no, really

I wouldn’t call myself a pessimist. I’m a bit more of a realist, on the optimistic end of the spectrum. If you can figure out what that means, good for you!

All good things do come to an end… particularly when they’re named something as finite as Web 2.0. Even moreso when such a term is so buzz-y that whole magazines and conferences and business models are designed around its loosely defined description.

Crunchgear asserts that the end is nigh. Two factors are contributing to this: Laziness and Advertising. (more…)

You read it here first.

dinosaurl: a human relic of the old internet age.

usage:

“Can you believe that guy? ‘VC this’ and ‘development cycle’ that. What a dinosaurl!”

pronunciation:

DAI-nou-sawrl

play on:
di-no-sa-URL

© 2007

TV is slumping. Majorly. Read any business publication that covers media, and they’ll point to TV and newspapers and say something like “it’s like watching the titanic sink… in slow motion.”

TV is suffering a bit more noisily that newspapers. The ‘papers at least have subscription revenue to keep them propped upright as they offload passengers. DVR is tearing a giant gash in the hull of the HMS Boobtube.

(more…)

I attended one of the growing list of tech-centered events in New York this evening. As someone who appreciates the value of these kind of events in New York for a long list of reasons, I have to say… it wasn’t that great.

First off, it’s too large to be intimate. When there’s 20 people in a room, you can expect to meet 2-3 at a time, over the course of two hours, that’s at least 6 minutes per group. Even that might be too much to meet everyone in the room…. This meetup was about 100 people, easy.

Second, with the growing number of these meetings, it’s harder for each one to have high-quality presenters, so each one is less concerned with the quality of the company or the presenter, and more concerned about getting those 3+ spots filled so there’s something to talk about every month. There’s nothing worse than a room full of people expecting to see a show, and having nothing to give them.

It’s also a bit reflective of the industry. It’s good that everyone is excited and getting off the couch and building their dream, but when there are more ideas like “it’ll send you an sms when you leave the refrigerator door open!” and “you can calculate exactly how many steps there are to your office, based on your height!”, it starts to get tedious.

Everyone goes to these meetings hoping to see something revolutionary, or learn something about how to build their own business. Instead, they get a sloppy elevator pitch and a half-working presentation of another me-too idea.

This is why I’m still keen on nextNY. Because there is no one person coming up with the meetings, and there’s no rigid schedule, and most of the activity happens in the online group, it doesn’t get stale. There’s no room for stale. The people in the group are working really hard every day on their dream/career/obsession, and only have time to come out of their caves when it’s really worth it.

This month, nextSports did just that. It was a bit of a Socratic seminar on sports and technology in New York, featuring some key attendees and a group of 50 eager, interested, relevant participants to ask questions and steer the conversation in any way they saw fit. I was the instigator and helped run the first Community Conversation and it was wonderfully successful. I’ve been very interested in contributing more, and realized a great synergistic opportunity:

Troy is launching Tiki. Tiki helps techies. Tiki needs publicity. nextNY is techies. nextNY CC’s need venues. Venues cost money. Troy can publicize Tiki by sponsoring a venue for nextNY. Run, Spot, Run!

I was out to dinner last night with someone who just recently switched from his Treo (which he loved) to an iPhone (which he loves).  He’s not gadget-obsessed, but he’s young enough that technology is just a part of life like cookies or sneakers.

His biggest complaint about the iPhone is that he can’t one-hand type anymore.  He got very used to being able to feel his way around the keyboard on the Treo and type without looking.  This has its upsides and down – typing while driving is bad, no matter how you slice it.  Now with the iPhone, there are no “keys”, so you really have to pay attention to where you’re poking on the screen.  On his way to meet me, I texted him, and he was forced (lol) to call me back and let me know he was 5 mins away.

He said it would be great if there were a functional voice-to-txt function on the phone, or a service like voice dial for texts.  I knew I’d heard of one, and when I got home, I quickly looked it up.  The first one I found, and where I stopped was Jott .

I figured they’d got funding and purchased some xerox-developed voice recognition technology or something that allows them to convert from voice to text.  They don’t.  It says  something like “it’ll take a few minutes, our operators have to transcribe the message to send it.”

Operators??  I thought the advantage of working on the web was to *reduce* human interaction with end users, so as to decrease overhead and increase profit margins.  I’m guessing their operators work from home and stuff, but how can this scale easily?

On top of all this… they still don’t charge for it!

This makes me think a bit about Mahdad and my venture, the people required, and what it’ll take for us to get it done with little-to-no financing and without charging in the initial term.  Sigh.  The first million is indeed the hardest.

I’m desperately seeking an excuse to fly to California these days. I haven’t heard form anyone that has flown Virgin America, but I’m sure it’s quite wonderful… let me count the ways.

• mood lighting that makes me *want* a redeye
• music library (just like I obsessed about with Song)
• chat with other people on the plane… with a keyboard! (mile hi? <3)
• power, usb and ETHERNET(in 2008) jacks at your seat?!?
• program guide for the tv
• interactive flight maps (via google, of course)

This is some real limitless business development that makes Virgin rock. And it’s a “low-fare” airline. What more excuse do you need?

(no I did not get paid to write this… yet )