Book Review: Distrust That Particular Flavor By William Gibson
William Gibson is the defining author of our digital age. More than any social media pundit or Popcorn futurist, he has defined the dystopia we can expect once we escape the dystopia we’re in now. His fiction – a trilogy of trilogies that works backwards from the distant future to a world that is ours – is constantly approaching the present while exploring what it means to exist in a culture mediated by electronics. Although his early work owes more to Burroughs and Verne than anyone cares to (...)
- Other recent TechCrunch news:
- The Phone Stacking Game: Let’s Make This A Thing | February 5
- Years After Being Dropped, ZFS Finds Its Way Back To The Mac | February 1
- CFO Defends Amazon From Analyst Skepticism | February 1
- What Recession? Razer’s $2800 Blade Gaming Laptop Sells Out In 30 Minutes | February 1
7 stories to read this weekend
There is a lot of talk about data, 3D printing, innovation, design and user interaction and curation. So this week’s theme is a collection of writing that questions conventional wisdom about these aforementioned themes. Most of them are long — so better get a cup of tea now. Data trumps opinion, especially when it comes to design, argues Adapative Path’s Brandon Schauer. He outlines four examples in his post. The myth of the new brand new innovation myth: Is that headline giving you a (...)
- Other recent GigaOM news:
- Neil Young is right — piracy is the new radio | February 1
- Why 2013 is the year of ‘NoOps’ for programmers [Infographic] | February 1
- M2M: one network will not rule them all | February 1
- YouTube could introduce a subscription service of its own | February 1
A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Jan. 30
Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.
- Other recent Wired: Tech Biz news:
- The Skinny on Ultrabooks: 4 Super-Portable Laptops Reviewed | February 2
- A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Feb. 1 | February 1
- For the Future of YouTube Ads, It’s All About Context | February 1
- Google to Censor Blogger Blogs on a ’Per Country Basis’ | February 1
Dispersion and Entropy In Social Media
On Monday, I trained it up to New Haven to meet a Yale professor named Dina Mayzlin and talk to her class. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Dina's class as it allowed me to work on some new material in a comfortable setting. But the talk Dina and I had over breakfast before class was even more thought provoking.
Dina got her PhD at MIT's Sloan School a decade ago, before she started teach at Yale. Her thesis looked at TV shows being talked about in the social media of that time, newsgroups, (...)
- Other recent A VC news:
- Engagio Followup | February 2
- Fun Friday: Super Bowl Weekend | February 3
- The Teen Art Gallery | February 4
- Women Entrepreneurs | February 5
What Makes An Awesome Board Member?
Over the past two years I’ve been struggling mightily with the dynamics of “classical VC funded board of directors” and how these boards work. When I hear a VC say “I’m an active board member” it gives me the same nauseous feeling I get when someone says “I’m a value added investor.” I’ve been on some awesome boards, some terrible boards, and everything in between. Today, I refuse to be on a shitty or dysfunctional board and I’m proud that every board I’m on is one that I’d consider to be effective, (...)
- Other recent Feld Thoughts news:
- Starwood and AT&T #FAIL And Bless Me With $180.76 Of Phone Charges | February 1
- Grinfucking | February 4
Why Facebook Clearly Belongs in the 10X Revenue Club
Attached are my thoughts on the Facebook S-1 along with some quick stabs at valuation. Brief disclosure, Benchmark Capital has a minority position in Facebook as a result of the acquisition of FriendFeed, a company that was incubated in our offices. I thought it would be useful to look at Facebook using the scorecard from our [...]
Steve Blank vs. Steve Jobs
I am co-teaching a class at Harvard Business School on entrepreneurship called "Launching Technology Ventures" along with my friend and colleague, Professor Tom Eisenmann. The class kicked off this week with two cases: Dropbox and Aardvark.
As I reflect on the class discussions, one of the interesting tension points that arose is the challenge an entrepreneur faces in selecting their primary product design approach. Should they follow the Steve Blank, Customer Development Process (...)
What Should I Do When Someone Expresses Interest In Acquiring My Company?
I get asked this question many times in many different ways. Sometimes people are coy about it (“someone is expressing strategic interest – what should I do?”) other times people are clear and direct (“someone wants to acquire my company – help!”).
David Cohen, the CEO of TechStars, has encountered this many times. Before starting TechStars, he was an entrepreneur who sold his company to a public company after running it with a partner for a decade. He then started a few more companies, (...)
Google+ Optimization vs. Community Building: Pros & Cons of Google SPYW
Google+ Optimization or Community Building?
Initially I looked at Google+ the same as other Google social projects like Wave and Orkut. But the more I use Google+ the more I like it. Maybe it’s the network effect because others are using it more too. I often find content and insights shared on G+ that I don’t find elsewhere.
While the addition of Google Search Plus Your World (SPYW) has made a big splash in the digital community, I actually think G+ is far more useful (from a personal (...)
- Other recent Online Marketing Blog news:
- Blogger Relations: Push or Pull? How to Get Bloggers to Mention Your Brand | February 1
- Essential Shifts in Online Marketing: Are You On Board? Are You Optimized? | February 2
- Online Marketing News: Facebook IPO, Harmonize with Google+, Pinterest Dominates Traffic | February 3
15 Silicon Valley Homes To Drool Over Ahead Of Facebook’s IPO Filing Next Week
When Facebook finally goes public in a few months, the company will create more than 1,000 millionaires.
And the company is expected to move a step closer to that goal next week: it's apparently filing for an IPO Wednesday.
While the newly minted millionaires won't have their hands on the money for a few months, we thought it would be a good time to check out some of the real estate available in the Silicon Valley area.
These homes may or may not still be available in the spring, but it (...)
- Other recent Silicon Alley Insider news:
- Three Predictions For The Facebook IPO Filing Coming Tomorrow | February 1
- This Former Yahoo-er’s Startup Is So Hot, Even the CIA Invested In It | February 1
- YouTube Chief Explains How They’ll Make Money From Dogs On Skateboards (GOOG) | February 1
- Why The FBI Wants To Look At Your Social Media Updates | February 1
Macworld finds its footing as a “hardcore consumer lifestyle event”
Macworld Expo, a once powerful Mac tradeshow, is getting new life as smaller event for Apple consumers and fans. The revamped three-day event, now called Macworld | iWorld, is taking place this week in San Francisco.
“We took a little Comic Con, we took a little South by Southwest, and then added our own kind of special flavors,” said general manager Paul Kent. “It’s product discovery on the show floor, learning in our tech talks, and then there’s this concept of inspiration. People come here to (...)
- Other recent VentureBeat news:
- Amazon stays frustratingly silent on Kindle Fire sales data | February 1
- Firefox 10 gets developer-friendly with Inspector features | February 1
- Boxee to remove PC application from its website | February 1
- Announcing the 2011 Crunchies Awards winners | February 1
Women Entrepreneurs, Example Not Exception, Video
View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.
This week we look at Women Entrepreneurs, Example Not Exception by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. In this inspiring video she gives examples of women entrepreneurs across the world. She argues that women running all types of firms– from home businesses (such as freelancing) to major factories– are the overlooked key to economic (...)
- Other recent FreelanceSwitch news:
- Top Tips for a Safer Client Contract | February 1
- Why Sleep is so Important for Freelancers | February 1
- The Euro Crisis Presents a Unique Opportunity for Freelancers | February 2
- Fair Wages for Freelance Writing | February 2
Your iPhone Has To Be Made In China, And Apple Can’t Absolve Your Guilt
“For a quarter of a century, Washington and Wall Street have wanted China to become an integral part of the world economy. Their wish has been granted, and now it’s time to come to grips with the implications.”—Jeffrey Garten, Yale, June 2002 (BusinessWeek)
Ten years after those words were written we still find ourselves wringing our hands over how much American prosperity is derived from Chinese manufacturing. A series of articles from The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) this week on Apple’s (...)
- Other recent paidContent news:
- Myriad Eyes Synchronica, Says Messaging Company Can’t Pay Its Nokia Debt | February 1
- Zite Brings Intel Inside Its Technology Section In Sponsorship Deal | February 1
- Amazon: Print Book Unit Sales Up; More Content For Prime | February 1
- Videoplaza Raises $12 Million For Its Multiscreen Video Ad Platform | February 1
How To Win The War Against Piracy – It’s Not SOPA
In the wake of the recent trashing of the SOPA bill and the collective uproar that surrounded it, I’d like to investigate a few things relevant to us as online entrepreneurs, creativity and ownership.
Just in case you have been living under a rock and don’t know what I’m talking about, the US government recently tried to… Read the rest of this entry »
- Other recent Entrepreneurs-Journey news:
- Why Beginner Entrepreneurs Fail To Bridge The Gap Between Start Up And Sustainable Profit | February 3
Minor Language Observation
It's no great observation to note that languages constantly change (some, like English, quickly; others, like French, which has a linguistic academy whose role is to regulate how much change is acceptabl, more slowly [although it's ultimately ineffectual]). See this short post. But, over the past few months, I've noticed an example of how this is happening right before our eyes -- with the word "nonplussed". It's quickly being turned into its direct opposite.
To "nonplus" (...)
Ecommerce Referrals
First Round Capital portfolio company Monetate just released a very interesting infographic showing how Pinterest and other social tools are rapidly changing how people get referred to ecommerce sites. Check it out...
WSJ compares Petfood ecommerce, likes Petflow
Last year we invested in Petflow, an online petfood retailer. We believed that Alex and Joe, the two cofounders, would be able to repeat the success they had in founding Azoogle (now part of Epic Media Group) and that the repeat purchase behavior inherent in petfood would generate loyal repeat customers and high lifetime value, despite the high shipping costs inherent in petfood. Pets.com went down in flames when the first bubble burst, but we believe that today’s much lower cost of building (...)
- Other recent Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog news:
- Why so many hot apparel ecommerce startups are vertically integrated | February 3
