Plus, Face

Image via CrunchBaseGoogle's first successful social experiment is - you might have heard - called Google Plus. Plus is arithmetic. It is to do with numbers. Google has always been about numbers. The name Google itself is googol misspelt. Googol is "the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros."

With the Facebook name, the emphasis is on Face. The emphasis is on human relationships not on algorithms.

It was this very mismatch in DNA that prevented Google from cracking the social nut for the longest time. But finally they did it.

Australian Woes

A high school classmate from Kathmandu days, now in Australia.

Kathmandu Woes

Kathmandu Woes

A high school classmate in Kathmandu.

"Do You Have An Email Address?"

This had to have been in 2005, 2006. I was doing democracy work for Nepal. My blog was my primary tool. And I had the largest Nepali mailing list in the world. I had managed to penetrate all the key organizations inside the country and out. And I stayed on a constant lookout for new email addresses.

So I am at this event in Queens. It has not started yet. I am working the room, meeting people, blatantly asking for email addresses.

I came across this guy who apparently did not know what an email address was. Every Nepali in the city has a phone, but only a minority even today have email addresses.

"Would you have an email address?" I asked.

"I do, but I forgot it at home," he said and saved face.

The guy apparently thought I was talking about some kind of a physical object. Like, do you have a Vespa?

Nosh: The Starting Point Is Not The Dish

Image via CrunchBaseI have long been a proponent of adding a social element to FoodSpotting, (FoodSpotting API) and Nosh seems to have that element, but where Nosh does not seem to "get" it is that with Nosh the dish does not seem to be the starting point. That is a big minus. (FoodSpotting's Dish As Starting Point)

The social graph I have had in mind for FoodSpotting has been more the Color kind than the Facebook kind. FoodSpotting could be an amazing force for peace. And I don't feel like I am exaggerating. I do mean to talk geopolitics.

The Color Social Graph Might Work Better For Books, Movies, Music
Twitter ---> Instagram ---> FoodSpotting

But if I were FoodSpotting, this would be a wake up call to me. The brain behind Nosh was the same brain behind what today is Google Voice. The guy sure has the tech chops. And he is trying to fork into the FoodSpotting space from the Instagram paradigm. But he has already exhibited some major vision level blind spots. The name Firespotter borrows half the body from the name FoodSpotting. Thief!

Race, Gender, Tech

Image via WikipediaGroup dynamics is the number one thing I bring to the table for work. And there gender as a topic stands out. And I don't even mean in a political way. It is fascinating as a topic like stars might fascinate astrophysicists.

The zen of tech makes it even more possible to see the threads of race and gender. In a city where the subway ride is cheap, even at free events why do you end up seeing a room that is almost all people of one kind? Culture is a powerful force. Like Facebook did not create the social graph, it merely mapped it, tech in general helps you see social threads.

The other day I saw a group photo of the Tumblr team somewhere and it was an all white team, and I noticed. My teams in India are all Indian. (Doubling Down On Tech Consulting) I was at an event in Jackson Heights on Friday and it was a room full of people from Nepal.

And you come across women who would like you to believe they are on the cutting edge of things like the glass ceiling, only it simply does not involve a single white male they might personally know. Or when a white woman does her racist bonding thing with a white male to portray you as The Other. The same platform also is open to acts of sexist bonding, but do you really want to go for that? But then corporate warfare has its twists and turns. And the Internet is globalization on steroids. A billion Indians would not be my idea of a minority.

Permanent War

Google Plus: Symmetry, Asymmetry: Both

Image by jdlasica via FlickrOn Facebook there is symmetry, we have to friend each other. On Twitter there is asymmetry. You could argue there is asymmetry also on Google Plus. So far I have not had to ask for anyone's permission before adding them to a circle.

But where Google Plus is different from Twitter is I can only add a total of 5,000 people to circles. On Twitter I follow and am followed by 45,000 people.

A million people might still add Ashton Kutcher to their circles, but Kutcher can not reciprocate. He can only add 5,000 people to his circles. And so the experience stays intimate for both Ashton Kutcher and his fans. His fans also have that 5,000 limitation. And so there is quality to that circling. Those fans can not add 50,000 people to their circles. That adds value to every time you get added to some circle.