Hank Williams | Why does everything suck?
"It has come to our attention that these days, *everyone* is starting an ad network – a service to sell ads on behalf of a collection of websites. By everyone, we mean, primarily media companies who have websites they are already selling ads on."
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Ad Networks: The New Pyramid Scheme
Jonathan Schwartz: A top blogger sees end to blogging
By | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone
"Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz rightly gets credit for pioneering the corporate blog as a tool to reach customers, employees, and others. But pretty soon the novelty of his methods will wear off, he predicted."
"At some point the word 'blogging' will be anachronistic," Schwartz said at the Web 2.0 Expo here in San Francisco. "I communicate."
Exclusive: U.S. Online Video Startups Raised $461M in 2007
Written by Liz Gannes | NewTeeVee
"Some $460.5 million was invested in such startups in 2007, up from $266.9 million in 2006. And already, in the first quarter of 2008, another $217.3 million rained down on the category."
Friday, April 25, 2008
Who Takes More Risk? VC or Entrepreneur?
| Silicon Alley Insider
"Who takes more risk? The venture capitalist who funds a start-up, or the entrepreneur who founds it?
Answer? The entrepreneur.
Let me explain..."
Hank Williams is a New York-based entrepreneur. He writes Why Does Everything Suck? Exploring the tech marketplace from 10,000 feet.
The Coming Euroinvasion
By Moisés Naím | Foreign Policy
"First they came for the iPods. Then the Europeans snatched up condos in Manhattan. Now they’re coming for the companies."
Start a business, not a startup
Latest by Justin D-Z |- (37signals)
"
Startups can bring new ideas to market. They can give people a chance to change the world on their own terms. They can create something where nothing existed before. There is no doubt that they are exciting things to be a part of.
But, as much as the tech world tries to treat them as special, we don’t believe startups are special. They aren’t born out of big bang moments where the laws that govern other businesses don’t apply."
The Web 2.0 economy hangs in limbo
| The Social - CNET News.com
"With investment banks going down and food prices going up, the gloomy economic forecasts have cast a dark cloud over cloud computing (and everything else getting talked about at Web 2.0). Yet tech companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon are posting healthy earnings, and despite talk of an advertising downturn, new digital-ad networks seem to be debuting by the day.
The economic attitude of the Web 2.0 Expo hangs in an awkward limbo: The tech industry relies on innovation, but no one can deny that these economic times demand caution. What's a geek to do?"
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Intelllectual-property rights and wrongs
By Joseph E. Stiglitz in Daily Times
"Without intellectual property protection, incentives to engage in certain types of creative endeavors would be weakened. But there are high costs associated with intellectual property. Ideas are the most important input into research, and if intellectual property slows down the ability to use others’ ideas, then scientific and technological progress will suffer."
Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics at Columbia University and was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Clinton and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank. His most recent book is The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade.
Pedal-Powered Telephony
Written by Craig Rubens | Earth2Tech
"Handsets on handlebars are bringing pedal-powered mobile call shops to rural Nicaragua. By souping up an old pedal-powered ice cream cart with a car battery, an alternator, a fixed cellular unit and three pay phones, mobile communications can travel outside the Nicaraguan cities via cellular cycle. Llamadas Pedaleadas is pitching its carts to “entrepreneurs in Nicaragua” as big moneymakers, capable of “doubl[ing] the average salary.”"
[Great Video After the Jump]
Praise as good as cash to brain: study
By Julie Steenhuysen | Reuters
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Paying people a compliment appears to activate the same reward center in the brain as paying them cash, Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.
And the Latte Indicator Says...Economy Screwed (SBUX)
Silicon Alley Insider
"How bad is the economy these days? So bad that one of the nation's largest purveyors of custom-made addictive drugs is slashing its forecast yet again as customers tighten their belts."
Q&A with Max Levchin of Slide, on e-commerce, APIs, feeds, and a Russian rock band
Eric Eldon | VentureBeat
Eric Eldon "sat down with Max Levchin, chief executive of leading widget-maker Slide, after his talk at the Web 2.0 Expo."
Levchin said - "Right now, it’s not about getting profitable. We can definitely get profitable and that’s not a question any more. The question is: Can we build revenue streams of permanent financial value, that last and grow — as opposed to those that are there during certain frenzies."
Una Laptop por Niño
By David Talbot | Technology Review
"The philanthropic effort dubbed the $100 Laptop has not met its grand initial goals. But its first deployment, in Peru, may turn skeptics into believers."
Early adopters: Children carry XOs at the Institución Educativa Apóstol Santiago in Arahuay, Peru, where almost 50 kids have being using prototype laptops since last summer. They are at the vanguard of the world’s largest deployment of OLPC computers--to Peru’s most remote primary schools.
Credit: Ana Cecilia Gonzales-Vigil/WPN
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Three online video formats for the future
Melissa Chang | The Industry Standard
The online video explosion shows no signs of slowing. In February, more than 10 billion videos were viewed online in the U.S. alone, and 72.8% of the Internet audience viewed an online video, according to Comscore.
Unsurprisingly, companies are doing everything that they can to reach this audience. Research groups such as eMarketer are predicting that online video spending will shortly be in the billions, and by 2011, almost 10% of all online advertising money will be dedicated to video advertising.
Google's Ginormous Free Food Budget: $7,530 Per Googler, $72 Million A Year
"Sick of hearing about the great, free, food at Google? Skip this post. Want to know how much it costs Google to pay for all that grub? Read on."
Web 2.0 vs. Branding Fundamentals
Author: Keith Robinson | Blue Flavor
"One of the primary laws of branding is differentiation. It used to be easy to differentiate yourself on the web by simply providing a site people could easily access and get what they needed. Still something you should be doing, but you need to do more now. With the advent and overwhelming acceptance of standards and best practices in the design and development communities and the amazing resiliency of the Web 2.0 look, it’s becoming harder and harder to do differentiate by simply being usable."
What the Tech Industry Is Doing for Earth Day
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher | Earth2Tech
"while it’s Earth Day every day for many of the cleantech startups out there, we wanted to take a closer look at what the traditional tech companies are highlighting or announcing for today’s event. Unsurprisingly, it’s the quieter firms that often have the strongest eco-histories -"
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Economic deja vu hitting tech startups
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer | SFGate, Home of the San Francisco Chronicle The U.S. economy is sputtering. Venture capital investment is declining. And to add to the gloom, a trickle of startups have shut down or sold out at fire sale prices. Is it 2001 all over again? Or will the Web fare better this time around?"
"Startup entrepreneurs can be forgiven for suffering flashbacks to the dot-com bust several years ago given the recent rash of worrisome signs about their industry's health.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Silicon Valley VC Confidence Index falls to four-year low
Mark Cannice | The Industry Standard
There's good news and bad news in the latest results of the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists' Confidence Index and survey.
7 Signs It's Time to Drop a Client
From Scott Allen, Scott's Entrepreneurs Blog | About.com
"Have you ever been fired by a client? It's painful, embarrassing and even a bit depressing when it happens. It can completely throw your confidence as an entrepreneur.
And yet, it may be the best thing in the world for both you and your client.
But why let it get to the point that they have to fire you? Don't you want to be the one in charge of the relationship? Don't you want to end it on your own terms, as much as possible?"
Using the Greiner Curve - Surviving the crises of growth
from MindTools.com - essential skills for an excellent career.
Fast growing companies can often be chaotic places to work.
As workloads increase exponentially, approaches which have worked well in the past start failing. Teams and people get overwhelmed with work. Previously-effective managers start making mistakes as their span of control expands. And systems start to buckle under increased load.
Why to Not Not Start a Startup
by Paul Graham
"The big mystery to me is: why don't more people start startups? If nearly everyone who does it prefers it to a regular job, and a significant percentage get rich, why doesn't everyone want to do this?"
Sunday, April 20, 2008
NY venture capital shrugs off recession
By: Amanda Fung - Crain's New York Business
Sixty-six area companies received $526 million in venture funding during the quarter, up 12% from the previous quarter.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
