Net Neutrality, Clean Tech And Political Fights

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Wired: 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

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Fred 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.

Twitter Is Massively Complex

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TechCrunch: Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook

Twitter 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:

Related articles

• Information Overload And Twitter (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook (TechCrunch) (techmeme.com)
• How Much is Twitter Worth? (twitterrati.com)
• Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook (techcrunch.com)
• Who Is Jack Dorsey? (theoriginalwinger.com)
• Jack Dorsey On Square, Entrepreneurship and Twitter's Mistakes (techcrunch.com)
• The Interest Graph (mattmaroon.com)
• Why Dick Costolo Is Now CEO Of Twitter: Because Now It's Time For Twitter To Make A LOT Of Money (businessinsider.com)
• Live Interview with Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey (downtheavenue.com)

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

Africa: Size Matters

The best parts for me: China Part 2, India Part 2. Doing whatever it takes.

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