Microsoft: Smartphone, Tablet, Bar Code

Image via CrunchBase

TechFlash: Microsoft Tag claims front-runner status among next-gen barcodes: Microsoft this morning claimed new momentum for its Microsoft Tag technology, which lets people scan color barcodes with their phones to automatically connect to online sites, phone numbers and other corners of the digital world. According to Microsoft, more than 1 billion Tags have been printed in the past four months, fueled by heavy usage in magazines and other print campaigns.

I Am In Finance, Microfinance

Reverend, What Do You Do?

Microfinance as a for profit, high tech proposition.

Paul Graham: Disrupt

China, The US, And The Economic Crisis

Social Ties And Social Media

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Chris Dixon: You Need To Use Social Services To Understand Them: I’ve made more strong ties through Twitter (and blogging) than I have through any communications medium I’ve ever used before...... I barely tweeted or blogged for a long time .... the insistence of Caterina, who had the foresight to insist that everyone at Hunch blog, tweet, contribute to open source projects, etc. ...... I now get some of my best ideas from responses to tweets and blog posts, and have developed dozens of strong relationships through the experience.

This Gladwell article in The New Yorker has been making the rounds. Biz Stone talked against it in an article in The Atlantic. He figured between The New Yorker and The Atlantic one is the Republican Party and the other is the Democratic Party. Chris Hughes countered the Gladwell article almost immediately at his tumblog.

Net Neutrality, Google's "Monopoly," Internet 2

The New Yorker: Tim Wu On Communication, Chaos, And Control

Zappos

(Source: Business Insider)

Self-Serve Makes Sense For GroupOn, Also FourSquare

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Yipit: Groupon Reveals Its Future Lies In Self-Serve: “Groupon Stores is a place where your favorite, local businesses can sign up, create a store page, and post deals at anytime for you to see. Welcome to the future of Groupon.” ..... if self-serve can dramitically increase the number of available offers then personalization should improve..... Receiving offers is already one of the leading reasons for consumers to follow businesses on Facebook and Twitter

Sunshine, Water, Rest, Air, Exercise, Diet

Image by Joi via FlickrThe best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they’ll ease
Your will they’ll mend
And charge you not a shilling.

~Nursery rhyme

(Via Caterina Fake)

Not Yet The Era Of Grassroots Governance

Dean 2004 - and I was part of it - was a little too early. But Obama 2008 finally had the grassroots lay a claim to the presidency. So the electioneering part is done. But we are not yet in the era of grassroots governance. 2009 did not feel like 2008. 2010 has not felt like 2008. It is because we are not there yet. Data.gov is a big step in the right direction, but we are not there yet. Not enough data has been released. And not enough data is being served in compelling ways for the grassroots to munch upon. A thing to do is to make it possible for the people at the grassroots to follow the debates and discussions and votes on Capitol Hill in meaningful ways. Who is saying what? What are their track records? What are the implications of what they are saying and how they intend to vote? What would be the Web 2.0 version of the Congressional Budget Office?

Reverend, What Do You Do?

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A black comic once asked Jesse Jackson on national television, "But, Reverend, what exactly it is that you do!"

Let me try and answer that question for my well wishers.

Me and my small team are exploring the idea of a microfinance tech startup, one a microfinance junkie currently at Wharton, another a techie. Clean tech, bio tech, nano tech, microfinance: microfinance might be at the bottom of that sexy ladder in some ways, but I believe it is in the same league. It is one of the next big things. And it is very real. Education, health, credit: all of humanity deserves to have access to those three things. The term computer has not meant the same thing year after year, decade after decade. The term microfinance is not stagnant either.