Veniam

Fred Wilson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Bitcoin is all the rage. I do think it is as fundamental as the Internet itself was in 1996. But I have been worried Fred Wilson has become one dimensional and is only thinking about the Bitcoin these days. I guess not.

Here is a super exciting investment he just made, looks like: Veniam.

In my book Veniam is the most exciting move Fred Wilson ever made.

Google's self driving car might never happen. But you pair up an almost self driving car with Uber, and you get magic, much sooner. Singularity might never happen. My bet is it will not happen. But a lot of wonderful things will happen in attempts at singularity. This Veniam deal might be the real thing to Google and Facebook talking satellites and drones and balloons. Although I am big on satellites and drones and balloons.

Innovation has a funny way of upending the big dogs.

My comment to his blog post:

This is HUGELY exciting. I think you should get one on one with De Blasio, like NOW, and make this happen for NYC. They are talking old phone booths, which is great, but this is the real deal. A NYC where there is internet access every inch of the city is safer and is on its way to becoming One City. (Reference: De Blasio's Two Cities theme when he ran.)

The Bitcoin is as fundamental as the Internet was in 1996, I give you that. But for a while I was worried you have become a one track train with a laser focus just on Bitcoins. But I guess not.

Heck, this can be taken to Mumbai, to Kathmandu. What about backpacks? This could be taken to Namche! (Sagarmatha base camp ---- Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Everest).

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Naveen Leaving FourSquare

Image via CrunchBaseI just read the headlines. I have not read the full length articles yet. But I must say I am very, very surprised. This was so unexpected, to me it was. Unless the split between the two cofounders was quite tilted, or if by now after having raised several rounds of money Naveen's percentage ownership in the company had become really low, or the guy has come up with the next big thing, I mean. I have thought of FourSquare as a company that could end up with an IPO.

Now let me go read. The guy himself has a blog post on the topic, I think. Let's hear straight from the horse's mouth. If I were him I'd have left my equity still in the company. Because that money is growing. I wonder what he did.

GigaOm: Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare co-founder is leaving
Business Insider: The Co-Founder Of One Of New York's Hottest Startups Is Checking Out
Pulse2: Foursquare Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai Stepping Down
TheNextWeb: Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announces he is leaving the company to work on new projects
AllThingsD: Foursquare Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai Leaving
Naveen: Next
VentureBeat: Cue violins: Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai leaving the company
CNet: Foursquare co-founder Selvadurai to leave company
TechCrunch: SV Angel Also Buying Up Foursquare Stock. Dennis Crowley Emerges As Big-Company CEO

Okay, so the guy sits on the FourSquare Board.

Looks like the guy sold his stock to Spark Capital, one hopes only some of it.

Okay, so the guy feels like he has done all he can and he needs to move on.

It is possible some of the VCs in the picture have been gently working towards this end.

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Jack Dorsey With Om

gigaomroadmap on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Source: GigaOm

Galaxy Nexus Has Competition

Galaxy Nexus has competition in my world now.

GigaOm: Republic Wireless to launch $19 unlimited voice, SMS and data service: Republic Wireless ..... will launch a hybrid cellular voice and VoIP service on Nov. 8, 2011. ..... The service, which costs $19 a month, will allow you to make VoIP phone calls over Wi-Fi and will switch to cellular-based calling when a Wi-Fi network is unavailable. Text messages can also be sent via Wi-Fi or cellular networks. The service does require a special Android handset. The plan includes unlimited voice and text messaging. It also includes unlimited data without any bandwidth caps. ...... no different from the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA)-based service bundled in some T-Mobile BlackBerry devices. T-Mobile also has UMA available on some Android phones. ...... When inside the office or your home or inside a Wi-Fi hot-spot, all phone calls and text messages are sent and received via the Internet. ...... like Kineto Wireless’ UMA that is used by T-Mobile, Republic requires you to buy a special phone that can handle this hybrid calling. The company has built this hardware based on Google’s Android OS. ...... also attractive to those who travel internationally and want to save on calling back to the U.S. ...... the idea of unlimited 3G data with the service for $19 a month

TechCrunch: Republic Wireless: An Android-Powered, VoIP/Cellular Hybrid Carrier That’ll Cut Your Phone Bill In Half

Republic Wireless, a new mobile phone service from Bandwidth.com that will be launching on November 8, and could truly be the phone carrier you’ve always wanted. ...... an alternative to the likes of Verizon and AT&T. ..... Users will not have to manually switch between Wifi and cellular — the phone will figure it out automatically ..... New phones are required because the Hybrid Calling relies on both hardware and software ....... You won’t need to sign up for a contract, so there aren’t any termination fees. No overage fees, either. ..... $19 a month, which will include unlimited voice, text, and data.

Also the Galaxy Nexus has been taking too long to show up.

New York Times: A Dog's Got To Eat

Image via CrunchBaseI am fond of the New York Times. Both NYT and I seem to like the same font: Georgia. I did not learn that from the New York Times, but the similarity lead to affinity. It is a great paper. If I could get only one source of news - thank God I don't, thank the wild wild web - the New York Times might be in contention. And I take hometown pride.

Reading articles in the New York Times feels like reading a book. As in, the quality is great. In most cases it is better than reading a book. Because many many people work on any one article. There is a lot of collaboration. Most books gets written by people who think they are smart enough that they can go solo.

I once read a tweet from someone from the New York Times - Indian dude - during the Gulf Crisis. He made it sound like he was going home after like a month. He said he had been working on this one article. The article took me five minutes to read. And I am like wow. You mean you and many others worked on this for a month? To give me a great five minute experience?

Smartphones: Cheap Is Good

Image via CrunchBaseThe idea is to get the phone out to as many people as possible. If almost everybody has a smartphone then we are talking. Then we got critical mass. And the way to get there is through super cheap smartphones. I am glad we are headed that way.

GigaOm: The Future of Cheap Androids Begins Now

we’ll need to see unsubsidized handsets priced at or under $100 that can be used on a month-to-month basis ..... in Europe and elsewhere, it’s not uncommon to buy a phone, then purchase a SIM card from whichever carrier is currently offering the cheapest voice and data rates ..... By 2013, we expect 1 GHz smartphones to be available for $100. ..... By the end of this year, I expect to see no-contract Android devices costing $99 or less, paired with reasonably priced pre-paid plans.

The worst idea the smartphone industry ever came up with has been the two year contract. Phones go stale in six months, a year max.

Tumblr Down, Tumblr Up

Image via CrunchBase

Business Insider: TUMBLR IS BACK!: an extended outage that started yesterday.... Tumblr's twitter account says: "The recovering database cluster is online and healthy. We're incrementally opening up access to blogs while monitoring performance."

This downtime was significant because (1) it went on and on and on, it lasted a while and (2) enemies of Tumblr had publicly warned a few weeks back that they would take it down. Right now I don't know if the downtime was due to overuse, or some act of those enemies. I am about to go dig up on the story.

Phones Not Tied To Carriers

Image via WikipediaLaptops don't come tied to cable internet companies. Why do phones come tied to phone companies? You should be able to buy a phone, and it should be wi-fi enabled, and you should not have to pay anything in addition to what you pay for your internet access, and you should have Skype on your phone, and that is it. Smartphones are app heavy in the first place. All they need is internet access. What they need is wi-fi.

Privacy Anxieties And The Web Of Intent

GigaOm: The Web Of Intent Is Coming (Sooner Than You Think): more robust content filtering tools and the Web of Intent will arrive sooner than you think, based on the implicit messages in users’ actions..... The Web of Intent will be largely driven by consumers’ actions and interests..... They will be able to quickly transform their content operations beyond articles and blog posts into data and interest-centric publishing structures that allow consumers to follow topics and ongoing stories of interest. ..... a Web of Intent rich in data and profiling based on their audiences’ interests. ...... will offer newer and more robust targeting opportunities and will ultimately provide publishers new opportunities for monetization beyond pure advertising ..... make their sites more “intent-friendly”

This intent talk is at the other end of the privacy spectrum. You do want the site to know who you are, what your interests are, what you want, so the site can better serve you.

We want privacy, but we also want the web of intent, and I don't see a clash there. Just like it is possible to be for economic growth and for the environment at the same time.

Privacy is a value, but it is also a technological challenge. The web of intent is a major technological challenge. Now all websites pretty much have blogs, and Facebook and Twitter presences. The web of intent will similarly permeate.

We will get to keep our cake and eat it too, for the most part. There are always some standard deviations.

Privacy, Digital Literacy, Technology, Social Values

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Bill Gates: Behind The Curve On Chrome OS

Image via CrunchBase

Larry Ellison - What The Hell Is Cloud Computing?



Bill Gates is the father and son of a previous paradigm. By extension you could say the same about Om Malik. The guy was unexcited about Google Wave when it came about, and he is unexcited about the Google Chrome OS. (Spamming Om Malik)

Einstein gave us the Theory Of Relativity pretty much single handedly. But when it came to quantum physics, he never really quite got it.

Granted Windows is nowhere even remotely close to relativitiy - it is closer to the Boeing than to a cutting edge theory in physics - but parallels can be drawn.

You define one era, and precisely because you define one era, you are incapable of graspi

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

ng the next era.

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Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining

Image via Wikipedia

Okay, this is not E=mc^2, but I think I got something here. I managed to throw a "2" somewhere in there.

Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining (2 way)

There is research to prove blogging is good for your brain, like running is good for your thighs. Has to be. You can intuitively conclude. You don't need research for that. And by blogging, I mean blogging. That includes podcasting, that includes videoblogging. That includes micro-blogging, of course.

The Internet is the Ultimate Media. Every moment of every life can be recorded, technically speaking. But what if you are not interested in the mundane, what if you are only interested in ideas? What if you don't care if they are mixed up?



A blog is a web log. The web is the interweb - I got that word from Morgan Grice a few days ago - and it is the web that is key. How you log on to it, how you latch on to it, does not matter. Every netizen is a producer, every netizen is a potential consumer.

The netizens suck on the nipples of Mother Web for nourishment. Netizens produce knowledge, perspectives. Even when nothing groundbreaking is happening, even if it is just the proliferation of existing knowledge, something fascinating is happening.

Like I have said many times, you can not bring all Nepalis to MIT, but you can take MIT to everyone in Nepal. If all textbooks, if all journal articles, and all lecture videos are added to the soup called the social web, how much will you be missing if you are not on campus?

And the blog is the center of that action for each individual netizen. If nothing else, it allows you to display your ignorance.

The interweb is not just about putting faces in front of computer screens. It is about taking group dynamics to a whole different level. Barack Obama rode the internet all the way to the most powerful office in the world. How much more real does it have to be? Grassroots governance is going to be more exciting than grassroots campaigning.

The blog is where it gels for the netizen. That space is your space, and it has all the wheels of media. It has the feel of a classroom. It is in your face like a microphone. It is expansive like air, water, space. It is casual like gum. It is private. I mean, if you are struggling to get page hits.

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