Netizen

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Contents 2010

My Gmail Prayers Heard: Multiple Inboxes
FoodSpotting Is The Next FourSquare
Mike Arrington Is A Sexist Pig: Say PeeeeG!
Finally TechCrunch "Gets" Disqus
Real Time Search: Where Google Can "Get" Social
Paying For Phone Calls Was Always Ridiculous
I Was In Chicago? Facebook Places Messing Up
Dennis Crowley, Facebook, And The Location Ecosystem
Esther Dyson On The Future Of Search
The Web Not Yet Ready For The Video Format
The Web Lifestyle And Company Cultures
A Ridiculously Good Blog Search Engine
Facebook Doing Location Is Like Google Doing Social, Almost
Hulu Still Struggling With Business Model
China Is The Reason Google Did Verizon
Google Does Not Need Social Envy
Whatever Happened To Google Wave?
Amazon's Amazing Cloud
Post Wintel
Social, Gaming, Email
YouTube: 15 Minutes Are Much Better
Digital Dumbo 18: The Dumbo Loft
Disney's Playdom Purchase
Zoho
News: July 27
This Blog's Design Inspired By Google, Craig's List
The Art Of Reading Headlines
The Economy: Uncharted Waters
News: July 26
Seth Godin On Failure
Zynga: The Google Of Games?
News: July 25
$35 PC
Chrome OS: Round The Corner?
Ghajini: Tu Meri Adhuri Pyas
iGuide.travel (Ad)
News: July 20
I Am Big In Canada
Go Outside: Cults
News: July 17 (2)
News: July 17
Reclaiming My Twitter Account
A 4 AM Traffic Peak, Mostly From Canada
Google's Metaweb Acquisition
Tech, Women, Diversity
Darren Rowse's Seven Links Challenge
Traffic: Canada Top Country, 2 AM Peak
Is The iPhone 4 In Trouble?
News: July 14
Shopping Around For Iran
Seed Money
What Just Happened? 3,000 Page Hits
Slow Motion: Panda Bear
You Can Create An Android App Too, Anyone Can
To Iran, With Love (3)
My Tumblr Style
World Cup: Spain Deserved To Win
Andy Grove On Creating Jobs
Right On: The Roots And Joanna Newsome
North To Alaska
To Iran, With Love (2)
Droid X Vs. iPhone 4
Parenting
The Social Network: The Movie
To Iran, With Love (1)
Larry Ellison's Personal Life
Spain: The Octopus Was Right, I Was Wrong
A NY Tech MeetUp For Sindre Aarsaether
Brad Feld
Rome - Phoenix W/ Devendra Banhart
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
The Germans Called Me Robin Hood
Happy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
An Offer To FourSquare
Argentina Was Not A Team
Soraya Darabi
Blogger Stats
Brazil: The Overconfidence Of A Soccer Superpower
FourSquare: $20 Million At $95 Million Valuation
Soccer And Latin America
Brazil
July 1 Digital Dumbo: Do Not Miss
Walking On The Moon
The Al Qaeda, Internet, Globalization
Lionel Messi (2)
News June 26
Lionel Messi
Young Folks
Walk In The Park
My Secret Sauce
Rich People's Kids
Swype: Type On Your Smartphone At Laptop Speed
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Saavn's Great Business Model For Movies
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
Towards Threaded Conversations On Twitter
How To Monetize Tumblr?
Twitter: The Obvious Missing Features
Indian Railways
OpenVBX: To Manage Your Office Phones
The Eyes Of Truth
Verdict: The iPhone Is Not Open, Flash Is Not Cutting Edge
Fred Wilson: An Unassuming Kind Of Guy
"Where Was This Google All This Time?"
Hey Now, Hey Now
Employment Authorization Card: It's Here
Tomorrow
Firing Founders: Mostly A Bad Idea
Venmo Me For My Charm
Randi For Reshma
Buzzd Party Thursday
Finally Google Has Figured Out A Way To Keep Up With My Blog
Scott Contrarian Heiferman Does It Again
The Highlight Of My Internet Week
Not MeetUp
Women In Tech-Media Event At JP Morgan: Internet Week
Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
Zuckerberg Has Stature
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
Naveen Selvadurai, Vin Vacanti
Slow Gmail: Short Term Help
Slow Gmail
After Entry Level Jobs, An Internship
Internet Week: Going To Three Events So Far
Lady Liberty Whispers
This Is Not Happening: King Dennis
How To Date An Indian: Andrea Miller
Sree In A Candy Shop
The Mashable Success Story
Reshma 2010, Square, And Pro.Act.Ly
Top Web Properties
Larry Ellison's 1995 Network Computer Vision
The Biggest NY Tech MeetUp Ever?
Buzzd
Immigration Status
One Programming Language
India Broadband Spectrum Bids
Google's Advertising Business
Redesigning My Blog
Paul English Writes Back
Kayak, Paul English, Africa, Free Wireless Internet
Kayak, Paul English, Africa, Free Wireless Internet
The Dumbo Loft Digital Dumbo
Indaba Music: NY Tech Talks MeetUp
Entry Level Jobs
Apple: Remarkable
TechCrunch Disrupt
Ann Curry Commencement
Job Search
ChatVille Is Live Now: "What ChatRoulette Should Have Been
The Far Future Of Databases At The Dropio Offices
Google New York
Google Is Having A TechCrunch Day
Chrome Operating System
Chatfe: Audio, Interest Based Random Connections On Skype?
Has Google Been Able To Scale Well?
TED Talks
Seth Godin, Jack Dorsey, Marc Andreessen
Me @ BBC
Patent Absurdity
A Time Warner Vacation
Venmo Could Make Moves
Adam Smith And The Inbox Space
Paul Carr's Frank Talk On Race
Direct Messages From Ann Curry, Steve Case, Robert Scoble
Who Is Chetan Bhagat? 2010 Time 100
A Day In The Life Of New York City
Jon Stewart: Appholes
Venmo And Frictionless Payments
Could 2011 Be Venmo's Year?
Reimagining The Inbox The Simple Way
Dropio's Indian Cofounder Darshan
The FourSquare Appeal For Me
What Are You Doing Monday? Come Meet Al Wenger
FourSquare Must Cut A Deal With Yahoo
Manhattan?
Digital Dumbo: Here I Come
The Jack Dorsey Story
FourSquare Office, Dropio Technology
4:16 PM @ FourSquare
I Have Been Quoted In Fast Company
Not Union Square Ventures
2010: Location, Random Connections, The Inbox, Frictionless Payments
Fred Wilson: A DJ
Farmville Has Not Been Loading For Me
Selling FourSquare Would Be A Mistake, Partnering Would Be Genius
Fred Wilson: DJ
Graphic Reality

Chatroulette Is For Real
Dennis, Fred, Scott: Tweet Boom Tweet Boom
A Soft Spot For Mike Arrington
Chris Dixon On Twitter: Not Impressive
4/16: I Found Myself A Party: Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night
Managing Al, Brad, Fred: An Opportunity To Jump For
Real Time Is Real Time, Today Or Last Year
Why Will Facebook Itself Not Do Facebook Enterprise
Twitter Has To Scale The Signals
Twitter Does The Deed: Ads
On Disqus And Disqussions
If The Tweet Is The Atom, What Is Location?
The Inbox Could See New Life This Year
Union Square Ventures Job Opening: I Am Applying
Twitter Acquires Tweetie: The Drama
The iPad Is No Laptop Killer
Breaking The Glass Ceiling With Ann Curry
Vint Cerf, Craig Mundie, Steve Wozniak
Charlie Rose: Technology
Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin
Twitter Need Get Work Done
April 2010 NY Tech MeetUp
Fred Wilson's Gift To Me
Net Neutrality Is The Internet's DNA
Twitter Needs To Eat Into Its Ecosystem
Andreessen, Conway, Hornik
The iPad
Farmville Farmer's Market: My Idea
Startups And Immigrants
Links: April 2
News: March 30
Sergey Brin's Is The Right Stand
Fat Can Work, But Lean More Often Does
Who Is Andrew Parker?
Measuring Your Twitter Influence
I Share Mark Cuban's Passion On The FCC Broadband Plan
Pierre Omidyar
The New York City Subway
The iPhone, Nexus One, Or Droid?
AnyClip.com: More Thoughts
Facebook And Twitter Suck When It Comes To Searching Their Own Sites
AnyClip.com: Second Thoughts
Broader Broadband
Bollywood Needs To Conquer
AnyClip Is Live Now
Tumblr: Casey, Nina, David, Fred
Broad Broadband
Silicon Valley Vs. New York City
Lady Gaga
Biggest Open Source Company: Oracle, Google Or Red Hat?
Fred Wilson's Insight
Happy Holi
Fred Wilson: VC
Ignite, Set It On Fire
The Foursquare Rap: Badges Like Us
Twitter Visualization: Reading Many Tweets At Once
A MeetUp Has Me Excited: Y + 30
Robert Scoble Retweeted Me
A Buddhist Like Richard Gere
Call Out The Sexism
Location! Location! Location!
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Fred Wilson: A VC
I'll Be Gone
Online Dating Newsflash: Race And Religion Matter
Paul Graham: Y Combinator
News: February 11
One Gig Per Sec: This Is What I Am Talking About
Buzz Takes Gmail To A New Level
My Favorite Super Bowl Ad
Sergey Brin: Google Buzz, China, Clean Energy
Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever
Mark Cuban
iPad
Bill Gates
NY Tech MeetUp: Europe Edition
Jazz
She Wolf
My Name Is Khan And I Am Not A Terrorist
Presenting At The Dot Com Hatchery
Salute, Google
Netizen VigLink Pre-Sales Report
Mark Zuckerberg, Mike Arrington
Jason Calacanis
Craig Newmark, Dennis Crowley, Jennifer 8 Lee: Koreatown
Deep Sherchan: Social Media To Discuss Mental Health
JyotiConnect: Executive Summary
Book Of Eli
Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising
Marriage From Hell: AOL, Time Warner
Orgasm
Blogger + Amazon = Wonderful Things
I Just Became Friends With Anu Shukla
Twitter For The Masses
Empire State Of Mind

One Gig Per Sec: This Is What I Am Talking About

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

This Google talk of an experimental broadband by Google of one gigabit per second is more exciting than all the buzz around Google Buzz (Buzz Takes Gmail To A New Level) and all the buzz around the Apple iPad. (iPad) Innovation is a basic property of the human mind. There will always be innovation. But some territories are more fertile grounds for innovation than others. And between hardware - example: iPad - software - example: Buzz - and connectivity - example: a one gig per second broadband - I have to argue there is much more room for innovation in the connectivity sector. Universal high speed internet is a lofty goal. I don't know what universal means to you, but for me that means global.

Buzz Takes Gmail To A New Level

Image of Adam Carson

Earlier today I was fooling around with Buzz. Even before that from just reading about it in the news, I never thought of Buzz as a Twitter or Facebook killer. My suspicions have now been confirmed. Buzz is a Gmail enhancer. Otherwise my Gmail experience was starting to get a little staid.

Google reinvented email with Gmail. I don't think it has reinvented social, updates and geo with Buzz. But it sure could not have afforded to be left behind. Social is not Facebook, updates are not Twitter, geo is geo. These are elements of the web experience, and they will seep through to everywhere or most places. The leading dot com could not have skipped the cacophony.

Two names popped up during my first experience: Adam Carson, and Vin Vacanti. I never connected with Adam on Facebook like I now do on Buzz. The guy got me on the Reader bandwagon long back, but once I got strong on Twitter, I shifted over to Twitter. My Twitter page is my newsfeed. I skim through the headlines in the morning on my Twitter page. Vin I got introduced to over email last year. I met him in person a few days back. And now I am part of conversations with his friends. And Buzz does not cut into my allowed Gmail space. That is important to me.

Right now my Buzz box is sexier than my Gmail Inbox, and only one click away. I am liking the experience.

One Buzz thread had the founder of Gmail and FriendFeed saying Buzz looks "familiar." How did Google find out I might be interested in that particular Buzz thread? They got it right. I don't know how they did it, but all I got to say is keep tweaking those algorithms.

Introducing Bzz
Introducing Google Buzz For Mobile
Readers: Get Your Buzz On
New York Times: Bits: Google Gets More Social With Buzz

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

My Favorite Super Bowl Ad

Sergey Brin: Google Buzz, China, Clean Energy

Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever

Livestream Videos From The Week

New York Tech MeetUp

I heard about the Social Media Week (@socialmediaweek) at the January NY Tech MeetUp - Scott (@heif) announced it (I became friends with Scott when I was new in town and the NYTM was less than 10 people at a bar on the Lower East Side, I told him meeting him was like moving to LA and meeting Tom Cruise, for me, since MeetUp took off with Dean 2004, and I - and Barack - were Deaniacs; I was predicting a Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan thing for Dean, but did not realize it would happen so soon; Dean 2004 was organized around MeetUps) - so it is only fitting I talk about the week within a NY Tech MeetUp framework.

I did five events on Monday, the first day, starting with the press conference early in the morning, and I didn't even have a press pass.

"Your name is not on the list."

"Are you sure? Because I did RSVP."

14 Events

I did 14 events in all. The founder of Social Media Week Toby (@tobyd) was impressed. That is how I got into the final event of the week, the fabulous party Friday evening. I danced the way I like to: I gotta sweat it out.

After having checked into Grand Central a few times, I started feeling like maybe I am running for Mayor of Grand Central. But I am pretty sure some daily commuter is Mayor of that big, fancy place.

Jacob Brody

My Social Media Week started with a new friendship with Jacob Brody (@anwaraizer). This white guy actually raps! He has his own rhyme down. He is with VentureBeat. I showed up at the Paley Center. I was not in a mood for breakfast, but figured some orange juice might lift me up, so as I made my way, I looked at this guy. When close I realized he is not who I thought he was. Back with some orange juice, he looks at me and goes, "Are you Paramendra?" I look at him again. He still was not who I thought he was. But he said my name.

"I was looking at you because you look awfully like a friend of mine by the name of Sam ..."

"Sam Rosen. Proximity."

"You know the guy?"

We talk along. He mentions the First Round Capital guy. I said I have met him, briefly. He presented at the New York Tech MeetUp after a day spent with entrepreneurs. A few people accompanied him that day. Jacob said he was one of them. Miko Mercer was another. And, of course Jacob also knew Miko. (@mikomercer) Miko is with a company that sounds like it might be a militia organization.

Jacob and I went together to our next event.

Drop.io

Drop.io is kind of like MeetUp, kind of like FourSquare, only older than FourSquare. These are serious tech companies on their way to becoming global brand names and in the process putting New York squarely on the tech map.

Dropio is in Dumbo, Directly Under the Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass. Their office space is great. It is a loft. I just love the idea of all that open space. The whole block or two, the building, the whole space felt like a blank canvass on which tech startups could congregate, grow, mature, take off. The locale has that tech startup feeling.

Companies like Dropio are the bridge from the current PC era to what I call the IC era. And it has been and will be successful, but it will have to reinvent itself as a company once the transition is mostly done and we are squarely in the IC era. IC, Internet Computer.

I had tweeted back and forth one or two times with one Dropio guy during the weeks prior: @sgreenwood. So before Jacob and I enter the Dropio space, we decide on a quick restroom run. You never know. Out comes some Sam. Jacob being the VentureBeat guy recognizes him. "Hey Sam!"

Did I hear Sam? I am thinking this is it, this is that Greenwood fellow.

"What is your last name?" I asked. He said something not Greenwood. False alarm, I figured. Later I realized that was Sam Lessin (@lessin), none other than the founder of Dropio. A few days later I also found he runs a great MeetUp that is rather large that I had never heard of before.

I finally met Steve - not Sam, it just so happens - Greenwood at the party Friday evening. I had seen him at a few events, his face looked familiar, so I approached him. What's one more introduction after having done 14 events, I thought.

Once he said he was with Dropio, I asked him what his name was. When he said what that was, I said, no kidding, we have tweeted back and forth before. I shared the Sam Lessin story with him. He thought that was hilarious. He shared with me that a lot of people think the two are brothers. They just go ahead and assume.

"So which of you is the older brother?"

I thought that was so funny.

Before I left the Dropio event, I had a small chat with Lessin. Hey, drop by any time, he said as I parted. It sounded like poetry, considering what the name of the company he founded is. When they run out of files to drop, what if they start dropping people, real people? I think I will stay away. I will go to his MeetUps though.

"Why did you do this, of all the other things you could have done? Why file sharing? Why this particular thing?"

He said there were three considerations. I forgot the first one. The second one was, it had to have been a billion dollar market. Three, Google should not get into it. If I needed proof Silicon Valley won the dot com round. (Presenting At The Dot Com Hatchery)

FourSquare

When people say FourSquare is the next Twitter, I totally get it conceptually, although I have admitted I was late to the party. I got it conceptually, but did not think it was for me. But Social Media Week was my FourSquare week. I was checking in left and right.

Craig Newmark, Dennis Crowley, Jennifer 8 Lee: Koreatown
Dennis Crowley: I Underestimated Him

Ann Curry

There was a Haiti related event Monday afternoon at the New York Times, Andrew Rasiej (@rasiej) moderating. It was a powerful event. I got to ask the first question later. Ann Curry was on the panel. I stayed around to meet her in person later.

"I am sorry, but I have never owned a television. I first learned of your existence when I was watching videos online from the 140 conference. I was very impressed. So I am honored to be meeting you in person like this."

I get the impression she is major on TV. How major? Does she read news every night?

She (@anncurry) now follows me on Twitter. You better believe. She has over a million followers, and she follows about 650.

NY Tech MeetUp: February 2010

I was a few minutes late. I took my seat. Later we both realized - about 40 minutes later - that I had randomly placed myself right in front of Vamsi Sistla. (Whuffie: Vamsi Sistla) He had to leave early, so I stepped outside for a few minutes for a brief chat, and to say hello to his two Indian friends. Vamsi is a good guy to know when you are in the process of raising early money. Vamsi called me up the following morning and gave me some great fundraising advice.

Scott was on stage. I have never seen this guy more impressive, on stage, in person, or one on one. The dude was in his element. He gave a great talk and set tone for the rest of the evening. The talk was uplifting, and bold. At one point he said, "some stupid iPhone app you might be working on." The guy is a die hard Steve Jobs fan, so don't get him wrong. It is just that he feels tech entrepreneurs should look to solve some real problems, the bigger the better.

* Tony Bacigalupo, New Work City http://www.nwcny.com/...
* Ben Berkowitz, SeeClickFix http://seeclickfix.co...
* Majora Carter, Majora Carter Group http://www.majoracart...
* David Nassar; Jason Leibman, Alliance of Youth Movements http://www.youtube.co...
* Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund http://www.acumenfund...
* Jay Parkinson, The Future Well http://thefuturewell....
* Clay Shirky http://www.shirky.com...
* Paul Steely White, Transportation Alternatives http://www.transalt.o...
* Rachel Sterne, GroundReport http://groundreport.c...
* Jose Antonio Vargas, Huffington Post http://www.huffington...
* Conor White-Sullivan, Localocracy http://www.localocrac...
+ special guests Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping Choir http://www.revbilly.c...
+ a special announcement from the MTA http://www.mta.info/...

My personal favorite was: * Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund http://www.acumenfund.... Though I thought both Scott Heiferman and Clay Shirky spoke well, and the Choir was all energy.

At the after party I got to meet Shana (@shanacarp) who made it official: she is the number one commenter at Fred Wilson's blog, my favorite solo blog, AVC.com. Also met Carmen Magar: I told her Magar was an ethnic group in Nepal. Summer Nemeth has Imagine Election. (@imagineelection)

Harlem

I met a guy at that first press conference who was wearing a shirt that shouted out loud: I Love Black Women. He got me into a Wednesday event in Harlem that was full but that I wanted to get into. I got there. It was the fanciest venue of the week. L Martin Johnson Pratt is the name.

Women In Social Media: The Panel

This was the old Bear Stearns building, now JP Morgan. 98% of the audience was female, and later I realized 1.5% were panelist boyfriends. I felt special being there. Collectively speaking this was the most impressive panel of the week. Neha Chauhan - that is an Indian name - moderated. Alexa Hirschfeld, Meghan Muntean, Casey Carter, Jordan Reid were on the panel. I am now Facebook friends with two of them. Thanks for accepting. (@caseyscarter, @jordanberkow, @meghanmuntean)

I asked my question to Casey: "I have been blogging for years. I have a lot of followers on Twitter, actually I have more followers than Donald Trump, and I log into Facebook every day. So I feel like I have been eating all my vegetables. But I am not on Tumblr. Do you think I am missing out?"

She said yes, pretty much.

Dollar Van Demo

I met another guy at that first press conference event who approached me like he knew me, although we had never met. I got to ride around in a small van through large swathes of Brooklyn Thursday afternoon and for a few minutes got to sing something I did not think I was capable of. This was the most out of the box event of the week.

Dollar Van Demos: Entertainment on the Go | LifeStyler
McDonald's Rings in New Year With Dollar Van Hip-Hop Commercial ...
Mcdonalds Hits The Road With Dollar Van Demos | Vibe

I met Joe and Iara again at the party Friday, them and one singer who is perhaps a regular on the Dollar Van Demo. That party is where the picture up top comes from.

Sunshine NY

I got introduced to Vacanti last year over email by a Morgan Grice who I have never met. Finally I got to meet Vacanti (@vacanti) in person at Sunshine. He was on the panel.

Kiss N Fly

I saw Toby at the press conference. I talked to him the following day at the Personal Democracy Forum event. He asked if I was going to the next event - the NY Tech MeetUp - and I said yes. I saw him again at the New York Times event Friday afternoon. I got him to put me on the invite list for the "by invitation only" party Friday evening. Who says it is crowded at the top? (Party Photos)

It was one of the best parties ever. I liked it that I was drinking but not alcohol. She asked me what I was drinking, I said I did not know the name. The Whole Foods free food was great. The music was great. One particular clip hit close to home.