Eric Schmidt: The Digital Disruption

Image via WikipediaA government that is in a zero sum battle for power with its citizens loses power when citizens get more and more digital, sure. But what if a government defines its "power" in terms of how much empowering it helps bring about for the citizens? Then the more the citizens grab the power digitally, more involved they become, the government in the process will have become more powerful, it will have become a better government, one that delivers more for less. I think we have to choose our words right here. An engaged, informed citizenry will lead to grassroots governance.

Vinod Khosla's Entry Into New York City

Image via Wikipedia

AllThingsD: Khosla Wins the Bidding War for GroupMe, New York’s Startup of the Moment GroupMe, a New York startup that lets users send group text messages to to their cell phones, didn’t exist in April. Now it’s worth about $35 million..... Original investors including First Round Capital, Betaworks, Lerer Ventures and Ron Conway’s SV Angel, who put some $850,000 into the company earlier this year, are all slated to invest again. ..... a bidding war for the right to fund GroupMe broke out in the past few weeks. The company ended up with multiple term sheets to pick from before signing with Khosla Monday. ..... GroupMe works on any run of the mill “dumbphone”, and part of the company’s pitch is that salt of the earth folks (Church groups! Hunters!) have been using it since it opened up in August. ..... Hecht and Martocci left jobs at very red-hot startups — Tumblr and Gilt Groupe, respectively ..... The two formally hatched their plan at TechCrunch’s Disrupt Hack Day event in May. .... what investors are really hoping for, at least right now, is that GroupMe follows the same trajectory of another zero-to-hero New York startup — Foursquare. It’s worth nothing that Khosla tried very hard to fund that company’s last round, but missed out.