I am having a wonderfully laid back Saturday afternoon reading Michael Malone’s book Infinite Loop. Reading about the raw desire for change in the early days of Apple I am somehow overcome by sadness. Are all great human creations doomed to become but a shadow of their former greatness? What if Apple had the launched the IPhone with the same "damn the establishment" nerve that they launched their company?
Can I get an amen for Dave Mcclure? He has a great post about the horrors of VC financings and the legal documents associated with them. I live in mortal fear of having to deal with the lawyers on issues like this. It is terrible.
Though our VC at Bay Partners was a dream in this regard. The docs on our deal were wonderful. Sadly they are the exception to the rule. Having looked at lots of deals done by other entrepreneurs I have seen some really bad stuff.
The NYT had an article this morning that caught my eye. It tells the story of woman who decided to lobby congress to create a passenger bill of rights after being stuck on a plane. The article itself is rather boring. But the one thing that caught my eye was how the reporter mentioned the woman’s extensive use to the web for organizing in a completely offhanded way. The web as an organization tool for social action has gone from being a novelty to being mainstream. While this seem like a trivial observation, I think its actually a big deal. I am going to predict that the next ten years are going to develop as one of the most active decades for social activism, with the web, mobile and IT as the platform. Its going to be a big deal.
Anyway, enough soapboxing for the day. I am on the hunt for more alpha users of the Triggit tool. If you are a blogger and interested let me know.
Spent the day at TC 40 yesterday. It was good to see so many friends there. Though it was strange to be surrounded by such a boom atmosphere while thinking about how the bubble might burst. Lots to think about.
Worrying about the effect of the economy slumping on the tech industry continues. Fred Wilson has an interesting post where he is starting to feel the fear. Sadly I agree with him. The big indicator I am watching are the prices for Google adwords. As soon as those start to dip then we are in for some real pain. On the positive side though I still feel like the tech industry is in for a long boom in general. While we will certainly get a correction, I don’t think it will the the sort of frozen wasteland we saw last time. There is simple too much value being created for this industry to go into the doldrums for long.
Alex Iskold has an interesting take where he talks about a refactoring or digestion period ahead. Lots to think about.
Easily the coolest thing I have seen all day.
Seth as usual has his way with words and fully captures the way I think about work. Well done Seth.
I just read a great article about an Indian researcher who placed an internet enabled computer in an empty lot in a slum and watched what happened. The key lesson was that like language children seem to be able to learn how to use computers without any instruction. Warms my heart… Maybe the one laptop per child program will work after all.
An excerpt
Q: Of all the things the children did and learned, what did you find the most surprising?
A: One day there was a document file on the desktop of the computer. It was called "untitled.doc" and it said in big colorful letters, "I Love India." I couldn’t believe it for the simple reason that there was no keyboard on the computer [only a touch screen]. I asked my main assistant– a young boy, eight years old, the son of a local betel-nut seller — and I asked him, "How on earth did you do this?" He showed me the character map inside [Microsoft] Word. So he had gotten into the character map inside Word, and dragged and dropped the letters onto the screen, then increased the point size and painted the letters. I was stunned because I didn’t know that the character map existed — and I have a PhD.
I am going to go out on a limb. Facebook has peaked.
I have never been much of a social network person. I use linkedin a little, Facebook only recently, ASmallWorld reluctantly and Myspace not at all. I mostly think social networks are like dance clubs and fads. They are defined not by what they are but rather by who participates in them. Thus the cool kids will make someplace hip and then move on to the next thing, leaving it for the masses and certain stagnation. We have seen and will see in the years ahead the rise and fall of social networks cascading according to the whims of their participants. First Friendster and Tribe, then Myspace, now Facebook and what ever comes next.
For lots of reasons I feel Facebook has peaked and this time next year we’ll look at it like some relict of the past.