I never left the Internet. Or so I thought...
After all, I read emails almost everyday for the past 15+ years, and thanks to Google with its free I-never-have-to-delete-any-emails 2900MB-and-growing inbox, I now know that a single person like me is able to amass over 30,000 emails in three years (since I first migrated my primary inbox to Gmail in late 2004) -- That averages to 1,000 emails per month, not including the 5000 spams that got filtered out to spambox every month. (Of course, I never get to actually open 60% of those 1000 emails/month.)
It turned out that things were moving faster out there. True, over a hundred million of Internet users out there have embraced Web 2.0, or have at least used one of plethora of these recently unleashed beastie applications. So, what happened to the other 800+ million Internet users? Is Web 2.0 an exclusive party?
I know I was in the dark myself for a couple of years while completing my postgraduate studies in a cyberzone-status institution. I have been blogging, social & business networking, participate in poll & surveys, syndicating contents to portals & blogs, and crowdshopping, yet until early this year, I wasn't aware that such activities can be grouped into a 'classified' global phenomenon. Last week, in a seminar I attended filled with nearly a hundred ICT entrepreneurs, when a speaker asked if anybody is using Web 2.0 applications, practically nobody bother to raise hands. But when asked if they were using Friendster (which commands about 20% of its users from Malaysia), many hands were raised this time.
So, how do you make an elevator pitch on what constitutes a 2.0 to an average Internet user? You can be creative.... or you can just borrow and share Michael Wesch's "Web 2.0 in just less than five minutes" piece:
Nasir
Malaysia
September 27, 2007
September 26, 2007
Tribals Times are Back
Sociologists are trying their taxonomy profiling on bloggers all over the conversations on the net. Apparently, most are American, male and Einselsgangers (cavalier seul), mavericks, lonely individuals writing off their frustrations in moments of solitary seclusion, caesuras of desperation. I think that there are a lot of people out there jealous of all the fun we have producing these rants of freedom :-)
Blogging is seen by some progressive academics (three years ago they would not touch the stuff afraid of a deadly career move) as an example of social media typical of web 2.0. But there is a wider perspective, there is more going on than just a new way of conversation. Grand Narratives are losing their authority to the crowd and disintegrate into micro-narratives (blogs), socio-narratives (wikipedia), nano-narratives (twitters, IMs, SMS), meta-narratives (feeds) and femto-narratives (tags, blogrolls, links). All of these decentralized narratives proliferate semantic entanglements which result in a flourishing memetic ecology (which academics will very soon make into a new discipline, probably called Semasiology. I'll will be candidate for the sponsored professor chair of course :-)
To say that this narratological revolution is WASP (acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is bullshit (most of my friends are in the US, particularly West Coast and I can tell you for a fact, they are not WASP, although some wear white shoes ☺
Let me give you a peep at my RSS feed (it is public of course ☺
Dosh Dosh is a blog about ways to make money online. Topics commonly featured on this blog includes professional blogging, affiliate marketing, get-paid-to programs, advertising networks and social media monetization. Maki, the writer ia a Political Science and Philosophy student in Toronto, Canada. He says a lot of instructional material on How to get traffic and links from popular blogs. How to use blogrush and widgets for blog traffic.
Bloggingbits.com is from a very interesting and intelligently written blog of 23-year -old author in Pakistan; read his "Five ways to get bookmarked on Deli.cio.us"
And not everyone is male, although I must admit the majority is. But eMoms at Home founder Wendy Piersall is certainly one of the people I follow almost daily.
She is (like me) a fan of the idea that people should work from home and wrote the beginners guide to make money while blogging.
Blogging is also becoming more and more professional. There are a lot of team blogs popping up such as Problogger. They have just published the Top 5 timesavers for bloggers (their advice: write less and read more; I am trying to follow that rule, but not always easy, suddenly everyone in the world has so much to say after centuries of silence and reticence :-)
Dailyblogtips.com team blog gives SEO advice for blogs and just published 10 easy ways to improve internal linking.
I particularly like their blog on pajamas, but perhaps I am biased.
Does it not remind you of tribal times where people sat around the fire exchanging tools? The only difference: everyone wants his/her own tribe :-) (I'll join yours, if you join mine)
September 25, 2007
GOOGLE's OMNIPRESENCE
Google’s Omnipresence
I will not talk about the Google Lunar Xprize the virtual world project, their bid on the 700 Mhz spectrum, their naughty plans for Facebook, their telecom aspirations, their pacific sea cable project, their sky and progress in street view project etc..
This blog is about something so simple that it is revolutionary in its elegance. Please look at the video. This is what homeworkers and Pajamanation needs. I propose that very soon when we launch we will present this to the millions out there to be their application of choice.
TechCrunch reports that Google will “announce a new set of APIs on November 5 that will allow developers to leverage Google’s social graph data. They’ll start with Orkut and iGoogle ... and expand from there to include Gmail, Google Talk and other Google services over time.”
September 24, 2007
Penis Trauma
PENIS TRAUMA: Does God have Human Flaws?
Today I read in a story on Ananova (an Orange company), that the Great Entrepreneur Himself reacts emotionally when somebody pisses on His creations and gives them a public beating.
A Croatian motorbiker's penis was zapped by lightning as he stopped beside the road to take a leak.
Ante Djindjic, 29, from Zagreb, said: "I don't remember what happened. One minute I was taking a leak and the next thing I knew I was in hospital.
"Doctors said the lightning went through my body and because I was wearing rubber boots it earthed itself through my penis."
Djindjic, who suffered light burns to his chest and arms, added: "Thankfully, the doctors said that there would be no lasting effects, and my penis will function normally eventually."
Today I read in a story on Ananova (an Orange company), that the Great Entrepreneur Himself reacts emotionally when somebody pisses on His creations and gives them a public beating.
A Croatian motorbiker's penis was zapped by lightning as he stopped beside the road to take a leak.
Ante Djindjic, 29, from Zagreb, said: "I don't remember what happened. One minute I was taking a leak and the next thing I knew I was in hospital.
"Doctors said the lightning went through my body and because I was wearing rubber boots it earthed itself through my penis."
Djindjic, who suffered light burns to his chest and arms, added: "Thankfully, the doctors said that there would be no lasting effects, and my penis will function normally eventually."
Digital Life
Only recently I began to read Merlin Mann’s blog for 43folders and I came to like it a lot. It is no longer just about productivity, which I find a bit boring really, but the blog and Mann himself, has evolved into a higher level of digital awareness, which I like to call Digital Life. Digital Life was actually a tagline invented by Nicholas Negroponte at the MediaLab for a consortium where I was in the programming board as a sponsor.
I like Merlin Mann because of his original ideas (like me he believes that Google and Apple will do something together), his personality, but also his sense of humor. He just tagged a youtube video about ‘business life as a youtube video’. It is extremely funny.
There is another youtube video, which gives you a summary of how youtube has really changed our lives. It is called Internet People
More and more technology recedes into the background and becomes invisible; the only thing that we are left with is a cultural phenomenon of unbearable lightness, volatility and cyber minimalism. This colors the new companies that are being set up. If you look at (one of my favorite groups- Coldplay) music clips, they are a mirror of what our companies today look like.
Only recently I began to read Merlin Mann’s blog for 43folders and I came to like it a lot. It is no longer just about productivity, which I find a bit boring really, but the blog and Mann himself, has evolved into a higher level of digital awareness, which I like to call Digital Life. Digital Life was actually a tagline invented by Nicholas Negroponte at the MediaLab for a consortium where I was in the programming board as a sponsor.
I like Merlin Mann because of his original ideas (like me he believes that Google and Apple will do something together), his personality, but also his sense of humor. He just tagged a youtube video about ‘business life as a youtube video’. It is extremely funny.
There is another youtube video, which gives you a summary of how youtube has really changed our lives. It is called Internet People
More and more technology recedes into the background and becomes invisible; the only thing that we are left with is a cultural phenomenon of unbearable lightness, volatility and cyber minimalism. This colors the new companies that are being set up. If you look at (one of my favorite groups- Coldplay) music clips, they are a mirror of what our companies today look like.
September 20, 2007
V.C 2.0
V.C 2.0
Nowadays there is talk about anything 2.0. Not surprisingly in California people start to talk about VC 2.0, reforming the VC industry. In fact it is already reformed, EVCA exploded and The Funded are now everywhere, the users (entrepreneurs) decide on which VC is the best (not a blabla forum). But apparently this is not enough, Dave Winer has this magnificent idea post about VC 2.0. Let the user decide.
So let's start a new company, with Rick Segal as the CEO (if he'll do it) called User Internet Capital Corp or something catchier. File all the right paper with the SEC, and do an IPO. You have to, because we're going to be selling shares to the public right at the start. 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. Retain some cash for overhead and (I insist on this) a small percentage for pure technology research and development, so there will be new ideas to base the startups of 2009 and 2011 on.
That's it. Never stop investing. All you have to do is listen to the users, who also happen to be the owners. How about that?
Yeah, count me in. So who's going to do it?
Walter
P.S Rick Segal is the Canadian blogger behind Post Money Value (the VC loonie with the toonie)
Nowadays there is talk about anything 2.0. Not surprisingly in California people start to talk about VC 2.0, reforming the VC industry. In fact it is already reformed, EVCA exploded and The Funded are now everywhere, the users (entrepreneurs) decide on which VC is the best (not a blabla forum). But apparently this is not enough, Dave Winer has this magnificent idea post about VC 2.0. Let the user decide.
So let's start a new company, with Rick Segal as the CEO (if he'll do it) called User Internet Capital Corp or something catchier. File all the right paper with the SEC, and do an IPO. You have to, because we're going to be selling shares to the public right at the start. 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. Retain some cash for overhead and (I insist on this) a small percentage for pure technology research and development, so there will be new ideas to base the startups of 2009 and 2011 on.
That's it. Never stop investing. All you have to do is listen to the users, who also happen to be the owners. How about that?
Yeah, count me in. So who's going to do it?
Walter
P.S Rick Segal is the Canadian blogger behind Post Money Value (the VC loonie with the toonie)
September 17, 2007
HYPE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE
Hype is not what it used to be
Today is a day of stress. We have to get the new BETA closed version of Pajamanation online. We target this evening. I am working on the homepage, trying to make us of one screen of real estate to put out our entire economic agenda. Creating hype is a lot more difficult than it used to be.
1. We used to compete in our country but now we are competing beyond continents, with the world at large and there are some smart people everywhere.
2. There is so much out there that it is getting increasingly difficult to be original.
3. Customers no longer want you to give them what they want, they want you to change what they want
4. Time for eyeballs is shrinking to a mere second, when people read one line about an announcement in 300+ RSS feeds a day
5. Online Publishers are overwhelmed with new announcements.
6. Website visitors do not scroll, they look at one page only and when they do not like it, they never come back.
7. VCs are doing one web 2.0 deal after another. Selling Money is a sellers market, no longer a buyers one.
8. The investment community knows that deals are binary: or success happens or it does not, there is no middle way. The deals are getting both bigger and smaller, the middle has fallen out.
9. Competing with the world tends to be more expensive than one thinks and the problems accumulate (currency, payment, compatibility, law, IP, staff..)
10. This is quickly becoming a world of rhinos and microbes, where the first does not see the point of talking to the second.
There are many companies like us who have worked long on their project and when they come out they have to trigger the first step of hype cycle. According to Gartner it is the "Technology Trigger" or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant press and interest.
To have a good idea of how hype cycles work you can RSS to Wikirage. This site lists the pages in Wikipedia which are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time. Popular people in the news, the latest fads, and the hottest video games can be quickly identified by monitoring this social phenomenon.
And if that frustrates you, take a gun and shoot some paint balls at a site with NETDISASTER.
To end this blog with some good news: everyone who is dieting can stop now: the kilogram itself is losing weight. We are all getting slimmer by the second.
Walter
Today is a day of stress. We have to get the new BETA closed version of Pajamanation online. We target this evening. I am working on the homepage, trying to make us of one screen of real estate to put out our entire economic agenda. Creating hype is a lot more difficult than it used to be.
1. We used to compete in our country but now we are competing beyond continents, with the world at large and there are some smart people everywhere.
2. There is so much out there that it is getting increasingly difficult to be original.
3. Customers no longer want you to give them what they want, they want you to change what they want
4. Time for eyeballs is shrinking to a mere second, when people read one line about an announcement in 300+ RSS feeds a day
5. Online Publishers are overwhelmed with new announcements.
6. Website visitors do not scroll, they look at one page only and when they do not like it, they never come back.
7. VCs are doing one web 2.0 deal after another. Selling Money is a sellers market, no longer a buyers one.
8. The investment community knows that deals are binary: or success happens or it does not, there is no middle way. The deals are getting both bigger and smaller, the middle has fallen out.
9. Competing with the world tends to be more expensive than one thinks and the problems accumulate (currency, payment, compatibility, law, IP, staff..)
10. This is quickly becoming a world of rhinos and microbes, where the first does not see the point of talking to the second.
There are many companies like us who have worked long on their project and when they come out they have to trigger the first step of hype cycle. According to Gartner it is the "Technology Trigger" or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant press and interest.
To have a good idea of how hype cycles work you can RSS to Wikirage. This site lists the pages in Wikipedia which are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time. Popular people in the news, the latest fads, and the hottest video games can be quickly identified by monitoring this social phenomenon.
And if that frustrates you, take a gun and shoot some paint balls at a site with NETDISASTER.
To end this blog with some good news: everyone who is dieting can stop now: the kilogram itself is losing weight. We are all getting slimmer by the second.
Walter
September 14, 2007
-666-
THE MARK OF THE BEAST
Revelation, Chapter 13 speaks of the beast and how to identify his followers. According to verses 16 and 17 of Revelation, Satan and his followers will have the mark or the name or number of the beast on their right hands or foreheads. Verse 18 introduces the number 666: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
Great semiotic stuff the Book of Revelation. Lately it is in the news again with the Californian ban on implanted RFID in humans. For some religious organizations, it is the sign of the devil, for researchers it is linked to cancer. More than enough information for California to ban it in future.
I am not a fan of RFID, but speculating about it, is quite fun.
First of all, can it be linked to cancer? The article in question says that glass-encapsulated RFID transponders developed malignant, fast-growing, lethal cancers in up to 1% to 10% cases. The tumors originated in the tissue surrounding the microchips and often grew to completely surround the devices. In fact: the real research report does not say that. It is another proof that o the internet today one can basically argue anything and nobody bothers to check the original source anymore. The research reports speaks of abnormal tissue: that is rather vague. There are only two kinds of tissue: benign (scar tissue, necrotic tissue) or malign (tumor tissue). The second metastases and kills you.
TFA only mentions two cases out of hundred DOGS (not humans) and only one case is there a 'possible' connection between 'abnormal growth' (RFID's are coated to attract scar tissue to connect to the foreign device) and 'RFID' and RFIDs do not emit RF, they get RF from the reader and are only warmed up by that energy.
Now that we are reassured, let's think of an RFID world. Wouldn't that be fun? (I am joking of course, just Spielerei). Let's say everyone gets an RFID at birth and we combine these in a mesh network where data is routed between the nodes. A mesh network whose nodes are all connected to each other is a fully connected network. Mesh networks are self-healing: the network can still operate even when a node breaks down or a connection goes bad. As a result, a very reliable network is formed. This would be Minority Report, would it not? Think of Forensics, it would be the end of crime because a dead body would contain the information of the nodes he/she was in his vicinity the last hour.
Think of the e conomics of the idea. This would be a paradise for homeworkers and freelancers. We could take up our nomadic state again. Freedom would reign once more. There would be no more national tax but a global tax system where everyone would be taxed by the day and whereby countries have varying tax systems. You would get a tax bill that would read like this:
Venezuela-88days-2000$
Hong Kong-20days-3300$
USA-231days-4500$
Carribean-2days-0$ (discount countries)
Monaco-12days-1200$
Egypt-3days-30$
Total: 11, 230 $
Yep, simple solution, tag everyone.
Walter
P.S This is an ironic piece.
Revelation, Chapter 13 speaks of the beast and how to identify his followers. According to verses 16 and 17 of Revelation, Satan and his followers will have the mark or the name or number of the beast on their right hands or foreheads. Verse 18 introduces the number 666: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
Great semiotic stuff the Book of Revelation. Lately it is in the news again with the Californian ban on implanted RFID in humans. For some religious organizations, it is the sign of the devil, for researchers it is linked to cancer. More than enough information for California to ban it in future.
I am not a fan of RFID, but speculating about it, is quite fun.
First of all, can it be linked to cancer? The article in question says that glass-encapsulated RFID transponders developed malignant, fast-growing, lethal cancers in up to 1% to 10% cases. The tumors originated in the tissue surrounding the microchips and often grew to completely surround the devices. In fact: the real research report does not say that. It is another proof that o the internet today one can basically argue anything and nobody bothers to check the original source anymore. The research reports speaks of abnormal tissue: that is rather vague. There are only two kinds of tissue: benign (scar tissue, necrotic tissue) or malign (tumor tissue). The second metastases and kills you.
TFA only mentions two cases out of hundred DOGS (not humans) and only one case is there a 'possible' connection between 'abnormal growth' (RFID's are coated to attract scar tissue to connect to the foreign device) and 'RFID' and RFIDs do not emit RF, they get RF from the reader and are only warmed up by that energy.
Now that we are reassured, let's think of an RFID world. Wouldn't that be fun? (I am joking of course, just Spielerei). Let's say everyone gets an RFID at birth and we combine these in a mesh network where data is routed between the nodes. A mesh network whose nodes are all connected to each other is a fully connected network. Mesh networks are self-healing: the network can still operate even when a node breaks down or a connection goes bad. As a result, a very reliable network is formed. This would be Minority Report, would it not? Think of Forensics, it would be the end of crime because a dead body would contain the information of the nodes he/she was in his vicinity the last hour.
Think of the e conomics of the idea. This would be a paradise for homeworkers and freelancers. We could take up our nomadic state again. Freedom would reign once more. There would be no more national tax but a global tax system where everyone would be taxed by the day and whereby countries have varying tax systems. You would get a tax bill that would read like this:
Venezuela-88days-2000$
Hong Kong-20days-3300$
USA-231days-4500$
Carribean-2days-0$ (discount countries)
Monaco-12days-1200$
Egypt-3days-30$
Total: 11, 230 $
Yep, simple solution, tag everyone.
Walter
P.S This is an ironic piece.
September 13, 2007
How long do I still have to live?
The Life Expectancy calculator really made my day. According to this new site I am going to be 95 and if I stop drinking coffee, 100. I just love good news and I hate bad news and those who bring it. There are two sorts of people: those who love bringing good news to share the joy and those who love bringing bad news to feel superior towards someone cracking down in a weak moment. Sophocles was wrong and Atilla the Hun was right: Kill the messenger!
The site though has its weaknesses. I had to choose if I was an American or over 49? That is probably the American definition of our graying population in Europe, but it was weird. After I filled in everything I was suddenly informed that I was over 50 and I had to go to another site: Eons. There I had to to fill in everything once more but I needed an American zip code. I went to Bugmenot.com and faked a New York zip code and then it worked : 95. It does change your perspective about everything: relationship (let's have more sex, I am young), age (I am only at the end of the summer holidays, autumn is only starting and it is the most romantic season), travel (I will see the complete world other than on Google maps), investments (I'll hold), legal problems (shit I will still be alive), financial security (can i afford to live that long?), markets (I will live to see another bubble!).
But sadly this morning I heard that EONS is in trouble and they had to lay off 25% of their staff, apparently people are not dying to get in there. Good news does not pay, bad news does sometimes.
Today I announced our new version of Pajamanation. It will be ready for closed beta (Country managers only) on Monday. My joy was multiplied by the announcement that
Mechanical Turk closed for non-US residents. Well we are not, wide open market for us.
I like the idea of CHI CHI is a programming language to query a global brain, tackling previously impossible-to-automate problems.
This is what I want to implement eventually in Pajamanation. A compiler and an assembler strategy. Like Grid Computing, Chris says.
As I explained yesterday in my forum talk. Our future strategy is based on outsourcing to homeworkers, but it is a lot more than that. Outsourcing is just a word. Southsourcing would be better, because the future of what we do lies in the South. In Africa, in South America, in South and South East Asia. But even that is only the first line of defence.
The second line of defence is about the first, second and third worlds setting up virtual companies together and start to live artificial (internet) lives thereby competing with existing economic structures of cubicled corporations: our coops and supercoop strategy.
However, Pajamanation has a third line of defense: it is about identity and identity leverage. Very soon you will see, that people will realize that "identity" is the most popular word of 2008-2009. It is the last line of defense, the last leverage is the leverage of identity. We have leveraged everything else, besides that. That is the gate to growth beyond our imagination and that makes me so full of confidence and faith, so that I am patient. And patience is not in my nature.
Walter
P.S "Don't kill the messenger. Don't blame the person who brings bad news. This idea was expressed by Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. and much later by Shakespeare in 'Henry IV, Part II' (1598) and in 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-07)
The site though has its weaknesses. I had to choose if I was an American or over 49? That is probably the American definition of our graying population in Europe, but it was weird. After I filled in everything I was suddenly informed that I was over 50 and I had to go to another site: Eons. There I had to to fill in everything once more but I needed an American zip code. I went to Bugmenot.com and faked a New York zip code and then it worked : 95. It does change your perspective about everything: relationship (let's have more sex, I am young), age (I am only at the end of the summer holidays, autumn is only starting and it is the most romantic season), travel (I will see the complete world other than on Google maps), investments (I'll hold), legal problems (shit I will still be alive), financial security (can i afford to live that long?), markets (I will live to see another bubble!).
But sadly this morning I heard that EONS is in trouble and they had to lay off 25% of their staff, apparently people are not dying to get in there. Good news does not pay, bad news does sometimes.
Today I announced our new version of Pajamanation. It will be ready for closed beta (Country managers only) on Monday. My joy was multiplied by the announcement that
Mechanical Turk closed for non-US residents. Well we are not, wide open market for us.
I like the idea of CHI CHI is a programming language to query a global brain, tackling previously impossible-to-automate problems.
This is what I want to implement eventually in Pajamanation. A compiler and an assembler strategy. Like Grid Computing, Chris says.
As I explained yesterday in my forum talk. Our future strategy is based on outsourcing to homeworkers, but it is a lot more than that. Outsourcing is just a word. Southsourcing would be better, because the future of what we do lies in the South. In Africa, in South America, in South and South East Asia. But even that is only the first line of defence.
The second line of defence is about the first, second and third worlds setting up virtual companies together and start to live artificial (internet) lives thereby competing with existing economic structures of cubicled corporations: our coops and supercoop strategy.
However, Pajamanation has a third line of defense: it is about identity and identity leverage. Very soon you will see, that people will realize that "identity" is the most popular word of 2008-2009. It is the last line of defense, the last leverage is the leverage of identity. We have leveraged everything else, besides that. That is the gate to growth beyond our imagination and that makes me so full of confidence and faith, so that I am patient. And patience is not in my nature.
Walter
P.S "Don't kill the messenger. Don't blame the person who brings bad news. This idea was expressed by Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. and much later by Shakespeare in 'Henry IV, Part II' (1598) and in 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-07)
September 12, 2007
One day in the overheated market for mashables
All free WiFi projects are said to be unfeasible because they are not economically viable. Let's think of some alternatives.
I can think of one right away: let us all not protect our bandwidth like schoolboys and let the others enjoy WiFi too. In urban areas there will be little open spots which boingo could cover in their hotspot directory. In rural areas the only possible solution I can think of is mesh networks where the user is client and node.
But Engadget today gave me another idea: let the police for it! They did not exactly say that, but they reported on a security ramp up in England. Apparently in England hovering surveillance drones, camcorder-wielding traffic wardens and helmet cam-equipped officers aren't enough. London's city of Westminster is apparently looking to "install networked security cameras that can recognize parking permits and the plates of offending vehicles." Essentially, the system would enable parking violators to be ticketed without an actual human witnessing the offense, and it's being dubbed "the most significant application to be deployed on the Westminster's WiFi network." Eventually, the council plans to roll out about 250 of these sure-to-be-hated cameras, and it should ruin enough people's days to "pay for itself in two to three years." So we might as well take the most of the situtation and let the police pay for our WiFi. It is a win-win.
Techcrunch today came up with a great idea. They call it the Holy Grail of Mobile Social Networks.
Imagine walking into a meeting, classroom, party, bar, subway station, airplane, etc. and seeing profile information about other people in the area, depending on privacy settings. Picture, name, dating status, resume information, etc. The information that is available would be relevant to the setting - quick LinkedIn type information for a business meeting v. Facebook dating status for a bar.
It could be done: we have cell phone tower triangulation and bluetooth to solve a lot of the problems of locating users and transmitting information between phones. Techcrunch looks at 3 companies in Europe (US carriers do not allow user-based installs of java: Aka-Aki (Germany), Mobiluck (Paris) and Imity (Copenhagen).
Satisfaction Unlimited is a neat idea about crowdsourcing support amongst one's customers. They do online support for Twitter, Pownce and Slideshare and have opened up a public beta. It makes sense: if you are a fan of a gadget you quickly become an expert yourself and make some money on this new skill. Although I am under the impression that crowdsourcing's popularity as a jargon hype word is going down rapidly, recently there have been a few capital injections for crowdsourcing companies such as Powerreviews and Bazaarvoice.
Yesterday I said that If I see another announcement of yet another social network in my RSS reader, I was going to vomit. Industry analysts seem to think that the rule of three will apply and that only tree big ones will remain. I am afraid this is 1.0 thinking. Perhaps only three big elephants will remain but they will have no soul only a massive body. The new social networks are coming bottom up and not top-down. They are niche players such as iGuard (a network for people who take multiple medicine), Sermo (a network for physicians), TeeBeeDee (a network for +40), Circle Builder (a network for church networks).
Talking about search engines: do you remember me speaking about Cuill, the super-stealth search hype from SF? They were apparently self-financed. Not true: Greylock Partners gave them 4m$. You can do a lot of stealth marketing on 4m$.
I have just installed Growl and I am very happy with the new notification software which makes your desktop dynamic but something struck an emotional chord in their message on their new version.
So with Growl 1.1 the single biggest feature took about 2 years to make. I made a point of making sure this was in the changelog, the knowledge that it took 2 years is something that should either make users proud that we worked on it for so long to perfect it, or scared that we did, or just go "wtf". This guy certainly did the wtf (on tuaw and on macupdate).
I hear you, guys, I hear you.
P.S If you do not know what to do this weekend, here is some homework. Mashable came up with 5000 tools to make the most of the web.
http://mashable.com/2007/09/08/5000-resources-to-do-just-about-anything-online/
I can think of one right away: let us all not protect our bandwidth like schoolboys and let the others enjoy WiFi too. In urban areas there will be little open spots which boingo could cover in their hotspot directory. In rural areas the only possible solution I can think of is mesh networks where the user is client and node.
But Engadget today gave me another idea: let the police for it! They did not exactly say that, but they reported on a security ramp up in England. Apparently in England hovering surveillance drones, camcorder-wielding traffic wardens and helmet cam-equipped officers aren't enough. London's city of Westminster is apparently looking to "install networked security cameras that can recognize parking permits and the plates of offending vehicles." Essentially, the system would enable parking violators to be ticketed without an actual human witnessing the offense, and it's being dubbed "the most significant application to be deployed on the Westminster's WiFi network." Eventually, the council plans to roll out about 250 of these sure-to-be-hated cameras, and it should ruin enough people's days to "pay for itself in two to three years." So we might as well take the most of the situtation and let the police pay for our WiFi. It is a win-win.
Techcrunch today came up with a great idea. They call it the Holy Grail of Mobile Social Networks.
Imagine walking into a meeting, classroom, party, bar, subway station, airplane, etc. and seeing profile information about other people in the area, depending on privacy settings. Picture, name, dating status, resume information, etc. The information that is available would be relevant to the setting - quick LinkedIn type information for a business meeting v. Facebook dating status for a bar.
It could be done: we have cell phone tower triangulation and bluetooth to solve a lot of the problems of locating users and transmitting information between phones. Techcrunch looks at 3 companies in Europe (US carriers do not allow user-based installs of java: Aka-Aki (Germany), Mobiluck (Paris) and Imity (Copenhagen).
Satisfaction Unlimited is a neat idea about crowdsourcing support amongst one's customers. They do online support for Twitter, Pownce and Slideshare and have opened up a public beta. It makes sense: if you are a fan of a gadget you quickly become an expert yourself and make some money on this new skill. Although I am under the impression that crowdsourcing's popularity as a jargon hype word is going down rapidly, recently there have been a few capital injections for crowdsourcing companies such as Powerreviews and Bazaarvoice.
Yesterday I said that If I see another announcement of yet another social network in my RSS reader, I was going to vomit. Industry analysts seem to think that the rule of three will apply and that only tree big ones will remain. I am afraid this is 1.0 thinking. Perhaps only three big elephants will remain but they will have no soul only a massive body. The new social networks are coming bottom up and not top-down. They are niche players such as iGuard (a network for people who take multiple medicine), Sermo (a network for physicians), TeeBeeDee (a network for +40), Circle Builder (a network for church networks).
Talking about search engines: do you remember me speaking about Cuill, the super-stealth search hype from SF? They were apparently self-financed. Not true: Greylock Partners gave them 4m$. You can do a lot of stealth marketing on 4m$.
I have just installed Growl and I am very happy with the new notification software which makes your desktop dynamic but something struck an emotional chord in their message on their new version.
So with Growl 1.1 the single biggest feature took about 2 years to make. I made a point of making sure this was in the changelog, the knowledge that it took 2 years is something that should either make users proud that we worked on it for so long to perfect it, or scared that we did, or just go "wtf". This guy certainly did the wtf (on tuaw and on macupdate).
I hear you, guys, I hear you.
P.S If you do not know what to do this weekend, here is some homework. Mashable came up with 5000 tools to make the most of the web.
http://mashable.com/2007/09/08/5000-resources-to-do-just-about-anything-online/
September 10, 2007
How can we stand out?
What do Homeworkers need? What are the Homeworking trends now and what will they be in 10 years?. I honestly think that ALL Country Managers should read “Free Agent Nation” by Dan Pink. Dan Pink’s book really gives you the BIG PICTURE needed to get Pajamanation on the right track. Think BIG, Win BIG!
Since many people will be new to the Homeworker's world, they will have to be educated. They will have to learn things such as:
- How to use the web – for some
- Electronic Commerce
- Being a Homeworker
- Homeworking; concepts & technologies
- Virtual teams
- Communicating in a virtual environment
- Homeworking project implementation
- Homeworking Management
- The Homeworker and IT
These are some of the most essential needs for people to pass on over to the Homeworker's world. We can offer them this through e-learning and through a partnership. Just for laughs, take a look at: http://www.pajamadiaries.com/samples.php . Here you can get a glimpse of what Homeworking is all about. There is also Adam@home. I know what some of you are thinking! Don't even think of having a comic strip on the Pajamanation site! It will spoil the professional look that we have. You can put it on your FaceBook profile.
The experienced Homeworker will have other needs such as a Homeworkers Syndicate. I can elaborate on this some other time. The idea is to add value to Pajamanation by filling in the Homeworkers needs. In 10 years time Pajamanation will have set the trends. You can put your money on it! Walter stated: “Google together with Apple will be responsible for a renaissance of micro-entrepreneurship and a return of work to the homes”. Is this an idea that they already have or can we introduce it to them? There is http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/ , but I think we can beat them in this field.
After taking a look at the links concerning Pajamanation's competitors, that Andy and Walter supplied, my idea regarding added value services on Pajamanation was reinforced. No matter how many job posting/bidding sites there are, there are no sites that offer additional services that the average Homeworkers can use. Walter asked for us to take a look at http://ejobfairs.net/ , a “Live, Fully Interactive Electronic Job Fair”. The animation even looks like Walter (HA, HA, HA)!!! If we are only going to post jobs and be “a unique and easy way for job seekers and employers to connect”, we’ll be exactly like these guys and everyone else. So you can compare these other sites with a grocery store; limited choices due to limited offerings. Pajamanation on the other hand must be the Homeworkers Supermarket. Besides job posting/bidding we can have other services that Homeworkers can use and we can do this by joint ventures and/or partnerships. Thus bringing in and referring new customers.
Walters mentions “top Internet companies or the below-the-liners...?” for partners on his “NEVER JOIN A CLUB THAT WANTS YOU AS A MEMBER”. I say; let’s go for both! The worst the big boys can say is NO. While on the other hand, there are some below-the-liners that have very good services that our PajamaWorkers could use and the below-the-liners will have a very hard time in saying NO. So here again I call for BIG PICTURE thinking. Pajamanation along with the below-the-liners like us, can create something that everyone can use and will want to use. “The sum of its parts is greater than the whole”
Before you go to the BIG BOYS, you should pay the Belgium Consulate a visit and inform them that you represent a Belgium company in your country. Ask them for help in disseminating Pajamanation amongst the top officials and the media. After which, I am sure you’ll find doors that were once closed, fully open. You have to seriously think politically. With Pajamanation there is no way around this. So you might as well go with the flow or you’ll drown. Seriously!!!
Here is an example of a possible joint venture that we can arrange http://www.homeworkersww.org.uk/ . This is a group that I requested to join on FaceBook. Here is the email that I got back:
“I had a look at your website and I don't think your profile fits with that of homeworkers worldwide. We are a campaigning organisation for the labour rights of homeworkers working mainly in manufacturing and handicraft work. It looks like you offer work/ workers in the professional domaine. Please check out our website http://www.homeworkersww.org.uk/ . If you still think there is overlap, we could discuss further.” I think they would make a great joint venture, they just don’t see it yet. ;^)
There are several other companies, associations and organisations that we could establish a joint venture with. FaceBook and Skype would be a perfect joint venture. BTW FaceBook has a Skype app that allows you to use Skype on FaceBook. I’m not sure how it works, but it would be nice to have something like that on Pajamanation or FWD like Yosi suggested. Pajamaworkers could use the FaceBook profile or something like that on PJN. This would need serious brainstorming from all CMLT (Country Managers Leadership Team). The point is that we can fill in their (job market) gap and they could fill in ours. Joint ventures and partnerships ARE crucial for our success.
Now here is the pièce de résistance! (Here we can be in league with the BIG BOYS) There’s a great resource for education that allot of people aren’t aware of . People should really be aware and taking advantage of it. The media doesn’t give it the coverage or attention that it disserves. I’m talking about the MIT Open Course Ware project. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm and it’s international consortium: http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ . This is the equivalent to a global 21st century Alexandria. What is happening is that MIT, with the help of some organizations and other international member universities, are putting all of their courses on-line and FREE for the public to use. You can get a $$ MILLION DOLLAR $$ education for free. You can’t get a degree for free on-line, but you can get the same education people are paying tons of money for. It’s just a wealth of information. You can see for yourself that you can study all kinds of interesting fields. Best of all, you can do it at your own pace and at HOME in your pajamas! =^D
So Walter get on the phone and set a meeting with MIT’s President Susan Hockfield!!! ;^)
Now this really needs to be disseminated just as PajamaNation needs to be! Instead of people wasting their time talking about the war and other problems, they should be looking at the solutions! Now, can you imagine Pajamanation and MIT’s OCW together?!?! This is literally a world-wide revolution in both education and labour! We could help MIT in disseminating their project and MIT could support Pajamanation . Not only at MIT, but through their member universities as well. Students could be part-time PajamaWorkers, so they could get that extra cash for beer. =^P
I agree with Chris and Jef, the mission statement and the USP are two separate things and should not be confused. The Mission Statement can be placed in an area that states “Our Mission”. The USP on the other hand is a fundamental marketing tool and we should not set it aside. All you need is to do is write down in two columns; First column : “You know how…” , Second column: “Well, what I do is…” this will help develop a USP. Like the “People Per Hour” site. Their USP is really good: “Bringing together people who need things done with people who can do them” and they emphasize on “Bringing together people with people”. So how’s about the CM’s brainstorming up a killer USP?!?!
Good Things Are Getting Better
When I was a child I remembered my grandfather telling me that 60% of all conversations in Europe had the name Brigitte Bardot in it. He did not divulge his sources (and Alexa was not there yet), but the statement stuck in my head. I think Brigitte Bardot has been replaced by Apple now or Iphone or Steve Jobbs. I am so happy to have switched to Apple at the beginning of the year to belong to the illuminati instead of to the Delldrones. Immediately after the announcement I ordered with a friend going to SF an Iphone at 399$ and an Ipod Touch plus AV cables. I am in passionate anticipation. Life is a gadget beach.
I not only switched to Apple, but also to iGoogle for everything: mail, blog, documents, spreadsheets, accounts, search, reader, analytics, talk etc.. Today I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there is finally a search in Reader, a Google Translate (better than Babelfish, and not working with Systran) and the announcement that Cap Gemini is going to be the major distributor for the office suite Google Apps, thereby targeting MS 12bn$ a year revenue. Google took the right decision: not desktop but webtop and not feature listing but collaborative tools. Bits instead of Atoms.
Another good direction in my life was start writing a daily blog. More and more widgets and apps appear daily to help blog writers. We can now make a link cloud from any RSS feed and embed it anywhere, we can create interactive timelines from our RSS feed and then cut an paste it into our blog, Triond is offering us monthly royalties and Blogkits wants to marry blogging with affiliate marketing. For the widgetfreaks among us, Mashable (the latest news on social networking) came up with 50 useful widgets to add to our blogs, some of them are yummy: Linebuzz (inline comments for your blog), 3Jam (readers can send messages to your mobile phone without knowing the number), Technorati link count, Delicious Tagometer, and Plazes (shows your current location).
Of course one of the better decisions in my life was setting up Pajamanation (although it does not seem that way now, but I know what is under the soil). The memes of our economic agenda are getting spread: Entrepreneur.com has several articles on homework this week. One (by Lisa Druxman – Hire my Mom) treats of "mompreneurs" (according to the US Census more than 5.4m moms will put their career on hold to stay home with their children and are looking for flexible solutions). Slashdot made my day when reporting that I ndian Software firms outsource jobs to US.
Two new sites have launched that will greatly benefit our movement: Skilltip.tv (videos that upgrade your skills) and redhotfranchises.com (this is also part of the homeworker community).
Yes, we live in exciting times, but I must admit that some things get boring. If I see another announcement of yet another social network in my RSS reader, I think I am going to vomit.
I not only switched to Apple, but also to iGoogle for everything: mail, blog, documents, spreadsheets, accounts, search, reader, analytics, talk etc.. Today I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there is finally a search in Reader, a Google Translate (better than Babelfish, and not working with Systran) and the announcement that Cap Gemini is going to be the major distributor for the office suite Google Apps, thereby targeting MS 12bn$ a year revenue. Google took the right decision: not desktop but webtop and not feature listing but collaborative tools. Bits instead of Atoms.
Another good direction in my life was start writing a daily blog. More and more widgets and apps appear daily to help blog writers. We can now make a link cloud from any RSS feed and embed it anywhere, we can create interactive timelines from our RSS feed and then cut an paste it into our blog, Triond is offering us monthly royalties and Blogkits wants to marry blogging with affiliate marketing. For the widgetfreaks among us, Mashable (the latest news on social networking) came up with 50 useful widgets to add to our blogs, some of them are yummy: Linebuzz (inline comments for your blog), 3Jam (readers can send messages to your mobile phone without knowing the number), Technorati link count, Delicious Tagometer, and Plazes (shows your current location).
Of course one of the better decisions in my life was setting up Pajamanation (although it does not seem that way now, but I know what is under the soil). The memes of our economic agenda are getting spread: Entrepreneur.com has several articles on homework this week. One (by Lisa Druxman – Hire my Mom) treats of "mompreneurs" (according to the US Census more than 5.4m moms will put their career on hold to stay home with their children and are looking for flexible solutions). Slashdot made my day when reporting that I ndian Software firms outsource jobs to US.
Two new sites have launched that will greatly benefit our movement: Skilltip.tv (videos that upgrade your skills) and redhotfranchises.com (this is also part of the homeworker community).
Yes, we live in exciting times, but I must admit that some things get boring. If I see another announcement of yet another social network in my RSS reader, I think I am going to vomit.
September 9, 2007
Three Questions You Should Ask at Parties
Three Questions You Should Ask at Parties
When you are at a party, ask people how we measure time. I'll bet you they'll say by the stars. Wrong answer of course, it is no longer fixed by astronomical reference points. We have shifted from stars to atomic beams in vaults. Particles are steadier than planets. We are in the epoch of the nanosecond and during a nanosecond everything is motionless: bullets, droplets, everything. That is how I feel sometimes: things appear to slow down while they speed up. Pajamanation is motionless in the nanosecond.
But then I think back to my other companies. They have all taken a long time in suspended animation. With a long time, I mean more than 5 years before they actually became interesting. Time is linked to destination (where you want to be) and destination is often linked to place, as in GPS technology. An error of a billionth of a second means an error of a foot, the distance light travels in that time. So if Pajamanation is an economic bomb, let it drop where we want it to be and cause no collateral damage.
Patience, I am not very good at it, but I force myself. We started Pajamanation in 2002, we are now practically 2008, the date I projected for us to fly above the radar and capture the imagination of other people like us. Some tell me that is a long time for preparations.
They forget the big successes out there. When do you think Google started? That is the second question you should ask at parties. Most people will say after 2000. The right answer however is January 1996. In 1998 they got their first capital injection: 100,000$. In two years' time they had 10,000 queries a day (which is not a lot at all). Once the first money was in, they moved into an office (now the Googolplex) and were able to get multiples of queries of 50 (500,000 queries/day). Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising $1.67 billion, making it worth $23 billion. Google is 12 years already. There is an interesting article on them in Wired on the date, September 7, for Google, when they got their first check.
When I started my first company in 1989 (Riverland sold to VNU in 1996), people asked me how I was going to go from one subscription to Computer Magazine (myself) to 10,000 subscriptions in a year's time? Well, it is easy I learned that from the big masters of viral marketing and subscription management: the politicians.
You do it one vote at a time and you are everywhere, and everyone who works with you should do as you. In the company we had a scoreboard showing how many subscriptions and who brought them in. We all spent one hour a day just phone people in for trial subscriptions. That is how you make pyramids, one block at a time. No miracles, just a clean and straight marathon where you know you will suffer and you try to keep reserve strengths for the downtimes and the dignity at the end of the line. And afterwards you say, that it was easier than you thought, because we are all optimists (a survival bias).
And the final question you should ask at parties is obvious of course? Do you want to try out Pajamanation and help us change the world?
It is a no-brainer, I assure you.
When you are at a party, ask people how we measure time. I'll bet you they'll say by the stars. Wrong answer of course, it is no longer fixed by astronomical reference points. We have shifted from stars to atomic beams in vaults. Particles are steadier than planets. We are in the epoch of the nanosecond and during a nanosecond everything is motionless: bullets, droplets, everything. That is how I feel sometimes: things appear to slow down while they speed up. Pajamanation is motionless in the nanosecond.
But then I think back to my other companies. They have all taken a long time in suspended animation. With a long time, I mean more than 5 years before they actually became interesting. Time is linked to destination (where you want to be) and destination is often linked to place, as in GPS technology. An error of a billionth of a second means an error of a foot, the distance light travels in that time. So if Pajamanation is an economic bomb, let it drop where we want it to be and cause no collateral damage.
Patience, I am not very good at it, but I force myself. We started Pajamanation in 2002, we are now practically 2008, the date I projected for us to fly above the radar and capture the imagination of other people like us. Some tell me that is a long time for preparations.
They forget the big successes out there. When do you think Google started? That is the second question you should ask at parties. Most people will say after 2000. The right answer however is January 1996. In 1998 they got their first capital injection: 100,000$. In two years' time they had 10,000 queries a day (which is not a lot at all). Once the first money was in, they moved into an office (now the Googolplex) and were able to get multiples of queries of 50 (500,000 queries/day). Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising $1.67 billion, making it worth $23 billion. Google is 12 years already. There is an interesting article on them in Wired on the date, September 7, for Google, when they got their first check.
When I started my first company in 1989 (Riverland sold to VNU in 1996), people asked me how I was going to go from one subscription to Computer Magazine (myself) to 10,000 subscriptions in a year's time? Well, it is easy I learned that from the big masters of viral marketing and subscription management: the politicians.
You do it one vote at a time and you are everywhere, and everyone who works with you should do as you. In the company we had a scoreboard showing how many subscriptions and who brought them in. We all spent one hour a day just phone people in for trial subscriptions. That is how you make pyramids, one block at a time. No miracles, just a clean and straight marathon where you know you will suffer and you try to keep reserve strengths for the downtimes and the dignity at the end of the line. And afterwards you say, that it was easier than you thought, because we are all optimists (a survival bias).
And the final question you should ask at parties is obvious of course? Do you want to try out Pajamanation and help us change the world?
It is a no-brainer, I assure you.
September 5, 2007
NEVER JOIN A CLUB THAT WANTS YOU AS A MEMBER
NEVER JOIN A CLUB THAT WANTS YOU AS A MEMBER
There is so much happening today, that there seems to be very little to say. Everyone is waiting for "The Beat Goes On" and for Steve Fossett to return home (who the hell is this guy, when I am gone for two weeks nobody notices?).
Technology news is getting weirder by the day but we are beyond paying attention to it. California opposes companies to implant RFIDs in employees, Synthasite is giving shares away to subscribers, games manufacturers will use BCI (Brain Computer Interface) into their games so we can steer with our thoughts and a new hype is coming in the Valley (like powerset which has just parsed Miss Teen South Carolina (was that mean or what?). The new hype is called cool but written in the new Californian spelling as Cuill, according to Techcrunch a super stealth search engine that worries Google (frankly I do not think they lost a lot of sleep over this).
Miss Teen South Carolina
<object width="425" height="353"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WALIARHHLII"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WALIARHHLII" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed></object>
When I talked yesterday about Google slowly taking over the complete web analytic market I forgot to mention that they opened the beta platform for Analytics AIR. I have enlisted as beta tester and will report on it when they start. You can also sign up here if you want.
There is also a new cool maps app called maps.amung.us. This is again Californian spelling, the West has always pioneered itself out of saturated situations by changing the rules of the game: when all the domain names are gone, just change the spelling.
One of our country managers asked me an intriguing question: we are under the radar for the moment and will be so for the next months, so who do we approach as potential partners, the top Internet companies or the below-the-liners like us?
Universal Darwinism (Richard Dawkins, the Selfish Gene) asserts that any system will accumulate complex traits that favor their reproduction if the system can negotiate variation (with better genomes), makes the right decisions (selection) and has the ability to replicate. There you have the answer. To put it in Groucho Marx immortal words: "I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member." There is no progress in that, shoot higher and if they say no? So what? Call the whaaaambulance.
And you do not need money for asking. In our situation there is nothing we cannot do, just because we do not have any money. Take advantage of it, as long as it lasts, because I feel the oil coming ☺
There is so much happening today, that there seems to be very little to say. Everyone is waiting for "The Beat Goes On" and for Steve Fossett to return home (who the hell is this guy, when I am gone for two weeks nobody notices?).
Technology news is getting weirder by the day but we are beyond paying attention to it. California opposes companies to implant RFIDs in employees, Synthasite is giving shares away to subscribers, games manufacturers will use BCI (Brain Computer Interface) into their games so we can steer with our thoughts and a new hype is coming in the Valley (like powerset which has just parsed Miss Teen South Carolina (was that mean or what?). The new hype is called cool but written in the new Californian spelling as Cuill, according to Techcrunch a super stealth search engine that worries Google (frankly I do not think they lost a lot of sleep over this).
Miss Teen South Carolina
<object width="425" height="353"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WALIARHHLII"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WALIARHHLII" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed></object>
When I talked yesterday about Google slowly taking over the complete web analytic market I forgot to mention that they opened the beta platform for Analytics AIR. I have enlisted as beta tester and will report on it when they start. You can also sign up here if you want.
There is also a new cool maps app called maps.amung.us. This is again Californian spelling, the West has always pioneered itself out of saturated situations by changing the rules of the game: when all the domain names are gone, just change the spelling.
One of our country managers asked me an intriguing question: we are under the radar for the moment and will be so for the next months, so who do we approach as potential partners, the top Internet companies or the below-the-liners like us?
Universal Darwinism (Richard Dawkins, the Selfish Gene) asserts that any system will accumulate complex traits that favor their reproduction if the system can negotiate variation (with better genomes), makes the right decisions (selection) and has the ability to replicate. There you have the answer. To put it in Groucho Marx immortal words: "I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member." There is no progress in that, shoot higher and if they say no? So what? Call the whaaaambulance.
And you do not need money for asking. In our situation there is nothing we cannot do, just because we do not have any money. Take advantage of it, as long as it lasts, because I feel the oil coming ☺
September 4, 2007
WOW
WOW YOUR BLOG
The English have a nice word for it: flabbergasted. Amazed, I was when I saw who reads my blog. I thought less than a hundred people, but thanks to the English language and Google, I get readers from all over the world. I just integrated FEEDJIT which gives you (dixit Feedjit) real-time traffic data on your blog. No registration required and it's completely free. See where your visitors are located in the world, which websites they're arriving from and what they're clicking when they leave your site.
You can even do better and try out Google's Touchgraph TouchGraph's powerful visualization solutions reveal relationships between people, organizations, and ideas . If you type in 'www.pajamanation.com' you get a wow effect.
Further tools for our website and blog continue to appear: Builtwith to find out which software was used to build this site. Webgrader gives you SEO tips and checks out every mistake you have made. Google is ready with the Google GWT (Web Toolkit)
Entrepreneur.com gives 6 tips how to SEO your blog which are very useful and to monetize your blog look here : http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/09/02/complete-blog-statistics-for-august-2007/
The only thing that frustrates me is Treppenwitze, l'esprit de l'escalier, staircase wit: I should have used Wordpress!
http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/08/28/blogging-tookit-12-best-developer-tools-reviewed/
The English have a nice word for it: flabbergasted. Amazed, I was when I saw who reads my blog. I thought less than a hundred people, but thanks to the English language and Google, I get readers from all over the world. I just integrated FEEDJIT which gives you (dixit Feedjit) real-time traffic data on your blog. No registration required and it's completely free. See where your visitors are located in the world, which websites they're arriving from and what they're clicking when they leave your site.
You can even do better and try out Google's Touchgraph TouchGraph's powerful visualization solutions reveal relationships between people, organizations, and ideas . If you type in 'www.pajamanation.com' you get a wow effect.
Further tools for our website and blog continue to appear: Builtwith to find out which software was used to build this site. Webgrader gives you SEO tips and checks out every mistake you have made. Google is ready with the Google GWT (Web Toolkit)
Entrepreneur.com gives 6 tips how to SEO your blog which are very useful and to monetize your blog look here : http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/09/02/complete-blog-statistics-for-august-2007/
The only thing that frustrates me is Treppenwitze, l'esprit de l'escalier, staircase wit: I should have used Wordpress!
http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/08/28/blogging-tookit-12-best-developer-tools-reviewed/
September 3, 2007
On Ideas, Ideation and the Ideals in Men
Ideas: assets or liabilities?
I got a lot of response to my blog about hypernumerals yesterday, but mostly in my email. Please be adviced that the comments are on so you can answer in the blog itself.
I do not agree with some of you that there not enough ideas around. In Slashdot today: "Ideas are really the sexy part of innovation and there's rarely a shortage of them. If you look at the biggest problems around innovation, rarely does a lack of ideas come up as one of the top obstacles; instead, it's things like a risk-averse culture, overly lengthy development times and lack of coordination within the company."
The question is whether an idea is an asset or a liability.
When I said I am giving ideas away, it is because otherwise they become a liability since I do not have the financial backing to exercise them all. If I do not give them away, they accumulate as to-do lists in my head or like save-bookmarks. So, better that somebody else does it then, so that I am rid of them. Invention without a financial return is just an expense. Ideas without the power to exercise them become frustrations.
Whether there is job in gatekeeping or idea-production for companies? I doubt it very much. Although I love ideas, thinking, philosophy and abstract objects, basically ideas are worthless. It is 10 times tougher to come up with a prototype; 100 times tougher to come up with a company around it that is working and has real customers; 1000 times tougher with a company that is profitable and keeps evolving and 10,000 times tougher to do an IPO around that company and finally 100,000 times tougher to exit as a multi-millionaire.
Walter
I got a lot of response to my blog about hypernumerals yesterday, but mostly in my email. Please be adviced that the comments are on so you can answer in the blog itself.
I do not agree with some of you that there not enough ideas around. In Slashdot today: "Ideas are really the sexy part of innovation and there's rarely a shortage of them. If you look at the biggest problems around innovation, rarely does a lack of ideas come up as one of the top obstacles; instead, it's things like a risk-averse culture, overly lengthy development times and lack of coordination within the company."
The question is whether an idea is an asset or a liability.
When I said I am giving ideas away, it is because otherwise they become a liability since I do not have the financial backing to exercise them all. If I do not give them away, they accumulate as to-do lists in my head or like save-bookmarks. So, better that somebody else does it then, so that I am rid of them. Invention without a financial return is just an expense. Ideas without the power to exercise them become frustrations.
Whether there is job in gatekeeping or idea-production for companies? I doubt it very much. Although I love ideas, thinking, philosophy and abstract objects, basically ideas are worthless. It is 10 times tougher to come up with a prototype; 100 times tougher to come up with a company around it that is working and has real customers; 1000 times tougher with a company that is profitable and keeps evolving and 10,000 times tougher to do an IPO around that company and finally 100,000 times tougher to exit as a multi-millionaire.
Walter
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