Mike Bloomberg, Amit Gupta

Image via WikipediaI think I first heard about it from Anu Shukla on Facebook.

Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising
I Just Became Friends With Anu Shukla
The Highlight Of My Internet Week

I am like, I know Anu Shukla, but I don't know the guy. I know of him, but I don't know him. There are many people in the NY tech ecosystem that I know of, but don't know. On the various social media platforms when you follow the people you know you end up coming across people that you don't know but you "see" so often that you end up kinda sorta knowing them. Plus, it is only a few clicks to getting to know the outlines of someone's life online, especially of those in the tech space. I learned about the guy in one paragraph. Small world.

But I am like, the guy looks fine, he is healthy. And there are a bunch of Indians out there. He will find his match. If we Indians have one thing, it is us. There are only like a billion of us.

And then the guy started popping up a few places. People were reblogging his blog post on Tumblr. The first time I saw it it had been reblogged over 6,000 times. And I am thinking, he must have already found his match.

I saw him a few different places, at a few different updates. Then I saw him in Charlie O'Donnell's events newsletter that I like to skim through on Monday mornings.

Inviting Charlie O'Donnell To A Pillow Fight
Charlie O'Donnell At His Inspiring Best
Charlie Bit My Finger

Then Tikva Morawati announced the name at Ignite NYC.

I felt shadowed.

How do all these people know I am Indian? I felt targeted. Wherever I went offline and online, the name Amit Gupta followed me.

The guy even shares last names with my childhood best friend: Gupta.

And then it happened all over again at the New York Tech MeetUp. Because Mike Bloomberg showed up - big, big surprise - and although I am pretty sure it was someone else who made the Amit Gupta - I don't even know the guy - announcement, I keep thinking that guy was a stand in, Mike Bloomberg himself made the announcement. I mean, this guy rules the city, right?

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I am like, okay Mayor, I am showing up for the party Friday. I will do the cotton swab thing.

But what if I win the lottery? Don't you have to go under the knife or something? I was a biology major at high school. I know bone marrow is not a skin level thing. Do they use antiseptics and anesthetics these days? Because back in the days they didn't. I mean, for a guy who has never donated blood.



I'd rather Nihal Mehta went under the knife. One of the places I learned about this was also from his tweet.

Nihal Mehta: No Sellout
Nihal Mehta: Being Mysterious About Local Response

Truth be told, from minute one I have been thinking, this thing needs to be outsourced to India. If it is a one in 20,000 thing, divide a billion by 20,000 and this Gupta dude - who I do not know - ends up with more lives than a cat.

New Work City
412 Broadway, Floor 2
New York, 10013

Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:30 PM (ET)

Brown bones? This event was put together by some white guy. You can tell.

I guess I am going. Thank Mike Bloomberg.

Amit Gupta: Scared Shitless.

Happy Birthday Amitabh

Nexus Prime: A Birthday Gift To Me?
Tweet 1, Tweet 2

Events: Week Of October 10

Monday, October 10
6:30-10:00pm Ignite NYC 13
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, 811 7th Avenue, The Metropolitan Ballroom, Second Floor
B/D/E 7th Ave

7:00-9:00pm Google Presents: HTML5 and Modern Web Apps Overview
New Work City, 412 Broadway, Floor 2

Tuesday, October 11
7:00pm NY Tech Meetup
NYU Skirball Center, 566 Laguardia Pl
E/F to West 4th

Wednesday, October 12
5:30pm Web 2.0 Expo Startup Showcase
Central Park West

Thursday, October 13
6:00pm-9:00pm ER Accelerator Happy Hour
Connolly's NYC, 121 West 45th Street, 3rd Floor

Friday, October 14
5:00-6:30pm South Asian Journalists Association: Meet Imran Khan & Bobby Ghosh
Columbia Journalism School
Lecture Hall, one flight up from the lobby
116th Street & Broadway (#1 subway to 116th St stop)

9:30pm Amit Gupta Event
New Work City
412 Broadway, Floor 2

tyDi Featuring Tania Zygar: Vanilla

My Take On AirTime

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeSean Parker's AirTime Could Net Him Tens Of Billions

I have not read up on it much, frankly there is not much to read about, not much has come out. So some of what I am going to say is based on my own thoughts on the space.

(1) It has to be video. It can't be audio, and it can't be photos. Global broadband will get there.

(2) It has to feel like you got into a private plane to fly around the world.

(3) I should have the option to make myself unavailable, and when I am busy talking to someone already, I am unavailable by default.

(4) I should have the option to flag and block people. A person/account flagged/blocked by a certain number of people should have their account reviewed, possibly suspended. Could be 100 blocks. The person being blocked should get a count of how many times it has happened.

(5) Random connections has to be the starting point of the experience. No real names, no real identities. If people want to wear masks, fine. Their choice.

(6) The "next" button is key to the idea of random connections.

(7) When trying to find people to talk to I should have the option to specify geographical area of interest, language preference (or lack thereof), and topic of interest. That would still be random connections.

(8) If both parties to a talk give each other a thumbs up they should have the option to connect again at a later time of their choosing through the service itself.

(9) This need not be a two person thing. People should have the option to engage in five or 10 people talks. Still random. Group talks on a shared topic might be more fun than a two person talk.

(10) The option to "friend" a stranger after a certain number of successful conversations.

(11) How would you define the social graph in this space? That is very much an open question.

(12) Keep it simple starting out.