The impending Age Of Abundance was prophecied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Bloggers' Block For Fred Wilson: 10 Blocks Of Emergency
Image via WikipediaI learned the top VC blogger in the world has hit some kind of a bloggers' block. That is an emergency situation, people. I am declaring an emergency for 10 blocks in every direction from Union Square. All startups in the vicinity, please take note. You are being urged to participate in the comments section here. If you don't, the emergency is not going to be lifted. And you are going to be deprived of your daily staple of blog posts from Fred Wilson. Think about that.
Not Rich Yet
Image via WikipediaI am not rich yet, and it really, really bothers me. For me it is about the power. The power to run and grow a corporate organization. The power to do good. The power to go after the stated mission of curing poverty.
Unless you yourself can create serious wealth, how can you claim you are in the curing poverty business?
Democracy + Education + The Market = Wonderful Things.
Microcredit is only a small part of microfinance. Microfinance is only a small part of the many tools needed for the War On Poverty.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wordpress For Mobile App Creation
Image via WikipediaReadWriteWeb: Like WordPress for Mobile App Creation: Cabana is a Service to Watch: Is it possible for a visual drag-and-drop mobile app creation tool to deliver a sophisticated product? ..... Drag and drop addition of features like a camera, check-ins on services like Gowalla or Foursquare, integration of the Instagram photo API and many more things are possible. ..... There is a clear demand for this kind of light app publishing technologyThis is the future people. Until the mobile web attains the same levels as the big screen web, we will need apps. And just like every offline business needs its own specific website, the mobile phone app has become the equivalent of the website on the big screen web. And the only way to meet that demand would be through services like this that promise to take the wizardry out of mobile app creation. Anyone who can drag and drop should be able to build an app.
Michael Yavonditte: An Exemplary Entrepreneur/Investor
If you don't have a Twitter handle, you are not in tech, period. You do not exist. You are a figment of my imagination. And a Twitter handle is so much easier to give out. And your Twitter page should allow for more in depth getting to know. Hashable knows all this.
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Image via CrunchBaseTweet 5
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Image via CrunchBaseTweet 5Tweet 6
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Social Media Is For Real
I am not getting this. I think you have to be global at many levels to truly appreciate social media. I don't feel any kind of a "multiple edentity disorder." Social media makes me whole. Minus social media I feel all too fragmented.
I was born in India. I grew up in Nepal next door, attended high school in Kathmandu, not my hometown, came to America for college at a time when I could not have told you the cultural differences between Kentucky and California. A one year crash course in Kentucky's social conservatism cured me of that fast.
Cultural differences are for real. As of today I don't give two hoots - absolutely don't care - about anybody's birthday, not mine, not anyone else's. That does not make me an uncaring person. That means I grew up in a culture that celebrates festivals, not birthdays. They say every single day in Nepal somewhere a festival is being celebrated.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Advantage India, Disadvantage India
Image via WikipediaI first thought in terms of India. An Indian does not need to look far and wide to find poverty. It's right there. It's right there in the backyard. India has the vast majority of the dollar a day, two dollars a day people. I'd start out by knowing the culture. I'd know the language. And when I say that I mean to say English also, not just Hindi, not just Maithili and Bhojpuri. India is the biggest English speaking country in the world.
And there is the size. I could take the company IPO based just on Bihar. Bihar alone is that big. It would make sense to polish the basic business model in Bihar and then take it to Africa, rather than otherwise.
India is a vibrant democracy, the biggest in the world.
Top Discussion At A Top LinkedIn Microfinance Group
Image via WikipediaA discussion I started a week ago (and kinda forgot about) at a LinkedIn group with over 1200 members has become the top discussion at that group. The group is Microfinance Focus. This activity has made me take a serious look at LinkedIn for the first time. This thing is working, yo. This has also made me look at India all over again. India was the country I started with in terms of where I wanted to go. But I was advised that the Indian government makes it very hard to bring money into the country. It is much better to start with some middle income country in Latin America. So I am thinking Costa Rica, more recently Paraguay. Much more recently I have been thinking Kenya. But I have had this gnawing feeling that a Bihari needs to be thinking Bihar.
Slumdog Millionaire: A Movie About My People
Rootlessness And The City
Image by joiseyshowaa via FlickrI was born in India. I grew up in Nepal next door. I came to America for college. When I was applying for colleges while in Nepal, I did not have a favorite college in mind. I liked all sorts of colleges. Every prospectus I picked up I absolutely fell in love with. Now I realize what I was really applying for back then was to get into New York City. People who go to all those colleges all end up in New York City. I have something akin to a PhD in race relations. There is the conscious level of the mind, the subconscious level, and there's deeper stuff. Racial identity can inhabit the mind at several levels. That's what makes a white guy high school drop out detain the top movie star in India for an hour at the New Jersey airport. Your name is Khan? You must be a terrorist.
Libya On My Mind, Libya On Your Mind
Image via WikipediaRight now is a great time to follow me on Twitter. I have been reading up on the Arab democracy movements and sharing the links with abandon. I have also been blogging. My blog posts automatically show up in my Twitter stream. 2011 is 1989. This is big, this is historic. This will be a year to remember. Nothing like this has happened in Arab history ever before.
I am thinking Libya. I am thinking Saudi Arabia. Heck, I am thinking China, and I am thinking Burma.
Pray for Libya. Meditate for Libya. Every ounce of mental energy counts. It does not matter where you are. People braving the streets deserve to be in your thoughts.
And, yes, Iran's time will come all over again. 2009 was not a wasted year. That was dress rehearsal.
Two Events: Global Impact With Social Media, Digital Dumbo
So I am doing the Monday morning thing of opening up the email from Charlie O'Donnell. His weekly events newsletter is the best thing Charlie ever did.
Charlie Bit My Finger
Charlie Bit My Finger
Charlie O'Donnell At His Inspiring Best
The Most Popular Dish In New York: Shake Shack Burger, Madison Square Park
General Assembly: Singing Praises
The top commenter at the blog This Is Going To Be Big has been blocked from leaving comments at the blog. It happened around FourSquare Day last year. I gladly shook Charlie's hand at the FourSquare Day Party completely unaware he had gone ahead and blocked me at his blog not long before that.
Image via Wikipedia"Life is unfair."
- JFK
No URL Bar: Big Change
Image via WikipediaConceivably Tech: Google May Kill Chrome URL Bar: he elimination of the URL bar, which could be the most significant UI change to the web browser since its invention. ...... aim to increase the viewable space for web and application content. ...... Chrome led the pace, but it is IE9, which has the most efficient UI at this time, in terms of available pixels to web content. ...... The classic navigation version, compact navigation, sidetab navigation as well as a touchscreen version. ...... The compact navigation model would only have one line and place the navigation buttons, a search button, tabs and menus next to each other. The URL bar is gone and the URL of each tab is not visible at all times, but only displayed when a page is loading and when a tab is selected. ...... allow users to open multiple Chrome windows and apply different users to them. For example, if you use multiple Google accounts, you have to sign out/sign in between different accounts. Via multiple profile support you will be able to be signed into different accounts in parallel and use them at the same time – in different browser windows. ........ future Chrome windows will show the Google account name not just in the window when you are on a Google page, but in the browser windows itself next to the window control buttons minimize/maximize/close. ....... If a user closes all Chrome windows and the reopens a window, then the window will assume the identity of the most recently closed window. If a user closes three windows with three different identities and the reopens three windows, the windows would assume the identity of the three identities againIt is great to see Google want to keep innovating in the browser space. Having more real estate when you are browsing helps. Being able to access multiple Google accounts is a big one. It is not unusual for people to have a private Gmail account and also a work account on the Gmail platform these days.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Microfinance: No Substitute For Good Governance
Image via WikipediaDemocracy is basic. I am a firm believer in democracy. The year a country becomes a modern democracy is year one in that country's life. Lack of democracy, bad governance, massive corruption, and civil war are situations that are not within the domain of the microfinance industry. Basic good governance is critical for the microfinance industry to have a playing field where it can start performing, it can start to lift people out of poverty in large numbers. There is plenty of diversity within the microfinance industry. There are many right ways. And microfinance is not the only tool with which to cure poverty. China has lifted more people out of poverty the past few decades than any other country, and it does not even allow MFIs to come in.
Singularity: I Am Not Convinced
Image via WikipediaTime: 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal: Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away...... computers are getting faster faster ...... Maybe we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life spans indefinitely. Maybe we'll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us...... even though it sounds like science fiction, it isn't, no more than a weather forecast is science fiction ....... it will be the most important thing to happen to human beings since the invention of language...... He holds 39 patents and 19 honorary doctorates. In 1999 President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Technology...... The Singularity Is Near, which was a best seller when it came out in 2005 ..... Bill Gates has called him "the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence." ..... In real life, the transcendent man is an unimposing figure who could pass for Woody Allen's even nerdier younger brother. Kurzweil grew up in Queens, N.Y....... someone who gives 60 public lectures a year..... technological progress happens exponentially, not linearly. ....... Exponential curves start slowly, then rocket skyward toward infinity....... We will successfully reverse-engineer the human brain by the mid-2020s. By the end of that decade, computers will be capable of human-level intelligence. ...... 2045 .... the quantity of artificial intelligence created will be about a billion times the sum of all
Image via Wikipediathe human intelligence that exists today....... Once you decide to take the Singularity seriously, you will find that you have become part of a small but intense and globally distributed hive of like-minded thinkers known as Singularitarians. ....... They think in terms of deep time, they believe in the power of technology to shape history, they have little interest in the conventional wisdom about anything, and they cannot believe you're walking around living your life and watching TV as if the artificial-intelligence revolution were not about to erupt and change absolutely everything........ When you enter their mind-space you pass through an extreme gradient in worldview, a hard ontological shear that separates Singularitarians from the common run of humanity. Expect turbulence....... Proponents of seasteading — the practice, so far mostly theoretical, of establishing politically autonomous floating communities in international waters ........ After artificial intelligence, the most talked-about topic at the 2010 summit was life extension. Biological boundaries that most people think of as permanent and inevitable Singularitarians see as merely intractable but solvable problems. Death is one of them. Old age is an illness like any other, and what do you do with illnesses? You cure them. ....... The mice didn't just get better; they got younger....... damage can be repaired periodically. This is why we have vintage cars. ...... Kurzweil has published two books on his own approach to life extension, which involves taking up to 200 pills and supplements a day. He says his diabetes is essentially cured, and although he's 62 years old from a chronological perspective, he estimates that his biological age is about 20 years younger....... Once hyper-intelligent artificial intelligences arise, armed with advanced nanotechnology, they'll really be able to wrestle with the vastly complex, systemic problems associated with aging in humans....... t many people who are alive today will wind up being functionally immortal....... People invested a lot of personal effort into certain philosophies dealing with the issue of life and death. I mean, that's the major reason we have religion." ........ strong AI or artificial general intelligence, doesn't exist yet. ..... there are things going on in our brains that can't be duplicated electronically no matter how many MIPS you throw at them. The neurochemical architecture that generates the ephemeral chaos we know as human consciousness may just be too complex and analog to replicate in digital silicon...... Multiple biochemical processes create chemical modifications of protein molecules, further diversified by association with distinct structures at defined locations of a cell. The resulting combinatorial explosion of states endows living systems with an almost infinite capacity to store information regarding past and present conditions and a unique capacity to prepare for future events." That makes the ones and zeros that computers trade in look pretty crude. ...... introducing a superior life-form into your own biosphere is a basic Darwinian error....... Markram has said that he hopes to have a complete virtual human brain up and running in 10 years ..... In Kurzweil's future, biotechnology and nanotechnology give us the power to manipulate our bodies and the world around us at will, at the molecular level.
Cover via AmazonProgress hyperaccelerates, and every hour brings a century's worth of scientific breakthroughs. We ditch Darwin and take charge of our own evolution. The human genome becomes just so much code to be bug-tested and optimized and, if necessary, rewritten. Indefinite life extension becomes a reality; people die only if they choose to. Death loses its sting once and for all. Kurzweil hopes to bring his dead father back to life...... Within a matter of centuries, human intelligence will have re-engineered and saturated all the matter in the universe. ....... There are more than 2,000 robots fighting in Afghanistan alongside the human troops...... Nothing gets old as fast as the future...... Singularitarianism is grounded in the idea that change is real and that humanity is in charge of its own fate and that history might not be as simple as one damn thing after another.
I could run at two miles per hour. I could run at three miles per hour. If you extrapolate that then I should be able to run at 60 miles per hour. But I don't think that is happening.
I have not read enough on the topic, I have not read much at all. So these are my first impressions.
Besides my idea of singularity is end of poverty, a total spread of democracy, universal broadband, things like that.
Larry Wants To Become A Household Name
Image via WikipediaLarry Ellison for a brief period became the richest person in the world, and he very much continues to be one of the richest. But he never became a household name like Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg, for that matter. If it is any solace to him, the two Google founders or Eric Schmidt did not become household names either. The thing about Oracle is the largest database company in the world does background work. Windows is in your face. But the software that processes your credit card transactions stays out of sight.
When Vinod Khosla Took A Break From Tweeting
I sent out a tweet to Vinod Khosla. Chances are he never saw it. But for a guy who had been tweeting near daily to that point took two weeks off after that. That is not a good sign.
Alexa Is Paperless (5)
Alexa Is Paperless (1)
Alexa Is Paperless (2)
Alexa Is Paperless (3)
Alexa Is Paperless (4)
City Bakery After PaperlessPost
Dumbo And Union Square
Friday 2 PM On: PaperlessPost.com
Alexa's PaperlessPost
Alexa Hirschfeld: CNN 2010 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs
Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever
Friday, February 18, 2011
Alexa Is Paperless (4)
Alexa Is Paperless (1)
Alexa Is Paperless (2)
Alexa Is Paperless (3)
Alexa says she is a very internal person. As in, she does not attend many events. She stays focused on her customers and her team, and that right there is more than a full time commitment. The media and pundits are lagging indicators. They are usually three months behind. It is so much more productive to get on the phone with a customer who might feel compelled to pick up the phone.
Alexa Is Paperless (3)
Alexa Is Paperless (1)
Alexa Is Paperless (2)
Deploying the basic product meant people started sending cards out to people in their network. Everyone who received the cards were potential new users. Many of them did come along as users. And when these new users sent out cards, the circle only widened.
Alexa Is Paperless (2)
Alexa Is Paperless (1)
Alexa grew up in New York City. She attended Harvard. She was at CBS for two years after college. She did not find the medium - television - all that interesting. Everything had already been figured out. The idea for the company first came from her brother who is a cofounder. I don't know of another brother sister cofounding team to a tech startup.
She thinks the ability to appreciate what people bring to the table is key. She thinks it is important to know what she does not know. Every wanna be leader pays lip service to the team concept, but Alexa means it.
Alexa Is Paperless (1)
I managed to show up on time. I simply ran after I got out of the train. I was on time. I showed up at 2 PM. At first I went into the wrong building. I was supposed to show up at 151, but I walked into 115. The place did not have an elevator, and I am having thoughts of walking up nine flights of stairs. I will definitely be late, I thought. Then I realized I got the house number wrong. I got out quick. And I ran. I showed up. On time.
I took an immediate liking to Alexa's new office. This would be my idea of a great office space. There was this big, open space in the middle. There were work tables. People ended up facing each other, although at some distance. There were unused work spaces. Obviously Alexa had expansion plans.
I took an immediate liking to Alexa's new office. This would be my idea of a great office space. There was this big, open space in the middle. There were work tables. People ended up facing each other, although at some distance. There were unused work spaces. Obviously Alexa had expansion plans.
Microfinance, Not Just Microcredit
Image via WikipediaOne of the major lessons the microfinance industry has learned over the decades is that the poor need more than microcredit. They need a broad swath of financial services. As soon as they start a business, they want to be able to open up a savings account with you. They want to be able to make easy payments. They want to be able to receive money from relatives who might have gone to some distant city or country.
And you have to offer the whole package deal. Although I do think microcredit continues to be the crown jewel of microfinance. But people don't just wear jewelry. They also like to wear clothes, also undergarments perhaps.
Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, FoodSpotting: Sharks
Image via CrunchBaseI asked a question at the final event during Social Media Week I attended. Microsoft tried to buy or bury Google. "My question is for the FourSquare guy. Google tried to buy or bury Facebook. Facebook tried to buy or bury FourSquare." Well, Facebook tried to buy or bury Twitter first. "But FourSquare instead has attempted integration with FoodSpotting. And that is right by the market, right by the consumer, right by FourSquare, and right by FoodSpotting. Where did that wisdom come from? What made you want to do the right thing?"
And yesterday news was that Google was attempting a much deeper integration of Twitter in its search results. Integration is key. Facebook should similarly attempt deep integration with web properties like FoodSpotting. And there are going to be many, many players in that space. FoodSpotting has occupied but one vertical.
MacBook: First Impressions
Image via WikipediaIt is cute. The aesthetics are obvious. Somebody put some love into making this thing. It does not crash. It holds steady.
How do you do right click on this thing? I had to google that up.
How do you take a screen shot? I had to google that up. You actually get to hear the camera click sound.
And the speaker is great. This is a huge differential.
Toshiba Satellite To Macbook To Chrome Notebook
City Bakery After PaperlessPost
Image by Sifu Renka via FlickrLarry EllisonI am dropping by the PaperlessPost offices this afternoon. I will be there for about two hours, maybe two and a half. The idea is to talk to Alexa for about 60 to 90 minutes, then talk to some of her key people for 10 to 15 minutes each.
Then I am hoping to walk over to City Bakery to tidy up my papers and collect my thoughts, jot down some additional notes on my own. 3 West 18th Street.
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge
I think I might end up doing a half dozen posts on this gang. This is the fourth post on Alexa already. I think I will have done 10 or more by the time I am through.
Dumbo And Union Square
Image via WikipediaI am headed to Union Square Friday afternoon to spend a few hours with the PaperlessPost team and its fearless leader Alexa Herschfeld. I had a voice mail from her Wednesday and Google Voice had transcribed her name as Celexa Ourselves. Not good, Google Voice, not good. And to me it is feeling like I am headed to Dumbo. Dumbo and Union Square are two places in town that have tech clusters. There are a whole bunch of tech startups congregated in those two locales.
If there are other such clusters in the city, I am not aware of them as of yet. I am surprised there are not similar clusters in Williamsburg and Chinatown. I know of at least one major tech company that is based out of Chinatown, but I don't think you would call that a cluster.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Toshiba Satellite To Macbook To Chrome Notebook
Image via WikipediaOn my grand journey to the Chrome Notebook, I have decided to give the Macbook a try for a few days. Then it is Chrome Notebook all the time for me. The switch is going to be total. There is just something about the Chrome browser. I am on a Macbook right now. But not for long. My Chrome Notebook is on the way. I have an email directly from Google.
I have a message for you MacBook users. The thing about the Chrome Notebook is you can't buy it out there in the market. It just does not exist. It is too futuristic to hit the ground right now. It is too cutting edge.
You are going to have to wait for about, ummm, six months. Sorry. Life is unfair. You are just going to have to wait. There are some things money can't buy. Right now a Chrome Notebook is one of them.
Barack Is Going To Need Me All Over Again
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeBarack is going to need me all over again during his re-election bid, and I am going to be there for him. Barack needed me in his run for the presidency. And he is going to need me all over again. I will be there for him in his hour of need. I maintain the hunger of someone who was forced to skip the victory parties of June 2008 and November 2008, and felt Inauguration 2009 simply pass him by. I missed the celebrations. I stayed hungry.
I am going to bring that hunger to the table for Barack all over again.
Having Kenya And Chinatown Thoughts
Image via WikipediaMy startup is not even officially launched yet, and we already just went through a major reorganization. Some early people parted ways. I am blaming it on too much partying. A lot of early Facebook people left saying it is not easy to have a friend for boss. I am now in touch with a major social media talent.
"The best people you can recruit are already working for someone else."
- Sam Walton
I started out with India thoughts. I got nudged towards Latin America. You have to start out in a middle income country first was the suggestion. I said okay. But now, with the reorganization, I got a clean slate all over again. And I find myself thinking Kenya.
Revolutionary Poverty Alleviation
Image via WikipediaThere are natural lakes, and there are man made lakes. Well, all poverty is man made. Poverty does not have to exist. I once heard a billionaire say there is enough marble just in West Virginia to build a mansion for every family on earth, but we have not reached that organization level yet as humanity. We keep getting in each other's way.
My industry - microfinance - has been a failure to date. Every year that the industry has existed, the number of poor people on the planet has gone up. That is failure.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I Must Really Like Movies
Super Bowl reminded me of the Al Pacino movie Any Given Sunday. Valentine's Day reminded me of the movie The English Patient. I must really like movies.
These two are two of the very best movies out there.
The English Patient stands out. It is one of the very best movies in its genre, if not the best. There are a few scenes - one in particular, the thimble scene - that make me cry. The opening act is a class act. Ugh, that music.
The EnglishPatient
Looking For A Super Bowl Watch Party To Go To
These two are two of the very best movies out there.
The English Patient stands out. It is one of the very best movies in its genre, if not the best. There are a few scenes - one in particular, the thimble scene - that make me cry. The opening act is a class act. Ugh, that music.
The EnglishPatient
Looking For A Super Bowl Watch Party To Go To
Just Found Out Mike Hudack Is Also A High School Dropout
Dropping out of high school is obviously not enough. You also have to go ahead and create a Blip.TV or, in David Karp's case, a Tumblr. But I just now found out Mike Hudack is a high school dropout. Wow.
I knew the name for a while. And I had followed him on Tumblr a while. I had seen him in a video online, he was on some kind of a panel. He came across as a man to watch. There is this raw intensity an entrepreneur throws out like a halo. This guy definitely had it.
Cheaper iPhone: Way To Go
Image via CrunchBaseForbes: Apple: Cheaper iPhone Could Expand Addressable Market By 6x: expand distribution to more carriers .... add the 8 largest carriers that do not currently offer the iPhone .... address the mass market by offering a reduced price version of the iPhone ..... the company is considering doing just that. The new version of the phone would have a much smaller screen size, and be sold to carriers for about half the price of the current iPhone ...... Apple’s move downscale would involve a non-data plan phone. ..... iPhone 5 .. to arrive in June ...... an iPhone without a data plan. “Like the iPod Touch, this device would be able to handle music, movies, Internet (via WiFi or cellular), and third-party apps” ..... such a phone could sell for $149 and $199 at retail and require only a voice planAn iPhone actually costs as much as a cheap Dell laptop. Think about it. That is ridiculous. You feel like you paid $200, when you actually paid more like $500. They put you on a monthly plan. Every month you pay a little bit for two years. It is like buying a house. The house takes 30 years, the iPhone takes two years. That is ridiculous.
Apple should try but I believe the mass market already belongs to Android. The neutered iPhones that Apple intends to serve for lower prices will be matched, have been matched by fully functional large screen Android phones in those same price ranges. Why not buy a full phone for cheap? Why buy an iPhone?
The Bitly Story
The Bitly of today was not the Bitly that got launched. Bitly was launched by visionary founders as a site where if you got bit by a dog, you would take the picture of the dog, the bite, and your face in pain, and you would post the pictures online to share with the world. That was the idea. But it was way ahead of its times. The word spotting had not been invented yet.
And so Bitly pivoted and became the URL shortener that you know today. And it has been quite a success, would you say?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Alexa's PaperlessPost
Image via CrunchBaseI first met Alexa Hirschfeld when she was sitting on a panel during Social Media Week 2010. We have met here and there, stayed in touch, an email here, an email there. I brought this idea months ago. I said let me do a few blog posts about your startup. Finally looks like I get to do it. We are meeting Friday. She says they just moved to a new office. It is near Union Square. Most tech startups in Manhattan are near Union Square for some reason. This is not going to be an act of journalism. I am not a journalist. This is not a professional blogger out to gather material either. This is one tech entrepreneur reaching out to another. But this is the age of social media, so it is not just going to be a let's-catch-up kind of conversation. The conversation will happen and then it will spill over to my blog, which is just fine by Alexa.
A Small, Historic EatUp
So around noon I showed up. Oleg was there, his wife was there, his brother was busy serving.
Amy Cao of FoodSpotting showed up. This was not my first time seeing Amy, but this was my first time talking. And we talked at length.
There was this guy. He said he was just passing through town. He was in the city for a few months. He showed up. He said he knew Amy from meeting her at a few events.
So when it was time for the group photo, it is this guy and me, with Amy taking the shot. And I am feeling a little awkward. I hope she got the truck in the background. The truck matters. I am just an eater.
Both the dude and Amy took pictures of my food. My lunch was on the house.
Amy and I first talked on Twitter. Then I saw her briefly at the FoodSpotting panel the first day of Social Media Week, but did not get to talk.
Microfinance: The Basics
Image via WikipediaThe basic premise behind microfinance is simple: access to credit is basic, it is a human right. You give people three tools - education, health, credit - and they fly. Traditional credit has depended on your ability to put down some collateral. And that has cut off a large swath of humanity. There are over a billion people who live on less than a dollar a day. There are over two billion people who live on less than two dollars a day. Yunus in Bangladesh has proven the default rate among these small borrowers tends to be really, really low. 98% of those who borrow pay back. That is a much better rate than rich people and corporations in New York City. Their default rate is higher.
So what gives? Why were mad men bankers pouring trillions into real estate and shady finance tools a few years back instead of pumping that money into microfinance? Stupidity. Racism.
You can't build enough schools and colleges and print enough textbooks on time. But you can hope to take everyone online. Similarly microfinance has to be taken to all those people. Microfinance is the ultimate fishing net.
Monday, February 14, 2011
When Zuck's Facebook Account Got Hacked
BBC: January 26: Facebook blames bug for Zuckerberg 'hacking': Facebook has said "a bug" was to blame for an odd posting purporting to come from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. ..... Overnight, the cryptic message was posted to the Facebook fan page in the name of the 26-year old billionaire founder. .... It called for the site to become a "social business" with investment from its users. .... The message, left in the name of Mr Zuckerberg, read: "Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going
Image via Wikipediato the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? ..... "Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it?" ..... Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the founder of the Grameen Bank, which offers small loans to people who have no collateral to get started in business...... The message also linked to a recently edited Wikipedia article about social business and asked readers: "what do you think?"
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