Netizen: Harvard University

Showing posts with label Harvard University. Show all posts

Friday, July 27, 2012

Google Books Deserves To Get Life

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Just like sane countries force broadband providers to share their pipes with competitors, Google Books should be made to share its content to other online distributors, and authors of the books should get their cut, but the idea of getting in the way of digital books is plain stupid. Why deprive humanity of the treasure trove?

Google urges end to authors' digital book lawsuit

its ambitious plan to build the world's largest digital book library .... Google has said it has scanned more than 20 million books, and posted English-language snippets of more than 4 million .... authors actually benefit because the database helps people find and buy their books ..... a "de facto monopoly" to copy books en masse without permission and served to "further entrench" its market power in online searches. ..... Among the libraries whose works have been scanned are those of Harvard University, Oxford University, Stanford University, the University of California, the University of Michigan, and the New York Public Library .... The United States, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp had been among those to raise antitrust concerns about the settlement.

Paper books should feel odd. Digital books should be the norm. Digital copies of all books current and past should be available. Why do you want to get in the way of authors penetrating markets?

Monday, August 15, 2011

Boston Tweets (2)

Statue of John Harvard, founder of Harvard Uni...

Third World Guy

I am a Third World Guy. That is not my past. That is my daily reality. That has implications.

Two white guys destroyed my high school experience. One white guy destroyed my college experience. Some white guys tried to destroy my New York City experience.

I left you an entire country. I left you a state, an entire region. There is nowhere to go after New York. In New York you have my back against the wall. You don't want to corner a cat. That is a bad idea. I feel an enormous itch to create, to fight.

They built a white-Pahadi coalition against me in Kathmandu. They built a white-black coalition against me in Kentucky. They tried to build a white-black coalition against me in New York City.

Charlie Rangel thinks he is going to live for 10 more years. I wish every of those years upon him. I want the motherfucker to watch.

The Twins Were Rowing Boats

Mark Zuckerberg at South by Southwest in 2008.

Image via WikipediaThe twins were rowing boats and I want the money back. What these guys have been able to do already is a travesty to the spirit of entrepreneurship.

They have this attitude that since they were born into money - not money by Zuckerberg standards obviously - and Zuckerberg was merely a dentist's son, they could hire this guy to build them a billion dollar company.

130 Million Books

It is not an infinity. There are only so many books in the world. Google has come up with the magic number. It is almost 130 million.

Women In Tech-Media Event At JP Morgan: Internet Week

Internet Week: Going To Three Events So Far

Neha Chauhan is a great Moderator. This was my second Chauhan event, and it was just great. She has this ability to bring together a great group of panelists. And I like her emphasis on women. I am for a healthier male female ratio across the board. That has to be extra true for tech and media. New companies can not replicate the sexist social arrangements of old companies.

Mostly the panelists talked about their work, their challenges and dreams, and those are for the most part gender neutral. And the question answer session later was as robust as the first part of the program. I was mesmerized by the intellectual oomph of many of the things the panelists had to say. These were go getters. They were entrepreneurs. They might not always get it at first try, but get they will.

The final part was when you mingle. That is an important part. Time permitting I relish that part as I did with this event. That is a great time to ask the panelists a few more questions and meet some of the people in the audience. It was a house full event.

I was so glad I showed up. And I had the honor of sitting one seat in front of the moderator's mother who was skillfully handling three different cameras. I got to meet a panelist mother later who I told she looked like the Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Hello Jordan. Jordan Reid was also at the Social Media Week panel put together by Neha Chauhan back in February.

Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever

In my question from the floor I focused on one of the themes of the evening, that many, many more men are coders, and so they have an edge in tech. I don't believe that to be true. Being an entrepreneur is a higher level skill than being a coder. More than 99% of coders go work for someone else. They can be hired. The important part is can you put together a full team that also includes coders, that is the real challenge. A full team will have tech people, and marketing people, and designers, and what not, but the leader of the team has to bring all that together. And that leadership can be provided as well by women as men. If you need developers, and you have to hire male developers, hire them. There are plenty of those around. What we don't have enough of is people who start and build companies. We need more women entrepreneurs.

Event: Women in Tech-Media

Date: Monday, June 7, 2010 from 7-9pm

Location:
277 Park Avenue
2nd Floor
New York NY

Speaker bios:

Jennifer Hyman has been the Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway since the company's founding in November 2008. She is responsible for all areas of the business including technology, fashion, sales, marketing, operations, customer experience, and people management.

Jennifer founded Rent the Runway with her Harvard Business School sectionmate Jennifer Fleiss. They received funding from Bain Capital in May 2009 and launched the site in early November 2009. Rent the Runway is a members-only fashion community that launched in November 2009 with the goal of building customer loyalty for designer brands by enabling a woman to rent a dress before a special occasion in her life for 4 days only.

As a "Netflix for fashion" Rent the Runway is trying to give women access to the "Carrie Bradshaw closet" and encourage them to experiment with new trends, colors and designers without the guilt of a dress she's only going to wear once. Rent the Runway's launch was met with accolades from the NYTimes, the fashion media and blogosphere and already has over 425K members.

Before Rent the Runway, Jennifer was the Director of Business Development at IMG where she focused on the creation of new media businesses for IMG's Fashion Division. She also ran an online advertising sales team at WeddingChannel.com and before that, she was an in-house entrepreneur at Starwood Hotels, creating new leisure business for the company, including a wedding business that was recognized on Oprah for its innovation.

Jennifer received her BA from Harvard University and MBA from Harvard Business School. She is on the Board of an all girls public school in Brooklyn. She currently resides in New York City where she enjoys the entrepreneurial lifestyle, neighborhood restaurants, socializing with friends and family and all things fashion!

Dorothy McGivney worked for almost six years at Google until a serious case of wanderlust sent her on a trip around the world. After spending the better part of a year visiting destinations like Patagonia, Nepal, and Japan, she decided to combine her background in online advertising with her passion for exploring to create Jauntsetter, a travel site and e-newsletter for New Yorkers.

Jordan Reid founded RamshackleGlam.com, a “Haphazard Guide to Happiness,” in March 2010, shortly after departing her position as the resident Lifestyle expert at NonSociety.com. At RamshackleGlam.com, Reid’s focus is on home décor, style, entertaining, cooking, and do-it-yourself projects, as well as advice for couples in committed relationships.

A 28-year-old Harvard grad, Reid has been a part of the social media world since August of 2009, when she decided to turn her love for creating an exceptional home environment into a full-time gig. Reid immediately developed a passionate fan base of over 70,000 readers per month, with whom she corresponds on a daily basis about everything from relationship troubles to cooking tips.

Reid self-produces a webcast, “Ramshackle Glam with Jordan Reid,” that can be seen on Vimeo, YouTube, TheGloss.com, and Reid’s own site. She is a writer for Cosmopolitan, TimeOut NY, TheGloss.com, and Styleite.com. Reid is also a regular Lifestyle correspondent for BetterTV, and has appeared on MSNBC, VH1, NBC’s New York NonStop, and Exclusiv, among other nationally and internationally syndicated lifestyle programs.

On Ramshackle Glam, Reid has conceptualized and executed successful ad campaigns for companies including TJ Maxx, Starbucks, Bloomingdale’s, KAO Brands, Rambler’s Way, Melrose Street Clothing, and Perfume.com.

Tammy Tibbetts created She’s the First, a global campaign that promotes the importance of educating girls in the developing world. With an education, every girl has a chance to break barriers and become “the First” to achieve her special goals. Shesthefirst.org leverages young women’s passions and networks offline and online via social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to fundraise for sponsorships that will send girls to school.

Tammy works for Hearst Magazines Digital Media, where she led the creation of DonateMyDress.org, the nonprofit site of Seventeen’s Teen Network. She has created multiplatform, interactive web experiences for teen girls, for which she's managed partnerships with music and retail companies, local schools, and dress drive organizations nationwide. She is also Director of Operations of the MacDella Cooper Foundation, which supports vulnerable children in Liberia, and serves on the Foundation Board of New York Women in Communications. She is a Phi Beta Kappa journalism graduate of The College of New Jersey.

Neha Chauhan (Moderator) is currently an investment banking analyst at JPMorgan, having joined the company after graduating from Harvard University in 2008. With a background in technology and web design, Neha plans to launch her own new media venture early next year. Outside of the new media sector, Neha’s prior work experience includes internships at DANNIJO Jewelry, Bank of America, 85 Broads, L’Oreal Paris, and the Office of Senator Hillary Clinton. In her free time, Neha works closely with the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, specifically on initiatives for young people. She is interested in social entrepreneurship, and most recently launched a microfinance pilot program in Panajachel, Guatemala. To combine her interests in technology and philanthropy, she developed My Social Impact, a website that uses social media to track social impact. Neha organized this year’s Women in Tech-Media event for Internet Week NY.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

How To Date An Indian: Andrea Miller

Amitabh Bachchan via last.fm

This blog post by an Andrea Miller normally would not fall in tech and biz categories - technbiz.blogspot.com - except that she is an entrepreneur, and this blog has touched upon the world of online dating before. Besides, anything goes. And this post seems to be Miller's first and only post at The Huffington Post. She comes across as a fairly accomplished individual. Most people start at the collective level. Individual spark comes later. That is why so few of the relationships out there are cross-cultural, inter-racial, even in a diverse city like New York.

Online Dating Newsflash: Race And Religion Matter

Andrea Miller: Bio

.... founder and CEO of YourTango ..... a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School ..... positions with Goldman Sachs, ICF Consulting and Enron’s international finance team. While with Enron, Andrea was based in Mumbai, India for three years. ...... a frequent panelist and guest speaker in classes at Harvard University, Columbia University, Fordham University, The Wharton School and New York University. .... a licensed private pilot, and is a passionate karate practitioner ..... one of the original co-heads of the New York Chapter of 85 Broads, an independent global network of female professionals and students. She actively seeks to promote entrepreneurship among women; she is the co-founder of the Women Entrepreneurs Network, an active network of females who represent some of the tri-state area's most talented and promising young entrepreneurs.

Andrea Miller: How To Date An Indian

Indians are the true Chosen People .....There are obvious reasons one would want to date an Indian, such as how successful and professionally desirable they are. Indians dominate as engineers, doctors, lawyers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. They make up a large proportion of our graduate students -- just walk around the campuses of Harvard, Columbia or Stanford or and you will see these incredibly attractive brown people all over the place....... Indian people tend to be really good looking. ..... According to Wikipedia*, "India holds the highest number of Miss World winners, only to be tied with Venezuela." ...... Most Indians are innately gracious, social creatures; they highly value friends and family and have a calendar filled with various holidays and occasions to celebrate, which they typically do with gusto. Those endless jubilant dance numbers in Bollywood movies pretty much channel the Indian soul. Moreover, Indian men love to dance. If for no other reason other than you want someone to dance with you (or without you for that matter), date an Indian. ....... learn seven things that should ingratiate you with them. The first five have to do with Bollywood. Indians take Bollywood and their celebrities very seriously. ....... If you bust out something like, "Yea, I loved Kuch Kuch Hota Hai," you are very likely to get a second date. .... Major bonus points if you suggest seeing a Hindi movie together. ...... Bhangra ...exhibit the right dance moves, i.e. patting an imaginary dog while screwing in an imaginary light bulb. ..... Indians love their food. Probably more than they love dancing. ...... Indians love when you speak their language. ..... there are several iPhone apps that will give you translations .... I hope Laxmi, Goddess of Prosperity, smiles on you as you endeavor to date one of her people. ..... one more big bonus when it comes to dating an Indian: communication with cabbies. Think I'm kidding? New Yorkers: Just imagine if you could stop a taxi during the 4pm transition time and your date could say, in Hindi, "Hey brother, will you please take us to Spring and 6th?"

Okay, so this blog post is not what I thought it might be. I came here hoping to get all defensive. But this is quite a flattering piece, and, I must say, hilarious to boot. This post is as entertaining as a Bollywood masala movie. The blogger's description of Bhangra is the most hilarious I have ever seen: "Bhangra ...exhibit the right dance moves, i.e. patting an imaginary dog while screwing in an imaginary light bulb."

The post is funny but she is curiously right in some ways. I guess it takes an outsider to get you some perspective. Bollywood movies were stuff you did not watch too much of when I was growing up: good students watched movies only moderately. I came to America and the Bollywood movies became my culture.

She is to the point about food. During my road trip across America I realized I missed Desi food more than my family.

"I hope Laxmi, Goddess of Prosperity, smiles on you as you endeavor to date one of her people." Hilarious. A college friend once said to me, it was a green card, gold card swap.

That cabbie part. I never thought that was an advantage. I mean, I am very much a subway person. But when you talk to a brown person, you might as well talk Hindi. They appreciate it. White guys similarly have advantages on Capitol Hill and Wall Street. Although I am not so sure about Wall Street. Goldman Sachs is one third brown. And we are about to send Reshma to DC, so we will be good there too.

Reshma 2010, Square, And Pro.Act.Ly

Okay, so this picture is me right out of high school. You can see I was trying hard to imitate Amitabh Bachchan's hairstyle. If you don't know who that is, you are an illiterate. He just so happens to be the most recognized face on the planet. You don't have to date an Indian to know that.

There is Hindi, and there is English. There is Bollywood, and there is Hollywood. There is democracy, and there is democracy. We are breaking even. I am all for cross-cultural understanding. Peace and love.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Stream, The Lifestream, The Mindstream

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
My words echo
Thus, in your mind.

T. S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

I have been thinking about David's manifesto, (David Gelernter: Manifesto) and some of my recent online socializing, and some of my readings. I read this article below online only a few days before I read David's manifesto. The manifesto talks of the lifestream concept. This article does not spell out the word, but I think it talks of the mindstream concept. It can be thought of as futuristic.

The Harvard Crimson :: Opinion :: My Disconnected Life .... Over the past several years, I’ve lost my cell phone more times than I care to admit. My friends consider me—endearingly, I hope—a clumsy, irresponsible fool. They shake their heads when I admit that voicemails have gone unheard .... To make matters worse, I am also notoriously bad with e-mails. Days can go by as I “forget” to check my mail; if my laptop’s charger isn’t nearby, that’s often reason enough to take a stroll instead of peruse my inbox. ...... Irresponsibility has allowed me to disconnect, and I am all the more happy for it. ...... It’s difficult to imagine life at Harvard without the Internet, cell phones, e-mail, instant messengers, and every other connectivity device. The proliferation of Blackberrys, Treos, and most recently, Moto Qs, have made our umbilical cords wireless, feeding off our addiction to mother e-mail. But life before these blessed, though burdensome, conveniences did exist. Without daily doses of Dems-talk, Throp-talk, Newstalk, and innumerable other e-lists, it feels as though we would never be informed of campus’ most important (and, alas, unimportant) debates. Procrastination would become more creative, and we would certainly be ignorant of the uncouthly candor that is brought about by impersonal conversation. ...... Without class e-mail lists, we would actually have to attend lecture to find out when our next assignment was due. Consulting teaching fellows about a troublesome paper would require face-to-face interaction in office hours, rather than the mundane chore of firing off an e-mail. Perhaps even classes would be fairer as compiling 40-page study guides that offer delinquent students the opportunity to sneak by with a B-plus would be much more challenging to coordinate. Keystroke, click, send—the Harvard soundtrack. ....... But what a liberating relief to be unreachable for a while. Friends often joke about the strange sensation that overtakes them when they suddenly drop their cell phone in the river or leave it stranded in a bar bathroom; just like that, they become a ghost for a day before reconnecting at T-Mobile. For those few pre-millennium hours, the world is a little less imposing. For a second, we are relieved of the obligation to be accounted for at every moment, to be responsive to everyone.......... It is during these hours that I realize—all too often, in my case—that it can be nice to take refuge in my own solitude. Uninterrupted by the pressure of constant phone-checking or e-mailing, we are forced to breathe and think and rest. As it stands, it seems unnatural to want to be out of the loop for a bit; people seem unnerved if I explain that I went “missing” for a while because my phone was dead. From what precisely I was missing is unclear; I was enjoying myself by myself. ......... we under-appreciate the virtue of taking time for ourselves. We no longer get away without a look of concern if we aren’t sitting in Lamont with our laptops, refreshing our inboxes, texting our friends, answering our phones, or seeming to care that—for a minute—we were walking around thinking alone. ......... It has become so expected to be in touch and online that sometimes it seems the only reasonable explanation for a prolonged disconnect is a little bit of irresponsibility. ........ I just want to be alone for a while.

http://twitter.com/paramendra/statuses/1643658620

David Gelernter: Manifesto
The Human Is The Center Of Gravity In Computing
Visionary Entrepreneurs Will Recreate The World
Goal: A Billion People On Twitter
The Search Results, The Links, The Inbox, The Stream
Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter
Jeff Jarvis: Bold Restructuring
Web 5.0 Is Da Bomb
Silicon City
Entrepreneurs: Spikes
Web 5.0: Face Time
Search: Much Is Lacking
A Web 3.0 Manifesto
Dell, HP, Apple
The Next Search Engine
Memo To Bill Gates
Google's To Do List Keeps Growing
Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds
Not Hardware, Not Software, But Connectivity

The human mind can be considered the last frontier of human knowledge. We know less about the human brain than about any other piece of real estate in the universe. And the internet might be our best "telescope" yet into that human mind. If the mind expresses itself enough, maybe we will start seeing patterns, perhaps we will understand better.

But the mind might not achieve its best performance if permanently at the beck and call of the primitive gadgets at our disposal, a cellphone's ring, or the inbox' deluge. Mindnumbing keyboarding at some point is glorified slave labor. It is perhaps a shallow friendship that gets measured by if you replied to my last email or not.

Thinking is more important than reading. Technology does not change that. The mind, so, is more important than the web. The webstream, the interweb lifestream necessarily has to be respectful of the mindstream. Some mindstreams respond best to solitude, some to music, some to silence, some to intense socializing, some to the web, some to reading, writing. To each his or her own.

Pages

Friday, July 27, 2012

Google Books Deserves To Get Life

Monday, August 15, 2011

Boston Tweets (2)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Third World Guy

Saturday, January 01, 2011

The Twins Were Rowing Boats

Saturday, December 18, 2010

130 Million Books

Monday, June 07, 2010

Women In Tech-Media Event At JP Morgan: Internet Week

Thursday, June 03, 2010

How To Date An Indian: Andrea Miller

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Stream, The Lifestream, The Mindstream

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Friday, July 27, 2012

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