Digital Dumbo 21

"Can I come in?" I opened the door slightly and said.

"You are the first person to show. Come in," said organizer Kaitlin Villanova from across the hall.

Event At Hunch: Gender Talk (3)

I got off the train at Union Square because I was running a little early, maybe a lot early. That gave me more walking distance. I take joy in walking. Right by Union Square on the sidewalk I got randomly stopped by an Ethiopian woman with a Masters from New York University who worked for a children's organization. It was a nice talk. I sent her a Facebook email the following day.

Microsoft's Gesture

New York Times: Microsoft’s Push Into Gesture Technology: was buying Canesta, a small Silicon Valley company that specializes in gesture-recognition technology. ..... “I’m excited to be way out in front and want to push the pedal on that,” Mr. Ballmer said. .... could equip PCs, televisions, cars, cellphones and other devices with gesture recognition features. .... James Spare, chief executive of Canesta, who is a former Microsoft executive. “There is no other company more committed to natural user interfaces than Microsoft,” Mr. Spare added..... Last year, Microsoft acquired 3DV systems, a company with similar gesture recognition technology. That deal coupled with the Canest
Image via Wikipediaa purchase may prevent competitors from acquiring these 3-D abilities and cut off potential intellectual property squabbles. Canesta has secured 44 patents in this area and has more pending.

I have a feeling Microsoft just might regain its dignity through this move. I don't see it gaining much traction with either the smartphone or the tablet, but with gesture technology the night is still young. It is not like Steve Jobs is not looking at the same. He is sitting on top of 50 billions in raw, hot cash with vulture eyes. He will snoop. He will want his bite. But at least here Microsoft will not be coming into the arena like an afterthought. They might still screw up the execution but I think they have spotted an opportunity early.

Executive Change At Twitter

New York Times: Why Twitter’s C.E.O. Demoted Himself: for all its astonishing growth, Twitter has succeeded in spite of itself ...... I’ve screwed up in many, many, many ways in terms of managing people and product decisions and business ..... he excels at understanding what Internet users want and contemplating Twitter’s future, but isn’t a detail-oriented task manager.

I don't know much about Dick Costolo, except that he sold FeedBurner to Google like Evan Williams sold Blogger to Google. To Ev's credit, Blogger remains my favorite social media platform, more so than Facebook and Twitter. It is that sentiment that gave me the confidence to speak my mind here: Twitter Is Massively Complex.

First Time Entrepreneurs Getting Screwed

Mike Arrington: "That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists – nearly $30 million – but next to nothing for the founders."

I have heard this story from someone else I know. His first company got sold for a lot of money - multiples more than Mike's - but he made only a tiny bit of money in the process. In other words, he got screwed.

Unique URL For Facebook Updates

Image by Google via CrunchBaseWhile I was reading this TechCrunch post about the father of Google Wave jumping ship to go join Facebook, I came across something I have wanted a long time. For a long time I have wanted every Facebook update of mine to have a unique URL that gets automatically fed to the search engines. My privacy settings on Facebook have been to Everyone from the outset.

Am I Smart?

When you start talking in terms of a tech startup with IPO ambitions, I think it is fair for people to ask if you are smart. I am smart. I am plenty smart. I am a ton smart. But I don't walk into a room thinking I am the smartest person in the room. I don't think I ever have. Because when I enter a room, I am not looking at a mirror, I am looking at other people. I am eager to listen to what others have to say. And when people are being themselves they are interesting as a rule. I l-o-v-e making small talk with street vendors, for example. The street is not a room.

Binary Investments, The Middle Kingdom, And Super Exits

Fred Wilson: The Fallacy Of Bimodal Returns: startup returns are not bimodal. They exhibit more of a power law curve. There will certainly be one or two venture deals every year that generate 100x or more. And there will certainly be quite a few total busts. But there are a lot of outcomes in the middle of those two.

Binary is the term used by Ron Conway, the guy in Silicon Valley who invests like he had perennial diarrhea. I read him using the term in a TechCrunch blog post a few weeks back. Binary works for him. It works because he has a track record over almost two decades, or at least a decade and a half, of not having missed out on any good deal in the Valley. He has been in all the top companies. He has also managed to get into FourSquare. And he keeps spreading the love far and wide. This past year I think he put 60% of his money into New York companies.

Engineering, Creativity, Sector Reform, Sector Revolution

Fred Wilson: The Creative Phase: The digital technology revolution was, from the day the transistor was invented in the late 40s until the early part of last decade, largely about engineering. It is still very much about engineering but I've been thinking for a while now that as this revolution matures, it is becoming more and more about creativity and less about engineering.

Fred calls it creativity and says maybe that is not the right word. He talks about engineers having become less central to tech startup efforts, and then backpedals, wait, I don't mean to say engineers are not important, they are.

A Blogger Is Not A Columnist

Image by UMDNJ School of Nursing via FlickrWhen some companies decide to get into blogging they realize they have finally figured out a way to make it more possible for more people at their own pace, at their own time to read their press releases. If you missed one of ours, dig into the archives, they are all there.

Some celebrity journalists or public figures in general think blogging is about becoming a newspaper columnist, something they always wanted to do, but no big name newspaper saw the light, and hence, people, people, people, here's my blog, get enlightened.

Social Graph, Social Concentric Circles