Your Local Library On Kindle

Cover via Amazon9 To 5 Mac: You'll be able to borrow Kindle books from 11,000 libraries, says Amazon

ReadWriteWeb: Check Out Library Books on Your Kindle: the announcement from Amazon this morning that it is launching a Lending Library "later this year" that will let Kindle owners check out books from their local library..... participation of over 11,000 libraries in the U.S. ..... the ability to actually make margin notes in your library books. You'll be able to take notes, store them privately - in other words, the next library patron won't see them - and then access them again should you check the book out again or purchase it in the future

This is huge. This kind of made my day. Does this mean all of the New York Public Library will be available on Kindle? That is pretty awesome.

Nihal Mehta: No Sellout

Local Response: Monetizing On "Their" Behalf

Local Response: Monetizing On "Their" Behalf

Image via CrunchBaseNihal Mehta: Being Mysterious About Local Response

My response is based on this TechCrunch post. Looks like in one sweep Nihal Mehta is about to monetize on behalf of all players in the local space. It is quite an audacious move.

TechCrunch: Buzzd Rebrands As Local Response; Debuts Social Customer Management Tool For Businesses: combine the element of the check-in he found intriguing with Buzzd and advertising and marketing elements ..... he calls “a culmination of everything he’s done,” of this is Local Response, a new web-based tool that allows local businesses to respond to the “check-in” on social media sites with marketing campaigns to promote transactions. ...... LocalResponse aggregates real-­‐time social media check-­‐ins from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram and dozens of other services to provide a simple interface for local businesses to directly respond to their most influential and valuable customers. What’s compelling about the platform compared to competitors is that it analyzes massive amounts of data in addition to check-ins from the Twitter firehose, photo sharing sites and more to find other forms of check-ins. These could be posting a picture on Instagram of a dish from a restaurant or Tweeting that you are visiting a particular bar. ...... explicitly (i.e. check-ins on Foursquare) and implicitly (by analyzing natural language on Facebook, Twitter, etc.; e.g. “I’m headed to ShakeShack”). Mehta says most check-ins are actual implicit and many social media platforms catered to helping businesses track check-ins miss this key data. ...... Not only does Local Response track all of this data but it allows businesses to respond to these Tweets and messages with a marketing campaign, coupon or advertisement. ...... So Shake Shack could send a Tweet back to someone who had just snapped a photo of a burger with a link to a 10 percent off coupon on the next visit. ...... Local Response has actually creates a number of canned responses which businesses can automatically send. ..... For the past six months, LocalResponse has been running a private beta, with over 2,000 campaigns for local businesses in New York City. The links in the Tweets and messages sent by these local businesses to consumers who “checked-in” to their establishment are averaging a 60 percent click-­‐through rate and 15-­‐20 percent redemption rates. That’s high and impressive. ...... Mehta says that the platform is so highly-focused in its data collection, that it can send highly targeted Tweets to consumers who are interested in the promotions or campaigns. For example he says that Local Response will run two to three hundred search terms across its data for a particular business. Also, the aim of Local Response is not to overwhelm consumers’ stream with advertisements. Users will never receive more than one message in 7 days ...... a platform for brands and agencies is in the works. ...... closed a $1.5 million in funding this past December from Verizon Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Metamorphic. ...... plans to raise a new, larger round of funding this Summer ..... For now, Local Response is free for businesses. Eventually the startup plans to go the freemium route and will also charge for the brand-focused application. And Local Response is launching with half a million businesses that are already pre-indexed (with search terms). All they have to do is type in the business name, and they can get started using the platform.

A second natural move might be to partner up with the willing players to help them monetize their particular services for cuts, like Google ads help you monetize your particular media site. Because Local Response is not going to have access to the detailed data that those individual services might have.

English Patient

The English Patient
I Must Really Like Movies

Indian Invasion Comedy

Way To Go Christina

Christina Cacioppo Fan Club, sign here.
Christina Cacioppo, pride of Columbus, Ohio.

Is It About Women?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Mark Birch

Pink Floyd: Money

The Possible Anatomy Of A Dumplings Crawl
My Secret Sauce

Is It About Women?

70% of the recipients of micro loans end up being women. Because the vast majority of the world's poor are women. It is not because they don't work. Women do all the work at home and much of the work on the farms in all those poor countries. So why are they the bulk of the poor? Sexism pure and simple.

I have said my corporate team is going to be majority female. If the vast majority of your customers are going to be women, it only makes sense to have a team that is majority women.

So is it about women for me? Am I some kind of a raging feminist?

No. Yes and no.

Patti Smith: Dancing Barefoot

(Via Soraya Darabi)

Goldfrapp: Believer

(Via Soraya Darabi)

Pink Floyd: Money

(Via Mark Birch)

Brooklyn Loves Bollywood

Bollywood Loves Brooklyn
Bollybrook

I was just on the phone with Anne Marsen. She is the woman in the video.


Bachna Ae Haseeno (BollyBrook Remix) from Anne Marsen on Vimeo.

She was a friend of a friend of Nick Gray who happened to be in Mumbai. So one day Nick calls and talks about his idea for the music video. Would she do it?

My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010

2009 and 2010 have been my years of roaming the tech circles of this city and avid tech blogging. I have done so as a non person. Tech felt safer than politics.

I have roamed. I have done so as a window shopper. I have not had the option to participate. It's called being in an immigration mess. For the rest it might have been the Great Recession, for me it was the Great Immigration Humiliation.

I was done raising 100K for my IC startup - that was the stated goal - months before the 2008 primaries were over, but I decided to be with Barack just a few more months. The primary was the only real contest. November was a no contest, it was so obvious to me. I had been his first full time volunteer in the city. I was in before he announced he was in.

But my political enemies came after me. The day the primaries ended, I disappeared. They had me disappear. The establishment picked that precise day lest I missed the message.

One day early in 2009, in March perhaps, maybe April, I went to see someone at Columbus Circle. We had met online, we had met, and we were going to meet again. I had two dollars in my pocket. That is all the money I had. I did not have any money back home. I did not have a bank account, let alone money in a bank account. I did not have a credit card. And I could not have walked back home. I would not have known the way. I did not have a phone. I did not have a metro card.

I remember thinking, if I lost those two dollars, I could not get back home.

Just Became A Cofounder
Sean Parker, Billionaire, Was Really Poor Once
Permanent War

Bollywood Loves Brooklyn

Bachna Ae Haseeno (BollyBrook Remix) from Anne Marsen on Vimeo.

SMS Power

This is really, really powerful to me. This is a small example. But this has huge implications.

If you still doubt GroupMe's potential, just watch this video.

SMS Powered Garage Door

Coachella (4)

The Possible Anatomy Of A Dumplings Crawl

Limit the number to 10. Only 10 people allowed. If there are more than 10 people, they can still go for a crawl, but it is going to have to be crawl number two.

Do it in Chinatown. That is a central location. People from all over the city can hope to participate. If it is going to be more than one group on the same day, coordinate such that no one restaurant is visited twice by all groups combined.

What A Party

Be There, Or Be Square: The FourSquare Day Party At Sidebar

Permanent War

You’re lucky that I ain’t the president
Cause I’ll push the f*#king button and get it over with
F&$k all that waiting and procrastinating
And all that goddamn negotiating
—Bushwick Bill, Fuck a War

Adding Intelligence To The Biggest Screen: TV

Image via WikipediaApple added intelligence to the smallest screen: the phone. The iPhone happened. If you can move from the PC screen to the small screen, you should be able to move in the other direction as well. The TV screen is what you meet when you go in the other direction. It is not if but when. And Chris Dixon just posted a great blog post on the topic. Go read.

Chris Dixon: Apple And The TV Industry: the reasoning analysts used to predict the failure of the iPhone before its launch in 2007..... Why do you think they call it a Crackberry? Because the lumpy design and confusing interface of the device is causing people to break into cars? No, it’s because people are addicted to it. ...... What Apple ended up doing, however, was creating a phone that was so incredibly desirable to consumers that it completely restructured the industry, causing a massive shift of power away from the carriers. ..... the last thing the cable operators want is for internet-delivered programming that bypasses their cable channels to become widespread – they see that as the fast track to become a dumb pipe ..... let’s imagine Apple develops a TV that is as groundbreaking as the iPhone was. The biggest problem “smart TVs” have today is that they need clunky IR transmitters to control set top boxes because the cable operators won’t willingly interoperate. So a new Apple TV would have to drum up such incredible consumer demand that the operators would feel compelled to support it. This does indeed seem harder in the TV than in the mobile industry. At least in the US you had 4 nationwide mobile operators at the time of the iPhone launch. In TV, consumers normally have at most two real choices for traditional cable programming – cable and satellite – and two real choices for two-way internet – cable and DSL/FIOS...... Perhaps Apple won’t enter the market due to its structure. But that didn’t stop them in mobile phones where the structure was similarly difficult. The mistake analysts made about the iPhone was to assume the current industry structure would be sustained after Apple’s entry. I’d be wary of making the same assumption about the TV industry.

Great To Meet Craig Newmark

Tweet from Craig
Another tweet from Craig
Tweet to Craig

When you meet Craig Newmark, the guy never forgets.
Be There, Or Be Square: The FourSquare Day Party At Sidebar

Be There, Or Be Square: The FourSquare Day Party At Sidebar

I have been to the Sidebar for quite a few political events before. It was raining when I emerged in Union Square from the underworld. And I am thinking, to have to get in line outside in this rain for someone like me who does not believe in umbrellas. But there was no line. I was able to get in right away. For a minute I thought I was at the wrong venue. How can there be no line into a FourSquare party?



I got to talk to a whole bunch of FourSquare team members. One of the first was this dude who did "server software" for the company. He was actively thinking in terms of a datacenter for FourSquare. I was impressed. I met another guy on that same server software team. We talked some tech. I got to meet Eric again. I told him Union Square Ventures has officially been declared the top VC firm.

This Week In Venture Capital: Gotham Gal

I have had one very brief conversation with the Gotham Gal and she blew me out of the water. I do read her husband's blog near daily. And I do follow her daughters on Tumblr. Almost every time I see something from them, I tend to reblog it. This crew is good.

The Gotham Gal
The Wilsons Were In Cairo Recently

Fred Wilson: Mark Suster Interviews The Gotham Gal

The Proverbial White Male

I don't know if you have ever visited my blogroll, but it is a mouthful. It is the most elaborate, comprehensive blogroll of any I have visited. And because it is so elaborate and encyclopedic, I have had sections. That has not been good enough, and so I have had at the top a section called A1. Even that became a little too elaborate. So I just made a much shorter list called This Just In. These are people whose every blog post I want to read as soon as they come out, and preferably comment on them as well.

Third World Guy
The Arab Revolutions And My Rethinks On Britain And France
Minority Majority Nation?
To You I Offer Buddhism And Yoga
Social Media Is For Real
Obama 2012 Is On
New York City
Rootlessness And The City

I made the list. It is short. Every single person on the list is the proverbial white male. What's wrong in the picture? It also bothers me that most are VCs. I wish it were mostly entrepreneurs. But the best entrepreneurs don't blog. Some good ones do. And there are some out there who I just have not come across yet. Please suggest names.

Arcade Fire: Funeral

(Via Fred Wilson)

GroupOn's Legacy: Cute Email?

Image via Wikipedia

BusinessWeek: This Tech Bubble Is Different: Groupon, which e-mails coupons to people, may be the fastest-growing company of all time. Its revenue could hit $4 billion this year, up from $750 million last year, and the startup has reached a valuation of $25 billion. Its technological legacy is cute e-mail.

GroupOn is a great example of a company that has used fairly simple technology to build an amazing company. The wealth GroupOn has create is very legitimate.

And you thought the inbox had gone stale. For most people their inbox is still their most prized web possession.

But it's not even the inbox. GruopOn has hired thousands of salespeople. The action is not on the computer screen. It is offline. It is in face time.

FourSquare Day Tomorrow: Rad

Let's see. I don't drink but I like meeting people. Oh hey, this year they are doing it three different venues. I like that. What are the chances I can go to all three? Or maybe I will pick two. Or just one.

Last year on my way out of the party I saw Vin Vacanti still in line.

"I am leaving so you can get in," I said only half jokingly. They were down to only letting people in after someone left.

I just got this info below from Dennis Crowley's tumblog.

5-8pm @ Agave (8th Ave @ Charles Street) 140 7th Ave
7-10 @ Sidebar (15th Street @ Irving) 120 East 15th Street
9-11 @ Village Pourhouse (3rd Ave & 11th St) 64 3rd Avenue

Two Upheavals Already

I have not even formally launched my company yet, but my startup team has already gone through two upheavals. And I think that is a good thing. With each upheaval the vision has become much more polished. And I make no bones about the fact that my life is not a democracy, my company is not a democracy. I have a vision, and the company is going to carry it out.

No, Biz, Twitter Has Real Issues

Image via WikipediaI am a huge fan of Twitter, an avid user, and I have blogged extensively about the service at this blog. I joined the service the same day Demi Moore did. Coincidence.

And I understand the media thing Biz Stone is alluding to here. The media likes drama. They report of fights where there are no fights. Friction sells better than peace.

But I do believe Twitter does have real issues.

Twitter does not have that Gladiator Steve Jobs, or the Knight In Shining Armor Mark Zuckerberg. But that lone warrior Founder CEO is not the only formula for grand success. Maybe greatness can also arise out of collective leadership.

The Black Keys: So He Won't Break

(Via Fred Wilson)

Twitter Trouble?

Twitter At Five: Not Spitting Out Well

Fortune: Trouble @Twitter: There's no shortage of drama at Twitter these days: Besides the CEO shuffles, there are secret board meetings, executive power struggles, a plethora of coaches and consultants, and disgruntled founders. (Like Williams. The day after Dorsey announced his return to the company -- via tweet, naturally -- Williams quit his day-to-day duties at the company, although he remains a board member and Twitter's largest shareholder, with an estimated 30% to 35% stake.) These theatrics, which go well beyond the usual angst at a new venture, have contributed to a growing perception that innovation has stalled and management is in turmoil at one of Silicon Valley's most promising startups, which some 20 million active users rely on each month for updates on everything from subway delays to election results -- and which a growing number of companies, big and small, seek to use to market themselves and track customers. ...... It has been months -- an eternity in Silicon Valley -- since the company rolled out a new product that excited consumers. ...... Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg used to watch developments at Twitter obsessively; now he pays much less attention to the rival service. ...... Twitter doesn't lack talented engineers, potential paying customers, or loyal users -- and it certainly has plenty of money in the bank ..... The problem is a board and top executive team that don't always appear to have control of its wide-ranging cast of characters, including founders who have attained near-celebrity status (another co-founder, Biz Stone, is a regular on NPR, and earlier this year Dorsey was profiled in Vanity Fair), headstrong and divisive managers, and investors used to getting their way. ....... in the first half of 2009, Twitter added more users more quickly than almost any web service in history ...... the company tells Fortune that in coming months Twitter will roll out new features and ad products ...... "Twitter could be 10 or even 100 times bigger. I'm hopeful for that," says Reid Hoffman ....... "But it's not a given. It's never a given." ...... Twitter hates being lumped in with Facebook as a social network, but comparing the two companies helps illustrate why Twitter finds itself stuck in neutral. ...... Zuckerberg .... although he still dabbles in writing code, he spends his time refining the product and strategy. He's been criticized for being ruthless, ambitious, and single-minded in his quest to build Facebook -- a common knock on the few founders who stay atop their companies. (Exhibit A: Bill Gates.) ...... Unsure of what they'd created, the founders basically turned Twitter over to its users -- initially a bunch of techie early adopters -- and watched what they did with it. The result was a bit of anarchy ...... By the end of 2008 the board decided that Dorsey, a taciturn engineer with no previous management experience, was no longer the right CEO. Williams, who succeeded him, has been accused of pushing Dorsey out, but in an exclusive interview for this story, he put the responsibility for making that decision on the broader board: "We thought about recruiting somebody from the outside," he says, "but the company at that stage was so fragile that bringing in someone from outside was risky. So the VCs asked me if I would do it." ....... By that time, communication among the Twitter founders, especially Dorsey and Williams, had started to fray. According to Greg Kidd, an early investor, Dorsey today is circumspect but firm on the subject of his relationship with Williams. "The most he's ever said about Ev is, 'We don't talk.'" ........ Williams, a reserved Nebraskan ...... Having dabbled in improvisational theater early in his adulthood, Costolo inspires confidence with his refined public speaking ability, quick wit, and fast decision-making skills. ...... Williams left in December for vacation, extended it to January, then through March. On March 29, the day after Dorsey returned as product chief, Williams announced he wouldn't return to the company in a management role. ...... growth of U.S. visitors to the site has leveled off more than a year after its massive spike upward in 2009 ...... international traffic to the site jumped 83% in the past year ...... the 20-month plateau has come so early in the company's trajectory ....... Many believe that Twitter's search results, which increasingly show up on other sites, are its real jewels. For anyone striving to see events as they unfold, there are few better places to turn. ...... the company lacks a coherent philosophy about what it wants to deliver to customers in the first place. ...... Three days after Dorsey's March 28 return to daily duty at Twitter, the company killed the Dickbar. ...... three people close to Square say Dorsey told them that he views his involvement with Twitter as short term. ...... "The act of getting from there to here was violent," he says. "We've had a revolving door of senior leaders who leave." ...... if Dorsey is right and managing a startup is indeed like managing a theatrical company, it probably is a good idea to give the performers and stagehands a little love. That way maybe they can #gettheiracttogether.

I did offer my services but Twitter would not listen.

Making Dick Costolo An Offer He Can't Refuse

Nuggets From The Paulson Auditorium

Image by aJ GAZMEN ツ GucciBeaR via FlickrStartUp Week: Final Event: Biggest Event?

- 2005, there were very few blogs around.
- Vin Vacanti has a great blog.
- Fred Wilson, Mark Suster, Chris Dixon, Brad Feld.
- Josh Auerbach: "All my knowledge comes from blogs."
- It is easy to do market research.
- The lean startup movement.
- You will be amazed by how many people are willing to talk to you.
- The best way to build a business is without any investment money.
- We don't do NDAs. We will laugh at you if you ask.
- Outsourcing is not an option.
- If your proposal is outside the thesis of a VC firm, you are not going anywhere.
- Talk to people. Engage with people at their blogs.
- Cool. Uncool. Cool again.
- Chris Dixon: "1/3rd of my companies are profitable with seed money."
- You have to be active online.
- You have to blog. You have to tweet. This is the number one piece of advice. You are not going anywhere in tech without these.
- Internships with big brand name companies are overrated.
- Entrepreneurs - it's a personality type.
- If you send a form email, you will get a form response.
- Show me that you put some work into that email. You read up on me.
- No investor will read a business plan.
- You and your team.
- What all could go wrong? What can I do to mitigate? Put down in writing.
- Build your relationship with investors over a period of time.

A Day In The Life Of Amy Cao

Amy Cao's Political Incorrectness

Many of you might know Amy Cao does social media for FoodSpotting. This is a day in the life of Amy Cao.

Amy Cao wakes up to the chirps of birds that remind her to tweet, and she gets to tweeting right away, first thing in the morning. She often finds herself dealing with six hours worth of tweets from fans from Japan who all expect individual reply tweets. So far she has managed to meet those expectations, but she wonders for how long. She says she is looking for an intern/assistant. A look alike would be nice.

A FourSquare Mayor?

New York City

4/16: I Found Myself A Party: Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

Saturday, April 16 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Sidebar
120 East 15th St
New York, NY

Amy Cao's Political Incorrectness

A Small, Historic EatUp
April Fool?
Tumblr Explore
Soraya Darabi In New York Magazine
EatUps Don't Seem To Have A Monthly Rhythm
Tuesday 2/15 Noon EatUp: 46th Between 5th And 6th: Schnitzel & Things Food Truck
Instagram Magic

StartUp Week: Final Event: Biggest Event?

I started out thinking all events are created equal. But you get hints thrown in here and there. There is expectation in the air. The event tomorrow looks like will be the biggest event of the week. And I am looking forward to it.

Thursday, 4/14: Fundraising: VCs, Angels and Accelerators Chris Dixon (@cdixon), Albert Wenger (@albertwenger), Lawrence Lenihan (@lawrencelenihan), Firstmark Capital, Hilary Gosher (@hilbil175), Insite Venture Partners, David Tisch (@davetisch), TechStars

April 14, Thursday, 6-8 PM, NYU Tisch Hall, Paulson Auditorium (UC-50), 40 W. 4th Street

Anthony De Rosa

I did two great events earlier in the evening, but the best part was walking from the first to the second with Anthony De Rosa, known as soupsoup on Tumblr.

Having Mango Lassi: Do Not Disturb

More Followers Than Coca Cola

This is heartening. I seem to have more - way more - Twitter followers than Coca Cola.

When people compliment me I like to say, "It is nothing, really, it's just numbers."

No More Beer, No More Soda
2000 Squats

The Shortest Email Address On My Contact List

2,000 Squats
StartUp Week At NYU April 6-15
Getting To Meet Mark Suster In Person
Meeting Brad Feld
StartUp Week: Job Fair: Fish Market
StartUp Week: Develop, Design, Pitch

Fleet Foxes: Montezuma

(Via Jared)

Kiva Is In Nepal

I have been looking for that first country to go into with my microfinance startup, and it is amazing how I have gone all over the world. And now I am thinking Nepal, the country where I grew up.

Having Kenya And Chinatown Thoughts

Murdoch's MySpace, Cisco's Flip

Image via WikipediaWhen Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace, that was hot property. And he looked like a genius when he paid $500 million for the service, and promptly got Google to pay him $900 million to run ads on the property. And that was the pinnacle. It was downhill after that for MySpace. Murdoch's corporate machine killed the whole operation with the usual jujitsu.

How you do it is you put a corporate guy on top of the whole thing, and that big shot starts thinking he is some kind of a big shot, he fires a few key people, he reorganizes a little bit. After all he has to cast the impression he is actually doing something. And that messes things up. There is no one in charge. The emphasis is no longer on innovation. It is on pleasing the corporate guy who, by the way, wants yet more ads shown on the property, because there are numbers to be met. They don't realize that might take away from the experience because they don't use MySpace in the first place, they just want to be the boss of it.

And now what do we have here? Cisco is flipping Flip. Flip was also hot when it got bought. That is why it got bought in the first place. Flip was supposed to be Cisco's own little iPod, that signature device that everyone but everyone carries and makes Cisco look cool.

StartUp Week: Develop, Design, Pitch

StartUp Week At NYU April 6-15
2,000 Squats
Getting To Meet Mark Suster In Person
Meeting Brad Feld
StartUp Week: Job Fair: Fish Market

They shifted the venue from the first floor to the fifth floor. The food part was a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting. But after the first speaker was done, it was food time. After all three speakers got done, I went ahead and ate some more. I did not have dinner later.

During the first break Holly sitting across the table remarked: "You look happy."

"I am a happy person," I said taking in what I thought was a compliment to my general demeanor.

"I think it's the food," she cut me short.

Just Became A Cofounder

I just became a Cofounder. What the heck. No, this is not my microfinance game. That is my primary focus. But one Skype call with a friend in Kathmandu who runs a software shop, 50 strong, and next thing you know I am a Cofounder. Details to follow in a few weeks.

This is way better than consulting. Suits my style.
Image via Wikipedia
The basic product is already out. The idea is to grow the user base, and go raise some money down the line.

People talk of a shortage of engineers. I have no clue what they are talking about. I have a limitless supply of them. I retain my tech consultant title. Holler if you need help. I am scalable.

Meeting Brad Feld
A Boulder Invitation From Brad Feld Himself

Wilco: Either Way

Ye Hausala

(Via Jiwan Shrestha)

New York Times Paywall Sucks (2)

New York Times Paywall Sucks