Scott 2.0, MeetUp.com 2.0

Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds

When I moved to NYC summer of 2005, one of the people I got to know was Scott. "Man, meeting you is like meeting a movie star!" I was a Deaniac from 2004, and MeetUp.com was all the rage. We clicked just like that, became friends. He invited me over to come see him at his office. I complimented on the color red. My cultural background is primary colors and loud voices. Americans wear drab and talk soft.

I came to NYC to cultivate my business idea but got sucked into the democracy movement in Nepal, best work I ever did. I mean, when your house is on fire, you don't go cultivate a business. But as of past week, I am back. And the place I started was at MeetUp.com. The first event listed was one I had started: NYC Aspiring Entrepreneurs. Someone Jessica was running it now. She turned out to be Jessica Mah, 16. I visited her blog when I went back home. She was complaining how she thought she ought to be made Organizer of the Month but her being 16 was being used against her.

When I met Scott today, I put in word for her. He wrote her name down. And he gets to read this blog entry also. She runs a terrific large group. And she is a Scott in the making herself. I think you are going to hear more of her. She is an entrepreneur. She has it. She dreams of creating "the eBay of services." Way to go.



At Jessica's MeetUp I met Ed, a veteran who has worked for companies like IBM, real tall guy, West Indies background, that accent. He might help me find investors, he said.

And Scott's NY Tech Meetup. This thing has gone so big. Watching the presentations felt like being in a movie theater. It was like having a front seat into the future of the web. The internet started out as a poster. Then it became a little more interactive. Today's slew of presentations blew me away. The interactions are going to a whole new level. Graphic, intuitive stuff are coming along.

Video Of The MeetUp Tonight
This event was covered on CNNMoney.com
Video Of The Event

The first guy allowed you to insert comments into a video clip. One guy Mark, who sat next to me at the exclusive dinner after the event at a Tibetan place (Momo anyone? I am addicted to momo from my days in Kathmandu, I had two servings), allowed you to connect the dots and make pictures, that which you did as a kid on paper. Mind blowing. And he is just doing it on the side, no business plan yet, he talked like he just had to get it out of his system. Another was offering vertical silos of high quality videos. You just can't get that on YouTube. Say you are into snowboarding, you perhaps want many clips of a particular move, high quality ones.

There is never going to be enough of two things on the web: content and search. The possibilities are as limitless as the human mind.

I wish there were a place at the Tech MeetUp page where you could find the links to all the websites that get presented. Mark, add your link in the comments section please. I did not have a pen on me.

http://www.diversionmedia.com
http://www.associatedcontent.com
http://www.daylife.com

The most mindblowing presentation was DayLife. It was out of this world. I got a glimpse of search the way it should be. The human mind does not think in terms of lists of links. It thinks the way of the DayLife presentation.

CEO Upendra. He was at the dinner. MIT guy. Came out of school in 1994. Sold his Firefly to Microsoft. Microsoft Passport is his thing. So Bill Gates bought Hotmail from Sabeer Bhatia and Passport from Upendra, what does he offer of his own? How smart is Bill Gates really? Powerful, yes, but smart? Maybe he started out smart, and just got powerful.

His namesake - Upendra Mahato in Moscow - is the richest Nepali on earth. Mahato just invested into my startup yesterday, a symbolic gesture. I have been flying high since. I emailed a pitch also to this local, Indian Upendra after I got back home. He speaks in the measured tones of someone who grew up in America, as he did.

Vineet Gupta also at DayLife. He is a UP guy. That state in India is like a galaxy. It is such a huge population and the politics is so rumbunctious.

Tips for Scott. MeetUp.com still has this huge edge on social networking sites that exist only online. Noone emphasizes facetime like MeetUp.com. But add more features in the "add friends" section so exchanging business cards becomes a thing of the past. I guess you "steal" more and more select features from places like MySpace and Facebook. Sorry if I sounded fuzzy. In short, MeetUp.com should compete on both facetime and screentime, and not just on facetime, which it already has an edge on.

Got to meet Scott's girlfriend Emily who works at the UN. Small world, go figure. Emily and I figured we both know someone in common, Julie! Julie has made documentaries on Nepal.

And there was this 13 year old daughter of an Assistant Organizer. She is the one who I gave my $5 for the event to. She was at the gate collecting. I kept reminding her about that - the money part - at dinner. "You are the one who took away my money!"

About 500 people at the MeetUp, 10 at the dinner afterwards. Thanks Scott for inviting.

And I am slated to go to this MeetUp Thursday morning: The New York Open Coffee Meetup. Others go to work, I go to a MeetUp. I am hungry for investors right now. Nicholas was the first to sign. I was number two. He just launched this MeetUp.

Parting ways for the evening, I exclaimed to Upendra, "I don't have the slightest clue where I am at right now!" He gave me gentle directions to the Union Square station.

In The News

How to Leave Past Relationships in the PastAssociated Content
Mexico City explores wireless Internet 2:29AM EST BusinessWeek

Visitors

43.	31 March	09:08	Microsoft Corporation, United States
44.	31 March	09:09	Microsoft Corporation, United States

1 April

23:05

ISP/NSP of Nepal, Nepal

2 April

00:03

Detalee Trade, Moscow, Moscow City, Russia

7.	2 April	02:40	NAMCHE, Kathmandu, Seti, Nepal
9.	2 April	06:52	Webplus, Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg City, Russia

2 April

14:59

The World Bank Group, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

2 April

17:34

Comcast Cable, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

2 April

17:42

NTL Internet, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

2 April

21:10

Google, Mountain View, California, United States

2 April

22:21

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

3 April

00:00

Verizon Internet Services, Tampa, Florida, United States

3 April

11:30

New Wave Communications, Somerset, Kentucky, United States

3 April

19:02

University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States

4 April

00:19

Speedlinq netblocks, Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, The

Kanak Mani Dixit, Rhoderick Chalmers Event: Julie

Links

http://www.veotag.com
http://www.picturedots.com
Guy Kawasaki interview with Steve Wozniak
http://www.helloworld.com
http://www.collegewikis.com
http://flickrcash.com
http://www.snowvision.com
http://universe.daylife.com
www.npost.com

Dell, HP, Apple

Dell has been a pioneer. I have appreciated its singular focus over decades to bring the price down for the consumer. Dell reminds me of Walmart.

HP places major emphasis on innovation, and hence Carly Fiorina's famous criticism of Dell being a "one trick wonder." HP reminds me of NASA.



Apple is a high class act. Steve Jobs is the guy you go to to get your BMW. Apple sells cool.

All three are PC companies ill suited for a paradigm shift. You can't eat your own belly.

PC

Dell
Dell/EMC
Michael Dell
Hewlett-Packard
Apple Computer
History of Apple Computer
Toshiba
Compaq
List of Intel microprocessors
Intel Corporation
Cisco Systems
Google
Microsoft
IBM
Oracle Corporation
Sun Microsystems
Sam Walton
Quixtar

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Google Steps Into Microsoft's Office the search leader has offered a test version of an online office productivity software suite, called Google Apps for Your Domain, that lets companies offload e-mail systems to Google while keeping their own e-mail addresses. Soon, it's expected to add word-processing and spreadsheet services to the suite, which includes an online calendar, chat service, and Web page builder. In coming weeks, Google Apps will turn into a real business as Google begins charging corporations a subscription fee amounting to a few dollars per person per month. ..... Microsoft's stated aim to extend its Office franchise to the Web—suggests that before long these two titans of tech will be battling over many of the same corporate customers. .... a dawning era in corporate computing: software delivered as a service over the Internet, so it's accessible anywhere there is a Web browser handy. This time consumers are leading the way as they flock to Web-based applications such as e-mail, chat, and phone services like eBay Inc.'s (EBAY ) Skype Technologies ..... As traditional corporate software has grown complex and expensive to maintain, Web services are getting more capable and reliable every year. "For the first time, consumer-grade applications are good enough that they can be used by enterprises" .... Arizona State University plans to switch most of its 65,000 students to Gmail, Google Calendar, and a customized "start page" this month. ..... Corporate users, accustomed to feature-rich applications from the likes of Microsoft and IBM (IBM ), are more demanding than consumers. ..... Google got a taste last October when it switched over most of its own employees, who mainly had used Microsoft Outlook e-mail and Oracle Corp.'s (ORCL ) calendar program, to Gmail and Google Calendar. Some features on the old systems that Googlers considered crucial—such as a way to schedule all those company-paid massages—weren't available on the new system. In all, employees shot back more than 1,000 requests for new features in the first two weeks after the changeover. ........ Office Live, which offers Web-based e-mail, calendar, and other services in packages ranging from free to $39.95 a month for a single business. Some 250,000 small businesses use it, compared with tens of thousands using Google Apps ...... Zimbra Inc. boasts more than 6 million e-mail boxes at 1,300 paying customers.
Rivals Say HP Is Using Hardball Tactics Cheaper store-brand inkjet printer cartridges have come on strong recently and now make up about a quarter of the market for replacement cartridges in the U.S. ..... those replacement cartridges typically sell for 10% to 15% less than HP's ...... "The speculation is that [Staples] reached a deal with HP and got increased margin and soft money for marketing"
GM: Learning the Ropes in Russia They created GM-Avtovaz, a $340 million joint venture based near the main Avtovaz factory in Togliatti. The thinking was that partnership with Avtovaz would give GM an inside track on penetrating the Russian market and help GM keep costs down by sourcing cheap components from Avtovaz. In turn, Avtovaz expected that GM would help provide management know-how, technology, and access to export markets. ...... Russian consumers proved to be just as discerning as Westerners when it comes to insisting on the latest technology. ..... tensions between the two partners erupted into open conflict in early 2006, when Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms-export agency, took over Avtovaz and brought in new managers. Avtovaz suddenly stopped supplying engines and other components to the venture, accusing GM of underpaying for parts. ...... Ford (F), now the best-selling foreign car brand in Russia .... The betting is that GM will do better on its own, rather than entangled with a Russian partner.
Davos Ponders a U.S.-Iran War a confab devoted to the peaceful advances of globalization. .... an agenda devoted to the broad topics of peaceful reform was quickly overshadowed by the idea that the Bush Administration would start a war against the mullah-dominated regime of Tehran .... a U.S.-Iran conflict would set the clock back for the whole area. "Can we afford another war?" asked Mubarak. "Of course not. All the genies would come out of the bottle." ...... the huge illiteracy rate in the region—some 70 million lack basic reading and writing skills. Such a deficit he suggested, was responsible for the radicalization of certain elements in the region, especially in Iraq—many Iraqis lacked the tools to form a rounded, accurate worldview. ..... moderates in the Arab world often were mistaken by Americans as being moderate out of sympathy with the U.S. Not true: "We're moderates for the sake of our country .... That world right now is deeply worried about another American war in its midst.
What To Expect At Davos 23 different risks, such as global warming, terrorism, oil price shocks, a hard landing for China, and so on. ..... 2,400 people—half business, half other stakeholders in the global society, including 25 heads of state ..... everywhere in society and business, the power is moving from the center to the periphery. Vertical command-and-control structures are being eroded and replaced by communities and different platforms. We are moving into the Web 2.0 world, and this has tremendous implications on the national level and on business models. .... If we don't discuss and solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the world will look very different in 10 years.
Selling Globalization at Davos while the thousands of luminaries gathered in this alpine bubble share a common belief in the benefits of globalization, they are also aware that it enjoys far less support among ordinary citizens. ...... rising signs of anti-globalization—ranging from the potential failure of the Doha round of trade talks to concerns that countries may erect trade barriers to protect jobs and markets. ...... How to convince a wary public that the risks of globalization are outweighed by the economic benefits .... "We have to stop using abstract concepts such as GDP growth and explain globalization instead in terms such as job creation, prices, and taxes," Davis said. Most people, he explained, don't realize that the same forces pulling jobs offshore also drive down prices for the goods they buy at the local superstore. ...... acknowledge the arguments of globalization opponents and take concrete steps to address their legitimate concerns ..... a national health-care system. .... retraining programs for displaced workers. .... globalization means customizing its products for different markets, putting staff on the ground all over the world, and investing deeply in local communities. ...... Unilever, for instance, is famous for selling products such as shampoo and laundry soap in tiny packets that cost people of limited means only pennies. "This is business, not philanthropy, and we make lots of money from it," Cescau said. At the same time, the company supports programs such as Project Shakti, which teaches poor women in rural India about nutrition and hygiene. ........ one reason globalization isn't more appealing is that it demands more work and greater risk-taking from everybody—including people in emerging economies .... local providers who previously enjoyed a cozy local market may suddenly face increased competition—or even ruin—from a deep-pocketed multinational that moves into the market. ...... globalization has victims on all sides ...... globalization also has beneficiaries on all sides ..... corporate social responsibility .... it has to be built into each corporation's fundamental strategy. "You can't have a healthy company without a healthy community." ...... Properly executed, globalization also creates huge opportunity. "Having a global market to serve is an incentive to innovate more," noted Columbia University professor and economist Joseph Stiglitz. ...... the learning that takes place when people from around the world work together. ..... India's famous "frugal engineering" culture ...... In today's car industry, knowing how to design a cheap car is an invaluable skill
The Transformation of Turkey Hrant Dink, the outspoken editor of Turkey's main Turkish and Armenian-language newspaper, was gunned down. ..... Tens of thousands of Turks have demonstrated to condemn the murder and demand justice. ...... the power of networks to promote change, open closed societies, and cross cultural barriers. ..... "Turkey has become very open, very fast." ..... From a single state-owned TV station, more than 300 stations have emerged. Eleven hundred radio channels crowd the airwaves. Every private school is now linked to the Internet, and the government is distributing 400,000 PCs to schoolchildren. ..... Turkish courts are now basing more of their own rulings on the corpus of judgments found in EU law books. ...... Under the present government, Turkey has opened its economy to a surprising degree. ...... Maybe globalization can help Turkey finish its transformation.Foreign direct investment has zoomed from $1 billion to $18 billion. GDP growth has averaged 7%—not quite in China's league, but close. .... Ford has invested hundreds of millions in auto plants in Turkey—and ended up with one of its most productive facilities anywhere. .... Toyota, Honda, Electrolux—multinationals are flocking to the country to benefit from workers that cost $500 a month, universities that churn out engineers, and managers who grasp the concept of quality.
Merkel Calls for Stronger U.S.-EU Ties After a rocky start, the German Chancellor has achieved international respect on the back of a solid domestic economic rebound. ...... problems ranging from trade barriers and economic imbalances to energy and climate change. ..... a call for Europe to strengthen its historic "transatlantic" relationship with the U.S. This is perhaps indicative of her growing concern over Russia's growing clout. Moscow has taken to using its oil and gas riches as a tool to punish wayward neighbors and exert greater influence over policymaking in Western Europe. ....... Merkel began by identifying what she said have been the three seminal global events of the last two decades: the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent reintegration of the Eastern bloc countries into the West; the technology boom, exemplified by the global Internet explosion; and the rise of China and India from "static, controlled economies to active participants on the global stage." She urged that their economic power be matched by participation in global policymaking. ....... Merkel's prescription for Europe includes continuing integration, such as an additional 25% reduction in the cost of internal trade within the bloc over the next decade. ...... reinvigorate the process of enacting a new European constitution. ..... the need to mitigate capital market risks with adequate protections. A particular source of concern is hedge funds, which the Chancellor called a "headache" in the struggle to balance risk and equity. ...... Western Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies.
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Is Dell Too Big For Michael Dell? BusinessWeek "I think you're going to see a more streamlined organization, with a much clearer strategy." .... Dell doesn't have the innovation DNA of an Apple or even an HP ..... According to a Jan. 30 study done by Goldman Sachs (GS), Dell is losing share in business spending for PCs. (Hewlett-Packard is also losing share of spending, while Lenovo (LNVGY) and Apple are gaining.) .... "I'm not hiring a COO or a CEO," Dell says. "I'm going to be the CEO for the next several years." He adds: "We're going to fix this business."
Michael Dell In Charge, "Period" Kevin is a great friend of mine, and he did a fantastic job for the company. But that's done ..... "Having a clear, unified strategy and focus and organization is what the company needs. ..... I'm a decisive guy, and we're moving fast. .... Dell's core strengths historically will be its core strengths in the future.
BusinessWeek.com, 11/9/06, "Dell Stands By His Man"
Google's Brand New Appeal More than ever, it's got the entire advertising world in its sights. And this year, Google will come out with guns blazing. ..... now accounts for about a quarter of all online advertising ...... many advertisers are starting to use search ads for branding, like more traditional ads. .... company aims to offer a "complete sales and marketing platform for all advertisers ..... Volvo, Procter & Gamble (PG), and OfficeMax (OMX) all placed image and video ads on Google's networks.

Michael Dell

Larry Ellison

Google Books: Primitive

Google Scholar
Google Books

Have you tried to go through the books? They have tried their best to give you the "book" experience. You turn over the page. The dirty white look is there. The whole nine yards.

I understand these are books only available in print format. So you are doing the best you can, fine. But if you can scan the words, maybe you can present them like regular webpages.

Or maybe have two versions. One would be what you have. Another would be for new authors, new books. Say you are an author, and you wrote a college textbook for Physics 101. You don't want to go to any publisher. Instead you want it directly published online. Instead of a blog, you have a book. So the presentation will have to be different. I mean, you can tweak the current blog templates, and you can alread do that, but it is still too tech-heavy, not still author friendly.

An author should be able to sign up and publish easy. The process should be as simple as possible, with as few steps as possible. The difference between Geocities and Blogger is not that much, technically speaking, but for the average user it is huge. Similarly, Google Books should offer an option that makes it super easy for authors to go online on a lookout for a global audience.

The end products should look like a webpage, navigable, searchable, with ads that make money for authors. Google should perhaps tweak its ad offerings to make it better for book authors, perhaps a 70-30 split in favor of the author.



You could take the book reading experience to a whole different level. If you are a reader who is signed in, you should be able to highlight through the books, online. You should be able to save books in your account, books you might want to read later, you should be able to bookmark to the point you have read.

Is there technology that would make it not possible to copy more than 100 words at a time? Or give the authors the option to turn off the copy feature altogether?

The technology is already there. We just got to make the leap.

Produce books that look like webpages, not like old books. Make navigation webby, not bookey. Let new authors bypass the whole publishing mechanism. Let them have total control. Not all will be read as widely, but let anyone publish.

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Google’s book-scanning efforts trigger philosophical debate Boston Herald, United States an alternative project promising better online access to the world’s books, art and historical documents. .... A splinter group called the Open Content Alliance favors a less restrictive approach to prevent mankind’s accumulated knowledge from being controlled by a commercial entity ....... the Open Content Alliance will not scan copyrighted content unless it receives the permission of the copyright owner. Most of the roughly 100,000 books that the alliance has scanned so far are works whose copyrights have expired. ..... The company will only acknowledge that it is scanning more than 3,000 books per day - a rate that translates into more than 1 million annually. Google also is footing a bill expected to exceed $100 million to make the digital copies - a commitment that appeals to many libraries. ...... None of Google’s contracts prevent participating libraries from making separate scanning arrangements with other organizations ..... Despite its ongoing support for the Open Content Alliance, Microsoft earlier this month launched a book-scanning project to compete with Google. ....... All but one of the libraries contributing content to Google so far are part of universities. They are: Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Oxford, California, Virginia, Wisconsin-Madison, and Complutense of Madrid. The New York Public Library also is relying on Google to scan some of its books.
Google's book-scanning efforts trigger philosophical debate Hindu
Google, splinter group face-off on e-books Business Standard
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Facial Recognition Software to Find Familiar Faces GameSHOUT
New firm aims to be a Google for photos CNNMoney.com
Face Recognition Coming to Image Searching Digitaltrends.com
Internet Archive expands book digitizing effort Computerworld, MA
Google Book-Scanning Efforts Spark Debate Washington Post, United States
Google’s e-Book Project Sees Challenge SDA Asia Magazine, Singapore
Google Book-Scanning Debate Heats Up Redmondmag.com, CA