The Social Network: The Movie

The Social Network



TechCrunch: The Second Trailer For The Movie The Social Network Hits The Web





D8: Steve Jobs


Zuckerberg Has Stature

To Iran, With Love (1)

To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)

Hello Brad.

And to continue with our conversation. I am absolutely loving the public nature of this. This is going to enhance my efficacy and my credibility when I get into the thick of things with Iran.

My Background

• I was the number one student in my class at the top school in Nepal for the seven of the 10 years I was there.
• Out of high school I became Vice General Secretary to a political party with two MPs, members of parliament. Someone who was a central committee member at the time currently is a cabinet minister in Nepal.
• I was Poet Of The Year 1995, International Society Of Poets, Washington DC.
• I got accepted to the University Of Chicago ("not for your numbers, but your actions and words") but the money part did not work out, so I went to the school in America that has the best financial aid program of any, second to none, not even Harvard, Berea College in Kentucky, the number one liberal arts college in the South.
• Within six months of landing as an international student I got myself elected student body president at Berea, first time in college history a freshman did that.
• In 1999 I was one of the founding members of a dot com - Chaitime.com - that was trying to be the premier South Asian online community. The company raised $25 million, round two, before succumbing to the nuclear winter. Rediff won the race.
• I was a volunteer with Dean 2004 in Indiana. That got Howard Dean's brother excited when he found out. Of all places, Indiana? My story might have played a small role in Howard Dean's "50 state strategy."
• I was one of Barack Obama's earliest supporters in New York City and got to know most of the top volunteers in all boroughs. (NYC Video: 10 Hours)
• Long Walk To Freedom: Just A Third World Guy Dazzled By The City April 2007
  
• Long Walk To Freedom May 2007
  
• Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother September 2007
  
• Barack's Mother Makes An Appearance September 2007
  
• Give Me A Huge Rally In This City Before Summer Is Over September 2007
  
• The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History September 2007
  

My Recent Work For Nepal: Highlights

• I was the only Nepali in the Nepali diaspora who worked full time for the democracy movement in Nepal that succeeded in April 2006. There were a lot of part timers who did great work.
• Madhav Nepal was leading the largest party in the country at the time. In February 2006 he was put under house arrest. A month later his brother living next door managed to get him online the wireless way. The first person he contacted was me. We chatted on Gmail Chat.
• January-February 2007 saw the Madhesi Movement, which was like the second phase of the April 2006 revolution, only more intense. This was with the goal of achieving equality for the Madhesi: I am a Madhesi. (Larry Ellison) Kind of like our own civil rights movement. Upendra Yadav was its most visible face. In July that year he was brought over to America, to Los Angeles where the Nepalis were having a convention. When he got off the plane, the first person he asked for was me. They took him to his hotel. He again asked, "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?"
• I had never met Madhav Nepal or Upendra Yadav in person before. And I had talked to each of them on the phone only once. But both of them felt the reach of my intense work. Almost all my work was conducted in the digital realm.
• Madhav Nepal is Prime Minister today. Upendra Yadav was Foreign Minister for about a year after the April 2008 elections to the constituent assembly.
• I had a phone conversation with Ram Baran Yadav around February 2005 when he had run away from the country and was in Delhi after the king took over power in a coup. Ram Baran Yadav is president of Nepal today, which is not like being president in America, more like president in India, or queen in England.

What Did I Do?

In short, I moved the ball at all key junctures. And I used digital tools. What balls did I move and when? What tools did I use? How could I repeat the success for Iran? How exactly would I do it?

I will tackle those questions and more in subsequent posts. And I will also explain why I want 20 VCs starting with you to put in 5K each of personal money towards this work, why I am not approaching some other crowd.

The reason you were not able to find much about my Nepal work when you did a search at my blog is because you conducted the search not at my Nepal blog, but at Netizen, my technology and business blog. I have three active blogs. (Democracy For Nepal 1661 posts, Barackface 926 posts, Netizen 690 posts)

And I do understand when you invest in a company you put in the money upfront. You don't dole the money out in monthly investments. But perhaps my language was not precise, and hence the misunderstanding.

My Nepal Blog

• April 2006 (100 posts)
• February 2008 (98 posts)

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Larry Ellison's Personal Life

Image by nee-nee-lee via Flickr

Larry's first wife left him because he did not work "hard enough." He would do just enough contract work to be able to pay his share of the bills. He has said he "screwed through my 20s." He went ahead and bought a boat. That sent the wife into therapy. She decided the choice was between going crazy and getting a divorce. She picked divorce. During the counseling before the divorce Larry promised to make "a million dollars," the first time he ever talked such big numbers. The wife laughed.

Larry's second wife left him because he worked "too hard." He got on the phone with the first wife and asked, "How does this work?"

Larry's third wife left him for a Harvard MBA. He sent an email to a friend: "Congratulations on getting and staying married."

Larry's fourth wife - from an "aristocratic" Kentucky family, his word - when it was time for her to leave, she had a choice between the family pickup truck and Oracle stocks. She picked the truck.

Somebody around this point described Larry's personal life a "train wreck."

The fifth wife refused to remarry saying her divorce was better than most of her friends' marriages. By now Larry was wealthy beyond imagination.

He has had a steady girlfriend since the late 1990s: Melony. Melony was engaged when he met her: at a mall. She did not know who he was. She feared he might be one of the "suites." Her fiance was an artist. Larry pursued her for over a year. Once he arranged for her and the fiance to show up for an event where Steve Jobs was going to show up. That was his "Melony strategy." Maybe Steve Jobs will impress you. She was a Mac user.

He has said about being a college dropout: "I could not have started a college, but I could have started a company."

About his many failed marriages and an eventual relationship he has said, "I needed to find me first."

Mideast Peace: Tech Industry Style
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Larry Ellison
That StartUp Mentality (2)
Oracle, Oracle
Firing Founders: Mostly A Bad Idea
Rich People's Kids
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Spain: The Octopus Was Right, I Was Wrong

Image via Wikipedia

Spain won. They dominated the game in the beginning, in the middle, and the end. And they won. They scored one goal and they won. This Spain-Germany game was the best game I have watched so far during World Cup 2010. There was no need for one superstar to emerge. These were two great teams that went for it. It was quite a display. What a game.

I started out rooting for Brazil and Argentina. (Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor) Both got wiped out. Then I threw my weight behind Germany. Germany got wiped out today. (The Germans Called Me Robin Hood) And so I have decided not to take sides for the World Cup Final. I will let The Octopus take a go at it.

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A NY Tech MeetUp For Sindre Aarsaether

Image of Sindre Aarsaether

Sindre, if you don't know him, is one uber hacker. He is a geek, a nerd. He is Singularity. He is a friend. He is a foreigner. He is Scandinavian. He has a friend who likes to go couchsurfing.

Welcome, Sindre, back to New York. I will see you tonight.

And there is a fresh email from Brandon Diamond.

* Betterfly: connect with betterists to improve yourself
* HotPotato: share what you're doing with friends
* Learnvest: educational finance resource for women
* Frontal: rich web apps from simple markup
* StuffBuff: auctions anywhere you want them
* HowAboutWe: pick your perfect date then find a match
* Jetsetter: insider access to the places you want to go
* Comixology: read comics on the go and on the web

We'll also be hearing from Clay Shirky who'll be discussing "generosity as a design problem". 

Plus, the entire evening will be guest emceed by the wonderful Dina Kaplan, co-founder of blip.tv.

So come on down to NYU Skirball at 7 PM for another evening with NYC's brightest movers and shakers.

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
New York University
566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South)
www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu / 212.992.8484

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