Hunch
54 W. 21st Street
Suite 1001
New York, NY 10010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET)
Tech, Women, Diversity
The impending Age Of Abundance was prophecied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Change The Ratio: Fred Wilson, Rachel Sklar
Hunch
54 W. 21st Street
Suite 1001
New York, NY 10010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET)
Tech, Women, Diversity
Fractals And FoodSpotting
I don't know but I am guessing there are a few different players in what I call the specific check in space, but I only know one: FoodSpotting. And if there are others, FoodSpotting sure has the best seat in the house. Checking into a book, or movie or music is not actually checking in. It is not location specific. The Like button by any other name.
Much of the special going out involves eating and drinking for many people. And each such check in place, by definition, is a business. Caching. As opposed to when someone checks into Central Park - and people do - that is hard to monetize. Street vendors: don't count on them.
Steve Jobs: Android Rant
Wow. This guy shows no signs of slowing down. This dude Steve Jobs, CEO of the past decade, dubbed the most remarkable comeback story in the history of business, Larry Ellison's best friend, is just warming up, it looks like.
"There are one or more strategic opportunities in the future," says he. You got to watch out for those. Word is already out he wants to take another crack at the netbook. He could also be thinking in terms of the natural user interface, 3D computing, and gesturing as opposed to touching. Gesturing is cleaner.
Sculley:Scum
Google Search: Skipping Social, Going To Location?
Looks like Marissa Mayer is getting busy already. The social butterfly of the Google corporate world has been setting trends for years. Now she attacks location front and center, looks like. (Marissa Mayer: Location, Local) It was not possible for the Android company to have stayed away from location for too long. (Mashable: Google Puts the Emphasis on Location in Search)
Monday, October 18, 2010
Net Neutrality, Clean Tech And Political Fights
Image via WikipediaWired: What Solar Needs: Its Own Karl Rove: Eighty percent of Americans rated solar power favorably, compared to 39 percent for nuclear and 32 percent for oil. Seventy-four percent believe that solar is a “long-term solution for the country’s energy needs.” ..... 94 percent of Americans see solar as important and 80 percent want to see subsidies transferred from fossil fuel to solar...... Unfortunately, the public also said solar is too expensive, will remain an intermittent source of power, and can’t really directly compete with coal or natural gas. Only 41 percent thought solar was affordable, and only 34 percent thought it was reliable..... Seventeen percent said solar would “never” be the largest source of new electricity for whole cities. Most of those polled were largely in the dark about the subsidies provided to oil and gas. Just 19 percent correctly estimated that the fossil fuel industry gets more than $10 billion in subsidies.Freedom is not free. The trucking industry killed trains in this country decades ago, and the country is still reeling from it. The best does not always get done because this is a democracy. The people have to actively make the choice, and if they don't actively opt for the best, they don't get the best. Because this is a democracy.
Net Neutrality Reworded
Image via WikipediaFred Wilson: A Net Neutrality Case Study: Maybe we shouldn't call it Net Neutrality. Maybe we should call it a bill of rights for consumers on the Internet.There are still landowners on the internet - like in the early days of America - who feel like they are the only ones who need to be able to vote. That is blasphemy. Fred Wilson is not new to the debate. But I really like his emphasis this time. Maybe net neutrality is a phrase that is not serving us too well. It makes it sound like there are two equally valid viewpoints. No, there are not. People for segregation and people against segregation were not both equally right. The internet is not a company, it is not a commercial venture. The internet is like the airwaves; it belongs to everybody.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Twitter Is Massively Complex
Image via WikipediaTechCrunch: Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To FacebookTwitter should have had more users than Facebook, (Goal: A Billion People On Twitter) but that is not what we see. It is Twitter's fault. It is not like Twitter has ever had problems raising money. If you don't have problems raising money, you don't have problems hiring the engineers you need. Twitter was bogged down focusing on scaling: I always thought that was a bogus argument. Show me the Facebook fail whale.
I have thought long and hard about it, and I think the reason Twitter has not scaled like it should have is because Jack Dorsey went ahead and became Chairperson. What was one person's invention got handed over to a committee to grow and scale. They say in Africa it takes a village to raise a child. Maybe it does. But I don't think that applied to Twitter. It is a DNA thing. The founder CEO will make big bets. People who took over will not dare to. The other founders spent too much time basking in the Twitter glory of 2009.
Facebook should have grown like the big screen web. Twitter should have grown like mobile phones have grown all across the planet. Twitter has largely missed the boat. Why? You gotta ask.
FourSquare has competition, Twitter does not have competition. I don't feel like Twitter has been able to cash on that advantage.
User Friendly Twitter? Get Out Of Town
Twitter needed to try and come pre-loaded on mobile phones. Twitter needed to make sense to people who don't speak English. Twitter needed to make sense to people who are not literate. From the Twitter that I know and experience and get headaches over to that simplicity is a light year.
I know a Harvard graduate who is confounded by the hashtag. It is not her fault. It is Twitter's fault.
TechCrunch: Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook:
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Like Father, Like Son
TechCrunch: Looks Like Top Gun 2 Is Cleared For Takeoff — All Thanks To Larry Ellison’s Son: It has everything you need in a movie: California, drinking, jets, tragedy ..... the son of Oracle founder, ultra-billionaire ...... 27-year-old David Ellison, who was all of 3 when Top Gun came out in 1986 ..... he just happend to raise $350 million dollars from JPMorganChase to co-finance a slate of films with Paramount
Larry Elli Son.
In The News
TechCrunch: Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook: These days they are often mentioned in the same breath. .... Jobs invited Zuckerberg for dinner at his house to talk about Ping two weeks ago .... there would be friendship with significant benefits for both parties if Apple and Facebook could strike a deal
Business And Charity
Image via WikipediaWall Street Journal: World’s Richest Man: ‘Charity Doesn’t Solve Anything’: he could do more to help fight poverty by building businesses than by “being a Santa Claus.” ..... “The only way to fight poverty is with employment” ..... “There is a saying that we should leave a better country to our children. But it’s more important to leave better children to our country.” ..... He has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to his foundation and has funded millions of dollars in joint-venture projects with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This reminds me of the gay marriage debate. The last scientific figure I read had gays at 1% of the population. As in, one per cent of the people are biologically gay, they do not choose to be gay. That is who they are. Some put that figure to be 10%. I think it probably is 1-2%.
Men and women marrying works. It works for 98% of the population, or those among the 98% who choose to marry. But it does not work for everybody.
I agree that creating jobs is a great way to cure poverty. But the best economists say no matter how hard you try, 5% of the people will stay unemployed. The economy needs a 5% unemployment to stay healthy. Those 5% are not being lazy. There just are not going to be jobs for them.
Some people are going to be poor. Some people are going to end up homeless. There charity comes into the picture.
But what the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation is doing is not charity. Tackling health care in the Global South is not charity. That foundation has challenged many long held prejudices about poverty in the Global South. You make these people healthy, and they go out there and get jobs and work hard and lift themselves out of poverty. You give them family planning options, and they have fewer children. They have not had the option.
People should go get jobs, but you would not argue that for primary education age children, would you?
Private business has its place. The private sector takes care of about 80-90% of the population. The public sector gives employment to the other 10-15%. And then there are the unemployed who deserve unemployment benefits. There are the poor who need charity and social welfare. It is important to also think of that bottom 5% to keep the social peace. That is also important.
Everyone should have access to education, health and credit at all income brackets all over the world. Most people don't, and that is a problem. Between the private sector, the public sector, the informal economy, the NGOs and the charity organizations, all bases should be covered.
There is no one size fits all.
Wall Street Journal: The Rising Threshhold for Being in America’s Top 1%: the threshold for the One Percent Club has more than quadrupled since 1980 ..... A salary of $80,580 in 1980 would be $207,920 in 2008 dollars. But that still is far lower than the $380,354 required to make the 2008 cut-off. ..... In 2008, the top 1% accounted for 22.8% of the nation’s reported income, up from 8.46% in 1980.
Why the Wealthy Are Paying Less of America’s Taxes: the rich are running away with a disproportionate share of the nation’s income but paying ever lower taxes. .... the rich are indeed paying a lower share of the nation’s tax burden. But that’s because the rich are losing income. And while their share of the nation’s earnings is falling, their average tax rate is rising. ..... the top 1% of tax returns paid 38% of all federal individual income taxes ..... The top 1% paid an average income tax rate of 23.27% .... the top 5% of tax-payers earn 34.7% of income and pay 58.7% of taxes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)