C|net Serves Up Burritos, Good Times, and B|net

Cnet brought in the lunchgoers-in-the-know to its hip headquarters in SOMA for some local tex-mex. This is the first time I’ve been to cnet, and what struck me immediately is how fun and laid back their crew is. Specifically, I spoke with Andrew Mager, Elisabeth Bittner, and Gina (didn’t get the last name!), and got tipped off to their bnet portal. Yeah, I’m the last to know I guess.

The bnet portal Andrew took me through is definitely worth checking out – it seems to be cnet’s direct strike at portals like HBR and Knowledge @ Wharton, in an “Ivy League content for the rest of us” way. The site includes practical advice about gtd, running effective meetings, and navigating corporate politics. The content is succinctly written, and right on the money: I find myself in almost unanimous agreement with their list of Top 10 overrated business books, and their Top 10 underrated business books. I nearly cheered in my seat when I came across the part where they recommend The Art of War over the impractical and unrealistic advice in “Leadership Secrets of Atilla the Hun“. How to manage your boss is the kind of thing I wish I had read coming out of college and into my first job.

It’ll be interesting to see if my favorite book writers decide to contribute. I’m not talking about the standard so-called genius types you see prominently displayed at your local Barnes and Noble (they seem to be a dime a dozen these days). I’m talking about the gurus’ gurus: CK Prahalad, Greg Mankiw, or the next Peter Drucker.

Any how, here are a few pics of cnet’s lunch 2.0. I apologize for the awful quality – I goofed on the camera setting and this is the result.

The whole set can be had for the taking here. Thanks for a great time cnet!

Lunch Long and Prosper

Cheesy title I know, but I couldn’t resist!

The latest installment of lunch 2.0 was kindly hosted by Spock in Redwood City, the people-search people.

These folks have a great sense of humor, as you can see from the meeting room tag above. I had a blast chatting it up with Matt, Chris, Maia, and Harleen (well, not technically an employee). Maia and Chris spent some time demoing the product and answering questions from the crowd:

Spock’s offering is basically a niche search function – “people search”. The differentiators here is the presentation of search results and community results function: google meets wiki meets white pages? The social network aspect of Spock allows individuals to self-select and community vote-up related individuals (Joe Montana tied to the late Bill Walsh for example). Below is a photograph of people related to Presidential candidate Barack Obama:

Another nice feature is the manner in which Spock aggregates listings. I’ll elaborate by paraphrasing Matt Lawson of Spock: “Searching on google for David Stern from silicon valley will yield 12 links about the NFL commissioner. Spock will give you the NFL commissioner and the local personality right below.” We’ve all tried googling a common name – Matt is right on the money. I’m wondering if this is leading to a parallel offering to what OpenID is trying to achieve. Time will tell.

On a personal note, I had a fantastic time revisiting the NYC social scene with Harleen Mroke, who apparently picks up and moves for the heck of it from time to time, just like me. I have a feeling she’ll stick around now that she’s married to Jay Bhatti (Spock co-founder).

Mosey on over to the full set of pics from lunch here for more.

Best of Bar Camp Block 2007

Bar Camp Block was tons of fun, and huge success if you’re to garner such success from the quality of ideas shared and the amount of drunken revelry involved. Both score pretty high. It was great seeing people come in from out of town, from places like Arizona and Miami. There’s been plenty of coverage of bar camp block from great folks like Jeremiah Owyang, Jordan Sissel, and Kent Bye. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here, but rather give you a Biz dev guy’s impression of what the two most interesting conversations were at Bar camp.

The Social Graph

One of the most interesting discussions was on the social graph, moderated by Brad Fitzgerald of Plaxo, David Recordon of Verisign, and Joe Smarr of Plaxo. Brad’s article about the social graph. That’s what started this whole discussion.

Here’s the ADD summary: Many of you may have joined a social network like Facebook or Involver. You may also be messaging on tools like Twitter or Jaiku. The problem is each time you join a network, you have to add your friends, associates, and family all over again. And again. And again. And again. Lame.

That’s David over to the left and Brad to the right. You can just make out Joe in the corner too.

Aggregating the social graph allows users to port over contacts and relationships regardless of social network. The holy grail here would be that I can join Linked in, then join Facebook and transfer my contacts effortlessly, while allowing linked in users to send me messages and make changes which I receive in facebook. The problem is biz dev types will be slow to support this idea, simply because everyone interested in profiting from attention loves vendor-lock in. In fact I’ve been told point blank by one person that nobody will ever cannabalize their own market share by introducing free export of data.

This is incorrect for two reasons. First, fencing off you audience almost never works. Even sans-export feature, a more ambitious competitor is likely to provide a means of reconstructing relationships from email or other user supplied data. Just ask any old school AOL exec who was in denial about the emergence of the internet in the mid 1990s. Or ask the people in charge of biz dev for Sony BetaMax. You’re also just a feature away from users feeling it worth while to manually reconstruct their relationships because of a cool new competitor feature. That leads me to the second point: open data ironically maintains market share. Personally, I spend a disproportionate amount of time on one particular social network and check the others from time to time. A social network which allows a tight integration with my favorite portal stays relevant and useful in my mind. I’m far quicker to discard a social net cul-de-sac from my daily routine.

Here’s one example of what this may look like: most of my social activity is on Facebook, but most of my work related activity is on Linked in. There’s no real reason to discard either; this isn’t a crowded space. I like Linked in for business networking purposes as much as I like poking the heck out of people on Facebook. Both become even more indispensible to me if they share data. Which is not to say this leaves us with the weakest of differators in the form of brand equity. Rather, the whole point here is that tall this social graph discussion is simply an acceptance of the fact that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work for social networks any more than it does for Levi’s jeans. The best part is that the technology infrastructure to support this social netowrk mobility is already in place. As is a logo for this, which Brad probably drew in MS Paint:

If you’re a director level or above invididual tasked with any kind web presence strategy, you’ll have to deal with the implications of social networks, and network portability. It’s time to start thinking about this now.

The Crash of Web 2.0, Uh Oh!

Are we seeing a bubble again? What are the leading indicators of an inflection point of growth or market maturity? These were the topics of discussion at hand which Mukund Mohan was good enough to moderate. Basically this was a cool chat simply because anybody who’s interested enough to show up to Bar Camp is going to be interested in this.

The consensus (one I don’t necessarily agree with) is that Web 2.0 applications have hit the point in the product lifecycle where you cross over from research and development to growth.

Some of the leading indicators mentioned were matriculation rates at universities (and conversely, drop out rates), investment capital flowing in (or lack thereof), “mainstream” media attention (a sure sign of maturity), and investment in fiber. The idea here is basically we’ve been through the growth, maturity and decline of Web 1.0, and the patterns which developed back then should repeat themselves unless we proactively take steps to ensure a softer landing this time. And we should. I’m going to leave the details of the leading indicators for another time, simply because I’m going to write a blog entry solely about this topic.

The participants also spent time analyzing the differences between the previous rise of the web, and this turn around. For instance, the first wave required massive amounts of investment in infrastructure than does this wave. Web 1.0 hence was definied by the need for VC capital, barriers to entry for smaller competitors leading to a small number of competitors, and the 80-20 rule defining ratio of infrastructure cost to people cost. This time around, the infrastructure is easier and less expensive to acquire, and so the 80-20 rule this time relates the reverse – namely people costs to infrastructure cost. The result in turn should be a greater number of market players and a much longer shake-out and consolidation period.

Viva La Bar Camp

So my first Bar Camp was tons of fun. If you’re nearby a local Bar Camp and have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it. I’m going to try to time my next trip to China such that I can hit the Bar Camp in Shanghai as well – should be a great opportunity to find out how the discussions differ on the other side of the world. I’ll post if I can make it.

The Birthplace of Silicon Valley

Seredipity is a wonderful thing. Terrible direction sense of mine, I was lost for the upteenth time in Palo Alto one day in spring 2002, and I happened to drive by what looked like a historic site sign. As I drove by I made out the shiny brass title, reading “BIRTHPLACE OF SILICON VALLEY”. Having no inkling of why this little double-decker house was so christened, I moved along only later to read about the fabled garage where HP began.

Fast forward five years later. Today, I was fortunate enough to head back in with a group of new media elite, and walk through a bit of history. Anna Mancini, archivist at HP, provided the backdrop to the story of the garage where Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett seeded one the world’s most recognizable brands. It’s a fun read, I encourage you to check it out.

Being at the HP garage was more than just a chance to take in the rich history of the silicon valley – it was a chance to reconnect with an integral part of American history, and a chance to put “bootstrapping” into perspective. The computing revolution which HP is an integral part of is as uniquely American as apple pie. As it turns out, I had toured the colonial home of George Washington in upstate New York just two months ago while living on the east coast. I couldn’t help but think about how far we’ve come in such a short time. Really short. When you think about it, America really doesn’t have much history. Don’t get me wrong, our history is rich. It’s just, well short. We effectively went from riding draft horses to assembling transistors in a span of 200 years. It’s hard to put into words how startling it is to see such a stark transition from one historical site to another in the span of about 3-4 lifetimes.

But I digress. There was more than just history here – there is inspiration. Adjacent to the garage lining the side of the Dave Packard home is a small shed amidst the beautifully manicured back yard. I hardly noticed it, until Anna mentioned that Bill Hewlett actually rented out this small shed as living space.

That’s not just one part of the shed Bill lived in. That’s pretty much all of it.. about half the size of my living room where I now write this. IT wasn’t just Bill and Dave involved either – this was a family affair. Lucile “Lu” Packard and Flora Hewlett played an important role as primary wage earners and investors.

The team was resourceful – by 1939, the HP 200A audio oscillator became the company’s flagship product and best seller (HP wouldn’t get into the computer business until the mid 1960s). Interestingly enough, they couldn’t afford to hire much help or outsource things like product finishing, so the Packard kitchen stove became HP’s firstpaint baking/finishing shop. Below on the shelves are two 200A audio oscillators.

Eventually Bill, Dave, and their fairer partners outgrew the workspace and expanded to the shed. By the early 1940s, they had outgrown the property altogether and moved out. The rest we all know; one neat thing I learned however is that the shed was still being rented out as living space as late as the 1980s! HP acquired the property in the year 2000, and began the renovation efforts which allowed us today to take in the scene exactly as it was in 1939.

Talk about bootstrapping it! This is what silicon valley is all about – smart people coming from humble beginnings, working together to build the next technology empire. Standing where the pioneers once stood was a poigant reminder that the bay area is steeped with the culture of building a technology empire from scratch, and that it’s our turn to build the next great silicon valley story.

If you’d like to see the full set of pictures I took, have a look here. Brian Solis also did a fantastic job of writing up a narrative with pictures. Last but not least, Scobleizer has linked up a video of the tour. I highly recommend the tour video.

I’d like to thank Dave Berman and Anna Mancini of HP Media Relations for taking their Sunday morning to host a tour and field questions from curious bloggers, as well as Chris Aarons of Buzz Corps for helping to set it up. I’d also like to thank Robert Scoble for extending me an invite.

Skype Pwns Itself

Seems like has gone tits-up out due to a glitch in the software. the latest from the Skype website as of right now:

UPDATED 16 August, 2007 14:02 GMT: Some of you may be having problems logging in to Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the issue is resolved, you will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience.

So it’s back to the POTS or cell networks if you want to make a long distance, non-cheap call for 12 hours at best. I’m waiting for the inevitable story in the mainstream press, which will go something like this : “if your primary home service is IP-telephony based, what happens in a pinch if they’re down and 911 isn’t available?” But here’s something sensible that is right on the money (well, I think so at least): If you’ve come to rely on instant messenger or any social networking site for your daily communication needs, you should be multi-threaded. Twitter down? continue on Pownce or Facebook or Gtalk or etc.

That my friends is why the social networking scene isn’t quite as crowded as most people think it is.

Got CFLs? Read This if You Break One.

So you’ve decided to be a responsible citizen of planet earth. You’ve decided to make small changes which add up. CFLs are a no-brainer step to take – they drop lighting energy needs to 25% on average with zero impact on your lighting needs. They pay for themselves (especially if you live in California, where PG&E subsidizes the cost of CFLs).  Nice job.

Unfortunately, you’ve brought Mercury into your home.  We’re only talking about 5mg Hg here per bulb (thermometers use 100 times more), but it’s important to dispose of this stuff the right way to avoid adverse health. Here is the ADD version of the Dept of Energy’s instructions on disposing of broken CFLs:

1. Don’t touch it. Open a window and leave the area for 15 minutes.

2. Scoop up the remnants using disposable cloth, paper towel, or sticky tape and drop them in a sealed plastic bag. Do not vacuum the area.

3. Seal the bag with another sealed bag.

4. Take the bagged bag to a recycling center. Don’t trash it.

As always, use your common sense – if you have a little one in the house who loves breaking things and putting them in her mouth, use normal bulbs on low hanging table lamps.

Why We Need Powntbook

I’ve embraced Pownce, Twitter, and Facebook (“Powntbook”) in a way I never really embraced other apps. They’re distributed, are easy enough for anyone to pick up, and enable instant many-to-many “naked communication“.

So why the rant? I’m getting there – but first an ultra condensed history of communication for the truly ADD. From the stone age until the printing press, conversations were, for the most part one-to-one (1:1). Gutenburg changed that and enabled one-to-many (1:M) communication. Pretty much every subsequent communication innovation since has focused on either 1:1 (telephone, email) or 1:M (newspapers, television, radio). Both types of communication have limitations. 1:1 doesn’t scale well; how many phone calls can you make in one day?. 1:1 is inefficient and also requires on to have the same conversation over and over in some cases. 1:M is ultimately boring as it’s a one-way broadcast and not a conversation.

What we need is many-to-many.

Web 2.0 is about enabling M:M conversations, which is why profoundly significant event in human history. Regardless of who you are, communication takes up more of your day than anything else. M:M communications enable information economy productivity gains the way the industrial revolution enabled industrial productivity gains. What I’m describing isn’t some far off future, rather what’s happening today. Don’t take my word for it – most teenagers already think email is for old people.

I hate 1:1 and I love M:M. I instant message my girl, my mom, and that’s about it. Best way to get my attention? Twitter. Email is something I usefor official purposes only. So why the rant?

I log into twitter (via the most excellent twitterrific).

I log into wordpress to blog.

Then I log into Pownce.

Then I log into Facebook.

Dammit this is slowing me down again.

I want Facebook or Pownce to incorporate Twitter and let me blog too. I want to log in once. Come on guys, you have open APIs, right? End of rant.

If you’re on either network, feel free to join me on Facebook, Pownce, or Twitter. I plan to get around to writing more about web 2.0 social tools from a biz dev perspective. I hope you’ll participate.

I Simply Can’t Explain This.

The first picture I took on my iphone was at Fry’s in Palo Alto.

I took a picture of this….

..thing.