Facebook Comments: First Impressions

Image via CrunchBaseI got excited about Facebook Comments right away, long before it got rolled out. I am very much for using real names with comments. When you leave a comment at my blog, I want the option to be able to click over to your Facebook profile if I want to. I want you to stand by what you have to say. I want to meet real people. To me that's the whole point behind the internet, that geography is irrelevant. The blogosphere's appeal is that it allows for a meeting of minds. Facebook Comments takes that to a whole new level. It is more than meeting of minds, it is also meeting real people.

Farmville's Got Competition

Image by haikugirlOz via Flickr

ReadWriteWeb: Look Out Farmville: Angry Birds is Coming to Facebook: The game - in which you fling a variety of birds at things in hopes of knocking them over - is a complete blockbuster with more than 75 million downloads. Several different gaming blogs have reported that Angry Birds' creator, Rovio, has told Wired UK that it is working on a social reinvention of the game for Facebook...... Will Angry Birds take over as the number one game on Facebook? Can it compete with the crack-like qualities of games like Farmville and Cityville?

I'd be curious to know as to how the game reinvents itself for the Facebook platform. I do think they are capable of giving Farmville some serious competition.

Identity And Collective Identities

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeOne of the highlights of Obama 08 for me was this conversation I had with Barack's sister Maya at the downtown Manhattan headquarters late in 2007. I talked to her about a very personal connection I felt with the guy. I asked her about her name. It is an Indian name, Maya, I said.

It was Maya who articulated it for me. She said, "He walks between worlds." That captured it for me. It was then I realized why I connect with the guy so very personally.

Barack Obama walks between worlds.

Chaiyya Chaiyya

Prabhu Deva: Muqabala Muqabala

SXSW: Not Going

Image via WikipediaI was on the phone with a friend earlier in the day. She is going to South By South West for the first time and she is excited. SXSW is in the air.

I have never bought a plane ticket in America. I guess she was trying to convince me to come along. I guess it is too late to sign up for panels and things. But you can go to the parties in the evenings, she said. They are free.

I get the impression South By South West is the Kumbh Mela of tech. More than 10,000 people show up. From all over the country.

Maybe next year. This year it's a pass.

Sean Parker, Billionaire, Was Really Poor Once

“You have got to be willing to be poor [as an entrepreneur]. There was a time when I was living out of a single suitcase. I had a rule that I wouldn’t stay on one person’s couch for more than two weeks because I didn’t want to become a bother.” - Sean Parker

Blogging Works Wonders: Here's An Example

Image by Newton Free Library via FlickrSo I put out this blog post yesterday. Yes-ter-day.

Very Much Would Like To Go Into Bihar

And someone left a comment a few minutes back. Here's a team that is already doing microfinance in the part of the world that is of greatest interest to me: Mithilanchal in Bihar. Mithilanchal is two words, just like Paramendra is two words. Mithila + Anchal (Zone) = Mithilanchal. Param (The Great) + Indra (King of all the 300 million gods and goddesses in the Hindu mythology) = Paramendra.

GroupOn, Zappos, And The Non Tech Components

Image by David Berkowitz via FlickrGroupOn Did Not Launch At South By South West

I dig these two companies for their emphasis on non tech components. Zappos does not sell shoes, it sells phone calls. The emphasis is on customer service. Tony has told his people, talk to the customers for as long as they will talk to you.

GroupOn has boots on the ground. That army of sales people is integral to how GroupOn rolls.

GroupOn Did Not Launch At South By South West

Image via WikipediaGroupOn has grown like crazy. But it was not launched at South By South West. And I have an observation to make.

GroupOn has this very clear offline component to it. It has hired thousands of sales people. And its customer base is your very average person, the Walmart types. They want to save money. They want to save money on haircuts.

That is why you do not hear GroupOn and South By South West in one sentence. I never have. Because GroupOn's early adopters were not the kind of people who end up at South By South West.

Overall I feel good about South By South West. But I also have a word of caution for the crowd. You don't want to end up in some kind of an echo chamber where you are only hearing each other. It is possible to collect too many business cards. What are you going to do with them? Networking is a good thing overall, but too many business cards can also mean a lack of focus.

Like the Kayak.com CEO likes to say, I don't go to events.

A Life Of Poverty

Image via WikipediaI have had my double cheese burger super sized. It was like a six month disappearance - they had Wael Ghonim disappear for 12 days in Egypt, they had me disappear for six months in America, cost me two major victory parties, I guess it is a bigger deal to put a black man into a White (WHITE) House than it is to kick an Arab out - plus the Great Recession - all my investors walked away - plus the Great Immigration Humiliation. But I have not so much as flinched.