Month: April 2008

A VC: We Need A New Path To Liquidity

A VC: We Need A New Path To Liquidity
Fred Wilson comments on the dance of the elephants around Yahoo and bemoans it:

“The Internet is decomposing into a vast array of micro-services that we, the end user, stitches together to make our own unique web experience. It is the de-portalization of the Internet and it is very real. And yet, these large behemoths are trying to do their normal consolidation play on the Internet. First of all, it’s not going to work. They are destroying value with all of their M&A efforts and the bigger they get, the more value they will destroy, for them and their shareholders.”

This confirms a statement I made in a presentation yesterday that the web is exploding into a set of micro-apps and out of the browser (but often staying in the browser), that I have to stitch together. The degree of choice and customization (and complexity) confronting a user has never been higher, and yet …

Fred notes del.icio.us is falling off since being acquired by Yahoo, same story with Feedburner at Google.

O’Regan on Marketing in a Downturn

Magnosticism

“Sure, it’s common sense that you need to continue to entice customers to buy your product or service at a time when they are less likely to do so. But the reality is, when sales are tanking, something has to give, and usually it’s the marketing budget. Why? Because marketers have the most trouble justifying their investments. (So, to a lesser extent, does IT, which is why you see similar headlines proclaiming, “Don’t stop investing in IT during a downturn!” Same message, different audience.) They’re not equipped to say, “If we stop advertising, our sales will drop X%.” By speaking in generalities, marketing becomes vulnerable to any belt-tightening effots to offset falling revenues.”

Personal Technology – WSJ.com

Personal Technology – WSJ.com


Quote of the day, from Walt Mossberg: “In my experience, the top brands for technology and reliability are Apple and Lenovo’s ThinkPad line, but various models from Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell are also worth investigating.”

Three-Bays Pier Ban passed for 18 months

Around Barnstable – Barnstable, MA – Wicked Local Barnstable
It’s a start:

“Barnstable town councilors unanimously approved a shellfish overlay district for areas of Cotuit Bay, West Bay, North Bay and Nantucket Sound. The approval finally came after many months of discussions and many amendments were made to the original proposal. The proposed ad hoc committee to be appointed by the town manager will stay in the approved ordinance. Bulkheads will not be affected by the 18-month pier ban. A sunset clause proposed by councilor Greg Milne was defeated. The new ordinance also requests review and simultaneous comparison of the coastal management study that was completed in 1990.”

Drew Ginn: an Olympian’s conscience

Drew Ginn

This has been an interesting week to be an Olympic sponsor, but nobody has more of a stake in the Games than the athletes. Drew Ginn, the Australian rower, put it into perspective on Monday when he responded to a comment on his blog on why he was going to Beijing:

“This is an opportunity for all of us to realise the World is bigger than our back yard. People live in different ways and countries have operated in different ways. The impact of the Games will have both positive and negative outcomes. Hopefully there’s more of the former occurring and what I do feel strongly about is that as an athlete I will perform in the spirit that the Games was intended.”

Carter made the decision to block American athletes from participating in the 1980 Moscow Games, and some good friends of mine had their lives seriously messed up by that decision to block them from competing because of Soviet geopolitics. Politics and sport don’t mix well, but they try, and the Olympics is the most political pulpit in sport.

So, as I try to make sense of it all, I read Drew’s most recent post, about a training ride on bicycles. It’s pretty powerful:

“With each pedal stroke I tried to maintain the unsustainable speed and bit by bit my heart was pounding and attempting to keep up with the demand. At this stage I realised I could not go any quicker but was resolved to keep my speed as high as I could and with this came the deep heaving breathes that were a final indicator of being right on the limit. The last section we caught the traffic lights and as we braked I had the wonderful sense of that strange dynamic between ecstasy and agony. A twilight zone of sorts and as we continued up to the meeting point the sheer bliss was remarkable. We all chatted away and made comments about the various things that took place and all of us where very much on the limit which is why we love going out for these types of rides.”

Microhoo gets weird

Yahoo to roll out a new ad system. Ok.

Yahoo to run Google ads. Weird.

Yahoo to get into bed with AOL to stave off Microsoft. Weirder.

Microsoft to get into bed with News Corp. to really gang up on Yahoo. Weirder still.

It’s all wrong. I went to the Microsoft digital upfront last week in New York and the emphasis was on shows. Not technology. Not context. Not apps in the clouds. But shows. Celebrity gossip, funny home improvement, stressed out moms, and college music festivals. Great stuff for the right brand — but it’s like the early days of Microsoft when Microsoft seemed to be taking the content-is-king thing seriously. Yahoo — remember Lloyd Braun? — also used to be into shows. So I guess there’s synergy going there.

I guess.

Flickr gets video …. well I’ll be

cookies on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

This is a good thing. I like Flickr. I like my FlipCam. I like my pictures — still and moving — in the same place.

Here’s the first one I’ve seen yet. Now to find a way to embed em in WordPress and life is good.

Yahoo finally gets something to make parity with YouTube.

Opening Day

Traffic into the city was brutal late morning (writing this from Logan on my way to RTP), I guess because its Opening Day for the Sox and they get their World Series rings for last fall’s victory.

I hope I won’t be blocked from watching this afternoon on MLB.com. I dropped $75 for the service and suspect it is not going to be of much help during home games.

Anyway, play ball!

The unknown Pulitzers (to me at least)

In the arts, (aka: books) this year’s crop is completely unknown to me:

Fiction: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)

Drama: “August: Osage County,” by Tracy Letts

History: “What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815-1848,” by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press)

Biography: “Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father,” by John Matteson (W.W. Norton)

Poetry: “Time and Materials,” by Robert Hass (Ecco/HarperCollins) and “Failure,” by Philip Schultz (Harcourt)

General Nonfiction: “The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945,” by Saul Friedlander (HarperCollins)

I guess I read more than the average person, but not one of these crossed my lap in 2007.