Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts

Saturday, January 29, 2011

How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?



The point is it is a finite number. There are only so many people Mubarak could kill. We did this in Nepal in 2006. The king of Nepal issued a shoot at sight order, and the people braved the bullets. About two dozen people were shot down before the regime collapsed.

There are only so many people Mubarak can kill. The brave people of Egypt have to not stop. This can be done. Democracy is not an American export. Liberty is an export of the human heart. It comes from inside. This is nothing to do with America.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Stuxnet And The Confounded Mullahs

A comparison of the sizes Pentagon etc.Image via Wikipedia
New Scientist: Stuxnet: the online front line: Stuxnet, the computer worm running rampant in Iran's nuclear facilities ..... a few lines of malicious computer code can trip electricity grids, burn out power-station generators, pollute water supplies and sabotage gas pipelines. ....... Where regular worms merely infect computer systems, stuxnet can reach out into the physical world. It uses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows to give an attacker remote control of the specialised factory-floor computers used to control industrial processes. ..... The worm can allow attackers to run motors so fast they burn out, to turn off alarms and safety cut-offs, open effluent valves and activate pumps - in other words, carry out industrial sabotage and skulduggery on a massive scale.
Unless we have some high tech mullahs in Iran, my guess is they are one confounded crowd. As to the origins of stuxnet, your guess is as good as mine. It is possible this has been the work of the Pentagon, like the Iranian regime has been claiming, possibly even the work of Israel, but I doubt that. Biblical references in malicious code do not prove the worm is Israel's work. It is very possible some teenager cowboys, either in Israel or America, and as much likely elsewhere, took it upto themselves to tickle the Iranian regime a little.

Whoever might be behind this, and we might not even know, very likely, this stunt has rattled the mullahs like threats of economic sanctions have not so far.

When they start arresting "spies" is when you know they got it all wrong. That is a symptom of being confounded. Obviously you do not have to be inside of Iran to pull this stunt. That is the whole point of cyber attacks.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Shopping Around For Iran

AL and IranImage via Wikipedia
Brad Feld and Fred Wilson did not bite - they seem to suggest Iran is not in their domain expertise - but I have a ready presentation in the process, and I have decided to shop around. This is not an investment opportunity. This falls in the public service domain.

I came across a John Boyd blog post while working on this post: Seed Money. And so I emailed him.
You have a great post on seed money ... I followed a link from Fred Wilson's blog to your post. Great post. http://www.blindreason.org/2010/07/rush-to-early-seed-stage-later-stage.html What really got my attention was your putting broadband on the top of the list. I am 15 months from a green card, and 15 months from my startup. My startup will deal with the last mile of the broadband business.

Are you in NYC? Let's meet for coffee some time.

I need you to help me with something. http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/07/to-iran-with-love-3.html I need you to put 3-5K into this. This is not an investment. This falls in the public service domain. This is about democracy in Iran.
I also just sent out a whole bunch of tweets to a whole bunch of angel investors. I sent out tweets to all angel investors on the List Of Angels On Twitter. The cut off point was people who had tweeted out in the past 24 hours. If you are not active on Twitter daily, maybe you are not of interest to me.
One Tweet Response

I should not have been, but I was surprised to find so many Indians on the list, including one I am Facebook friends with. 
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Monday, July 12, 2010

To Iran, With Love (3)

Image representing Brad Feld as depicted in Cr...Image via CrunchBase
Hello Brad (@bfeld). Hello Fred (@fredwilson).

Happy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
The Germans Called Me Robin Hood
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
Rome - Phoenix W/ Devendra Banhart
Brad Feld
To Iran, With Love (1)
To Iran, With Love (2)
North To Alaska

To continue with our conversation, in this post I am going to tackle two questions.
  • What can I do for Iran based on what I have done for Nepal?
  • Why am I seeking 5K in personal money from 20 VCs towards this? Why not from some other crowd?
What Can I Do For Iran Based On What I Have Done For Nepal?

Not everyone believes every country should or is going to end up a democracy, it is only a matter of time. Not only do I believe that, I believe that process can be accelerated, and I believe a democracy movement is science, it can be made to work every single time. Elections alone do not make a democracy, we know that. Otherwise they have elections in Iran, in Zimbabwe, in Egypt. Heck, Saddam used to have elections.

Iran is not a democracy. An unelected committee of mullahs is the supreme authority in that country. Only candidates sanctioned by that committee can run for president. That is no democracy.

You determine a country is not a democracy. And then you determine all the steps it has to take to end up a democracy. There are a lot of preceding preliminary steps, but ultimately a sufficient bloc of groups inside and outside the country has to set the right goal, which would be to shut the country down completely until the current regime makes way for an interim, caretaker government that would come into power with a mandate to hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year of taking power. That assembly would get two years to write a constitution for the country. A majority block in that assembly would form the government. Each article in the constitution would require two third of the votes in the assembly.

That is the roadmap. My personal project is only upto the point of regime change. Once the interim, caretaker government takes over, I am officially out, although I can't imagine completely disappearing. On my own I would continue to monitor the situation part time. There would have been too much emotional investment on my part to that point for me to just walk away.

Why Do It?

Because this is the right thing to do. Because we care about the people of Iran as much as people anywhere. Because we are huge fans of them for what they have been doing for over a year now. Because we believe in the power of democracy to do good. And because we want peace in the Middle East.

People say there is no peace in the Middle East because it is a few different religions clashing with each other. I don't buy into that. If diversity were the reason for lack of peace, New York City where I live ought to be at permanent war with itself. I don't see evidence to that effect.

There is no peace in the Middle East because Israel is the only democracy around there. When a democracy tries to talk to a neighborhood of non democracies, you get The Mother Of All Culture Clashes.

And there is also a need to prove the netroots, the grassroots are powerful enough unto themselves to be able to bring about democracy into a country. No country, not even the US, can afford to militarily go into every country. It is too expensive. And it is not even the best way to do it.

A people powered democracy movement in Iran would ignite similar conflagrations in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In seeking a successful conclusion of the democracy movement in Iran, we seek the bringing about of a domino effect.

How To Do It?

"I am one small human being," my fellow Buddhist Richard Gere once said about himself. I am but one small human being. But I have proven in the case of Nepal that one human being sufficiently digital and with sufficient political acumen can make a big difference.

It is like in the movie The Matrix. You sit in front of your computer, your terminal, and you transport yourself to the theaters of action. You observe and study the reality, the ever changing reality, in all theaters of action, and you propose action plans everywhere you can. You have no institutional authority, noone elected you, you are not doling out money, and so you have to be extra, extra right, extra convincing before people will do your bidding, before people, the key players, will listen to you to do what needs to get done.

Month One: Immersion

I would spend about a month totally immersing myself. I am going to collect as much information as possible. I am going to network feverishly. I am going to network among the members of the Iranian diaspora in New York City, and more online.

Roadmap

Then I am going to start working to gather support for my roadmap. If the democracy movement in Iran sticks to the goal of holding the presidential election all over again, it will keep banging its head against the wall. For the goal to be shifted to regime change, I will have to network deep enough to be able to determine that leadership change for the movement can be brought about without losing the fissures that have been created in the Iranian establishment by the movement so far.

Logistical Support

As for the global netroots/grassroots, all those people who turned their Twitter avatar green, they also need to shift their goal post. Extending moral support is not enough. Logistical support has to be provided. Once the movement decides to wage one final struggle, we will have to get very sophisticated about it.

We have to document every act of atrocity by the current regime. It has to be publicly announced that the interim, caretaker government will persecute all those who might unleash brutality upon peaceful protesters. You do that to protect your people best you can.  

But brutality will happen. And we have to provide medical services to take care of those who might get injured in the course of the democracy movement.

Working on these two concrete steps also helps do the organization work for the movement, helps build a robust network.

All Digital, One Person

Many individuals and organizations in many countries will have to do just the right thing at the right time for this to work. And you do have to take all possible actors into count. But my particular role is going to be the role of one person who works all digitally. The world is connected enough by now that that digital activism could prove decisive. Geography is not a hindrance. And there is and there will be enough information from and about all relevant theaters of action, and where that is not enough, you connect the dots best you can.

This is doable.

Larger Implications

An Iran that is a modern democracy is still going to want to make peaceful use of nuclear energy as it should, but it is not going to be sinister and unreasonable like the non democratic Iran of today. A democratic Iran is still going to speak up for the Palestinians, as it should, but it is not going to scapegoat Israel for all its internal failures, and promises not kept to its own people.

Israel today feels an existential threat from Iran's possible nuclear weapons. That threat is primarily political. Russia still had all the nuclear weapons, but once the Cold War ended, America was no longer feeling the threat from those weapons, Europe was not feeling the threat. Israel is not going to feel an existential threat from an Iran that is a democracy.

Why Me? Why You?

We don't ask why techies had to do Kiva. We don't wonder why we did not leave all that to the traditional microfinance people. You and I are members of the tech community. I need you to think of me as a member of the community who wants to take some time off from full time tech startup work and do this for a period of 15 months, for that should be enough time, to help bring about this positive change. This is about doing the right thing, but this is also about proving the Internet as a technology is mature enough, the world is connected enough, and that the digital ways are powerful enough.

If I were to get State Department sponsorship, that would hinder my work. God forbid, if I were to get CIA sponsorship, that would totally paralyze my capacity to do what I want to do. This has to happen at the netroots level, where you and I exist and at the level you and I have the option to reach out to all sorts of causes all over the world.

Why You?

If you have been a prominent VC for a few decades, I think you can afford to put in 5K of your personal money into this. It is doable for you.

Why Me?

I have done this before. I can do this again. And this work ties into what I want to do after that, which would be to launch my tech startup that will want to help bring many more people online. I can't say I was born in India, so I am going to think about the people in India, or that I grew up in Nepal, and so I am going to focus on Nepal. Bringing people online is a global endeavor, and I have to be able to show I can care deeply about people in places like Iran where I have never been, but where I do know there is an acute need. This work will allow me to prove that, show that.

It will also allow me to further work on my two strengths: vision and group dynamics. Here you are talking about large scale group dynamics. I have a knack for that. It is an important business skill.

And if I can do what I am saying I can, I think that is going to earn me some credibility that I can cash on when it is time for me to raise some money for my startup in about 15 months. That is the self interest part.

No Time To Lose

So, let's get started. You two come in at 5K each. And you have until the end of July to find me other 18 VCs who will also come in at 5K each. And if I can get this done by September 2011, you all get to raise another 2.5K each. That will be your way of saying it was a big goal, but it got achieved, and so. 
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Friday, July 09, 2010

To Iran, With Love (2)

To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
To Iran, With Love (1)

Hello Brad. Hello Fred.

I am psyched to be talking to two of my favorite people in the tech community.

Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Fred Wilson: An Unassuming Kind Of Guy
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
Fred Wilson: A DJ
Fred Wilson: DJ
Fred Wilson's Gift To Me
Fred Wilson's Insight
Fred Wilson: VC
Fred Wilson: A VC

So let me tackle some of the questions after having introduced myself: To Iran, With Love (1). Over the past few days I have paced around a whole lot trying to grapple with as to the best way to present myself.
  • What did I do for Nepal?
  • How did I do it?
  • What can I do for Iran?
  • Why am I asking 20 VCs to put in 5K each in personal money towards this? 
How Did I Do What I Did For Nepal?

I ended up giving a name to the method: nonviolent militancy. Not only are you strictly nonviolent, you are almost all digital. The battles take place on the screen for a big part. But the method is not the message. Unless you have a very high level of political consciousness, unless you have super political instincts, unless your political knowledge is robust, unless you are a disrupter in the best tradition of entrepreneurs, unless you have a firm commitment to the basic principles that underly any democracy movement, you can't do what I did for Nepal. My political credentials were outstanding, and so the technology behind the digital tools I ended up using came to be of service to me. The medium is not the message. On the other hand without the digital medium my work would not have been possible. The Internet allowed me the utter fearlessness that I exhibited at all junctures because it allowed me to be in the safety of New York City without many of the disadvantages of distance. On any given day, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on at the ground level in Nepal. I looked at Nepal from my distance the way an astrophysicist might look at planet Jupiter and do a very good job at it. The distance kept me safe, but it also gave me a certain objectivity, a certain detachment. That helped my work.

It was amazing to me over the course of my work spanning about two years eating into my savings that I was able to meet in person almost all the key political players in the drama in Nepal right here in New York City. I also discovered every little town in Nepal is represented by at least a few people in Queens. If that is true for the poorest country outside of Africa, that has to be true for every country on earth. That is why I have been saying for years everyone you need to spread democracy across the world lives right here in New York City. New York City truly is the capital city of the world. And if I networked hard enough in New York City, I realized I could get to know people who personally knew people in all the political parties in Nepal, in all the human rights NGOs active in Nepal, in all the media houses there.

Dinesh Prasain Tour: Report
Anil Jha, Bimal Nidhi US Tour Logistics
Gagan Thapa Talk In Boston: Two Hours Audio
Gagan Thapa October 22 Saturday 2 PM Columbia University
Sage Radachowsky Interviews Anil Jha
A Day In The Life Of Gagan Thapa
The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Gagan Thapa
Seven Party Forum In Jackson Heights
Krishna Pahadi November 6 Sunday 5 PM
Gagan's Talk In New York
Pahadi Says Goal Is Democratic Republic
Krishna Pahadi At New York University
December 11 Sunday 11 AM Union Square
Dinesh Tripathi In New York
Anand Bist, Troublemaker
My Proposal To The Saturday Symposium At Columbia
Dinesh Tripathi, "Arthur Kinoy Of Nepal"
Symposium At Columbia
February 1 New York Rally Photos
March 22 Event At Columbia

And I worked the phone. I called people in Nepal, in India, elsewhere.

And I worked the email circuit. Every time I received a mass email from some Nepali wishing me a Happy New Year or greetings for one of Nepal's major festivals, I would go ahead and harvest all the emails. And thus I ended up with the largest Nepali mailing list in the world. Someone once said when Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas that if you knew 1500 people in Little Rock, you knew everyone who mattered in Arkansas. Well, those 1500 people for Nepal are all on my mailing list. There are about 8500 people on that list. Featured at the top is an email from the Prime Minister of Nepal, Madhav Nepal.

But the hub of all my work was my Nepal blog: Democracy For Nepal. And my primary data collection method was the wild wild web, the Internet. Anyone could have accessed all the information that I was able to access on a daily basis. I visited the websites of the newspapers out of Nepal. I had a Nepal section on my Google News page.

I was able to cash on the personal contacts I already had, and was able to build. But the Internet was my primary playground. Anyone could have accessed what I accessed, and I feel like anyone anywhere could apply the principles that I applied in Nepal, and intend to apply in Iran. Actually one big reason I want to get involved with Iran is so as to be able to prove what we did in Nepal can be done over and over again all over the world, everywhere where there is no democracy.

I will touch upon those principles later. Let me now get into what precisely I did for Nepal. I helped move the ball at all critical junctures of the peace process.

What I Did For Nepal

When the king of Nepal pulled his military coup in February 2005, the first thing I did was I surveyed the scene. I read all the news I could. I tracked down all my key contacts that had fled to Delhi in the aftermath, including the guy who is now president of Nepal.

Hridayesh Tripathy In Delhi: Good News
Phone Interview With Rajendra Mahato
Phone Marathon: Called Up Delhi
Phone Marathon II

Then I surveyed the political scene. Either the king was going to backtrack and go back to being a ceremonial monarch, or Nepal needed to end the monarchy, become a republic.

Towards a Democratic Republic of Nepal

Now Nepal is a republic, but at that point in time republic was a big word to utter. None of the big democratic parties were for a republic. The king had jailed all their leaders and the parties were still singing the tunes of a constitutional monarchy. There is a term for that: mental slavery, the emotional dependence of the enslaved upon those who enslave them. The king showed signs he wanted to rule in an active way for a few decades. If they can do it in Saudi Arabia, why can't we do it in Nepal, he asked. Well, Saudi Arabia's time too will come.

I recognized there were three poles in Nepal: the royalists, the democrats and the Maoists. The only way to defeat the royalists was to forge an alliance between the other two forces. But that was not going to be easy because the Maoists had been waging a war for 10 years to establish a one party communist republic. They had been physically attacking and killing cadres of the largest democratic parties. How do you do business with them? At that point they had managed to dismantle the barely existent state apparatus in about 80% of the country.

The roadmap I proposed was this. The Maoists were for a communist republic. The big democratic parties were for a ceremonial monarchy. They needed to find common ground, which was the idea of a democratic republic. I sent overtures to the number two Maoist, Baburam Bhattarai. He sent overtures back, but that got him into trouble. The number one Maoist had him arrested by his own bodyguards. Later I appealed for his release, and he was released.

Sought eDialogue with Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists
Ideological Overture To The Nepali Maoists (2)
Baburam Bhattarai On A Democratic Republic
Doing Business With Baburam Bhattarai
To: Prachanda, Baburam, Mahara, Badal And The Rest Of The Maoist Leadership
Prachanda's Letter Bomb Of 5/1
Baburam: Prachanda's Best Bet, Litmust Test, And Only Option
Baburam Bhattarai Press Statement

Around this time a fellow Nepali activist based out of New York City sent out an email saying the army in Nepal had had her father disappeared. The danger was real. No wonder most Nepalis in the diaspora tried not to put their names to the cause. They preferred private to public, offline to online. I spoke up at my blog. Her father was released a few days later.

"Urgent: Disappearance Of My Father" by Sarahana Shrestha

Once there was convergence between the Maoists and the democrats behind the idea of a democratic republic, it was time to go all the way and try to forge a strong alliance against the monarchists. It took long months, but finally they all got together behind the idea of holding elections to a constituent assembly.

How To Move Towards A Common Minimum Program?
Seeking Common Ground
Seize The Moment: Match The Maoists
Possible Framework For A Maoist-Democrat Alliance
Major Fermentations In The NC And The UML
Alliance Of Steel
Indian Support For Democrat-Maoist Alliance A Must

Around this time a former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba got arrested. His wife sent me an email.

Gagan Thapa Arrested, Deuba Re-Arrested
Email From Arzu Rana Deuba
Email From Madhav Kumar Nepal
March 22 Event, Deuba In New York
Sushil Pyakurel In Brussels
Deuba At Columbia
Deuba In Jackson Heights
Deuba Off To DC

The Maoists were still at war. Now that some common ground had been found, it was time for the Maoists to lay down the weapon. I proposed something pretty out of the box: unilateral ceasefire. How would the king respond? Could he keep fighting? No, he could not.

Power Does Not Necessarily Flow Through The Barrel Of A Gun: Maoists
Prachanda, Order Your Cadres To Live
After Ganapathy, A Ceasefire
RNA, Declare Your Own Ceasefire, You Have No Choice
Prachanda, Do Not Break The Ceasefire
Irresponsible Response To Ceasefire
For The First Time In A Decade, Permanent Peace Feels Possible
The Maoist Ceasefire: The Devil In The Details
The RNA Could Be Disbanded
The Maoists Could Do More
Militarists Attempting A Doramba Repeat To End Ceasefire
The Army Rank And File Need To Be For The People And Democracy
Prachanda, Extend The Ceasefire By Three Months
Prachanda Audio Interview, A First
Why The Maoists Should Not Go Back To Violence

Around this time I also got impatient with Girija Koirala, the de facto leader in the democratic camp for being the oldest person, and threw my weight behind Madhav Nepal who went on to organize some of the largest one day rallies over the coming months.

Madhav Nepal, Commander Of The Movement
Janakpur Rally, Biggest In Nepal Since 1990

Once the Maoist-Democrat alliance was formed, it was time to go for a mass movement. Here Ukraine in 2004 was my inspiration. The Nepali leaders kept thinking  in terms of a rally here, a rally there, a shutdown here, a shutdown there. From the very beginning I was pushing for a Ukraine repeat, that we needed to come out into the streets and stay out there until the regime collapsed. That is what ended up happening only what happened in Nepal was much much bigger than what happened in Ukraine, and much bigger than anything I had imagined. But this was not a sure thing at all. The Maoists started thinking now the democrats had finally come around to their idea of a final armed struggle and an assault on the capital city. That suggestion I fought tooth and nail. Around this time I also hired a blogger in Kathmandu to video blog all street protests. That proved fundamental. At the time noone was doing that. Those videos got the Nepali diaspora excited. (Umesh, Turn It Into A Business, Mero Sansar Video Clips, Blogger Receives Death Threat, Bloggers Form Union) I also had to fight American tendencies to want to fight the Maoists to the military finish, to see them as the first opponent, we will deal with an autocratic king later attitude: Robert Kaplan Is An American Cowboy.

Non-Violent Militancy, Concerted Global Action
Human Rights to Political Platform to Full-Fledged Movement
eDemocracy, 4S Campaign, 24/7 Vigil For Democracy: Take Over Tundikhel
Streets Filling Up
Major Student Protests
Timi Sadak Ma Utreko Dekheko Chhu (I have seen you come out into the streets - poem)
Pyramid Of 10 In Kathmandu
India-US-EU Need To Provide Logistical Support To The Democracy Movement
Logistics To Bring Down The Regime
Lilamani Pokharel For Continuous Movement
Maoists Should Go Beyond Ceasefire To Peaceful Mobilization
Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests Protests
Democracy For Nepal: Contents 2005
Nepal Needs To Be Hitting The World Headlines: Write To The Media
Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance
Non-Violence All The Way
"Robin Hood Im Internet"
Mero Sansar Video Clips 4
Undeclared Ceasefire, Decisive Movement

This is the gist of the developments leading up to the mass movement of April 2006 when eight of the country's 27 million people came out into the streets to shut the country down completely. Every step can be retraced at my Nepal blog. Here I have provided just a summary. Keeping my work transparent in real time was important to me even back then because I held a strong belief even back then that this work was relevant to many other countries. In April 2006 I came across a blog post by some anonymous member of the Zimbabwean diaspora that asked, why can't we have in Zimbabwe what they just had in Nepal? It was a good feeling for me to come across that sentiment.

In my next blog post I will tackle the other two questions.
  • What can I do for Iran?
  • Why am I asking 20 VCs to put in 5K each in personal money towards this?
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Sunday, July 04, 2010

Happy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 28:  Iranian-Americans ...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Hello VCs.

I am about 15 months away from a green card, and about that far away from launching my startup, which right now I think will be something to do with the last mile of the ISP business. I think the best use of my time from now till then would be to pour myself fully into the democracy movement in Iran. I have done this before, I can do this again. I did this for Nepal in 2006. This is what I have had to say about that:
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006 was a political cyclone. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out.
This work will help me keep polishing my two strengths that I would bring to my startup: vision and group dynamics. Internet access is the voting right for this century, the Internet Century, and to do well in that business you have to be able to deeply care about masses of people like those that have been thronging into the streets of Iran.

Iran is a low hanging fruit. The hardest part of a democracy movement is getting people to come out into the streets. Well, that has been happening in Iran. This world is connected enough by now that one Digital Ninja/Commando based out of New York City could make that fundamental difference. Everyone I need to meet in person for this work is right here in New York City, primarily members of the Iranian diaspora. All I would need is a laptop, a smartphone and a monthly metro pass. And me.

I need you guys to sponsor this work out of your own pocket. Put in 5K each, and find me 18 other VCs who will put in 5K each. I ask for 100K and 15 months. That would be enough time. If I succeed, you get to put in another 2.5K each for a 50K bonus to me. This 5K you might put into this is the equivalent of 5 million you might put into Kiva. Democracy is the ultimate fishing net you can give to a people. Once they have a modern democracy, they can help themselves.

Looking forward to it. Happy July 4.

Paramendra.

Me @ BBC
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

NY Tech MeetUp: Europe Edition

Image representing Meetup as depicted in Crunc...
The NY Tech MeetUp continues to be my favorite MeetUp in town, and the go-to event every month. When I first showed up in town years ago, I was signing up for MeetUps left and right, then I whittled it all down to one MeetUp, the NY Tech MeetUp. By now I have signed up for a few more. But I am not a regular at the few that I have signed up for. The NY Tech MeetUp is it.

And tonight they got something called The European Edition. I am looking forward to it.

Special NY Tech Meetup: The European Edition
1. From London, UK, Advertag - Tag-based search technology for classifieds and image search
2. From Bucharest, Romania & London, UK, Brainient - Helping video publishers monetize video content by adding interactive elements and affiliate marketing
3. From Warsaw, Poland & London, UK, Codility - Automated testing of programmers via the Web, saving employers and recruiters both time and money
4. From Tallin, Estonia, Erply - Comprehensive CRM, accounting, billing and inventory management for SMEs
5. From London, UK, Kukunu - A social travel planning platform to build and organize your holiday, because travel is better when you plan it yourself
6. From Paris, France, Kwaga - Makes your inbox easier to manage by intelligently screening and organising your emails
7. From Cambridge, UK, Patients Know Best - Patient-controlled medical records. First customers include the UK's largest private health care provider, and the UK's largest children's hospital
8. From Vienna, Austria, Platago - Helping game developers to publish their games on social networks
9. From Amman, Jordan, Talasim - The Comedy Channel of the Middle East, providing a space for self-expression and sharing humour
10. From Belgium, Wondergraphs - Social business analysis that saves organizations time and money with easy to use exploration, sharing and context aware search
11. From Israel, YubiTech - Enabling mobilization of Desktop application to cross-mobile platform, in a fraction of cost and time, bringing best user experience to the mobile users
12. From Zagreb, Croatia, Shoutem - Enables you to create your own microblogging community for your business or brand
The lineup for the January 4 event was along these lines.
SpeakerText - Living the NYC startup dream!
BlazeTrak - Are you star material? Find out!
UDorse - This NY Tech Meetup is brought to you by...
Artlog - This is NYC, and 2010 brings us our first art/tech startup?
1 min/NY Tech Minute pitches from:
PressLift
NYC Way
Taxi Hack
Yogoer
The after party was at the Black Door on 26th between 6th & 7th Aves. Bumped into the Hootsuite guy @quikness at the after party. And got to meet the LaunchCloud (a Crunchies finalist) @mikomercer. I just found out she is now Mayor some place as of recent. And to think I did my very first FourSquare check in last night at the Blue Note Jazz. (Jazz) It was a sold out event. I showed up early to get the bar option. Alex showed up for the 8 PM show. Tommaso showed up for the 10:30 PM show with two of his Italian friends. We ended up being five people. Around midnight we crossed the street and went to the bar there, "to wake up a little," as Tommaso put it: I thoroughly enjoyed the jazz. There was some noisy music in the basement. Alex and I stayed. The others left soon.

Alex is going to be at the MeetUp headquarters this evening for the European edition.


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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Donut Android: Windows 95, Android 2009?





1995 was the biggest year for Windows. It made world headline news. It knocked off Middle East peace from the top spot. That big. Is this year to be the same year for Android? Or is this more like what 1992 was for Windows, big but not the peak? It is hard to tell right now. For one, we are almost half way through 2009 already. Two, there is so much room for innovation and growth still with Android. It has only barely begun to move beyond smartphones to smart laptops. I have a feeling the real Android action is not going to be on smartphones, big as it is going to be, and already has been. The bigger action will be on the bigger rectangle.

Right now if I had to guess I would say, Windows 95, Android 10, or even Android 11, Android 12.
  • Android Cupcake
  • Android Donut
  • Android E________
  • Android Fruitcake
  • Android Granola/Grapes
  • Android Haluwa
  • Android Icecream
  • Android Jamun
  • Android Kabab
  • Android Lalmohan
  • Android Mithai
  • Android Naan
  • Android Oatmeal
  • Android Pie (if it is a clunky version, we call it Android Potato)
I don't know about you, but I think Android has a long way to go. But even under the best of circumstances Android can not expect a Windows like 90% market share. I foresee a healthy market.

Cupcake Android Delay Reason: Donut Android
Google Analytics Says I Am Paul Krugman Friend, Cupcake Android Expert
Cupcake: Android 1.5
David Gelernter: Manifesto

In The News

Cupcake party: Android 1.5 update coming to T-Mobile G1 owners ...
CNET News The update will be delivered over the air in random batches over the next several weeks, and T-Mobile expects to reach all G1 customers by the end of May. ...... user interface improvements, better performance, as well as new features, such as an onscreen full QWERTY keyboard, video recording and playback, and stereo Bluetooth support.
T-Mobile Delays Android 1.5 Rollout & Why CupCake Is Now Defunct Google Android Phone News - GAB users can expect it in early June rather than Late May.
Google's Android Gets A Cupcake Forbes more features and functionality to handsets ..... easy video uploads to YouTube and live data feeds. ...... more sophisticated background images and icons and a browser that can display more complex Web pages. ...... bond over video clips ..... BlackBerry maker Research In Motion ( RIMM - news - people ) recently amended its operating system to support touchscreens and faster browsing. Rivals including Apple ( AAPL - news - people ), Palm ( PALM - news - people ) and Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) are all working on their own software updates or new releases. ........ speech recognition tools and live folders, leap-frog the competition. Others, like the virtual keyboard, are catch-up moves. ...... Cupcake will support a range of phone designs, greatly expanding the market for Android handsets. ...... Talukdar wants tools that help apps communicate with Web sites like Facebook. ........ miscommunication and delays. ...... Backward compatibility issues ....... Google already has a 2.0 version of Android in the works, perhaps to support gadgets larger than phones, like notebooks and netbooks. The code name? Donut. Just as sweet but hopefully more substantial.
What do you want from the next Android device? CNET News the guts of the phone, the actual Android operating system. ..... on-screen landscape keyboard, video recording, stereo Bluetooth, updated Webkit browser, and UI improvements. ...... Native Microsoft Exchange support would be a good start as well as Flash support. G1 users have also complained about the inability to save apps to SD cards and limited internal memory. ...... Android 2.0 (code-named Donut) is already attracting buzz, though we know very little about it except that it will support WVGA and QVGA screen resolutions.
11 Cool Android Prototypes We'd Like to See PC World The Android mobile operating system is invading not only new handhelds but a host of new portable gadgets, including laptops and media tablets....... Could 2009 go down as the year of the Android device invasion?
Here's Why Your G1 Android Phone Hasn't Updated To Cupcake 1.5 Yet InformationWeek The blogosphere has been buzzing about Cupcake since November 2008.
Donut Android build in the works | Google Android Blog Just when you thought that you had your feel of Android firmware-related bakery ...... There has been no word on what is in Donut ..... Android Framework Engineer Dianne Hackborn added that a detailed roadmap and feature list on Donut is not yet available due to concerns about “implied commitments that people are then going to base device schedules around when we are not confident enough about them.”
Samsung Bigfoot & Spico Android smartphones with OS 2.0 “Donut”? a 3-megapixel autofocus camera, accelerometer, digital compass and 100MB of onboard storage
Homer Simpson Approves of Google Android 2.0 "Donut"
seems that the Android development team at Google has sugary baked goods on the brain ...... lines of code. Mmmm… delicious code… Very little is known about Android 2.0 Donut ...... I wonder what the next in the Android line of releases will bring? Macaroons? Brownies? Macadamia and white chocolate cookies? How about a five-minute chocolate cake?
Google Android 2.0 dubbed Donut Details So it seems you can have your Cupcake and eat it as a Donut will follow.
Stunning Growth (900%) Predicted for Android
compared to a predicted growth for iPhone sales of less than 80% which suggests that Android-based handsets could be a major player in the smartphone market in the next few years. ...... Interest in Android phones from a variety of sources including operators, phone vendors, phone developers and consumers. ....... Popularity of Google services including Google’s mobile search functions, cloud services and application support. ....... Android’s open-source format. More and more people are interested in seeing mobile phones opened up. ....... Increased variety of handset styles and choice among carriers will naturally increase sales. ........ Since Android is starting with a low user base, the overall industry growth could mean a high level of growth for this particular type of smartphone. ...... more than ten million Android-based handsets could be sold before the end of the year. ....... this is the year for Google Android growth.
Android 2.0 aka "Donut" coming Q3 on Samsung Spica & Bigfoot Donut is the just the treat the mobile manufacturers have been waiting for and first out the gates will be Samsung who'll bring us the Spica and Bigfoot handsets most likely on T-Mobile ....... 3.0" WQVGA screens, 3-megapixel cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, GPS, digital compasses and accelerometers
Android Cupcake is Now in a Donut Google Android Phone News - GAB the most active and bleeding edge Android codebase after Donut is completed.





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