. Video directory and sharing sites, video blogging directories, video communicaton tools, videos of video directory employees burning their iPods (yeah, i made the last one up:)...
Michael over at TechCrunch raves about FireAnt today, which is a video blog directory. While doing a search on Revver, I came across an older post of Michael's that compared the "Flickrs of Video" back in November 2005. Pretty cool and useful chart he created for the post.
I guess I'll be playing around with all these products over the next few months.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
NORTH KOREAN BLOGS?... DEFINITE COMEDY
Mingi points to a couple North Korean propaganda blogs: Songun Blog and Juche Girl. These are hilarious! I assume these are written by some brainwashed puppets living in the dark caverns of North Korea.
Juche Girl has a great post titled, "Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is world best doctor"
I guess Kim Jong Il is trying out the field of medicine since he sucks at leading a nation and trying to provide its citizens with basic needs just as food (grass and bark doesn't count) and water, and I assume his film career didn't take off either.
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Mingi points to a couple North Korean propaganda blogs: Songun Blog and Juche Girl. These are hilarious! I assume these are written by some brainwashed puppets living in the dark caverns of North Korea.
Juche Girl has a great post titled, "Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is world best doctor"
I guess Kim Jong Il is trying out the field of medicine since he sucks at leading a nation and trying to provide its citizens with basic needs just as food (grass and bark doesn't count) and water, and I assume his film career didn't take off either.
MARKETING TIPS FOR NEW ENTREPRENEURS?
Very interesting interview in WSJ's Startup Journal of Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE, whose nonprofit provides marketing and other advice to entrepreneurs. Not sure if Ken is the best person to head such an organization or whether SCORE is an effective organization. The first question and answer immediately brought these questions to my mind:
What's the most common question you get about marketing from new business owners?
The most common question is: How do I create awareness, buzz and drive traffic to my business products or services? There are any number of ways that can be done. There's traditional advertising promotion through newspapers, the Yellow Pages and other things of that nature.
Advertising through newspapers, Ken? You mean the ones that are losing circulation numbers year after year? Yellow pages? You mean that big book that sits in my closet and I look at maybe once a year and think about using once a year as a weapon against a potential intruder in my home? I think Ken is still living in the '80s. Maybe even '60s. Maybe SCORE found him in a time capsule that was buried for forty years. Holy Austin Powers.
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Very interesting interview in WSJ's Startup Journal of Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE, whose nonprofit provides marketing and other advice to entrepreneurs. Not sure if Ken is the best person to head such an organization or whether SCORE is an effective organization. The first question and answer immediately brought these questions to my mind:
What's the most common question you get about marketing from new business owners?
The most common question is: How do I create awareness, buzz and drive traffic to my business products or services? There are any number of ways that can be done. There's traditional advertising promotion through newspapers, the Yellow Pages and other things of that nature.
Advertising through newspapers, Ken? You mean the ones that are losing circulation numbers year after year? Yellow pages? You mean that big book that sits in my closet and I look at maybe once a year and think about using once a year as a weapon against a potential intruder in my home? I think Ken is still living in the '80s. Maybe even '60s. Maybe SCORE found him in a time capsule that was buried for forty years. Holy Austin Powers.
OH, YEAH, CANADA!... THE RIGHT DOMINATES IN ITS ELECTIONS
My friend, Max, who for some reason I still keep listed as an author for this blog even though he's only posted a handful of times, must be a bit pissed right now. Max is from the far left corners of the Canadian political spectrum, which doesn't even exist on the American spectrum, so he's hating the election results right now. I definitely have to call him today :)
Canada's right returns from wilderness
The Conservative Party supporters in Stephen Harper's heartland of Calgary, Alberta, have plenty to celebrate this election night.
When they wake up on Tuesday, their leader will be on his way to Ottawa to become the country's first Conservative prime minister in more than 12 years.
The party's years in the wilderness began with Kim Campbell's humiliating defeat in the 1993 election when the party won just two seats in the House of Commons.
Now, after Canada's second election in 18 months, Mr Harper's party has taken seats from the ruling Liberal Party in its traditional territories in Ontario, and from the separatist Bloc Quebecois in French-speaking Quebec. (full article)
"Harper Leads Canada's Conservative Party to Election Victory"
"Harper has duty to govern for all"
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My friend, Max, who for some reason I still keep listed as an author for this blog even though he's only posted a handful of times, must be a bit pissed right now. Max is from the far left corners of the Canadian political spectrum, which doesn't even exist on the American spectrum, so he's hating the election results right now. I definitely have to call him today :)
Canada's right returns from wilderness
The Conservative Party supporters in Stephen Harper's heartland of Calgary, Alberta, have plenty to celebrate this election night.
When they wake up on Tuesday, their leader will be on his way to Ottawa to become the country's first Conservative prime minister in more than 12 years.
The party's years in the wilderness began with Kim Campbell's humiliating defeat in the 1993 election when the party won just two seats in the House of Commons.
Now, after Canada's second election in 18 months, Mr Harper's party has taken seats from the ruling Liberal Party in its traditional territories in Ontario, and from the separatist Bloc Quebecois in French-speaking Quebec. (full article)
"Harper Leads Canada's Conservative Party to Election Victory"
"Harper has duty to govern for all"
"KING CONTENT: BIG MEDIA'S STRUGGLE WITH THE DIGITAL WORLD"
Interesting cover story in The Economist this week. Tony's media company, AlwaysOn, gets a mention in it.
"PAIN is temporary, film is forever." That hopeful thought, which found its way into the original script of Peter Jackson's recent re-make of "King Kong", might be seized upon by today's beleaguered entertainment industry. Media companies are suffering intense pain—and it is starting to seem worryingly permanent. In America shares of "old" media firms such as News Corporation, Comcast and other giants of television, film, radio and print, have fallen 25% behind the S&P 500 in the past two years, despite some heroic financial results. Meanwhile, the market value of Google, which made its debut on the stockmarket in 2004, is now equal to the combined worth of Walt Disney, News Corporation and Viacom, three beasts of the old media jungle. One investor, who recently moved two-thirds of his $1 billion fund out of American media and into emerging-market companies, moans that "the market thinks something's going to get them, whether it's piracy, personal video recorders, or Google."
Desperate to rescue its share price, Viacom broke itself in two on January 3rd. Time Warner, the biggest media group of all, is under attack from Carl Icahn, a corporate predator perfectly adapted to sniff out the weak and vulnerable. The big groups have seen their newspapers and magazines lose readers and advertising to the internet; their music businesses suffer piracy and falling sales; and someone else's video games captivate new generations of consumers. Now come fears about film and TV, the bedrock of their business. (full article)
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Interesting cover story in The Economist this week. Tony's media company, AlwaysOn, gets a mention in it.
"PAIN is temporary, film is forever." That hopeful thought, which found its way into the original script of Peter Jackson's recent re-make of "King Kong", might be seized upon by today's beleaguered entertainment industry. Media companies are suffering intense pain—and it is starting to seem worryingly permanent. In America shares of "old" media firms such as News Corporation, Comcast and other giants of television, film, radio and print, have fallen 25% behind the S&P 500 in the past two years, despite some heroic financial results. Meanwhile, the market value of Google, which made its debut on the stockmarket in 2004, is now equal to the combined worth of Walt Disney, News Corporation and Viacom, three beasts of the old media jungle. One investor, who recently moved two-thirds of his $1 billion fund out of American media and into emerging-market companies, moans that "the market thinks something's going to get them, whether it's piracy, personal video recorders, or Google."
Desperate to rescue its share price, Viacom broke itself in two on January 3rd. Time Warner, the biggest media group of all, is under attack from Carl Icahn, a corporate predator perfectly adapted to sniff out the weak and vulnerable. The big groups have seen their newspapers and magazines lose readers and advertising to the internet; their music businesses suffer piracy and falling sales; and someone else's video games captivate new generations of consumers. Now come fears about film and TV, the bedrock of their business. (full article)
Monday, January 23, 2006
TAKAFUMI HORIE, LIVEDOOR FOUNDER & PRESIDENT ARRESTED
Takafumi Horie was busted in Japan for shady financial stuff. I assume his arrogance was a factor that led to his fall.
Takafumi Horie, the brash, T-shirted entrepreneur whose rise captivated Japan and whose fall spooked the Tokyo Stock Exchange, was arrested tonight on suspicion of spreading false financial information to deceive investors.
Prosecutors said Mr. Horie and three other executives of Livedoor Co. who were also arrested tried to pump up share prices by spreading false information, issuing new shares to "acquire" firms already under their control and then selling the companies to create false "profits."
It was a steep fall for the self-made 33-year-old who only last month was telling workers at a company Christmas party that his ambition was to make his Internet-based conglomerate the largest company in the world. A University of Tokyo dropout, Mr. Horie parlayed a 1995 investment of $50,000 into a company that had a $6 billion market capitalization before last week's crash.
A celebrity member of the "Roppong Hills Tribe," so named for the chic high rise complex where fellow Internet entrepreneurs live, work, and play, Mr. Horie frequently appeared on television talk shows, becoming the spokesman for an aggressive, self-assured "New Japan."
After he tried to break Japan's baseball cartel and save a hometown team, the public affectionately nicknamed the chubby businessman Horie-mon, after Doraemon, a cartoon cat. Last August, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tapped this generational icon to run against a ruling party "dinosaur." The party elder won, but the race further boosted the aura of a business upstart who once said: "All the evils come from aged business managers." (full article)
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Takafumi Horie was busted in Japan for shady financial stuff. I assume his arrogance was a factor that led to his fall.
Takafumi Horie, the brash, T-shirted entrepreneur whose rise captivated Japan and whose fall spooked the Tokyo Stock Exchange, was arrested tonight on suspicion of spreading false financial information to deceive investors.
Prosecutors said Mr. Horie and three other executives of Livedoor Co. who were also arrested tried to pump up share prices by spreading false information, issuing new shares to "acquire" firms already under their control and then selling the companies to create false "profits."
It was a steep fall for the self-made 33-year-old who only last month was telling workers at a company Christmas party that his ambition was to make his Internet-based conglomerate the largest company in the world. A University of Tokyo dropout, Mr. Horie parlayed a 1995 investment of $50,000 into a company that had a $6 billion market capitalization before last week's crash.
A celebrity member of the "Roppong Hills Tribe," so named for the chic high rise complex where fellow Internet entrepreneurs live, work, and play, Mr. Horie frequently appeared on television talk shows, becoming the spokesman for an aggressive, self-assured "New Japan."
After he tried to break Japan's baseball cartel and save a hometown team, the public affectionately nicknamed the chubby businessman Horie-mon, after Doraemon, a cartoon cat. Last August, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tapped this generational icon to run against a ruling party "dinosaur." The party elder won, but the race further boosted the aura of a business upstart who once said: "All the evils come from aged business managers." (full article)
POEM BY JUDGE ROY MOORE
Ever wondered what happened to the judge that was fired for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from his state courthouse? Now he's running for governor of Alabama, and writing a little poetry. HatTip to Kevin P.:
"The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama. Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama. The judge's poem sums it up quite well."
America the Beautiful,
or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride;
I'm glad they'll never see.
Babies piled in dumpsters,
Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty;
your house is on the sand.
Our children wander aimlessly
poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts,
when God has said abstain.
From sea to shining sea,
our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love
and a need to always pray.
We've kept God in our temples,
how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool,
and Heaven is His throne.
We've voted in a government
that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges
who throw reason out the door,
Too soft to place a killer
in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.
You think that God's not angry,
that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?
How are we to face our God,
from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do,
but stem this evil tide?
If we who are His children,
will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face
and mend our evil way:
Then God will hear from Heaven
and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land
and those who live within.
But, America the Beautiful,
if you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God
withdraw His hand from Thee.
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Ever wondered what happened to the judge that was fired for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from his state courthouse? Now he's running for governor of Alabama, and writing a little poetry. HatTip to Kevin P.:
"The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama. Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama. The judge's poem sums it up quite well."
America the Beautiful,
or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride;
I'm glad they'll never see.
Babies piled in dumpsters,
Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty;
your house is on the sand.
Our children wander aimlessly
poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts,
when God has said abstain.
From sea to shining sea,
our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love
and a need to always pray.
We've kept God in our temples,
how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool,
and Heaven is His throne.
We've voted in a government
that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges
who throw reason out the door,
Too soft to place a killer
in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.
You think that God's not angry,
that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?
How are we to face our God,
from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do,
but stem this evil tide?
If we who are His children,
will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face
and mend our evil way:
Then God will hear from Heaven
and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land
and those who live within.
But, America the Beautiful,
if you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God
withdraw His hand from Thee.
U.S. INTELLIGENCE FLAWS PREVENTS A SOLUTION IN NORTH KOREA
Interesting piece by Prof. Roy Kim, who is a professor of International Political Economy at Drexel University and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
I'll try to comment on this later tonight. I have to check out since I have a lot of work I have to finish this morning.
U.S. Intelligence Flaws on North Korea
False belief in regime's weakness prevents solution to nuclear crisis
What to do with nuclear North Korea? The United States has been attempting to denuclearize Pyongyang, a foreign policy objective it has yet to accomplish.
With the passage of time, North Korea has been perfecting its nuclear arsenal and missile delivery systems; and it has become all the more challenging for Washington to achieve its basic policy objective. Both the Democratic Clinton and the Republican Bush administrations have failed to tame North Korean nuclear ambitions. (full op-ed)
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Interesting piece by Prof. Roy Kim, who is a professor of International Political Economy at Drexel University and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
I'll try to comment on this later tonight. I have to check out since I have a lot of work I have to finish this morning.
U.S. Intelligence Flaws on North Korea
False belief in regime's weakness prevents solution to nuclear crisis
What to do with nuclear North Korea? The United States has been attempting to denuclearize Pyongyang, a foreign policy objective it has yet to accomplish.
With the passage of time, North Korea has been perfecting its nuclear arsenal and missile delivery systems; and it has become all the more challenging for Washington to achieve its basic policy objective. Both the Democratic Clinton and the Republican Bush administrations have failed to tame North Korean nuclear ambitions. (full op-ed)
"SUNDANCE BECOMING A BLOG FEST"
Makes sense. Pretty good move by Jason Calacanis.
As befits its indie roots, the Sundance Film Festival has long played host to innovations that have spread elsewhere.
Blogging is one of them. Personal blogs, millions of them, are spreading on the Internet like kudzu, from LiveJournal.com to MySpace.com. A professional blog such as Gawker Media's gossipy Defamer.com can draw as many as 270,000 page views per day.
As blogs become more successful, they're challenging traditional media, and this year's Sundance marks a fascinating juncture as newly powerful blogs like Cinematical.com take on the likes of The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
"Blogs are becoming a vital part of an independent film scene that relies on word-of-mouth and alternative media to truly thrive," says Eugene Hernandez, editor of the pioneering indie film site IndieWire.com, which hosts some two dozen blogs and this year has asked 12 filmmakers from Sundance and the concurrent Slamdance to blog about their experiences.
BloggingSundance.com, a pioneering festival blog, was dreamed up by the founder of the Weblogs Inc. Network, Jason Calacanis, who persuaded the festival to let him blog in 2003. "I blogged live from inside movie theaters. I'd sit in the back row with my laptop," he recalls. "It's the closest thing to live coverage." Film fanatic Calacanis continued to blog Sundance through 2004 and '05, when he reviewed 19 to 20 movies by himself. "When I'm at Sundance I don't go to parties, I watch films," he says. (full article)
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Makes sense. Pretty good move by Jason Calacanis.
As befits its indie roots, the Sundance Film Festival has long played host to innovations that have spread elsewhere.
Blogging is one of them. Personal blogs, millions of them, are spreading on the Internet like kudzu, from LiveJournal.com to MySpace.com. A professional blog such as Gawker Media's gossipy Defamer.com can draw as many as 270,000 page views per day.
As blogs become more successful, they're challenging traditional media, and this year's Sundance marks a fascinating juncture as newly powerful blogs like Cinematical.com take on the likes of The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
"Blogs are becoming a vital part of an independent film scene that relies on word-of-mouth and alternative media to truly thrive," says Eugene Hernandez, editor of the pioneering indie film site IndieWire.com, which hosts some two dozen blogs and this year has asked 12 filmmakers from Sundance and the concurrent Slamdance to blog about their experiences.
BloggingSundance.com, a pioneering festival blog, was dreamed up by the founder of the Weblogs Inc. Network, Jason Calacanis, who persuaded the festival to let him blog in 2003. "I blogged live from inside movie theaters. I'd sit in the back row with my laptop," he recalls. "It's the closest thing to live coverage." Film fanatic Calacanis continued to blog Sundance through 2004 and '05, when he reviewed 19 to 20 movies by himself. "When I'm at Sundance I don't go to parties, I watch films," he says. (full article)
Friday, January 20, 2006
LARRY LESSIG DOES A BOOK PROMOTION IN 'SECOND LIFE'
This is interesting. Almost wrote "cool" but it really isn't. More geeky than cool.
As a well-known author and legal critic, Larry Lessig is used to talking to large crowds. But on Wednesday night, the Stanford Law School professor had an entirely new kind of public audience.
That's because Lessig made an appearance in the virtual world "Second Life" to promote his book "Free Culture" and to talk about what he considers to be the government's counterintuitive approach to copyright.
Taking the persona of an avatar--a digital representation of a person or character--designed to look like himself, Lessig found that talking about complex legal, social and technological issues in a 3D digital environment, where he could read questions and type out answers, gave him freedoms that no real-world appearance ever could. (full article)
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This is interesting. Almost wrote "cool" but it really isn't. More geeky than cool.
As a well-known author and legal critic, Larry Lessig is used to talking to large crowds. But on Wednesday night, the Stanford Law School professor had an entirely new kind of public audience.
That's because Lessig made an appearance in the virtual world "Second Life" to promote his book "Free Culture" and to talk about what he considers to be the government's counterintuitive approach to copyright.
Taking the persona of an avatar--a digital representation of a person or character--designed to look like himself, Lessig found that talking about complex legal, social and technological issues in a 3D digital environment, where he could read questions and type out answers, gave him freedoms that no real-world appearance ever could. (full article)
U.S. STRIKE KILLED MIDHAT MURSI, AL QAEDA BOMB MAKER... LEFT CRIES FOUL?
The U.S. strike in Pakistan killed Midhat Mursi, Al Qaeda's bomb maker, Khalid Habib, operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for al Qaeda.
So what does the left do? Hurt America. James Taranto has a good review and comments on this situation where the left repeats the same idiotic actions against our country:
"Scrolling through perhaps a dozen big lefty blogs, I did not see a single post that actually expressed regret that we had not killed al Zawahiri," TigerHawk notes. And it's not just the bloggers; consider this column from Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe:
The airstrike in Pakistan reaffirms how our behavior is plummeting in the direction of the evil we proclaim to fight. At home, we are appalled by drive-by shootings that take out innocent children. Abroad, the fly-by airstrike is the source of no remorse, with dead children and mothers taken very lightly.
It strikes us that some of these people are so consumed with hatred for President Bush that they have crossed the line into reflexive anti-Americanism. As a prominent politician once said:
There is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America, or ignoring your own responsibilities.
The speaker: Bill Clinton, May 5, 1995.
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The U.S. strike in Pakistan killed Midhat Mursi, Al Qaeda's bomb maker, Khalid Habib, operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for al Qaeda.
So what does the left do? Hurt America. James Taranto has a good review and comments on this situation where the left repeats the same idiotic actions against our country:
"Scrolling through perhaps a dozen big lefty blogs, I did not see a single post that actually expressed regret that we had not killed al Zawahiri," TigerHawk notes. And it's not just the bloggers; consider this column from Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe:
The airstrike in Pakistan reaffirms how our behavior is plummeting in the direction of the evil we proclaim to fight. At home, we are appalled by drive-by shootings that take out innocent children. Abroad, the fly-by airstrike is the source of no remorse, with dead children and mothers taken very lightly.
It strikes us that some of these people are so consumed with hatred for President Bush that they have crossed the line into reflexive anti-Americanism. As a prominent politician once said:
There is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America, or ignoring your own responsibilities.
The speaker: Bill Clinton, May 5, 1995.
"BIN LADEN'S RAY OF HOPE"
Power Line has a good read in response to yesterday news about Bin Laden's warning and offer of a truce "with fair conditions."
It doesn't take a genius to see that things are going very badly for bin Laden and al Qaeda. Where does he turn for hope? To American opinion polls--which, of course, he reads very selectively. Still, think how encouraging it must be to him to read about calls for withdrawal from Iraq by Congressmen like Jack Murtha. It's hard to see much daylight between Murtha's position and bin Laden's: we're losing in Iraq; the American people are tired of the conflict; Iraq is a breeding ground for terrorists; and al Qaeda is less likely to attack us if we just give up and go home. Given his isolation, bin Laden could be excused for believing that he's just one Congressional election away from salvation. (full post)
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Power Line has a good read in response to yesterday news about Bin Laden's warning and offer of a truce "with fair conditions."
It doesn't take a genius to see that things are going very badly for bin Laden and al Qaeda. Where does he turn for hope? To American opinion polls--which, of course, he reads very selectively. Still, think how encouraging it must be to him to read about calls for withdrawal from Iraq by Congressmen like Jack Murtha. It's hard to see much daylight between Murtha's position and bin Laden's: we're losing in Iraq; the American people are tired of the conflict; Iraq is a breeding ground for terrorists; and al Qaeda is less likely to attack us if we just give up and go home. Given his isolation, bin Laden could be excused for believing that he's just one Congressional election away from salvation. (full post)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
TESTING OUT GOINGON'S BLOG ROUTING FEATURE
The random post below that doesn't have my standard header format was blogged from GoingOn's alpha build. I just wanted to do a quick test post, so I did and it was routed to my Blogger blog. Within the GO platform, you will be able to route one post to your personal GoingOn blog, other GoingOn network blogs, and your outside blogs, such as Blogger and WordPress. Very cool. This does kick ass!
Tekriti kicks ass!
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The random post below that doesn't have my standard header format was blogged from GoingOn's alpha build. I just wanted to do a quick test post, so I did and it was routed to my Blogger blog. Within the GO platform, you will be able to route one post to your personal GoingOn blog, other GoingOn network blogs, and your outside blogs, such as Blogger and WordPress. Very cool. This does kick ass!
Tekriti kicks ass!
MULTIPLY FLATTERING GOINGON?
So I recently visited Multiply, a blogging and social networking platform for the general population. I haven't visited in a while, so I decided to check out the site.
Oh. A new interface. Whoa! That looks very familiar to me. That looks a bit like our design. Hmmm...
I also received an email from them yesterday announcing their various changes. Anyway, I believe GoingOn's design and toolbar is unique. It's not something that people would derive from visiting all these Web 2.0 services out there. It was a design specific to our network of networks model and an idea that Tony developed for all our users to have floating personal toolbar.
So it's logical for me to assume Multiply got the idea for their new design from our SiliconBeat and Mercury News coverage where our mockup was posted:
Or from a venture capitalist that knows both parties? Who knows. Well, that mockup has been up since last July and we're still not live yet and they are :) Here is Multiply's new redesign:
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So I recently visited Multiply, a blogging and social networking platform for the general population. I haven't visited in a while, so I decided to check out the site.
Oh. A new interface. Whoa! That looks very familiar to me. That looks a bit like our design. Hmmm...
I also received an email from them yesterday announcing their various changes. Anyway, I believe GoingOn's design and toolbar is unique. It's not something that people would derive from visiting all these Web 2.0 services out there. It was a design specific to our network of networks model and an idea that Tony developed for all our users to have floating personal toolbar.
So it's logical for me to assume Multiply got the idea for their new design from our SiliconBeat and Mercury News coverage where our mockup was posted:
Or from a venture capitalist that knows both parties? Who knows. Well, that mockup has been up since last July and we're still not live yet and they are :) Here is Multiply's new redesign:
GOINGON NETWORKS LOGO
We recently finalized our corporate logo design. Now we can finally print business cards! Any thoughts?
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We recently finalized our corporate logo design. Now we can finally print business cards! Any thoughts?
"DO THE RIGHT THING"
Just a great op-ed by the National Review's Michael Ledeen.
Do the Right Thing
Let’s avoid making a catastrophe out of an embarrassment.
Bit by bit we are getting to the inevitable showdown with Iran. This administration, like every other Western government, has hoped against hope that it would not come to this. President George W. Bush, for reasons good and bad, threw in with the Europeans' phony-negotiation scheme, even though he knew it would fail. Like the others, he hoped that revolution would erupt, and that decisive action on our part would not be necessary. Like the others, he preferred not to face the hard fact that revolutions rarely succeed without external support. Had Ronald Reagan been around, he would have told W. that the democratic revolution that ended the Cold War only finally succeeded when the United States supported it.
The failure to craft an effective Iran policy has plagued this administration, and indeed the entire American political class, for five long years. Calls of "faster, please" were dismissed, in large part because they failed to resonate in the policy community, aside from a few brave souls in Congress (Jon Kyl, John Cornyn, Rick Santorum, Sam Brownback, Illeana Ros-Lehtinen come to mind. No thanks to the nominal leaders, Henry Hyde and Richard Lugar, both in full denial, in lockstep with Foggy Bottom and Langley).
Wishful thinking still dominates global "leadership." The pathetic Jack Straw intones, "I don't think we should rush our fences here. There are plenty of examples where a matter is referred to the Security Council and the Security Council takes action and that action is followed without sanction." And he wistfully adds: "the fact that Iran is so concerned not to see it referred to the Security Council underlines the strength of that body."
This, at a moment when Iran, which either possesses or will soon have atomic bombs and excellent intermediate-range ballistic missiles, scoffs at the Security Council, threatens to drive oil prices through $100 per barrel, and chants that the West needs Iran more than Iran needs the West. Meanwhile, Secretary Rice, trying to put a brave face on a potentially catastrophic policy failure, happily claims that Iran "is isolating itself" in the world community.
But it is not so. Iran has powerful defenders and apologists (Russia, China, and often Saudi Arabia), and, far from isolating itself, Iran's ability to intimidate her neighbors is growing relentlessly. Just a few days ago, when Iraqi patrol boats attempted to stop Iranian oil smugglers, Iranian naval vessels opened fire, killing several Iraqi sailors and enabling the smugglers to proceed. Such events do not register against the din of empty words directed at our feckless demands that Iran cease arming herself. (full article)
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Just a great op-ed by the National Review's Michael Ledeen.
Do the Right Thing
Let’s avoid making a catastrophe out of an embarrassment.
Bit by bit we are getting to the inevitable showdown with Iran. This administration, like every other Western government, has hoped against hope that it would not come to this. President George W. Bush, for reasons good and bad, threw in with the Europeans' phony-negotiation scheme, even though he knew it would fail. Like the others, he hoped that revolution would erupt, and that decisive action on our part would not be necessary. Like the others, he preferred not to face the hard fact that revolutions rarely succeed without external support. Had Ronald Reagan been around, he would have told W. that the democratic revolution that ended the Cold War only finally succeeded when the United States supported it.
The failure to craft an effective Iran policy has plagued this administration, and indeed the entire American political class, for five long years. Calls of "faster, please" were dismissed, in large part because they failed to resonate in the policy community, aside from a few brave souls in Congress (Jon Kyl, John Cornyn, Rick Santorum, Sam Brownback, Illeana Ros-Lehtinen come to mind. No thanks to the nominal leaders, Henry Hyde and Richard Lugar, both in full denial, in lockstep with Foggy Bottom and Langley).
Wishful thinking still dominates global "leadership." The pathetic Jack Straw intones, "I don't think we should rush our fences here. There are plenty of examples where a matter is referred to the Security Council and the Security Council takes action and that action is followed without sanction." And he wistfully adds: "the fact that Iran is so concerned not to see it referred to the Security Council underlines the strength of that body."
This, at a moment when Iran, which either possesses or will soon have atomic bombs and excellent intermediate-range ballistic missiles, scoffs at the Security Council, threatens to drive oil prices through $100 per barrel, and chants that the West needs Iran more than Iran needs the West. Meanwhile, Secretary Rice, trying to put a brave face on a potentially catastrophic policy failure, happily claims that Iran "is isolating itself" in the world community.
But it is not so. Iran has powerful defenders and apologists (Russia, China, and often Saudi Arabia), and, far from isolating itself, Iran's ability to intimidate her neighbors is growing relentlessly. Just a few days ago, when Iraqi patrol boats attempted to stop Iranian oil smugglers, Iranian naval vessels opened fire, killing several Iraqi sailors and enabling the smugglers to proceed. Such events do not register against the din of empty words directed at our feckless demands that Iran cease arming herself. (full article)
OPEN SOURCE NEWS SMORGASBORD
I'm continuing on the smorgasbord theme of grouping news items. "Smorgasbord" is simply a great word. As the word rolls off my tongue, I immediately think of the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. Then I think about a real Swedish smorgasbord with the awesome pickled fish, cold cuts, and cheese. What a great concept for a buffet.
Anyway, here are various open source news items. Some as of today and others from weeks ago.
"New open-source license targets DRM, Hollywood"
The new version of the most widely used open-source license takes a "highly aggressive" stance against the digital rights management software that's widely favored in the entertainment industry, said Eben Moglen, general counsel for the Free Software Foundation.
"Open Source or Closed Source?"
Great post by Brad Feld. Especially since this will be a discussion the GoingOn team will be having later this year.
"Nessus 3.0: The End of the Age of Open-Source Innocence?"
"Here's the danger we are running into," said Alan Shimel, Chief Strategy Officer for StillSecure. "People contribute resources to these communities, whether it be time, money, or code. When they see everything they give converted for the commercial success of an individual rather than as a community as a whole, how long do you think they are going to want to keep giving?"
"Does Open-Source Software Make The FCC Irrelevant?"
Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen wants to destroy the Federal Communications Commission. Not as some kind of terrorist act, but because technology is rapidly making it irrelevant.
The agency might have made sense in the 1920s, Moglen says, when it was formed to assign specific frequencies to broadcasters so they wouldn’t try to drown each other out by cranking up the transmitter power. But a new generation of intelligent radios, combined with equally clever computer networks, is making it possible for anybody to use the airwaves without interfering with anybody else. (full article)
"Open Source Documentary Development"
If artists can assemble operating systems and computer hardware via an open source model why can t artists assemble open source movies
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I'm continuing on the smorgasbord theme of grouping news items. "Smorgasbord" is simply a great word. As the word rolls off my tongue, I immediately think of the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. Then I think about a real Swedish smorgasbord with the awesome pickled fish, cold cuts, and cheese. What a great concept for a buffet.
Anyway, here are various open source news items. Some as of today and others from weeks ago.
"New open-source license targets DRM, Hollywood"
The new version of the most widely used open-source license takes a "highly aggressive" stance against the digital rights management software that's widely favored in the entertainment industry, said Eben Moglen, general counsel for the Free Software Foundation.
"Open Source or Closed Source?"
Great post by Brad Feld. Especially since this will be a discussion the GoingOn team will be having later this year.
"Nessus 3.0: The End of the Age of Open-Source Innocence?"
"Here's the danger we are running into," said Alan Shimel, Chief Strategy Officer for StillSecure. "People contribute resources to these communities, whether it be time, money, or code. When they see everything they give converted for the commercial success of an individual rather than as a community as a whole, how long do you think they are going to want to keep giving?"
"Does Open-Source Software Make The FCC Irrelevant?"
Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen wants to destroy the Federal Communications Commission. Not as some kind of terrorist act, but because technology is rapidly making it irrelevant.
The agency might have made sense in the 1920s, Moglen says, when it was formed to assign specific frequencies to broadcasters so they wouldn’t try to drown each other out by cranking up the transmitter power. But a new generation of intelligent radios, combined with equally clever computer networks, is making it possible for anybody to use the airwaves without interfering with anybody else. (full article)
"Open Source Documentary Development"
If artists can assemble operating systems and computer hardware via an open source model why can t artists assemble open source movies
CATCHING UP AGAIN WITH THE NEWS
Yep. I'm playing catch up again. Some decent to great articles and blog posts I haven't shared yet.
"Datapower: VC Lessons"
Great post by Bill Burnham, especially the section on how some VCs can be unethical.
"Geeks Sleep Through Democratic Wake-Up Call"
'That's why I'm a bit offended that we haven't seen more coverage of the Democratic "innovation agenda."'
"News Corp.'s Murdoch Details MySpace.com Plan"
Murdoch knocking on the portals. Watch out Yahoo!? Let's see how MySpaces turns those traffic numbers into money first.
"Embraceable Yahoo?"
'Wall Street's got a crush on Google but investors may be overlooking the growth prospects of Yahoo!'
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Yep. I'm playing catch up again. Some decent to great articles and blog posts I haven't shared yet.
"Datapower: VC Lessons"
Great post by Bill Burnham, especially the section on how some VCs can be unethical.
"Geeks Sleep Through Democratic Wake-Up Call"
'That's why I'm a bit offended that we haven't seen more coverage of the Democratic "innovation agenda."'
"News Corp.'s Murdoch Details MySpace.com Plan"
Murdoch knocking on the portals. Watch out Yahoo!? Let's see how MySpaces turns those traffic numbers into money first.
"Embraceable Yahoo?"
'Wall Street's got a crush on Google but investors may be overlooking the growth prospects of Yahoo!'
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
OHMYNEWS'S INTERNATIONAL CITIZEN REPORTERS
I got an email and picture from Todd Thacker, Editor of OhmyNews International. Mr. Yeon-ho Oh, the founder and CEO, just put up portraits of their various citizen reporters on his office wall (i'm three over and one down from the right).
While visiting the site just now, I came across a good piece by Jean Min, Director of OhmyNews International:
Journalism As a Conversation
'Only as an afterthought did it dawn on us that the audience is the real content on the Web'
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I got an email and picture from Todd Thacker, Editor of OhmyNews International. Mr. Yeon-ho Oh, the founder and CEO, just put up portraits of their various citizen reporters on his office wall (i'm three over and one down from the right).
While visiting the site just now, I came across a good piece by Jean Min, Director of OhmyNews International:
Journalism As a Conversation
'Only as an afterthought did it dawn on us that the audience is the real content on the Web'
"WASHINGTON VENTURES FURTHER INTO MEKONG DELTA"
Mingi discusses the budding U.S.-China rivalry in the Mekong Delta here.
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Mingi discusses the budding U.S.-China rivalry in the Mekong Delta here.
VENTURE CAPITAL NEWS SMORGASBORD FOR THE WEEK
Since there were a bunch of VC related news and posts, I thought I should just put it under one post for easy reading:
"VC Firms Have Trouble Putting Cash to Work" from WSJ's Startup Journal.
It was a mixed year for the venture-capital business, with firms raising more money through Sept. 30 than they did in all of 2004 -- but sometimes having trouble putting all that cash to work at attractive prices.
Some venture capitalists even say their industry may have bounced back a little too robustly from the devastating bust of 2001 and 2002. Valuations -- the price tags venture capitalists put on small companies in which they invest -- soared to the highest level in four years as of Sept. 30. That could put pressure on returns down the road, since investors are paying more for the same share of a company. (full article)
"Harvard Business School VC Conference" from Seeing Both Sides.
I had the priviledge of spending the day today back at Harvard Business School at a venture capital conference organized by the burgeoning entrepreneurship department. Professor Bill Sahlman (who has easily trained more VCs than any other professor) organized a spectacular affair with 60-70 VCs from around the world, although with a heavy Boston weighting. In addition to the riff raff such as myself, there were numerous luminaries there, including Arthur Rock (who wrote the business plan for Intel), Peter Brooke (Advent founder), Henry McCance (longtime head of Greylock), Jim Breyer (Accel), Rick Burnes (founder of Charles River Ventures) and others. And the speakers outshone the audience!
A few interesting perspectives shared today:
* Larry Summers, Harvard's President, emphasized the transformational impact that technological innovations in life sciences will have on our economy and lives, and the important role of the VC industry in taking projects out of the lab and enabling widespread distribution. (full post)
The next two links are coverage from the Churchill Club's Eighth Annual Top Ten Tech Trends Debate. Christine and I attended the event last Thursday and enjoyed the show. Tony was moderating and told me beforehand that it's basically a roast where everyone rips on each other. I thought Tony's initial jab at John Doerr was funny. He told John Doerr that he's been trying to contact him through Friendster and was wondering if he was using MySpace now. I looked around and most of the attendees didn't get it. The joke flew, like a jet, over their heads since it looked like most of the crowd was over 40 and probably never used either one of the services and probably never heard of Friendster.
John Doerr had his moments too when he started the trickle that became a shower on Accel's Joe Schoendorf. Schoendorf explained that he was in Shanghai and then NYC and then somewhere else a couple times, so Doerr started to roll his eyes. He mocked Joe about his overemphasis on where he travelled to over the past week. Ann Winblad made a similar hilarious poke when she started her thoughts on a trend by saying, "I was in San Francisco yesterday and the day before..."
"Venture capitalists predict top 2006 tech trends" from The Mercury News.
"VCs Spar Over Tech Direction" from InternetNews.com.
The hottest ticket in Silicon Valley Thursday was entry to the Churchill Club's 8th annual "Top Ten Tech Trends Debate," which included a panel of all-star venture capitalists.
A couple of sharp disagreements punctuated an otherwise friendly discussion between the business rivals at a standing-room only hall at the Crowne Plaza, Cabana hotel here.
Ann Winblad, partner in Hummer-Winblad, probably went the farthest out on a limb with her prediction that big enterprise software firms Microsoft, SAP and Oracle will lose dominance in the $100 billion application software market over the next 36 months.
"The Internet is having a very disruptive affect on the software market," said Winblad. "Open source and software as a service, and peer to peer versus point to point.
"And also the completely new pricing and business models for newer applications will redefine the applications space to make today's leaders tomorrows laggards."
No one on the panel agreed with her, though they all liked the idea. (full article)
UPDATE: Michael Moe brings another view of the Churchill Club event, "Here Comes the Sun"
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Since there were a bunch of VC related news and posts, I thought I should just put it under one post for easy reading:
"VC Firms Have Trouble Putting Cash to Work" from WSJ's Startup Journal.
It was a mixed year for the venture-capital business, with firms raising more money through Sept. 30 than they did in all of 2004 -- but sometimes having trouble putting all that cash to work at attractive prices.
Some venture capitalists even say their industry may have bounced back a little too robustly from the devastating bust of 2001 and 2002. Valuations -- the price tags venture capitalists put on small companies in which they invest -- soared to the highest level in four years as of Sept. 30. That could put pressure on returns down the road, since investors are paying more for the same share of a company. (full article)
"Harvard Business School VC Conference" from Seeing Both Sides.
I had the priviledge of spending the day today back at Harvard Business School at a venture capital conference organized by the burgeoning entrepreneurship department. Professor Bill Sahlman (who has easily trained more VCs than any other professor) organized a spectacular affair with 60-70 VCs from around the world, although with a heavy Boston weighting. In addition to the riff raff such as myself, there were numerous luminaries there, including Arthur Rock (who wrote the business plan for Intel), Peter Brooke (Advent founder), Henry McCance (longtime head of Greylock), Jim Breyer (Accel), Rick Burnes (founder of Charles River Ventures) and others. And the speakers outshone the audience!
A few interesting perspectives shared today:
* Larry Summers, Harvard's President, emphasized the transformational impact that technological innovations in life sciences will have on our economy and lives, and the important role of the VC industry in taking projects out of the lab and enabling widespread distribution. (full post)
The next two links are coverage from the Churchill Club's Eighth Annual Top Ten Tech Trends Debate. Christine and I attended the event last Thursday and enjoyed the show. Tony was moderating and told me beforehand that it's basically a roast where everyone rips on each other. I thought Tony's initial jab at John Doerr was funny. He told John Doerr that he's been trying to contact him through Friendster and was wondering if he was using MySpace now. I looked around and most of the attendees didn't get it. The joke flew, like a jet, over their heads since it looked like most of the crowd was over 40 and probably never used either one of the services and probably never heard of Friendster.
John Doerr had his moments too when he started the trickle that became a shower on Accel's Joe Schoendorf. Schoendorf explained that he was in Shanghai and then NYC and then somewhere else a couple times, so Doerr started to roll his eyes. He mocked Joe about his overemphasis on where he travelled to over the past week. Ann Winblad made a similar hilarious poke when she started her thoughts on a trend by saying, "I was in San Francisco yesterday and the day before..."
"Venture capitalists predict top 2006 tech trends" from The Mercury News.
"VCs Spar Over Tech Direction" from InternetNews.com.
The hottest ticket in Silicon Valley Thursday was entry to the Churchill Club's 8th annual "Top Ten Tech Trends Debate," which included a panel of all-star venture capitalists.
A couple of sharp disagreements punctuated an otherwise friendly discussion between the business rivals at a standing-room only hall at the Crowne Plaza, Cabana hotel here.
Ann Winblad, partner in Hummer-Winblad, probably went the farthest out on a limb with her prediction that big enterprise software firms Microsoft, SAP and Oracle will lose dominance in the $100 billion application software market over the next 36 months.
"The Internet is having a very disruptive affect on the software market," said Winblad. "Open source and software as a service, and peer to peer versus point to point.
"And also the completely new pricing and business models for newer applications will redefine the applications space to make today's leaders tomorrows laggards."
No one on the panel agreed with her, though they all liked the idea. (full article)
UPDATE: Michael Moe brings another view of the Churchill Club event, "Here Comes the Sun"
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
MICHAEL CROW'S RADICAL REMAKE OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Prof. Michael Crow is currently president of Arizona State University and the former Executive Vice Provost of Columbia University. He was also my favorite professor during my graduate school years at Columbia, and an advisor for my first startup, ViewPlus, and for the failed early-stage fund I mentioned a few posts below.
He was one of the most brilliant people I have ever met, and I knew during my time at Columbia he would soon be heading a major university in the U.S. I was recently tipped off to an article written in the The Chronicle of Higher Education about Michael Crow's recent vision, work and controversy surrounding him at ASU. His vision for ASU really reflects his character and core. A person of incredible energy and intellect who makes an impact wherever he goes. He truly wants to make the organizations and people within these systems better, and not just marginally better but on a scale others would not have ever imagined.
I obtained a copy of this article, so I'm posting it in its entirety.
Raising Arizona
Is Michael Crow's remaking of a state university a model, or a mirage?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By JOHN L. PULLEY
Nothing sharpens a visionary's inner eye quite like a desert sojourn. Here, where metropolitan Phoenix sprawls across a sun-baked landscape, one of the pre-eminent visionaries is Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University.
Upon his arrival from Columbia University, in 2002, Mr. Crow stirred up the dust by announcing plans to transform Arizona State into the country's premier urban research institution. Repudiating the university's reputation as a party school of modest ambition, he vowed to "blow up the status quo" and reassemble the pieces into a model for higher education in the 21st century — what he calls "a new American university."
Three years into his 10-year plan, he is laboring to achieve the twin goals of expanding the size and scope of Arizona State and raising its quality. Eager to abandon the ivory-tower model of higher education that has shaped many American colleges, he wants to transform Arizona State into a university embedded in its community, one that will serve as a powerful force for social, cultural, economic, and environmental progress throughout the state.
He says Arizona State will measure its success not by the proportion of students it rejects but by the educational attainment of the students it accepts. To accommodate the state's fast-growing population of college-age men and women — many of whom are minority-group members from low-income backgrounds — he plans to increase enrollment, already the nation's fourth-largest, from 61,000 to 95,000 by 2020, a 15-year growth of 56 percent.
In Arizona, as elsewhere, state support for higher education has withered in recent years. Mr. Crow says Arizona State will become more entrepreneurial and less reliant on state funds, which cover 31 percent of its annual budget. He expects the university's annual research budget, now $183-million, to double in the next three or four years, with new funds coming from industry, foundations, the state, and federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.
At the same time, he says, Arizona State will revive downtown Phoenix and help it to diversify the region's sluggish low-tech economy, which can no longer rely on the sources of revenue described by locals as "the five C's — cattle, cotton, copper, citrus, and climate."
Arizona State will be "the new gold standard" for American research universities, Mr. Crow says.
Fool's gold, detractors say. It's not that excellence and bigness are mutually exclusive, they argue. Ohio State University at Columbus, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the University of Texas at Austin are excellent institutions, of considerable size. No American university, though, has become both bigger and better on the scale and the timeline envisioned by Arizona State's 16th president. No American university has tried.
"His plan won't work," says Geoffrey A. Clark, a professor of anthropology. "It's a pipe dream. Arizona State University will come out of this as a poorer university."
Critics complain that Mr. Crow has run roughshod over the faculty and others with whom he does not see eye to eye, and that his reform agenda diverges too much from core academic values.
Even his supporters suggest that he may be doing too much, too fast, at too high a cost. He rejects such criticisms, and suggests that he may have no other choice.
The typical university evolves slowly, Mr. Crow says, but "if we evolve slowly, we're dead."
Big Challenges
The challenges that Mr. Crow must overcome are substantial. They include institutional inertia, rapid cultural change, and a local economy based on cheap land and cheap labor.
Phoenix is growing explosively. Maricopa County adds more than 100,000 residents every year, and the metropolitan area is projected to have as many as eight million people in 25 years.
The face of Phoenix is changing as well. As Arizona's population increased 40 percent in the 1990s, the number of Hispanic residents swelled by 88 percent. The city's population born outside the United States grew by 136 percent, with many being poor and uneducated illegal immigrants.
The local economy lags behind those of other large metropolitan areas. Phoenix has a comparatively large number of factory jobs and relatively little corporate investment in research and development. Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, decided against relocating a research facility here because Arizona State's engineering school was not good enough, the university's own officials say.
The city is home to four Fortune 500 companies, yet Arizona State is its only nationally known not-for-profit college. Phoenix is the largest city in the country without a traditional medical school. By comparison, Mr. Crow says, Philadelphia, with a comparable population, has 16 Fortune 500 headquarters and numerous colleges of distinction, including Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Arizona's public schools are troubled as well. Less than 60 percent of the state's high-school students graduate, and of those who do, only 42 percent go on to college. Nationally about 57 percent of high-school graduates enroll in college. Most college students from Arizona's 22 Indian tribes drop out.
Yet the sheer numbers of students enrolled in the public-school system guarantee a continuing surge of men and women seeking higher education. The state Constitution stipulates that an affordable college education be available to residents, and the Arizona Board of Regents requires Arizona State to admit all state residents who have graduated in the top half of their high-school classes. The university enrolled a record 8,467 first-time freshmen this fall, a 10-percent jump from one year ago and double the number in 1995.
Even without an improvement in Arizona's dismal high-school-graduation rate, the state's public system of higher education will require an estimated 180,000 seats in all by 2017 to accommodate demand. The state's three major public institutions — Arizona State, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona — now have combined enrollments of about 120,000 students.
"We're struggling to deal with diversification of a region on a large scale," says Mr. Crow. "The changes affecting all of America are happening here extremely rapidly."
But the biggest obstacle to progress, he says, may be an affinity for the status quo.
When he arrived at Arizona State, Mr. Crow recalls, a member of a local editorial board told him, "'I don't know where they find guys like you.' He said, 'I went to ASU. I'm a mediocre guy. This is a mediocre place.'"
"There's comfort in mediocrity," Mr. Crow says. "The problem is that you can't stay mediocre. You'll fall back while others move forward."
Maria T. Allison, vice provost of the Division of Graduate Studies, says she has "seen more dynamic change here in the past three years than I've seen in a long time. That kind of shake-up has sent some people adrift. There's angst."
Big Ideas
Arizona's regents didn't look far to find this president. Mr. Crow had been a part-time consultant to the university for a decade while working as a vice provost at Columbia University. There he was known as an entrepreneurial leader who didn't shrink from risk or controversy. He persuaded Columbia to lease Biosphere 2, the artificial, self-sustaining, enclosed environment for humans built in the Arizona desert; he pushed the university to capitalize on its intellectual capital by aggressively patenting inventions and selling rights to the private sector; and he created Fathom, an online-learning venture that was supposed to enrich Columbia through the sale of Web-based courses and seminars (The Chronicle, February 9, 2001).
Results of those ventures were mixed. Columbia leads American universities in patent revenue, but the university shut down Fathom, which lost millions of dollars, and prematurely discontinued research at Biosphere 2, which had cost it at least $25-million.
Despite his record at Columbia, Mr. Crow "exhibited the leadership style that we thought would be good for the university," says Christina A. Palacios, president of the Arizona Board of Regents. "He is a person who is creative and energetic and who thinks deeply."
(BM: What is the writer trying to state here? "Despite his record at Columbia..."? Crow's record was excellent. During his time at Columbia, he created the model that other major research universities followed to generate revenue from their patent portfolios)
Mr. Crow brings more to the job than professional experience. His mother died when he was 9, and his father, a career Navy man, moved the family often. By the time he enrolled in college, he had attended 17 schools. His peripatetic childhood taught him how to navigate the social and cultural complexities of new environments. As a science-program administrator at Iowa State University, he earned a reputation for funneling federal pork-barrel spending to the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory there. At Columbia he controlled the largest pool of discretionary money on the campus. He says that he has "learned how to acquire resources," and that he is at his best when things are in flux.
"I've always been attracted to fast-moving, complex things," he says.
Throughout his life, he has been drawn to sports that tested his individual skill and grit — wrestling in high school, playing nose tackle on the football team, throwing the javelin in college, hiking and mountain biking today. He often gets only four hours of sleep a night.
"Crow has quickly become the Energizer bunny," says Carolyn S. Allen, a Republican state senator.
The president is an excellent pitchman. His gift for explaining complex subjects makes him "irreplaceable at being in front of the State Legislature, the City Council, and the business community," says Kenneth Bennett, president of Arizona's State Senate.
Mr. Crow rarely stops selling his vision, on a typical day promoting it to the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce at breakfast, the Economic Club of Phoenix at lunch, and once more to a crowd gathered for a dinner banquet. "It's hard to sit in a room with him and not be captivated," Ms. Allen says.
Looking Ahead
Whether or not Mr. Crow's vision will succeed is not yet clear. That he is off to a fast start is without dispute.
He has rejuvenated Arizona State's efforts to increase support from private donors and legislators. He brought in the largest gifts ever to Arizona State, a pair of $50-million donations, and he scored a legislative coup early in his tenure, successfully lobbying state lawmakers to appropriate $440-million to bolster research at state institutions, of which $188-million went to Arizona State. He told lawmakers that if they provided the money now, the university would become more self-sufficient and need less state money later.
Tuition revenue is surging as well, and not just from enrollment growth. Since the 2002-3 academic year, Arizona State has increased its tuition by 70 percent, prompting State Sen. Thayer L. Verschoor, a Republican, to say he worries that the university is "squeezing out" middle-class students who are ineligible for financial aid.
Mr. Crow has also forged strong ties to Phoenix's business and political establishments, hiring a number of business leaders for positions in his administration. His most important ally may well be Phil Gordon, mayor of Phoenix.
In what may be an unprecedented investment by a city in a state university, Phoenix plans to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the development of Arizona State's downtown branch campus. Voters will go the polls in March in a bond referendum to decide whether the city should help to pay for Mr. Crow's entrepreneurial vision. The bond issue would include $223-million for the downtown campus. David A. Longanecker, executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, says it was "smart" to limit the vote to the city, whose residents typically pass such measures. Still, voter approval is hardly guaranteed.
The mayor "is betting a lot of his political capital on this," Mr. Crow says.
Arizona State's president is selling the downtown campus as a spark that will revitalize the city's core by attracting new business and residents.
He envisions moving existing components of the university, including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and creating new ones. Arizona State is also collaborating with the University of Arizona, its longtime rival, to locate an extension of its medical school in Phoenix.
The downtown project will be connected to Arizona State's main campus, in nearby Tempe, by a light-rail transportation system, along which an "enterprise zone" would attract new businesses, say the president and the mayor.
Arizona must move "away from the paradigm that ASU is only an agency of the state government," says Mr. Crow, "and move toward a paradigm that casts the university as an enterprise responsible for its own fate."
Jack W. Harper, a Republican state senator, demurs. "I'm not sure that is the best thing for the state of Arizona," he says. "Our state's Constitution gave us a vision, and that is that we are not to borrow money and run our state into debt."
The most imposing manifestation of Mr. Crow's plans is a partially completed project called the Biodesign Institute. When finished, it will comprise four interconnected buildings and 800,000 square feet of research space devoted to applications of advanced bioscience. The institute's director is George Poste, who led research and development at Smith-Kline Beecham, the pharmaceutical company that became Glaxo-SmithKline. He says Mr. Crow's plan for the university is "one of the most radical experiments ongoing in American higher education," and that its realization will not be without pain. "Anytime you impose radical change on an organization, you have some people who are unsettled by it," Mr. Poste says.
Mr. Crow sees the Institute as a fertile environment for public-private partnership that will bring new money to Arizona State. Its researchers will be required to generate annual revenue equal to $225 per square foot, "a stiffer financial metric than most campuses impose," Mr. Poste says.
Not everyone is thrilled with the arrangement. "I'm not a big fan of public-private partnerships," says Senator Verschoor. "You end up taking the universities and competing with the private sector. To me it goes beyond the proper role of government."
Decision Pending
Mr. Crow's supporters appear to outnumber his critics by a substantial margin. Perhaps they are simply more vocal.
At Columbia he was criticized for taking on too much, for moving too fast, for trying to edge the institution away from its core mission.
That reputation has followed him to Phoenix. There are those who say Mr. Crow's enthusiasm for realizing his agenda leaves little time or tolerance for other points of view. He alienated Arizona State faculty members early in his presidency when he took control of tenure decisions that had been the de facto province of the provost, and altered the process in a way that resulted in more denials and deferrals of tenure. He has called on faculty members to advance his goals for the university, in part by more aggressively seeking outside financial support.
His relationship with the faculty upon his arrival "wasn't really a honeymoon," says Susan D. Mattson, president of the university's Academic Senate and Faculty Assembly. "He didn't invite dissent a lot at first. It was very difficult to disagree" with him.
"Some people probably thought I was a jerk," Mr. Crow says of those skirmishes.
Mr. Clark, the anthropology professor, accuses Mr. Crow of viewing Arizona State as a failed company that must be reorganized for greater efficiency and financial stability, academic values be damned.
The professor says he is concerned that the new American university will have a faculty caste system. At the top will be researchers who bring in money; at the bottom will be "slave labor" needed to teach courses to tens of thousands of new students. Arizona State, the professor warns, "will become a grotesque combination of a Cal State Tempe-type institution and the world's largest community college."
Mr. Crow is misusing his authority over tenure decisions to intimidate faculty members who might object, Mr. Clark argues. "Crow is a thug in a business suit," he says.
Mr. Longanecker, of the interstate higher-education commission, who describes himself as "quite a fan of Michael Crow's," says "the big challenge is getting the employees to buy into the vision and getting the stakeholders to buy into the vision."
"You can't run an organization effectively with malcontents doing the work," he says.
Supporters of Mr. Crow say that they are not put off by resistance, that reaching an oasis can require a long slog in the sand. "You can never be bold and visionary," says the State Senate's Mr. Bennett, "without stirring up some resistance."
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Prof. Michael Crow is currently president of Arizona State University and the former Executive Vice Provost of Columbia University. He was also my favorite professor during my graduate school years at Columbia, and an advisor for my first startup, ViewPlus, and for the failed early-stage fund I mentioned a few posts below.
He was one of the most brilliant people I have ever met, and I knew during my time at Columbia he would soon be heading a major university in the U.S. I was recently tipped off to an article written in the The Chronicle of Higher Education about Michael Crow's recent vision, work and controversy surrounding him at ASU. His vision for ASU really reflects his character and core. A person of incredible energy and intellect who makes an impact wherever he goes. He truly wants to make the organizations and people within these systems better, and not just marginally better but on a scale others would not have ever imagined.
I obtained a copy of this article, so I'm posting it in its entirety.
Raising Arizona
Is Michael Crow's remaking of a state university a model, or a mirage?
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By JOHN L. PULLEY
Nothing sharpens a visionary's inner eye quite like a desert sojourn. Here, where metropolitan Phoenix sprawls across a sun-baked landscape, one of the pre-eminent visionaries is Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University.
Upon his arrival from Columbia University, in 2002, Mr. Crow stirred up the dust by announcing plans to transform Arizona State into the country's premier urban research institution. Repudiating the university's reputation as a party school of modest ambition, he vowed to "blow up the status quo" and reassemble the pieces into a model for higher education in the 21st century — what he calls "a new American university."
Three years into his 10-year plan, he is laboring to achieve the twin goals of expanding the size and scope of Arizona State and raising its quality. Eager to abandon the ivory-tower model of higher education that has shaped many American colleges, he wants to transform Arizona State into a university embedded in its community, one that will serve as a powerful force for social, cultural, economic, and environmental progress throughout the state.
He says Arizona State will measure its success not by the proportion of students it rejects but by the educational attainment of the students it accepts. To accommodate the state's fast-growing population of college-age men and women — many of whom are minority-group members from low-income backgrounds — he plans to increase enrollment, already the nation's fourth-largest, from 61,000 to 95,000 by 2020, a 15-year growth of 56 percent.
In Arizona, as elsewhere, state support for higher education has withered in recent years. Mr. Crow says Arizona State will become more entrepreneurial and less reliant on state funds, which cover 31 percent of its annual budget. He expects the university's annual research budget, now $183-million, to double in the next three or four years, with new funds coming from industry, foundations, the state, and federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.
At the same time, he says, Arizona State will revive downtown Phoenix and help it to diversify the region's sluggish low-tech economy, which can no longer rely on the sources of revenue described by locals as "the five C's — cattle, cotton, copper, citrus, and climate."
Arizona State will be "the new gold standard" for American research universities, Mr. Crow says.
Fool's gold, detractors say. It's not that excellence and bigness are mutually exclusive, they argue. Ohio State University at Columbus, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the University of Texas at Austin are excellent institutions, of considerable size. No American university, though, has become both bigger and better on the scale and the timeline envisioned by Arizona State's 16th president. No American university has tried.
"His plan won't work," says Geoffrey A. Clark, a professor of anthropology. "It's a pipe dream. Arizona State University will come out of this as a poorer university."
Critics complain that Mr. Crow has run roughshod over the faculty and others with whom he does not see eye to eye, and that his reform agenda diverges too much from core academic values.
Even his supporters suggest that he may be doing too much, too fast, at too high a cost. He rejects such criticisms, and suggests that he may have no other choice.
The typical university evolves slowly, Mr. Crow says, but "if we evolve slowly, we're dead."
Big Challenges
The challenges that Mr. Crow must overcome are substantial. They include institutional inertia, rapid cultural change, and a local economy based on cheap land and cheap labor.
Phoenix is growing explosively. Maricopa County adds more than 100,000 residents every year, and the metropolitan area is projected to have as many as eight million people in 25 years.
The face of Phoenix is changing as well. As Arizona's population increased 40 percent in the 1990s, the number of Hispanic residents swelled by 88 percent. The city's population born outside the United States grew by 136 percent, with many being poor and uneducated illegal immigrants.
The local economy lags behind those of other large metropolitan areas. Phoenix has a comparatively large number of factory jobs and relatively little corporate investment in research and development. Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, decided against relocating a research facility here because Arizona State's engineering school was not good enough, the university's own officials say.
The city is home to four Fortune 500 companies, yet Arizona State is its only nationally known not-for-profit college. Phoenix is the largest city in the country without a traditional medical school. By comparison, Mr. Crow says, Philadelphia, with a comparable population, has 16 Fortune 500 headquarters and numerous colleges of distinction, including Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Arizona's public schools are troubled as well. Less than 60 percent of the state's high-school students graduate, and of those who do, only 42 percent go on to college. Nationally about 57 percent of high-school graduates enroll in college. Most college students from Arizona's 22 Indian tribes drop out.
Yet the sheer numbers of students enrolled in the public-school system guarantee a continuing surge of men and women seeking higher education. The state Constitution stipulates that an affordable college education be available to residents, and the Arizona Board of Regents requires Arizona State to admit all state residents who have graduated in the top half of their high-school classes. The university enrolled a record 8,467 first-time freshmen this fall, a 10-percent jump from one year ago and double the number in 1995.
Even without an improvement in Arizona's dismal high-school-graduation rate, the state's public system of higher education will require an estimated 180,000 seats in all by 2017 to accommodate demand. The state's three major public institutions — Arizona State, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona — now have combined enrollments of about 120,000 students.
"We're struggling to deal with diversification of a region on a large scale," says Mr. Crow. "The changes affecting all of America are happening here extremely rapidly."
But the biggest obstacle to progress, he says, may be an affinity for the status quo.
When he arrived at Arizona State, Mr. Crow recalls, a member of a local editorial board told him, "'I don't know where they find guys like you.' He said, 'I went to ASU. I'm a mediocre guy. This is a mediocre place.'"
"There's comfort in mediocrity," Mr. Crow says. "The problem is that you can't stay mediocre. You'll fall back while others move forward."
Maria T. Allison, vice provost of the Division of Graduate Studies, says she has "seen more dynamic change here in the past three years than I've seen in a long time. That kind of shake-up has sent some people adrift. There's angst."
Big Ideas
Arizona's regents didn't look far to find this president. Mr. Crow had been a part-time consultant to the university for a decade while working as a vice provost at Columbia University. There he was known as an entrepreneurial leader who didn't shrink from risk or controversy. He persuaded Columbia to lease Biosphere 2, the artificial, self-sustaining, enclosed environment for humans built in the Arizona desert; he pushed the university to capitalize on its intellectual capital by aggressively patenting inventions and selling rights to the private sector; and he created Fathom, an online-learning venture that was supposed to enrich Columbia through the sale of Web-based courses and seminars (The Chronicle, February 9, 2001).
Results of those ventures were mixed. Columbia leads American universities in patent revenue, but the university shut down Fathom, which lost millions of dollars, and prematurely discontinued research at Biosphere 2, which had cost it at least $25-million.
Despite his record at Columbia, Mr. Crow "exhibited the leadership style that we thought would be good for the university," says Christina A. Palacios, president of the Arizona Board of Regents. "He is a person who is creative and energetic and who thinks deeply."
(BM: What is the writer trying to state here? "Despite his record at Columbia..."? Crow's record was excellent. During his time at Columbia, he created the model that other major research universities followed to generate revenue from their patent portfolios)
Mr. Crow brings more to the job than professional experience. His mother died when he was 9, and his father, a career Navy man, moved the family often. By the time he enrolled in college, he had attended 17 schools. His peripatetic childhood taught him how to navigate the social and cultural complexities of new environments. As a science-program administrator at Iowa State University, he earned a reputation for funneling federal pork-barrel spending to the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory there. At Columbia he controlled the largest pool of discretionary money on the campus. He says that he has "learned how to acquire resources," and that he is at his best when things are in flux.
"I've always been attracted to fast-moving, complex things," he says.
Throughout his life, he has been drawn to sports that tested his individual skill and grit — wrestling in high school, playing nose tackle on the football team, throwing the javelin in college, hiking and mountain biking today. He often gets only four hours of sleep a night.
"Crow has quickly become the Energizer bunny," says Carolyn S. Allen, a Republican state senator.
The president is an excellent pitchman. His gift for explaining complex subjects makes him "irreplaceable at being in front of the State Legislature, the City Council, and the business community," says Kenneth Bennett, president of Arizona's State Senate.
Mr. Crow rarely stops selling his vision, on a typical day promoting it to the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce at breakfast, the Economic Club of Phoenix at lunch, and once more to a crowd gathered for a dinner banquet. "It's hard to sit in a room with him and not be captivated," Ms. Allen says.
Looking Ahead
Whether or not Mr. Crow's vision will succeed is not yet clear. That he is off to a fast start is without dispute.
He has rejuvenated Arizona State's efforts to increase support from private donors and legislators. He brought in the largest gifts ever to Arizona State, a pair of $50-million donations, and he scored a legislative coup early in his tenure, successfully lobbying state lawmakers to appropriate $440-million to bolster research at state institutions, of which $188-million went to Arizona State. He told lawmakers that if they provided the money now, the university would become more self-sufficient and need less state money later.
Tuition revenue is surging as well, and not just from enrollment growth. Since the 2002-3 academic year, Arizona State has increased its tuition by 70 percent, prompting State Sen. Thayer L. Verschoor, a Republican, to say he worries that the university is "squeezing out" middle-class students who are ineligible for financial aid.
Mr. Crow has also forged strong ties to Phoenix's business and political establishments, hiring a number of business leaders for positions in his administration. His most important ally may well be Phil Gordon, mayor of Phoenix.
In what may be an unprecedented investment by a city in a state university, Phoenix plans to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the development of Arizona State's downtown branch campus. Voters will go the polls in March in a bond referendum to decide whether the city should help to pay for Mr. Crow's entrepreneurial vision. The bond issue would include $223-million for the downtown campus. David A. Longanecker, executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, says it was "smart" to limit the vote to the city, whose residents typically pass such measures. Still, voter approval is hardly guaranteed.
The mayor "is betting a lot of his political capital on this," Mr. Crow says.
Arizona State's president is selling the downtown campus as a spark that will revitalize the city's core by attracting new business and residents.
He envisions moving existing components of the university, including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and creating new ones. Arizona State is also collaborating with the University of Arizona, its longtime rival, to locate an extension of its medical school in Phoenix.
The downtown project will be connected to Arizona State's main campus, in nearby Tempe, by a light-rail transportation system, along which an "enterprise zone" would attract new businesses, say the president and the mayor.
Arizona must move "away from the paradigm that ASU is only an agency of the state government," says Mr. Crow, "and move toward a paradigm that casts the university as an enterprise responsible for its own fate."
Jack W. Harper, a Republican state senator, demurs. "I'm not sure that is the best thing for the state of Arizona," he says. "Our state's Constitution gave us a vision, and that is that we are not to borrow money and run our state into debt."
The most imposing manifestation of Mr. Crow's plans is a partially completed project called the Biodesign Institute. When finished, it will comprise four interconnected buildings and 800,000 square feet of research space devoted to applications of advanced bioscience. The institute's director is George Poste, who led research and development at Smith-Kline Beecham, the pharmaceutical company that became Glaxo-SmithKline. He says Mr. Crow's plan for the university is "one of the most radical experiments ongoing in American higher education," and that its realization will not be without pain. "Anytime you impose radical change on an organization, you have some people who are unsettled by it," Mr. Poste says.
Mr. Crow sees the Institute as a fertile environment for public-private partnership that will bring new money to Arizona State. Its researchers will be required to generate annual revenue equal to $225 per square foot, "a stiffer financial metric than most campuses impose," Mr. Poste says.
Not everyone is thrilled with the arrangement. "I'm not a big fan of public-private partnerships," says Senator Verschoor. "You end up taking the universities and competing with the private sector. To me it goes beyond the proper role of government."
Decision Pending
Mr. Crow's supporters appear to outnumber his critics by a substantial margin. Perhaps they are simply more vocal.
At Columbia he was criticized for taking on too much, for moving too fast, for trying to edge the institution away from its core mission.
That reputation has followed him to Phoenix. There are those who say Mr. Crow's enthusiasm for realizing his agenda leaves little time or tolerance for other points of view. He alienated Arizona State faculty members early in his presidency when he took control of tenure decisions that had been the de facto province of the provost, and altered the process in a way that resulted in more denials and deferrals of tenure. He has called on faculty members to advance his goals for the university, in part by more aggressively seeking outside financial support.
His relationship with the faculty upon his arrival "wasn't really a honeymoon," says Susan D. Mattson, president of the university's Academic Senate and Faculty Assembly. "He didn't invite dissent a lot at first. It was very difficult to disagree" with him.
"Some people probably thought I was a jerk," Mr. Crow says of those skirmishes.
Mr. Clark, the anthropology professor, accuses Mr. Crow of viewing Arizona State as a failed company that must be reorganized for greater efficiency and financial stability, academic values be damned.
The professor says he is concerned that the new American university will have a faculty caste system. At the top will be researchers who bring in money; at the bottom will be "slave labor" needed to teach courses to tens of thousands of new students. Arizona State, the professor warns, "will become a grotesque combination of a Cal State Tempe-type institution and the world's largest community college."
Mr. Crow is misusing his authority over tenure decisions to intimidate faculty members who might object, Mr. Clark argues. "Crow is a thug in a business suit," he says.
Mr. Longanecker, of the interstate higher-education commission, who describes himself as "quite a fan of Michael Crow's," says "the big challenge is getting the employees to buy into the vision and getting the stakeholders to buy into the vision."
"You can't run an organization effectively with malcontents doing the work," he says.
Supporters of Mr. Crow say that they are not put off by resistance, that reaching an oasis can require a long slog in the sand. "You can never be bold and visionary," says the State Senate's Mr. Bennett, "without stirring up some resistance."
CITIZEN JOURNALISM GONE BAD?... GATHER GETS $6M AND ASSOCIATED CONTENT GETS $5.4M
Some of the buzz around the blogosphere is created by the heavy knocking sound on Gather.com's (is it Gather, which is on the website, or Gather.com?) business model and a lot of questions about its future. They closed a $6 million round from Jim Manzi, former CEO of Lotus Development, and Allen & Co.
The jabs and a few hard rights came from TechCrunch, Steve Rubel, Om Malik, and Mathew Ingram, who also has a good roundup of other players.
A similar startup that wasn't mentioned in the prior links and isn't getting much love is Associated Content, which recently closed a round with Softbank Capital, well-known angel investor Ron Conway, and Tim Armstrong, who heads Google's North American advertising sales and operations. The guys at alarm:clock come to a similar conclusion as the critics of Gather.com, but sum it up in the way they do it best:
"Associated Content Raises $5.4M For No Apparent Reason"
Denver, CO-based Associated Content has raised $5.4M in Series A. We had come across this company a few months ago and could not understand what they are trying to do - we still don't get it. The company is building a library of user-generated content - audio, video, photos and text. It then will share revenues back with contributors.
Great, but as a visitor, we can't find anything that we want, nothing you can't find more easily on Yahoo or Google searches. Can anyone explain why we might ever visit this site again? The site has terrible traffic for a company that can afford to buy it so apparently we are not alone.
UPDATE: Bubblegeneration has more analysis of Gather.com
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Some of the buzz around the blogosphere is created by the heavy knocking sound on Gather.com's (is it Gather, which is on the website, or Gather.com?) business model and a lot of questions about its future. They closed a $6 million round from Jim Manzi, former CEO of Lotus Development, and Allen & Co.
The jabs and a few hard rights came from TechCrunch, Steve Rubel, Om Malik, and Mathew Ingram, who also has a good roundup of other players.
A similar startup that wasn't mentioned in the prior links and isn't getting much love is Associated Content, which recently closed a round with Softbank Capital, well-known angel investor Ron Conway, and Tim Armstrong, who heads Google's North American advertising sales and operations. The guys at alarm:clock come to a similar conclusion as the critics of Gather.com, but sum it up in the way they do it best:
"Associated Content Raises $5.4M For No Apparent Reason"
Denver, CO-based Associated Content has raised $5.4M in Series A. We had come across this company a few months ago and could not understand what they are trying to do - we still don't get it. The company is building a library of user-generated content - audio, video, photos and text. It then will share revenues back with contributors.
Great, but as a visitor, we can't find anything that we want, nothing you can't find more easily on Yahoo or Google searches. Can anyone explain why we might ever visit this site again? The site has terrible traffic for a company that can afford to buy it so apparently we are not alone.
UPDATE: Bubblegeneration has more analysis of Gather.com
GOOGLE BUYS DMARC BROADCASTING
Another day, another step into taking over the advertising world. From The Wall Street Journal:
Google Inc. agreed to acquire dMarc Broadcasting Inc., a radio advertising firm, for $102 million in cash and additional payments that could be worth up to $1.14 billion if performance targets are met over the next three years.
Newport Beach, Calif.-based dMarc's technology connects advertisers directly to radio stations. Its software helps advertisers purchase and track radio ads and lets broadcasters automatically schedule ad spots. Google, Mountain View, Calif., said it plans to integrate dMarc's technology into its AdWords advertising program.
"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," said Tim Armstrong, Google vice president of advertising sales, in a press release.
"We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology," he said.
Under the terms of the deal, Google will acquire all of the outstanding equity interests in closely held dMarc for an up-front payment of $102 million in cash. In addition, Google agreed to make additional cash payments if certain product integration, net revenue and advertising inventory targets are met. Google said these contingency payments could reach $1.14 billion over the next three years, but the actual payments could be "substantially lower." (full article)
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Another day, another step into taking over the advertising world. From The Wall Street Journal:
Google Inc. agreed to acquire dMarc Broadcasting Inc., a radio advertising firm, for $102 million in cash and additional payments that could be worth up to $1.14 billion if performance targets are met over the next three years.
Newport Beach, Calif.-based dMarc's technology connects advertisers directly to radio stations. Its software helps advertisers purchase and track radio ads and lets broadcasters automatically schedule ad spots. Google, Mountain View, Calif., said it plans to integrate dMarc's technology into its AdWords advertising program.
"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," said Tim Armstrong, Google vice president of advertising sales, in a press release.
"We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology," he said.
Under the terms of the deal, Google will acquire all of the outstanding equity interests in closely held dMarc for an up-front payment of $102 million in cash. In addition, Google agreed to make additional cash payments if certain product integration, net revenue and advertising inventory targets are met. Google said these contingency payments could reach $1.14 billion over the next three years, but the actual payments could be "substantially lower." (full article)
LAUNCH OF CONFERENZA AND /MESSAGE BLOGS... AND RANDOM UPDATES ON GOINGON AND GEARON
A couple days ago I received an email from Stowe Boyd informing people about his new blog, /Message.
Then while reading his new blog, I found out that he has stepped down from his full-time duties at Corante and one of his new things was joining Shel Israel and Gary Bolles over at Conferenza. Definitely a great addition to Conferenza's team. I don't know Stowe well, but I enjoy his writing and conversation.
I found out a couple weeks ago that Conferenza started a blog, which I thought was a great idea for their business. I like Gary Bolles and definitely indebted to him. Gary was an advisor to my failed attempt to start an early-stage venture capital fund in Asia back in 2002.
Speaking of advisors, a while back, Susan Mernit joined GoingOn Network's advisory board, and few more cool ones to announce at a later date. Congratulations to Susan on her new position at Yahoo!.
Also gearOn, the seed-stage mobile social-networking startup I'm advising, has a couple great additions to their advisory board. Tapio Anttila, a mobile industry guru, has joined. Tapio publishes the popular MEOW! (Mobile Entertainment Opportunity Watch) newsletter. Howard Rheingold has also joined, which is another testament to gearOn's product and founder & CEO, Eduardo Sciammarella. Especially since Howard, who is a well-known visionary and author (i.e. Smart Mobs ), receives several advisory board requests every week and rarely commits. I'm pretty excited for the gearOn team... and of course the GoingOn team.
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A couple days ago I received an email from Stowe Boyd informing people about his new blog, /Message.
Then while reading his new blog, I found out that he has stepped down from his full-time duties at Corante and one of his new things was joining Shel Israel and Gary Bolles over at Conferenza. Definitely a great addition to Conferenza's team. I don't know Stowe well, but I enjoy his writing and conversation.
I found out a couple weeks ago that Conferenza started a blog, which I thought was a great idea for their business. I like Gary Bolles and definitely indebted to him. Gary was an advisor to my failed attempt to start an early-stage venture capital fund in Asia back in 2002.
Speaking of advisors, a while back, Susan Mernit joined GoingOn Network's advisory board, and few more cool ones to announce at a later date. Congratulations to Susan on her new position at Yahoo!.
Also gearOn, the seed-stage mobile social-networking startup I'm advising, has a couple great additions to their advisory board. Tapio Anttila, a mobile industry guru, has joined. Tapio publishes the popular MEOW! (Mobile Entertainment Opportunity Watch) newsletter. Howard Rheingold has also joined, which is another testament to gearOn's product and founder & CEO, Eduardo Sciammarella. Especially since Howard, who is a well-known visionary and author (i.e. Smart Mobs ), receives several advisory board requests every week and rarely commits. I'm pretty excited for the gearOn team... and of course the GoingOn team.
Monday, January 16, 2006
SGT. MARK SEAVEY KICKS CONGRESSMEN JIM MORAN AND JOHN MURTHA'S ASS
Great clip from The Beltway Boys (January 14, 2006). Sgt. Mark Seavey tells Congressmen Moran and Murtha how wrong they are in their statements that there is low morale among U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Check it out!
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Great clip from The Beltway Boys (January 14, 2006). Sgt. Mark Seavey tells Congressmen Moran and Murtha how wrong they are in their statements that there is low morale among U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Check it out!
RUBIK CUBE RECORD FALLS
Weird that the Rubik Cube has back come in vogue after over 20 years of losing the interest of the general public. I remember in late grade school trying to master the cube. I don't remember my best, but I was typically under a minute. Maybe 30 seconds? I can't remember since it was so long ago, but I was never close to the world record. Anyway, there is a new world record now.
Think of the things you could do in 11 seconds. Maybe you could walk to the fridge to get a soda. You could change CDs, or possibly put on a T-shirt. But when you think about it, it's a pretty short period of time.
Don't tell that to Leyan Lo. On Saturday, at the International Rubik's Cube competition held at the Exploratorium here, Lo took just 11.13 seconds to set the world record for solving of one of the iconic red, white, blue, green, yellow and red cubes. (full article)
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Weird that the Rubik Cube has back come in vogue after over 20 years of losing the interest of the general public. I remember in late grade school trying to master the cube. I don't remember my best, but I was typically under a minute. Maybe 30 seconds? I can't remember since it was so long ago, but I was never close to the world record. Anyway, there is a new world record now.
Think of the things you could do in 11 seconds. Maybe you could walk to the fridge to get a soda. You could change CDs, or possibly put on a T-shirt. But when you think about it, it's a pretty short period of time.
Don't tell that to Leyan Lo. On Saturday, at the International Rubik's Cube competition held at the Exploratorium here, Lo took just 11.13 seconds to set the world record for solving of one of the iconic red, white, blue, green, yellow and red cubes. (full article)
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S BIRTHDAY
One speech that I read more than others every year is Dr. King's speech that he delivered on that fateful day of August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His words still pierce my heart and soul every time I read them and the effect is greater when I hear his voice from that day.
"I Have a Dream"
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. (full text and audio)
Some other voices on Dr. King's legacy...
"Martin Luther King's Conservative Legacy" from The Heritage Foundation's Carolyn Garris.
"Problems of Race Still Cry to Be Solved" from James Q. Wilson, the chairman of American Enterprise Institute’s Council of Academic Advisers.
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One speech that I read more than others every year is Dr. King's speech that he delivered on that fateful day of August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His words still pierce my heart and soul every time I read them and the effect is greater when I hear his voice from that day.
"I Have a Dream"
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. (full text and audio)
Some other voices on Dr. King's legacy...
"Martin Luther King's Conservative Legacy" from The Heritage Foundation's Carolyn Garris.
"Problems of Race Still Cry to Be Solved" from James Q. Wilson, the chairman of American Enterprise Institute’s Council of Academic Advisers.
Friday, January 13, 2006
SAPPORO... NO, SA-POOR-OH
So over the break in Chicago I went to Stir Crazy, which is a pan-Asian chain restaurant, and I ordered a beer before dinner.
"I'll have a Sapporo (Sah-po-ro)"
"Sapporo (Sa-poor-oh). So one Sapporo beer."
"Yes."
So I was faced with the same questions I encountered a month ago at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. Why do some non-Asians accent the second syllable in "Sapporo?" And why do they insist on correcting me with the incorrect pronunciation? This happens a few times a year, but the worst is when it's at a high-end Japanese restaurant and some non-Asian, non-Japanese speaking waiter "corrects" you with an attitude.
Sometimes I just want to say, "Hello, white dude, YOU'RE the one that's saying it wrong."
Another amusing pronunciation error I encountered were at restaurants in South Korea that served fajitas. Since there isn't a large Hispanic population in South Korea, most South Koreans don't know that the "j" is a "h" sound. Also there is no "f" sound in the Korean language, which is typically replaced by a "p" sound. So they say "pah-jee-tas."
"I'll have the chicken fajitas."
"Chicken pajitas (pah-jee-tas)?"
"Yes."
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So over the break in Chicago I went to Stir Crazy, which is a pan-Asian chain restaurant, and I ordered a beer before dinner.
"I'll have a Sapporo (Sah-po-ro)"
"Sapporo (Sa-poor-oh). So one Sapporo beer."
"Yes."
So I was faced with the same questions I encountered a month ago at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. Why do some non-Asians accent the second syllable in "Sapporo?" And why do they insist on correcting me with the incorrect pronunciation? This happens a few times a year, but the worst is when it's at a high-end Japanese restaurant and some non-Asian, non-Japanese speaking waiter "corrects" you with an attitude.
Sometimes I just want to say, "Hello, white dude, YOU'RE the one that's saying it wrong."
Another amusing pronunciation error I encountered were at restaurants in South Korea that served fajitas. Since there isn't a large Hispanic population in South Korea, most South Koreans don't know that the "j" is a "h" sound. Also there is no "f" sound in the Korean language, which is typically replaced by a "p" sound. So they say "pah-jee-tas."
"I'll have the chicken fajitas."
"Chicken pajitas (pah-jee-tas)?"
"Yes."
Thursday, January 12, 2006
"SOFTWARE START-UPS FEEL THE PINCH"
Good article by CNet's Martin LaMonica on the difficulties of building a new software company (crap! maybe we should become an online dating service:):
Ismael Ghalimi started software-maker Intalio with a solid business plan and leading-edge technology. But like many software entrepreneurs, Ghalimi is finding that isn't enough.
After six years without showing a profit, company executives decided it was time for plan B: Rather than sell customers pricey, high-end software, Intalio decided to sell open-source software instead, cutting the price from about a half-million dollars to zero. The company would charge for support and a license fee when its software is deployed on closed-source databases and middleware.
Intalio's dramatic strategy shift reflects the difficulties of operating a software start-up in a rapidly consolidating market. The upheaval in business software is unraveling the traditional formula for start-up software companies, prompting smaller players to bet on novel business models and technologies.
"Enterprise software is a mature market and you can't compete head-to-head against IBM, Oracle or even SAP. You just can't--they have too many resources on the engineering side and they own the customer," said Ghalimi, Intalio's founder and CEO. "It's just brutal out there."
Entrepreneurs and investors say fundamental changes in the business software market are rewriting the rules of engagement for potential software upstarts. Corporate customers are buying from fewer, larger providers and choosing different purchasing models, notably annual subscriptions in place of upfront fees. With the traditional equation for starting a company being strained, smaller firms hoping to survive need to pursue new business tactics and technologies--such as open source and hosted services.
"A critical requirement for start-ups is that they've identified an area where pain is extreme, so extreme that a company is willing to deal with a start-up and willing to pay money for it," said David Skok, a partner at venture capital firm Matrix Partners. "No question, it's tough." (full article)
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Good article by CNet's Martin LaMonica on the difficulties of building a new software company (crap! maybe we should become an online dating service:):
Ismael Ghalimi started software-maker Intalio with a solid business plan and leading-edge technology. But like many software entrepreneurs, Ghalimi is finding that isn't enough.
After six years without showing a profit, company executives decided it was time for plan B: Rather than sell customers pricey, high-end software, Intalio decided to sell open-source software instead, cutting the price from about a half-million dollars to zero. The company would charge for support and a license fee when its software is deployed on closed-source databases and middleware.
Intalio's dramatic strategy shift reflects the difficulties of operating a software start-up in a rapidly consolidating market. The upheaval in business software is unraveling the traditional formula for start-up software companies, prompting smaller players to bet on novel business models and technologies.
"Enterprise software is a mature market and you can't compete head-to-head against IBM, Oracle or even SAP. You just can't--they have too many resources on the engineering side and they own the customer," said Ghalimi, Intalio's founder and CEO. "It's just brutal out there."
Entrepreneurs and investors say fundamental changes in the business software market are rewriting the rules of engagement for potential software upstarts. Corporate customers are buying from fewer, larger providers and choosing different purchasing models, notably annual subscriptions in place of upfront fees. With the traditional equation for starting a company being strained, smaller firms hoping to survive need to pursue new business tactics and technologies--such as open source and hosted services.
"A critical requirement for start-ups is that they've identified an area where pain is extreme, so extreme that a company is willing to deal with a start-up and willing to pay money for it," said David Skok, a partner at venture capital firm Matrix Partners. "No question, it's tough." (full article)
"WHEN WILL YAHOO ACQUIRE TECHNORATI?"
I saw that Michael (TechCrunch) got his copy of Red Herring magazine last night too and read the article on "Hungry Hungry Yahoo" with Technorati at the top of their hit list.
At TechCrunch, he has a good post on why Yahoo! should acquire Technorati. This acquisition would follow Yahoo!'s recent acquisition trail, but I think Technorati would be more valuable to Microsoft.
Microsoft needs gain some of the spotlight and traffic from the Web 2.0 crowd. They are definitely improving their search technology and making strides with things, such as their new maps and coming Hotmail, but in terms of mindshare I believe they are a blip on the radar screen. The acquisition of Technorati would help bring new, active users to its current properties and for their future services.
I still believe Google will eventually catch up and build a better blog search engine than Technorati, Yahoo! is the candidate that fits the best with Technorati, and Microsoft is the company that benefits the most from acquiring Technorati... and they have the most cash too :)
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I saw that Michael (TechCrunch) got his copy of Red Herring magazine last night too and read the article on "Hungry Hungry Yahoo" with Technorati at the top of their hit list.
At TechCrunch, he has a good post on why Yahoo! should acquire Technorati. This acquisition would follow Yahoo!'s recent acquisition trail, but I think Technorati would be more valuable to Microsoft.
Microsoft needs gain some of the spotlight and traffic from the Web 2.0 crowd. They are definitely improving their search technology and making strides with things, such as their new maps and coming Hotmail, but in terms of mindshare I believe they are a blip on the radar screen. The acquisition of Technorati would help bring new, active users to its current properties and for their future services.
I still believe Google will eventually catch up and build a better blog search engine than Technorati, Yahoo! is the candidate that fits the best with Technorati, and Microsoft is the company that benefits the most from acquiring Technorati... and they have the most cash too :)
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"WHO Tries to Calm Bird Flu Fears After Turkey Outbreak"
"Death Toll Rises to 345 in Hajj Stampede"
"India, China sign landmark energy agreement"
"Business Trends 2006: A VC’s Perspective"
"BlackBerry gets Google-ized"
"Rebuilding Plan Angers Some New Orleanians"
"Bush to Visit Hurricane-Damaged Gulf Coast"
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"WHO Tries to Calm Bird Flu Fears After Turkey Outbreak"
"Death Toll Rises to 345 in Hajj Stampede"
"India, China sign landmark energy agreement"
"Business Trends 2006: A VC’s Perspective"
"BlackBerry gets Google-ized"
"Rebuilding Plan Angers Some New Orleanians"
"Bush to Visit Hurricane-Damaged Gulf Coast"
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
WOO-SUK HWANG, KOREAN CLONING FRAUD, APOLOGIZES... SORT OF
Woo-suk Hwang publicly apologized but "claimed he had been deceived by junior researchers." WEAK. Very weak. No backbone, no guilt, no honor.
Especially in such a strong Confucian society, does he really expect us to believe he was deceived by his junior researchers? Whatever.
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Woo-suk Hwang publicly apologized but "claimed he had been deceived by junior researchers." WEAK. Very weak. No backbone, no guilt, no honor.
Especially in such a strong Confucian society, does he really expect us to believe he was deceived by his junior researchers? Whatever.
FRIENDSTER FOLLIES... VIACOM TAKES A PASS
HatTip to PaidContent.org's Staci Kramer. She has a great update on Friendster's attempts to exit and for its investors to salvage a few bucks. Some juicy bits:
That offer was at or about $20 million -- already a deep discount from the $50-100 million being tossed about late last year, which was already a deep discount from the $200 million ballpark that cropped up in early 2005.
.....
Soon after due diligence began, though, Viacom decided than the company sounded better than it actually looked and decided to pass. I have been told by multiple sources that later Viacom was offered the chance to acquire Friendster for $5 million -- less than the $11 million to $15 million we estimated last year so far had been invested in the company. The word Viacom got was that Friendster's VCs no longer wanted to fund the company. (full post)
Who else would buy Friendster and try to turn it around? Can't really think of one. Maybe it will be foreign firm will pick up the scraps for an entry point into the U.S. market?
UPDATE: Om has more, "Friendster, Still Looking 4 A Hook-Up"
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HatTip to PaidContent.org's Staci Kramer. She has a great update on Friendster's attempts to exit and for its investors to salvage a few bucks. Some juicy bits:
That offer was at or about $20 million -- already a deep discount from the $50-100 million being tossed about late last year, which was already a deep discount from the $200 million ballpark that cropped up in early 2005.
.....
Soon after due diligence began, though, Viacom decided than the company sounded better than it actually looked and decided to pass. I have been told by multiple sources that later Viacom was offered the chance to acquire Friendster for $5 million -- less than the $11 million to $15 million we estimated last year so far had been invested in the company. The word Viacom got was that Friendster's VCs no longer wanted to fund the company. (full post)
Who else would buy Friendster and try to turn it around? Can't really think of one. Maybe it will be foreign firm will pick up the scraps for an entry point into the U.S. market?
UPDATE: Om has more, "Friendster, Still Looking 4 A Hook-Up"
SHAMELESS, GUTLESS DEMS ATTACK ALITO
Did you expect anything less? The angry, bitter people step up to the forefront again. Can't the Dems get anyone else besides Howard Dean and other angries to lead their party of no new ideas?
News from ABC News (minus the typo of "Democratics"):
Alito Turns Aside Democrats' Criticism
Alito Turns Aside Attacks From Democrats at Contentious Hearing That Left His Wife in Tears
Michelle Malkin with some good quotes here.
Finally, Pajamas Media with their "Mondo Alito" compilation of their various member blogs. Now they've done something useful that makes me want to visit their new mega-blog.
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Did you expect anything less? The angry, bitter people step up to the forefront again. Can't the Dems get anyone else besides Howard Dean and other angries to lead their party of no new ideas?
News from ABC News (minus the typo of "Democratics"):
Alito Turns Aside Democrats' Criticism
Alito Turns Aside Attacks From Democrats at Contentious Hearing That Left His Wife in Tears
Michelle Malkin with some good quotes here.
Finally, Pajamas Media with their "Mondo Alito" compilation of their various member blogs. Now they've done something useful that makes me want to visit their new mega-blog.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
"DON'T BLOW YOUR BETA"
Insightful post and comments over at TechCrunch. Michael's timing for this post was great since we're launching our beta in the coming months. No rush for us. We pushed back our beta launch date and went back to tweak it some more since Marc's influence made our product a bit too "consumery" for our taste and it was not suited for our target market.
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Insightful post and comments over at TechCrunch. Michael's timing for this post was great since we're launching our beta in the coming months. No rush for us. We pushed back our beta launch date and went back to tweak it some more since Marc's influence made our product a bit too "consumery" for our taste and it was not suited for our target market.
AMUSING... "SCARY JUST HOW ACCURATE"
My friend, Grace, sent me this amusing email I thought I should share :)
Friendship Between Women:
A woman didn't come home one night. The next day she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew about it.
Friendship Between Men:
A man didn't come home one night. The next day he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight of them confirmed that he had slept over, and two claimed that he was still there.
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My friend, Grace, sent me this amusing email I thought I should share :)
Friendship Between Women:
A woman didn't come home one night. The next day she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew about it.
Friendship Between Men:
A man didn't come home one night. The next day he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight of them confirmed that he had slept over, and two claimed that he was still there.
GOOGLE VIDEO LAUNCHED... $3.95 FOR AN NBA GAME??
Last night I saw that Google's new video service was launched. I was even more psyched when I saw the NBA video page, and so I clicked and then saw that the games were $3.95 each to view. Hello?? $3.95??? Who priced these videos? I assume the NBA did, which is retarded.
Who's going to buy an NBA game at $3.95? I'm a huge NBA fan and a frequent online buyer of micro-services, but I wouldn't pay $3.95. Do they want people to actually download these videos or do they really believe NBA games fetch such a premium? What would be the tipping point where there would be a mass download of NBA games? $3.00? $2.00? I'd say $1.00.
Music videos for $1.99? TV shows for $1.99? I thought Google would blow out the video distribution model on the web, and not follow Apple. If they have influence over pricing, tell the content providers to charge $1.00 or less. How's 50 cents?
I'm a bit biased since I lived in Korea from 2000-2004, which had an active online video distribution market where most TV shows were 50 cents to $1.00 to download. I almost compare these pricing models to the SMS market that the U.S. wireless carriers screwed up on. They initially priced it too high (and it's still too high) so they actually lost a huge amount of potential revenue and created a barrier to usage unlike in Asia where lower pricing created widespread usage and integration into people's lifestyles.
Anyway, here are some more reviews of Google Video from John Battelle, Techdirt, Traffick, and Google Blogoscoped.
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Last night I saw that Google's new video service was launched. I was even more psyched when I saw the NBA video page, and so I clicked and then saw that the games were $3.95 each to view. Hello?? $3.95??? Who priced these videos? I assume the NBA did, which is retarded.
Who's going to buy an NBA game at $3.95? I'm a huge NBA fan and a frequent online buyer of micro-services, but I wouldn't pay $3.95. Do they want people to actually download these videos or do they really believe NBA games fetch such a premium? What would be the tipping point where there would be a mass download of NBA games? $3.00? $2.00? I'd say $1.00.
Music videos for $1.99? TV shows for $1.99? I thought Google would blow out the video distribution model on the web, and not follow Apple. If they have influence over pricing, tell the content providers to charge $1.00 or less. How's 50 cents?
I'm a bit biased since I lived in Korea from 2000-2004, which had an active online video distribution market where most TV shows were 50 cents to $1.00 to download. I almost compare these pricing models to the SMS market that the U.S. wireless carriers screwed up on. They initially priced it too high (and it's still too high) so they actually lost a huge amount of potential revenue and created a barrier to usage unlike in Asia where lower pricing created widespread usage and integration into people's lifestyles.
Anyway, here are some more reviews of Google Video from John Battelle, Techdirt, Traffick, and Google Blogoscoped.
Monday, January 09, 2006
MICHAEL ROBERTSON INTERVIEW AT ALWAYSON
Good interview at AlwaysOn of Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and current founder of MP3tunes:
Unfinished Business...
What maverick tech entrepreneur and open-media advocate Michael Robertson hopes to accomplish by reentering the MP3 fray.
AlwaysOn: It's been more than three years since you sold MP3.com. Now, you've reentered that business with MP3tunes. Do you feel like you're finishing off what you started with MP3.com?
Michael Robertson: In four years I built a company with 300 employees and about $80 million in annual revenue—and we were profitable. Then I sold the company, and in the process I became independently wealthy. Those are huge accomplishments that I'm very proud of, but there's a certain part of me that's disappointed, because I didn't get to fulfill my vision of how the music industry should work. While I was at MP3.com we were building a structure that would store music online—an online music locker. But all that went away once I sold the company.
When you start a business it's all about making money for your shareholders. But I also want to change the world. I want to influence the world. I want to make the world better for my two boys, and I want to push the world in a direction that's good. And the DRM world—as I'm seeing it evolve around us, because of iTunes and Windows Media DRM—is not the world that I want. So to answer your question, yes, I do feel like I have unfinished business to address, and that was one of my motivations for getting back into the business with MP3tunes. (full article)
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Good interview at AlwaysOn of Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and current founder of MP3tunes:
Unfinished Business...
What maverick tech entrepreneur and open-media advocate Michael Robertson hopes to accomplish by reentering the MP3 fray.
AlwaysOn: It's been more than three years since you sold MP3.com. Now, you've reentered that business with MP3tunes. Do you feel like you're finishing off what you started with MP3.com?
Michael Robertson: In four years I built a company with 300 employees and about $80 million in annual revenue—and we were profitable. Then I sold the company, and in the process I became independently wealthy. Those are huge accomplishments that I'm very proud of, but there's a certain part of me that's disappointed, because I didn't get to fulfill my vision of how the music industry should work. While I was at MP3.com we were building a structure that would store music online—an online music locker. But all that went away once I sold the company.
When you start a business it's all about making money for your shareholders. But I also want to change the world. I want to influence the world. I want to make the world better for my two boys, and I want to push the world in a direction that's good. And the DRM world—as I'm seeing it evolve around us, because of iTunes and Windows Media DRM—is not the world that I want. So to answer your question, yes, I do feel like I have unfinished business to address, and that was one of my motivations for getting back into the business with MP3tunes. (full article)
"CAN I LOBBY YOU?"
Of course a lobbyist sent me this article from The Washington Post, so I'm posting... for free :) Maybe I should at least get dinner at Morton's in D.C.?
If you typed the word "lobbyist" into the Google News search engine last week, the first page of 8,670 search results would have included dozens of headlines that screamed out "Lobbyist's Guilty Plea Sends Out Shock Waves Through US Congress," "Bush Campaign Getting Rid of Lobbyist's Money" and "Kennedy Among Leading Recipients of Convicted Lobbyist's Clients." The referenced lobbyist is, of course, Jack Abramoff. In spreading the news to America and the world, most news organizations deemed it sufficient to simply inform the public in headlines that a "lobbyist" had pleaded guilty. The insinuation is that there must be something inherently sinister because a lobbyist is involved. The nature of his guilt is treated as self-evident.
Perhaps this scandal will eventually be called the Abramoff affair, but for now it is a lobbying scandal. If Shakespeare lived today, perhaps he would write, "First shoot all the lobbyists." Yet in the midst of the current furor, reports do not mention that there are thousands of lobbyists in Washington who are honorable and honest people and who render a service that is both critical to a democratic society and enshrined in our Constitution. (full article)
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Of course a lobbyist sent me this article from The Washington Post, so I'm posting... for free :) Maybe I should at least get dinner at Morton's in D.C.?
If you typed the word "lobbyist" into the Google News search engine last week, the first page of 8,670 search results would have included dozens of headlines that screamed out "Lobbyist's Guilty Plea Sends Out Shock Waves Through US Congress," "Bush Campaign Getting Rid of Lobbyist's Money" and "Kennedy Among Leading Recipients of Convicted Lobbyist's Clients." The referenced lobbyist is, of course, Jack Abramoff. In spreading the news to America and the world, most news organizations deemed it sufficient to simply inform the public in headlines that a "lobbyist" had pleaded guilty. The insinuation is that there must be something inherently sinister because a lobbyist is involved. The nature of his guilt is treated as self-evident.
Perhaps this scandal will eventually be called the Abramoff affair, but for now it is a lobbying scandal. If Shakespeare lived today, perhaps he would write, "First shoot all the lobbyists." Yet in the midst of the current furor, reports do not mention that there are thousands of lobbyists in Washington who are honorable and honest people and who render a service that is both critical to a democratic society and enshrined in our Constitution. (full article)
"A NEW MARKETING MEDIUM"... OLD NEWS BUT GOOD NEWS
HatTip to Doug. Old news and ideas for most of you, but always good to hear a confirmation of how blogs are changing the marketing landscape and how companies will operate. It's also great because this is part of the vision of our startup :)
A New Marketing Medium
Blogging allows marketers to start conversations with prospects and customers through a powerful new avenue of communication.
by Alexandra DeFelice
CRM Magazine
January 2006
A shift is taking place in corporate communications, one that promises to alter marketing strategies well into the future. Marketing has always been about balancing company interest with customer interest, but now it is becoming more about opening dialogue and building trust. Blogs, after having gained widespread notoriety during the 2004 presidential election, have moved beyond individual ranting and into the corporate world, enhancing typical marketing techniques by allowing companies to talk to their customers directly--and by allowing companies to listen to what customers are saying.
Chris Kenton, senior vice president of the CMO Council and blog writer, says, "The whole game is changing. The traditional paradigm is that marketers are predators who line 100 ducks on a fence and hope they have enough marketing power to shoot down 1.5 of them. Smart companies are trying to take them off the fence and catalyze and cultivate a community with that group, inviting [community members] into a dialogue without being [intrusive]. One way to have access to the market is to build it around you. It's all about access, insight, and influence."
Although many companies are starting to recognize corporate blogs as a new marketing medium, few are engaging in the practice. Less than 5 percent of the Fortune 1,000 is using blogs strategically, but that percentage will triple in the next two years, according to Ray Valdes, a Gartner analyst. He points out, however, that even companies that are using blogs are not necessarily using them efficiently at this point--although they recognize that blogs are a significant communication tool. A lack of knowledge and a fear of the risks and repercussions are stopping companies from developing a blogging policy.
Technology companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have product developers, middle managers, and engineers blogging, Valdes says, "[but] the vast majority are still saying, 'What is this? My teenage daughter is doing this, but what are the risks?' It's like the early days of email. They see all the downside and no upside. You worry your employees will spill their guts, but at the same time you allow them to get on a plane and spill their guts to the guy next to them."
A new approach to marketing
Companies can use blogging to indirectly fine-tune their marketing messages through social interactions. With other customer communication avenues, companies may be using the wrong language or addressing the wrong audience, but blogging enables faster feedback and a more strategic understanding of where the market is heading. From a competitive standpoint, blogging demonstrates to customers that a company cares about its products and customers. Many companies also look to blogs for internal communication, whether it's from the CEO, the HR department, or as a discussion tool among employees. They are using them for customer and peer support as well, keeping customers up to speed on products and road maps. Internal communication about accounting and tax guidelines or team blogs is also popular. (full article)
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HatTip to Doug. Old news and ideas for most of you, but always good to hear a confirmation of how blogs are changing the marketing landscape and how companies will operate. It's also great because this is part of the vision of our startup :)
A New Marketing Medium
Blogging allows marketers to start conversations with prospects and customers through a powerful new avenue of communication.
by Alexandra DeFelice
CRM Magazine
January 2006
A shift is taking place in corporate communications, one that promises to alter marketing strategies well into the future. Marketing has always been about balancing company interest with customer interest, but now it is becoming more about opening dialogue and building trust. Blogs, after having gained widespread notoriety during the 2004 presidential election, have moved beyond individual ranting and into the corporate world, enhancing typical marketing techniques by allowing companies to talk to their customers directly--and by allowing companies to listen to what customers are saying.
Chris Kenton, senior vice president of the CMO Council and blog writer, says, "The whole game is changing. The traditional paradigm is that marketers are predators who line 100 ducks on a fence and hope they have enough marketing power to shoot down 1.5 of them. Smart companies are trying to take them off the fence and catalyze and cultivate a community with that group, inviting [community members] into a dialogue without being [intrusive]. One way to have access to the market is to build it around you. It's all about access, insight, and influence."
Although many companies are starting to recognize corporate blogs as a new marketing medium, few are engaging in the practice. Less than 5 percent of the Fortune 1,000 is using blogs strategically, but that percentage will triple in the next two years, according to Ray Valdes, a Gartner analyst. He points out, however, that even companies that are using blogs are not necessarily using them efficiently at this point--although they recognize that blogs are a significant communication tool. A lack of knowledge and a fear of the risks and repercussions are stopping companies from developing a blogging policy.
Technology companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have product developers, middle managers, and engineers blogging, Valdes says, "[but] the vast majority are still saying, 'What is this? My teenage daughter is doing this, but what are the risks?' It's like the early days of email. They see all the downside and no upside. You worry your employees will spill their guts, but at the same time you allow them to get on a plane and spill their guts to the guy next to them."
A new approach to marketing
Companies can use blogging to indirectly fine-tune their marketing messages through social interactions. With other customer communication avenues, companies may be using the wrong language or addressing the wrong audience, but blogging enables faster feedback and a more strategic understanding of where the market is heading. From a competitive standpoint, blogging demonstrates to customers that a company cares about its products and customers. Many companies also look to blogs for internal communication, whether it's from the CEO, the HR department, or as a discussion tool among employees. They are using them for customer and peer support as well, keeping customers up to speed on products and road maps. Internal communication about accounting and tax guidelines or team blogs is also popular. (full article)
KOREAGATE CRACKDOWN
U.S. feds caught and arrested Korean lobbyist, Tongsun Park, last Friday. Like I wrote in a post a few below, once you cross the line of compromise in ethics and morals it becomes easier to do the next time. It seems Mr. Park was a man that learned about this long ago and allowed it to follow him throughout his life.
Park Tongsun, a South Korean lobbyist, was arrested Friday in Houston, the United States, on a charge of illegally lobbying for Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, under the United Nations oil-for-food program, U.S. federal authorities said yesterday.
Mr. Park, 71, was a central figure in a bribery scandal in the 1970s, known as "Koreagate," in which he paid bribes to U.S. lawmakers to gain support for loans to South Korea under the Park Chung Hee regime.
According to the New York Times, Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, announced that Mr. Park was arrested in Houston by F.B.I. agents but did not provide any information about how he was found. The newspaper also said that Mr. Park will appear today before a federal magistrate in Houston. (full article)
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U.S. feds caught and arrested Korean lobbyist, Tongsun Park, last Friday. Like I wrote in a post a few below, once you cross the line of compromise in ethics and morals it becomes easier to do the next time. It seems Mr. Park was a man that learned about this long ago and allowed it to follow him throughout his life.
Park Tongsun, a South Korean lobbyist, was arrested Friday in Houston, the United States, on a charge of illegally lobbying for Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, under the United Nations oil-for-food program, U.S. federal authorities said yesterday.
Mr. Park, 71, was a central figure in a bribery scandal in the 1970s, known as "Koreagate," in which he paid bribes to U.S. lawmakers to gain support for loans to South Korea under the Park Chung Hee regime.
According to the New York Times, Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, announced that Mr. Park was arrested in Houston by F.B.I. agents but did not provide any information about how he was found. The newspaper also said that Mr. Park will appear today before a federal magistrate in Houston. (full article)
AOL'S VIRAL VIDEOS
A good push from AOL on their "broadband" content. This is a list of the top 11 video clips going around on the web. Great ones such as Saturday Night Live's Chronicles of Narnia Rap and Ron Burgundy's ESPN Audition.
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A good push from AOL on their "broadband" content. This is a list of the top 11 video clips going around on the web. Great ones such as Saturday Night Live's Chronicles of Narnia Rap and Ron Burgundy's ESPN Audition.
HOW STEVE JOBS PREPARES FOR HIS CONFERENCE KEYNOTES
Interesting article on Jobs's prep process:
Behind the magic curtain
Next week Steve Jobs of Apple will grab media attention with another simple-looking stage show. Mike Evangelist tells the insider secrets of his gruelling preparation
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Interesting article on Jobs's prep process:
Behind the magic curtain
Next week Steve Jobs of Apple will grab media attention with another simple-looking stage show. Mike Evangelist tells the insider secrets of his gruelling preparation
"THE TOP TEN LIES OF VENTURE CAPITALISTS"
Guy Kawasaki has a decent and amusing list here. Check it out if you're an entrepreneur or thinking about starting something that needs outside investors.
The second one on his list is one that sticks out for me.
2. "If you get a lead, we will follow." In other words, "no." As the old Japanese say, "If your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle." Well, she doesn't have balls, so it doesn't matter. The venture capitalist is saying, "We don't really believe, but if you can get Sequoia to lead, we'll jump on the pile." In other words, once the entrepreneur doesn't need the money, the venture capitalist would be happy to give him some more--this is like saying, "Once you've stopped Larry Csonka cold, we'll help you tackle him." What entrepreneurs want to hear is, "If you can't get a lead, we will." That's a believer.
This isn't actually "no." Some firms actually are complete followers, which is weak but a reality, and will only participate when a top-tier firm invests. These are typically second or third-tier firms, which I know of a few in Asia and the U.S., but sometimes beggars can't be choosers.
During our second round of financing at HeyAnita Korea, we started our fundraising process outside of our first-round investors. It was during the market crash so our choices were limited since many funds were pulling back from early-stage deals. A few large second-tier funds were interested, but only if there was a lead or only if they knew for certain that Softbank was investing. Part of this was because they wanted to see confidence from our first-round investor, but these firms were more focused on the idea of "Softbank" or a brand-name investor leading our round. I believe it could have been The Carlyle Group's venture fund and they would have jumped in.
We circled back with Softbank, they agreed to participate, we went back on fundraising trail and eventually closed that round for $7.5 million. Some firms are just followers, but I assume most of these types died off during the bust times.
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Guy Kawasaki has a decent and amusing list here. Check it out if you're an entrepreneur or thinking about starting something that needs outside investors.
The second one on his list is one that sticks out for me.
2. "If you get a lead, we will follow." In other words, "no." As the old Japanese say, "If your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle." Well, she doesn't have balls, so it doesn't matter. The venture capitalist is saying, "We don't really believe, but if you can get Sequoia to lead, we'll jump on the pile." In other words, once the entrepreneur doesn't need the money, the venture capitalist would be happy to give him some more--this is like saying, "Once you've stopped Larry Csonka cold, we'll help you tackle him." What entrepreneurs want to hear is, "If you can't get a lead, we will." That's a believer.
This isn't actually "no." Some firms actually are complete followers, which is weak but a reality, and will only participate when a top-tier firm invests. These are typically second or third-tier firms, which I know of a few in Asia and the U.S., but sometimes beggars can't be choosers.
During our second round of financing at HeyAnita Korea, we started our fundraising process outside of our first-round investors. It was during the market crash so our choices were limited since many funds were pulling back from early-stage deals. A few large second-tier funds were interested, but only if there was a lead or only if they knew for certain that Softbank was investing. Part of this was because they wanted to see confidence from our first-round investor, but these firms were more focused on the idea of "Softbank" or a brand-name investor leading our round. I believe it could have been The Carlyle Group's venture fund and they would have jumped in.
We circled back with Softbank, they agreed to participate, we went back on fundraising trail and eventually closed that round for $7.5 million. Some firms are just followers, but I assume most of these types died off during the bust times.
MORE FROM CES 2006
Google rocks at CES and their stock shoots up over $460... crazy! From CNet:
"Cars and stars as Google's Page takes the stage"
Google co-founder Larry Page shared his keynote stage at the Consumer Electronics Show on Friday with comedian Robin Williams, NBA star Kenny Smith and a robotic car.
"Google entering video-on-demand business"
Google announced a service Friday that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online, including classic and contemporary CBS television shows and NBA basketball games.
MORE from Rafat Ali here.
ZDNet's Dan Farber has a good overview of Google Video and Pack and related links here.
Yahoo! Go announcement here.
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Google rocks at CES and their stock shoots up over $460... crazy! From CNet:
"Cars and stars as Google's Page takes the stage"
Google co-founder Larry Page shared his keynote stage at the Consumer Electronics Show on Friday with comedian Robin Williams, NBA star Kenny Smith and a robotic car.
"Google entering video-on-demand business"
Google announced a service Friday that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online, including classic and contemporary CBS television shows and NBA basketball games.
MORE from Rafat Ali here.
ZDNet's Dan Farber has a good overview of Google Video and Pack and related links here.
Yahoo! Go announcement here.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
BBC NEWS SHOW ON BUCK'S
HatTip to Tony. This is a hilarious news show on Buck's of Woodside, the famous Silicon Valley watering hold I mentioned a few posts down. BBC is doing a "Geek Week" in Silicon Valley and they choose to do a segment on Buck's.
Check out the video and the related article. One quote that cracked me up was:
Indeed, it's not going too far to say that if you dropped the proverbial bomb on the joint at breakfast-time, it would probably alter the future of technology on the planet. Now that's something to chew on.
Tony is in this clip along with Steve Jurvetson and of course Buck's owner, Jamis MacNiven.
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HatTip to Tony. This is a hilarious news show on Buck's of Woodside, the famous Silicon Valley watering hold I mentioned a few posts down. BBC is doing a "Geek Week" in Silicon Valley and they choose to do a segment on Buck's.
Check out the video and the related article. One quote that cracked me up was:
Indeed, it's not going too far to say that if you dropped the proverbial bomb on the joint at breakfast-time, it would probably alter the future of technology on the planet. Now that's something to chew on.
Tony is in this clip along with Steve Jurvetson and of course Buck's owner, Jamis MacNiven.
Friday, January 06, 2006
ETHICS IN BUSINESS, CHURCH, AND LIFE... I MEAN LACK OF
I came across this news article through the guys at alarm:clock. The first line reads:
Morgan Stanley fired four employees in recent weeks after they accompanied at least one client to a strip club, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Funny move by my wife's old firm. How many times do investment bankers take their clients to strip clubs? Probably as many times as the client asks. Maybe the client got in trouble with his wife and created a ruckus to cover his ass? Maybe these bankers were stupid and initiated the move to the strip club with a conservative client that was "shocked"? I assume in most cases it's the client leading the charge.
Actually, you sometimes get clients that abuse their relationships with bankers, especially in emerging markets. I know during the time WiderThan went public one of the people from their finance division in Korea called various investment bankers on the deal to take him to room salons every week. Room salons are like geisha houses in Japan where woman sit there and pour you drinks and talk to you.
Naturally, some would argue that it's morally wrong in the first place to take clients to strip clubs or room salons. Yes, I agree with those of you living in caves but it's part of certain business circles. What was unethical in this specific situation is that there are a handful of times to celebrate an aspect of the deal process where bankers take out their clients, but to abuse that relationship is unethical and simply not a good business practice. Also it's not just going to shady places but golf outings and trips abroad.
I heard the guy from WiderThan was so bad and desparate to go to these room salons that he went down the totem pole and started to call the lawyers on the deal who don't have expense accounts for such things (must be one awkward and ugly dude since you can do that stuff for free at any bar:). I believe everyone hated him on the deal.
In another random situation that blipped on my ethics radar recently, I came across a church website that plagiarized another church's website. How lazy and messed up is this? Also it's on the Internet, so they didn't think someone would catch it? Peter Hong is my close friend and pastor of the church, New Community, that was the victim in this minor but unethical offense. A welcoming message was written by him a while back. Then I came across another church, New Life Community Church, and on their website they copied this post by Peter word for word on their church "history" page:
What would happen if a generation of believers gathered across social, economical and cultural differences for one common purpose: To seek the heart of God and build relationships that will impact Chicago and then the world? Is it possible to be a church that models the New Testament church of the 1st century and still impact a generation in the 21st century? Can we be a church where people from all walks of like, regardless of where they’re at in their spiritual journey, are valued and find acceptance?
About two years ago, prompted by these same questions, a small group of people began to pray. It was their conviction that God had placed a special burden on their hearts to have a church that would reach their generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They began praying with the dream of one-day worshipping as part of an authentic community that valued openness, honesty, and acceptance. This worshipping community also had another passion. That passion was for each person that stepped foot into the community to become a fully, devoted follower of Jesus Christ. The dream was for people to experience a New Life (spiritually, physically, emotionally, etc.) within themselves.
How can this church preach the basics of Christianity if they can't keep their integrity on such a simple thing? I'm guessing this is just a surface issue and there are probably deeper issues within this church.
I believe one of the greatest temptations for moral compromise and sin is the shortcut. Whether in the world of business, church, nonprofit, or politics, shortcuts will always present themselves. I'm not referring to efficiency or any aspect of an organization's operations, but the more general aspect of opportunities and forks in the road that leaders, executives, pastors, and others face during the development of an organization. And these shortcuts typically come with a cost. A shortcut to riches, fame, or success...
If I don't report this deal, I can come out $3 million richer.
If I sign this recording contract without my friends, I'll become successful years ahead of my plans.
If I bribe this government official, I'll hit my sales quota by Q3.
If I compromise my faith and value system on this issue, my congregation will grow tenfold.
If I pay cash to my employees, it will be more money for me.
...
Of course these scenarios are replayed countless times in numerous lives, but the first time you cross the ethical boundaries you established for yourself it becomes easier the next time. I personally think such compromises are never worth the gain they bring.
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I came across this news article through the guys at alarm:clock. The first line reads:
Morgan Stanley fired four employees in recent weeks after they accompanied at least one client to a strip club, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Funny move by my wife's old firm. How many times do investment bankers take their clients to strip clubs? Probably as many times as the client asks. Maybe the client got in trouble with his wife and created a ruckus to cover his ass? Maybe these bankers were stupid and initiated the move to the strip club with a conservative client that was "shocked"? I assume in most cases it's the client leading the charge.
Actually, you sometimes get clients that abuse their relationships with bankers, especially in emerging markets. I know during the time WiderThan went public one of the people from their finance division in Korea called various investment bankers on the deal to take him to room salons every week. Room salons are like geisha houses in Japan where woman sit there and pour you drinks and talk to you.
Naturally, some would argue that it's morally wrong in the first place to take clients to strip clubs or room salons. Yes, I agree with those of you living in caves but it's part of certain business circles. What was unethical in this specific situation is that there are a handful of times to celebrate an aspect of the deal process where bankers take out their clients, but to abuse that relationship is unethical and simply not a good business practice. Also it's not just going to shady places but golf outings and trips abroad.
I heard the guy from WiderThan was so bad and desparate to go to these room salons that he went down the totem pole and started to call the lawyers on the deal who don't have expense accounts for such things (must be one awkward and ugly dude since you can do that stuff for free at any bar:). I believe everyone hated him on the deal.
In another random situation that blipped on my ethics radar recently, I came across a church website that plagiarized another church's website. How lazy and messed up is this? Also it's on the Internet, so they didn't think someone would catch it? Peter Hong is my close friend and pastor of the church, New Community, that was the victim in this minor but unethical offense. A welcoming message was written by him a while back. Then I came across another church, New Life Community Church, and on their website they copied this post by Peter word for word on their church "history" page:
What would happen if a generation of believers gathered across social, economical and cultural differences for one common purpose: To seek the heart of God and build relationships that will impact Chicago and then the world? Is it possible to be a church that models the New Testament church of the 1st century and still impact a generation in the 21st century? Can we be a church where people from all walks of like, regardless of where they’re at in their spiritual journey, are valued and find acceptance?
About two years ago, prompted by these same questions, a small group of people began to pray. It was their conviction that God had placed a special burden on their hearts to have a church that would reach their generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They began praying with the dream of one-day worshipping as part of an authentic community that valued openness, honesty, and acceptance. This worshipping community also had another passion. That passion was for each person that stepped foot into the community to become a fully, devoted follower of Jesus Christ. The dream was for people to experience a New Life (spiritually, physically, emotionally, etc.) within themselves.
How can this church preach the basics of Christianity if they can't keep their integrity on such a simple thing? I'm guessing this is just a surface issue and there are probably deeper issues within this church.
I believe one of the greatest temptations for moral compromise and sin is the shortcut. Whether in the world of business, church, nonprofit, or politics, shortcuts will always present themselves. I'm not referring to efficiency or any aspect of an organization's operations, but the more general aspect of opportunities and forks in the road that leaders, executives, pastors, and others face during the development of an organization. And these shortcuts typically come with a cost. A shortcut to riches, fame, or success...
If I don't report this deal, I can come out $3 million richer.
If I sign this recording contract without my friends, I'll become successful years ahead of my plans.
If I bribe this government official, I'll hit my sales quota by Q3.
If I compromise my faith and value system on this issue, my congregation will grow tenfold.
If I pay cash to my employees, it will be more money for me.
...
Of course these scenarios are replayed countless times in numerous lives, but the first time you cross the ethical boundaries you established for yourself it becomes easier the next time. I personally think such compromises are never worth the gain they bring.
RECOMMENDED READING FOR NEW ENTREPRENEURS... FROM WSJ'S STARTUP JOURNAL
Sarsh Needlemen, associate editor for The Wall Street Journal's StartupJournal, has a good list for entrepreneurs:
"Crossing the Chasm" By Geoffery A. Moore
"e-Boys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work" By Randall E. Stross
"Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Business Goals" By Thomas L. Harrison with Mary H. Frakes
"The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" By Thomas L. Friedman
"Innovation and Entrepreneurship" By Peter F. Drucker
"The Art of the Start: Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything" By Guy Kawasaki
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Sarsh Needlemen, associate editor for The Wall Street Journal's StartupJournal, has a good list for entrepreneurs:
"Crossing the Chasm" By Geoffery A. Moore
"e-Boys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work" By Randall E. Stross
"Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Business Goals" By Thomas L. Harrison with Mary H. Frakes
"The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" By Thomas L. Friedman
"Innovation and Entrepreneurship" By Peter F. Drucker
"The Art of the Start: Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything" By Guy Kawasaki
Thursday, January 05, 2006
UPDATE ON CES 2006
CNet has a good overview of the news coming out from CES:
CES 2006: Gadget glitz in Vegas
The gadget-loving masses have descended on Las Vegas for the annual blockbuster Consumer Electronics Show. From the conference rooms to the show floor, keynotes and parties, here's everything you need to know.
Engadget has a great page covering all the geekiness and products from CES 2006 here.
Om has a good post on Microsoft's recent moves in digital music and its partnership with MTV for URGE, "In Digital Music, Its Gates Vs Jobs"
UPDATE: More good stuff from Rafat here, and definitely scroll down to read everything.
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CNet has a good overview of the news coming out from CES:
CES 2006: Gadget glitz in Vegas
The gadget-loving masses have descended on Las Vegas for the annual blockbuster Consumer Electronics Show. From the conference rooms to the show floor, keynotes and parties, here's everything you need to know.
Engadget has a great page covering all the geekiness and products from CES 2006 here.
Om has a good post on Microsoft's recent moves in digital music and its partnership with MTV for URGE, "In Digital Music, Its Gates Vs Jobs"
UPDATE: More good stuff from Rafat here, and definitely scroll down to read everything.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
"WORLD'S WORST DISEASE"
Just a great piece at Rich Karlgaard's monthly column in Forbes. I read it on my flight back from Chicago, so I wanted to post it up here (most of it). Love the reference to C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters (great book).
It's not cancer or AIDS or avian flu; it's a monstrously flawed idea. The sickest thinking--and the source of most of human misery throughout the ages--is based on the following beliefs:
• The Earth is running out of resources;
• People consume more than they contribute;
• Wealth is a zero-sum distribution game.
History overwhelmingly refutes these ideas; otherwise, humankind would still be living in caves, sharpening spears for the hunt. Our lives would be brutal and short, lasting on average about 30 years. We'd enjoy no books, movies or iPods; we'd drive no cars to visit grandma over the holidays; we'd savor none of her gooseberry pie if the economic pie hadn't been growing all along.
Yet most politicians, economists and journalists act as if growth were a mirage and wealth a zero-sum game. What else accounts for last November's headlines yelling about GM's cut of some 30,000 jobs? Does the creation of 30,000 jobs get equal treatment? Why not? That's about how many jobs are born in the U.S. every six days.
Origins of the Virus
Why do so many opinion makers promote the zero-sum view? I think that politicians, even the best and brightest, become zero-sum thinkers because they occupy a zero-sum world. Only one person can be President of this country; only 50 can be governors; only 100 can be senators. The most creative entrepreneur in the world can't change these parameters. Politicians live in a world in which one person's gain is another's loss.
.....
It's no surprise that the top business thinker of the last 50 years, the late Peter Drucker, operated outside of the university system. Drucker, who had escaped Germany in 1933, was no Pollyanna and no stranger to evil. But he saw that evil had its roots in a belief system of limits. The Nazis believed there was room on the planet for only one ideology and one race.
(I love this example.)
Journalists at mainstream media organizations wallow in a zero-sum world: There can be only one evening television anchor and one top editor at a newspaper. All others are beta dogs. Thus from the MSM we get a staple of alarming stories about job losses, trade and fiscal deficits, global warming, the price of oil rising to $100 a barrel and so on. Zero-sum nonsense, all of it. Why does the mainstream media love environmentalists? Both groups share a zero-sum view of the world.
Meanwhile, much of the better journalism and commentary has been migrating to blogs. No surprise here. Anybody who creates a blog is: (a) an entrepreneur and, thus, probably NOT a zero-sum thinker; and (b) a producer first and a consumer second. These two attributes alone guarantee that the blogger has a clearer view of how the world really works than does the zero-sum thinker toiling away at his mainstream media position.
.....
Screwtape Letters for Business
Now that C.S. Lewis is back in vogue, one is reminded of a great Lewis book, The Screwtape Letters. In the book a senior devil, Screwtape, writes letters to his young nephew, Wormwood. Screwtape tells Wormwood how to tempt a client away from God.
Thought experiment: Let's suppose we have a Business Screwtape in our midst. How might this BS turn young souls away from enterprise and destroy hopes? Why not bombard clients with zero-sum thinking. Clients then could only:
• Get their news from the mainstream media. Thus, the war in Iraq might be seen as a fight for a fixed pot of oil, not a struggle for a better future.
• Get business ideas from newspapers and television. The emphasis would be on job losses and trade deficits … and on businessmen as greedy polluters.
• Get economic lessons from Ivy League economists. Clients would then learn about the horrible consequences of tax cuts.
• Get history from books that portray Americans as victimizers, not as inventors and entrepreneurs.
A majority of Americans think the economy is performing poorly, and 40% think a recession is under way. Is there a Business Screwtape in our midst? Could be. He's doing a hell of a job.
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Just a great piece at Rich Karlgaard's monthly column in Forbes. I read it on my flight back from Chicago, so I wanted to post it up here (most of it). Love the reference to C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters (great book).
It's not cancer or AIDS or avian flu; it's a monstrously flawed idea. The sickest thinking--and the source of most of human misery throughout the ages--is based on the following beliefs:
• The Earth is running out of resources;
• People consume more than they contribute;
• Wealth is a zero-sum distribution game.
History overwhelmingly refutes these ideas; otherwise, humankind would still be living in caves, sharpening spears for the hunt. Our lives would be brutal and short, lasting on average about 30 years. We'd enjoy no books, movies or iPods; we'd drive no cars to visit grandma over the holidays; we'd savor none of her gooseberry pie if the economic pie hadn't been growing all along.
Yet most politicians, economists and journalists act as if growth were a mirage and wealth a zero-sum game. What else accounts for last November's headlines yelling about GM's cut of some 30,000 jobs? Does the creation of 30,000 jobs get equal treatment? Why not? That's about how many jobs are born in the U.S. every six days.
Origins of the Virus
Why do so many opinion makers promote the zero-sum view? I think that politicians, even the best and brightest, become zero-sum thinkers because they occupy a zero-sum world. Only one person can be President of this country; only 50 can be governors; only 100 can be senators. The most creative entrepreneur in the world can't change these parameters. Politicians live in a world in which one person's gain is another's loss.
.....
It's no surprise that the top business thinker of the last 50 years, the late Peter Drucker, operated outside of the university system. Drucker, who had escaped Germany in 1933, was no Pollyanna and no stranger to evil. But he saw that evil had its roots in a belief system of limits. The Nazis believed there was room on the planet for only one ideology and one race.
(I love this example.)
Journalists at mainstream media organizations wallow in a zero-sum world: There can be only one evening television anchor and one top editor at a newspaper. All others are beta dogs. Thus from the MSM we get a staple of alarming stories about job losses, trade and fiscal deficits, global warming, the price of oil rising to $100 a barrel and so on. Zero-sum nonsense, all of it. Why does the mainstream media love environmentalists? Both groups share a zero-sum view of the world.
Meanwhile, much of the better journalism and commentary has been migrating to blogs. No surprise here. Anybody who creates a blog is: (a) an entrepreneur and, thus, probably NOT a zero-sum thinker; and (b) a producer first and a consumer second. These two attributes alone guarantee that the blogger has a clearer view of how the world really works than does the zero-sum thinker toiling away at his mainstream media position.
.....
Screwtape Letters for Business
Now that C.S. Lewis is back in vogue, one is reminded of a great Lewis book, The Screwtape Letters. In the book a senior devil, Screwtape, writes letters to his young nephew, Wormwood. Screwtape tells Wormwood how to tempt a client away from God.
Thought experiment: Let's suppose we have a Business Screwtape in our midst. How might this BS turn young souls away from enterprise and destroy hopes? Why not bombard clients with zero-sum thinking. Clients then could only:
• Get their news from the mainstream media. Thus, the war in Iraq might be seen as a fight for a fixed pot of oil, not a struggle for a better future.
• Get business ideas from newspapers and television. The emphasis would be on job losses and trade deficits … and on businessmen as greedy polluters.
• Get economic lessons from Ivy League economists. Clients would then learn about the horrible consequences of tax cuts.
• Get history from books that portray Americans as victimizers, not as inventors and entrepreneurs.
A majority of Americans think the economy is performing poorly, and 40% think a recession is under way. Is there a Business Screwtape in our midst? Could be. He's doing a hell of a job.
REVIEW OF VONGO
Russell Beattie has a review of Vongo, a new video download service by Starz Entertainment Group (Starz cable channel). Some of his comments:
Conceptually, I think the idea of paying a monthly fee and getting to choose from 1000+ movies is what those of us in the “cable generation” consider “normal.” Unlike iTunes’ $2 per television episode, this fits much more naturally in how I regularly consume video content. Yes, I was just raving about iTunes video and there’s a reason for that: buying video that is pre-made for your portable player is still MUCH more convenient than recording a program to TiVo (or ripping a DVD), copying it to your PC (in real time) and converting it ever so slowly for your mobile device. But still, the cost starts to become a bit much after a while. I know I personally spent $20 or so on videos at first (only $2!!) but then started to get a little wary after a bit (wow, $2!?!).
This is where the Vongo service is so much more reasonable. I signed up to the service last night and within moments was browsing a bunch of really good movies to view. I decided to try out The Incredibles (which, ironically isn’t available on Apple’s store…) and because I already paid my $10 for the month, there was no charge for the download. I was able to choose “PC” or “Portable” formats and the downloading began immediately. I could start viewing the PC download within 30 seconds (just like with other downloadable movie sites), or I could watch streaming Starz cable TV. Sadly, the portable download didn’t work on my ZVue (with its updated DRM-enabled firmware) and like Michael Gartenberg said I’m not sure which portable players Vongo is going to support, actually. But once the supported devices start showing up (and since it’s using Windows Media, I have no doubt there will be many), this will be a cool system. (I read that Vongo is going to be working with Sony to make video available on their Connect site for the PSPs. When that happens, this system will *really* rock.)
I'm definitely going to check it out and also DAVE TV this week.
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Russell Beattie has a review of Vongo, a new video download service by Starz Entertainment Group (Starz cable channel). Some of his comments:
Conceptually, I think the idea of paying a monthly fee and getting to choose from 1000+ movies is what those of us in the “cable generation” consider “normal.” Unlike iTunes’ $2 per television episode, this fits much more naturally in how I regularly consume video content. Yes, I was just raving about iTunes video and there’s a reason for that: buying video that is pre-made for your portable player is still MUCH more convenient than recording a program to TiVo (or ripping a DVD), copying it to your PC (in real time) and converting it ever so slowly for your mobile device. But still, the cost starts to become a bit much after a while. I know I personally spent $20 or so on videos at first (only $2!!) but then started to get a little wary after a bit (wow, $2!?!).
This is where the Vongo service is so much more reasonable. I signed up to the service last night and within moments was browsing a bunch of really good movies to view. I decided to try out The Incredibles (which, ironically isn’t available on Apple’s store…) and because I already paid my $10 for the month, there was no charge for the download. I was able to choose “PC” or “Portable” formats and the downloading began immediately. I could start viewing the PC download within 30 seconds (just like with other downloadable movie sites), or I could watch streaming Starz cable TV. Sadly, the portable download didn’t work on my ZVue (with its updated DRM-enabled firmware) and like Michael Gartenberg said I’m not sure which portable players Vongo is going to support, actually. But once the supported devices start showing up (and since it’s using Windows Media, I have no doubt there will be many), this will be a cool system. (I read that Vongo is going to be working with Sony to make video available on their Connect site for the PSPs. When that happens, this system will *really* rock.)
I'm definitely going to check it out and also DAVE TV this week.
GOOGLE PC... DAN FARBER'S VIEW
One of the biggest rumors to come out of CES is Google supposedly announcing a "Google PC" and a possible distribution deal with Wal-Mart. Dan Farber provides his point of view, which I basically agree with. I don't even know if this is true, but if it is announced on Friday I don't believe this piece of hardware will become a primary business line or initiative for Google.
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One of the biggest rumors to come out of CES is Google supposedly announcing a "Google PC" and a possible distribution deal with Wal-Mart. Dan Farber provides his point of view, which I basically agree with. I don't even know if this is true, but if it is announced on Friday I don't believe this piece of hardware will become a primary business line or initiative for Google.
"NORTH KOREA EXPORTING WORKERS INTO LIVES OF SLAVERY"
HatTip to Mingi. Messed up.
The old schoolhouse stands alone at the end of a quiet country road flanked by snow-flecked wheat fields. From behind the locked door, opaque with smoked glass, come the clatter of sewing machines and, improbably, the babble of young female voices speaking Korean.
The schoolhouse, which closed long ago for lack of students in this village of 200, is now a factory producing uniforms. Almost all the workers are North Korean, and the women initially looked delighted to see visitors. It gets lonely working out here, thousands of miles from home. They crowded around to chat.
.....
Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns. Their presence in this new member of the European Union is an echo of North Korea's former alliance with other Communist countries.
The North Korean government keeps most of the earnings, apparently one of the few legal sources of hard currency for an isolated and impoverished regime living off counterfeiting, drug trading and weapons sales. (full article)
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HatTip to Mingi. Messed up.
The old schoolhouse stands alone at the end of a quiet country road flanked by snow-flecked wheat fields. From behind the locked door, opaque with smoked glass, come the clatter of sewing machines and, improbably, the babble of young female voices speaking Korean.
The schoolhouse, which closed long ago for lack of students in this village of 200, is now a factory producing uniforms. Almost all the workers are North Korean, and the women initially looked delighted to see visitors. It gets lonely working out here, thousands of miles from home. They crowded around to chat.
.....
Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns. Their presence in this new member of the European Union is an echo of North Korea's former alliance with other Communist countries.
The North Korean government keeps most of the earnings, apparently one of the few legal sources of hard currency for an isolated and impoverished regime living off counterfeiting, drug trading and weapons sales. (full article)
"CHINA'S YOUTH LOOK TO SEOUL FOR INSPIRATION"
HatTip to Grace. NY Times article that's a few years late, but that's expected with mainstream media.
The cultural influence and flow into China and other Asian nations started a few years back with Korea's music scene and expanded to TV and film. Another point of influence is technology. Chinese firms and government entities hungry for technology and business knowledge seek out Korean firms, and Korean companies have flooded into China for years now. Also because of a common history against Japan and distaste for many things Japanese, Korea has almost become a default development partner in Asia. I assume the growing bonds between South Korea and China will continue along these lines of business and culture.
At Korea City, on the top floor of the Xidan Shopping Center, a warren of tiny shops sell hip-hop clothes, movies, music, cosmetics and other offerings in the South Korean style.
To young Chinese shoppers, it seemed not to matter that some of the products, like New York Yankees caps or Japan's Astro Boy dolls, clearly have little to do with South Korea. Or that most items originated, in fact, in Chinese factories.
"We know that the products at Korea City are made in China," said Wang Ying, 28, who works for the local branch of an American company. "But to many young people, 'Korea' stands for fashionable or stylish. So they copy the Korean style."
From clothes to hairstyle, music to television dramas, South Korea has been defining the tastes of many Chinese and other Asians for the past half decade. As part of what the Chinese call the Korean Wave of pop culture, a television drama about a royal cook, "The Jewel in the Palace," is garnering record ratings throughout Asia, and Rain, a 23-year-old singer from Seoul, drew more than 40,000 fans to a sold-out concert at a sports stadium here in October.
But South Korea's "soft power" also extends to the material and spiritual spheres. Samsung's cellphones and televisions are symbols of a coveted consumerism for many Chinese. Christianity, in the evangelical form championed by Korean missionaries deployed throughout China, is finding Chinese converts despite Beijing's efforts to rein in the spread of the religion. South Korea acts as a filter for Western values, experts say, making them more palatable to Chinese and other Asians.
For a country that has been influenced by other cultures, especially China but also Japan and America, South Korea finds itself at a turning point in its new role as exporter. (full article in China Daily with no login)
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HatTip to Grace. NY Times article that's a few years late, but that's expected with mainstream media.
The cultural influence and flow into China and other Asian nations started a few years back with Korea's music scene and expanded to TV and film. Another point of influence is technology. Chinese firms and government entities hungry for technology and business knowledge seek out Korean firms, and Korean companies have flooded into China for years now. Also because of a common history against Japan and distaste for many things Japanese, Korea has almost become a default development partner in Asia. I assume the growing bonds between South Korea and China will continue along these lines of business and culture.
At Korea City, on the top floor of the Xidan Shopping Center, a warren of tiny shops sell hip-hop clothes, movies, music, cosmetics and other offerings in the South Korean style.
To young Chinese shoppers, it seemed not to matter that some of the products, like New York Yankees caps or Japan's Astro Boy dolls, clearly have little to do with South Korea. Or that most items originated, in fact, in Chinese factories.
"We know that the products at Korea City are made in China," said Wang Ying, 28, who works for the local branch of an American company. "But to many young people, 'Korea' stands for fashionable or stylish. So they copy the Korean style."
From clothes to hairstyle, music to television dramas, South Korea has been defining the tastes of many Chinese and other Asians for the past half decade. As part of what the Chinese call the Korean Wave of pop culture, a television drama about a royal cook, "The Jewel in the Palace," is garnering record ratings throughout Asia, and Rain, a 23-year-old singer from Seoul, drew more than 40,000 fans to a sold-out concert at a sports stadium here in October.
But South Korea's "soft power" also extends to the material and spiritual spheres. Samsung's cellphones and televisions are symbols of a coveted consumerism for many Chinese. Christianity, in the evangelical form championed by Korean missionaries deployed throughout China, is finding Chinese converts despite Beijing's efforts to rein in the spread of the religion. South Korea acts as a filter for Western values, experts say, making them more palatable to Chinese and other Asians.
For a country that has been influenced by other cultures, especially China but also Japan and America, South Korea finds itself at a turning point in its new role as exporter. (full article in China Daily with no login)
WEB 2.0 STARTUPS OF 2005... FIGHTING THROUGH THE NOISE IN 2006
Pete Cashmore has a good post that links to Dion Hinchcliffe’s "Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005?, and Webosphere's Web 2.0 applications and services map.
All these lists and diagrams reminded me of an underlying concern I had for GoingOn Networks over the past couple months. As we launch our product in 2006, there is so much noise in the Web 2.0 space, and for tech startups in general, how do you effectively market your product? Besides the basics of defining your primary target market and promoting the hell out of your product, how do you fight through all the noise that's been growing over the past few months? How do you avoid being distracted and focus on what is important and essential versus the hype? Just some passing thoughts...
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Pete Cashmore has a good post that links to Dion Hinchcliffe’s "Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005?, and Webosphere's Web 2.0 applications and services map.
All these lists and diagrams reminded me of an underlying concern I had for GoingOn Networks over the past couple months. As we launch our product in 2006, there is so much noise in the Web 2.0 space, and for tech startups in general, how do you effectively market your product? Besides the basics of defining your primary target market and promoting the hell out of your product, how do you fight through all the noise that's been growing over the past few months? How do you avoid being distracted and focus on what is important and essential versus the hype? Just some passing thoughts...
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
BUNCH OF GREAT ADVICE ON ENTREPREURISM AND STARTING YOUR COMPANY
Sifting through bookmarks again. This time I came across a bunch of great posts on entrepreneurism, hiring, and advice on fundraising. If you're doing a startup now or thinking about building a new business and haven't read some of these posts, check them out:
"Don't Let Ego Kill the Startup" (BusinessWeek)
Silicon Valley guru Jonathan Hirshon has seen the "know-it-all attitude" of young entrepreneurs too often doom their new companies
"The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint" (Guy Kawasaki's blog)
"The A-Player Domino Effect" and "The Importance of back channel reference checks" (Ed Sim's blog)
"Business Plan - The Company" (Brad Feld's blog)
Well, since I put up these posts, I might as well promote my past article outlining some important steps to building your startup team, "Building the Perfect Team"
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Sifting through bookmarks again. This time I came across a bunch of great posts on entrepreneurism, hiring, and advice on fundraising. If you're doing a startup now or thinking about building a new business and haven't read some of these posts, check them out:
"Don't Let Ego Kill the Startup" (BusinessWeek)
Silicon Valley guru Jonathan Hirshon has seen the "know-it-all attitude" of young entrepreneurs too often doom their new companies
"The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint" (Guy Kawasaki's blog)
"The A-Player Domino Effect" and "The Importance of back channel reference checks" (Ed Sim's blog)
"Business Plan - The Company" (Brad Feld's blog)
Well, since I put up these posts, I might as well promote my past article outlining some important steps to building your startup team, "Building the Perfect Team"
NEED A GREAT SOFTWARE DEVELOPER?... CONTACT TEKRITI SOFTWARE
On my flight back from Chicago to San Francisco, I picked up a few magazines to read through during the flight. One was Fast Company and as I read through it I came across their "Best Blogs" sidebar, which focused on Indian business-related blogs this month, and it was Ashish's blog! Cool!
Ashish Kumar is the co-founder of Tekriti Software and heads the development team of GoingOn Networks. While Carl is our CTO, we outsourced the primary development of our platform and software to Tekriti and do not regret being married to them on this. Gaurav and Ashish have been great to work with (we haven't met Manish yet, but hopefully within this year), so if you're looking for a software development firm with excellent skills, solid professionalism, and great execution contact Tekriti.
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On my flight back from Chicago to San Francisco, I picked up a few magazines to read through during the flight. One was Fast Company and as I read through it I came across their "Best Blogs" sidebar, which focused on Indian business-related blogs this month, and it was Ashish's blog! Cool!
Ashish Kumar is the co-founder of Tekriti Software and heads the development team of GoingOn Networks. While Carl is our CTO, we outsourced the primary development of our platform and software to Tekriti and do not regret being married to them on this. Gaurav and Ashish have been great to work with (we haven't met Manish yet, but hopefully within this year), so if you're looking for a software development firm with excellent skills, solid professionalism, and great execution contact Tekriti.
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"Motorola unveils iRadio"
"Tech tunes into TV at CES"
"Intel Aims for New Image, Markets With Branding Change"
"Starz to offer movie download service for PDAs"
"MIT grads to size up Silicon Valley"
"Why companies monitor blogs"
"Independence Air to shut down"
"Activist: China Releases Jailed Journalist"
"Rice to visit Indonesia, Australia"
"White House Won't Undo N. Korea Sanctions"
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"Motorola unveils iRadio"
"Tech tunes into TV at CES"
"Intel Aims for New Image, Markets With Branding Change"
"Starz to offer movie download service for PDAs"
"MIT grads to size up Silicon Valley"
"Why companies monitor blogs"
"Independence Air to shut down"
"Activist: China Releases Jailed Journalist"
"Rice to visit Indonesia, Australia"
"White House Won't Undo N. Korea Sanctions"
LOOKING BACK AT 2005 AND PREDICTIONS FOR 2006
As most people saunter back to their offices today with a few extra pounds and flashbacks to a lazy New Years Day, you can imagine the natural avoidance of being enthusiastic about work or charging off into those inspiring New Years resolutions. I can hear the groans and sighs of people throughout the globe with a handful of cheerful voices that really did get some rest over the holidays.
For me, the difficulty lies in trying to wipe my mind clean of the food I got to eat in Chicago... the land of artery clotting, heart-attack inducing food. Like someone suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, the echos in my head do not come close to the battlefields of war, but my mind is still filled with images of Buffalo Joe's wings, charred steaks, and Vienna Beef hotdogs that I cannot erase. The only thing I could erase over the past week was the sound of Christine's voice constantly telling me, "Stop eating... do not eat that!... Burnt food causes cancer... Chicken skin is BAD for you!"
"But it tastes sooo good..."
Anyway, I think Christine is happy that we're back home in a land of trail nuts and foo-foo salads. She also made some goals for 2006 for us. The obvious one is weight loss and health. Here's a list of my goals for 2006 (no predictions from me) :)
10) Write more columns for AlwaysOn and posts at Junto Boyz
9) Decrease my float time of 2 hrs to 45 minutes by dropping from 220lbs to 200lbs
8) Become a decent surfer
7) Learn to keep quiet and say, "Yes, dear" more often
6) Hug a Democratic at least once a month and say, "Your party can be a party of ideas too"
5) Regain lost volleyball skills (outside of dropping weight and gaining a vertical)
4) More faithful to God
3) Build a kickass, influential, and fun company
2) Be a loving, joyful and supportive husband
1) Eat the 64oz porterhouse at Chicago Chop House
At AlwaysOn, Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's of Woodside (famous VC watering hole), has his closing notes on 2005, "BitTorrent, Google Video, and Ray Kurzweil's Dreamscape"
As for 2006 predictions, here are a few floating around in the blogosphere:
John Battelle's predictions are here.
Pat McCarthy's "Top 10 Web Predictions for 2006":
1. RSS will become two-way with the help of Simple Sharing Extensions from Microsoft.
2. Social news site Digg will expand into other content areas and media types and then will be acquired.
3. Web 2.0 will be looked down upon as a buzzword, and it’s usage will drop off dramatically.
4. Face-recognition photo application Riya will be acquired by a major player.
5. Some ecommerce shopping applications using the more recent advancements in social web technologies will be developed and will succeed.
6. Google Analytics will again drop the hammer on the web analytics industry.
7. A forward thinking company will build technology to support transparency, efficiency, and relationships in the online advertising business.
8. Microsoft will launch a contextual advertising network that will either be huge, or fail miserably.
9. Two to three new startups will be so cool and successful they will make the heroes of 2005 like Flickr and del.icio.us seem small and insignificant.
10. The venture capital investments and acquisition bubble will heat up even more, then deflate in the 2nd half of 2006 after a number of companies fail.. (full post)
Kevin Burton's predictions here.
Randy Charles's predictions here.
ThinkEquity's Michael Moe has his view on the financial markets in 2006 here.
Bill Bishop's "Predictions for the Chinese Internet in 2006" here.
UPDATE: Peter Caputa has a great post for his predictions in 2006. This is how a prediction post should be written.
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As most people saunter back to their offices today with a few extra pounds and flashbacks to a lazy New Years Day, you can imagine the natural avoidance of being enthusiastic about work or charging off into those inspiring New Years resolutions. I can hear the groans and sighs of people throughout the globe with a handful of cheerful voices that really did get some rest over the holidays.
For me, the difficulty lies in trying to wipe my mind clean of the food I got to eat in Chicago... the land of artery clotting, heart-attack inducing food. Like someone suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, the echos in my head do not come close to the battlefields of war, but my mind is still filled with images of Buffalo Joe's wings, charred steaks, and Vienna Beef hotdogs that I cannot erase. The only thing I could erase over the past week was the sound of Christine's voice constantly telling me, "Stop eating... do not eat that!... Burnt food causes cancer... Chicken skin is BAD for you!"
"But it tastes sooo good..."
Anyway, I think Christine is happy that we're back home in a land of trail nuts and foo-foo salads. She also made some goals for 2006 for us. The obvious one is weight loss and health. Here's a list of my goals for 2006 (no predictions from me) :)
10) Write more columns for AlwaysOn and posts at Junto Boyz
9) Decrease my float time of 2 hrs to 45 minutes by dropping from 220lbs to 200lbs
8) Become a decent surfer
7) Learn to keep quiet and say, "Yes, dear" more often
6) Hug a Democratic at least once a month and say, "Your party can be a party of ideas too"
5) Regain lost volleyball skills (outside of dropping weight and gaining a vertical)
4) More faithful to God
3) Build a kickass, influential, and fun company
2) Be a loving, joyful and supportive husband
1) Eat the 64oz porterhouse at Chicago Chop House
At AlwaysOn, Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's of Woodside (famous VC watering hole), has his closing notes on 2005, "BitTorrent, Google Video, and Ray Kurzweil's Dreamscape"
As for 2006 predictions, here are a few floating around in the blogosphere:
John Battelle's predictions are here.
Pat McCarthy's "Top 10 Web Predictions for 2006":
1. RSS will become two-way with the help of Simple Sharing Extensions from Microsoft.
2. Social news site Digg will expand into other content areas and media types and then will be acquired.
3. Web 2.0 will be looked down upon as a buzzword, and it’s usage will drop off dramatically.
4. Face-recognition photo application Riya will be acquired by a major player.
5. Some ecommerce shopping applications using the more recent advancements in social web technologies will be developed and will succeed.
6. Google Analytics will again drop the hammer on the web analytics industry.
7. A forward thinking company will build technology to support transparency, efficiency, and relationships in the online advertising business.
8. Microsoft will launch a contextual advertising network that will either be huge, or fail miserably.
9. Two to three new startups will be so cool and successful they will make the heroes of 2005 like Flickr and del.icio.us seem small and insignificant.
10. The venture capital investments and acquisition bubble will heat up even more, then deflate in the 2nd half of 2006 after a number of companies fail.. (full post)
Kevin Burton's predictions here.
Randy Charles's predictions here.
ThinkEquity's Michael Moe has his view on the financial markets in 2006 here.
Bill Bishop's "Predictions for the Chinese Internet in 2006" here.
UPDATE: Peter Caputa has a great post for his predictions in 2006. This is how a prediction post should be written.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!... FOR DEMS
HatTip to Carl. A New Years greeting for friends from the left:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
And of course, for friends from the right:
Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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HatTip to Carl. A New Years greeting for friends from the left:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
And of course, for friends from the right:
Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Business & Technology, Politics, and Random Posts from the Left, Right, and Elsewhere
Place of Birth: Seoul, Korea
Hometown: Northbrook, IL USA
Lived in: Seoul, Chicago (Villa Park & Northbrook), Madison, WI, Springfield, IL, St. Louis, New York City, Chicago (Glenview), Seoul, San Francisco
Also blogs at: AlwaysOn, Coro Blog, SportsBlog
More on Bernard or Blogger profile or GoingOn profile or Linkedin profile
Max Yow
Homeland: Canada
Sports: combative sports, sports you play with a ball, sports with no swimming, sports you can play while drinking and smoking (pool, darts, bowling, video games).
More on Max
ARCHIVES
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If you have questions, topic ideas, or whatever, just email bernard at bernard.moon@gmail.com. Thank you!
site feed
forget the long tail!
(03/21/2006)
2084
(11/02/2005)
building the perfect team
(08/17/2005)
open it up, new york times, chicago tribune, san francisco chronicle!
(06/07/2005)
staring down the digital divide
(06/08/2005)
2005 world series of poker... tech style
(03/30/2005)
rss: real simple syndication or really saturated space?
(02/10/2005)
blogosphere: lost in translation?
(02/10/2005)
diamonds in the rough at redmond
(02/10/2005)
it's a wiki wiki world
(02/03/2005)
where technology is ubiquitous, opportunity abounds
(1/12/2005)
start of "reality media" column
(12/23/2004)
Tech
bill joy's apocalyptic vision, determinism, and commonality with stephen hawking
(07/22/2005)
google economy => blogosphere
(01/25/2005)
power of the long tail
(12/14/2004)
protectionist china... will chinese or u.s. companies lose out?
(3/15/2004)
skype... p2p telephony & a very cool company
(2/13/2004)
poor george glider is right
(2/9/2004)
it's not the deficit stupid!... tech is the primary driver for growth
(12/02/2003)
immature venture capital industry in asia (9/29/2003)
boom time memories... masayoshi son was the man
(7/1/2003)
Politics
south korea's recent idiotic policies against foreign direct investment
(09/09/2005)
my first op-ed
(11/30/2004)
100,000 protest against Bush for... what?
(11/23/2003)
Society
generalizations of east asians
(5/16/2004)
sports is the great equalizer and unifer
(4/20/2004)
defining wisdom... age is the lesser factor
(10/18/2003)
living together before marriage
(8/25/2003)
friendships, relationships, people in life... (7/7/2003)
sugar mommas
(6/13/2003)
need for laws and enforcement
(4/10/2003)
old shaq issue
(4/2/2003)
Religion
creationism & christmas
(12/23/2004)
the passion of the christ... misunderstood
(2/20/2004)
christian's view of homosexuality
(1/13/2004)
is man determined or free?
(8/18/2003)
destructive christianity
(5/3/2003)
Others
"Blah Blah Bernard Blah Blah" Changing to "Junto Boyz"... A New Direction
(4/20/2004)
art of asking questions
(9/18/2003)
ode to bacon
(8/13/2003)
big guys... eating stories iv
(7/27/2003)
big guys... eating stories i
(4/2/2003)
cnn
cnet
businessweek
economist
forbes
fortune
fast company
pe week wire
the deal
ecommerce times
ne asia online
pacific epoch
eweek
release 1.0
technology review
techweb
zdnet news
the american spectator
drudge report
foreign policy
frontpage
harvard political review
mother jones
national review
the new republic
the weekly standard
il conservative politics
the atlantic
the hill
roll call
george f. will
asianweek
financeasia
korea herald
the onion
cox & forkum cartoons
garage technology ventures
growthink research
entrepreneur.com
entrepreneur america
venture economics
venture reporter
vfinance.com
yahoo! small business
nationmaster
thomas, legislative info
american enterprise institute
brookings institute
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heritage foundation
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national center for policy analysis
progress & freedom foundation
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rand corporation
reason public policy institute
urban institute
columbia institute for tele-info
international justice mission
charles barkley's outrageous career
liquid generation
wikipedia
"You cannot go on explaining away things over forever or you will find that you have explained even explanation itself away. You cannot go on seeing through things forever because the whole point of seeing through something is to see something else through it." - C.S Lewis
December 11, 2005
"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." - Western Union internal memo, 1876
December 4, 2005
"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individual. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful." - Marie Curie
November 27, 2005
"One cannot step into the same river twice." - Heratidus
November 20, 2005
"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment." - Robert Maynard Hutchins
November 13, 2005
"We are moving away from the old idea of leadership -- leadership has less to do (now) with heroism. We don’t look for... unblemished omnipotent heroes, but leaders who are complex, dependent, changeable... We do not need one dominant authority structure telling all our inner voices to shut up..." - Walter Truett Anderson
November 6, 2005
"To know oneself is to know one’s [country]. It is also... paradoxically a form of exile from that world... to know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility, and that virtue is not conspicuous in any national character." - Flannery O’Connor
October 30, 2005
"Men content themselves with the same words as other people use, as if the very sound necessarily carried the same meaning." - John Locke
October 23, 2005
"In order to thrive in a world of change and chaos, we will need to accept 'chaos' as an essential process by which natural systems, including organizations, renew and revitalize themselves." - Margaret Wheatley
October 16, 2004
"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary." - Robert Louis Stevenson
October 9, 2004
"We will be better and braver if we engage and inquire than if we indulge in the idle fancy that we already know - or that it is of no use seeking to know what we do not know." - Plato
October 2, 2004
"Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions." - Oliver W. Holmes
September 25, 2004
"What you learn intellectually lies in the shallow pools among the wrinkles of your brain. What you learn through the skin of experience sinks deep into your roots." - Hank Taft
September 18, 2004
"In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him." - C.S. Lewis
September 11, 2004
"A society is judged by how it treats its least desirable people." - Anonymous
September 4, 2004
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
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