January 2011
30 posts
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“The value of investing in a place like D.C. is that you can find a company doing...”
– Ed Barrientos, chief executive of Brazen Careerist, who has invested $4.5 million in seven companies based in the Washington area since the mid-1990s, according to this piece about the burgeoning tech scene in Washington DC.
Who knew that real estate and start ups had so much in common? Okay,...
“The Web is obviously more oriented around instant news, and status updates, and...”
– Gillian Reagan writes up Brooklyn startup Atavist at Capital
Ratliff’s sense about the Web is right. But what does that mean really for the Web and the stalwart browser? Is that it? Long-form journalism will never thrive as long as it’s presented via your browser? If that’s true,...
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“Technology is not fighting a “battle against actual human contact” any more now...”
– Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Shit. Fucker is talented AND smart. Amen, Mr. Gordon-Levitt. Amen.
[via THE M▲DE SHOP]
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My brother's been on Tumblr for 2 minutes and he... →
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“The M.O. of the New Entrepreneur is to start small, launch fast, listen to your...”
– Choire Sicha in a story about new entrepeneurs in Details.
Sicha calls this the antidote to the too big to fail mentality. It’s not only startups that should be learning from their failures, but the bigger companies (ie publishers), too.
[found via Langer]
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Who's behind the new Forbes?
Over at Forbes, they’re REAL excited about their new site. And with good reason, redesigns are TOUGH. So who deserves a big pat on the back? Good luck finding out! New site doesn’t have a masthead. Nothing new, though. Old site’s masthead was all print. Wonder why they forgot to add it to the new site …
[Thanks, newzed]
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Shirky and Gladwell duke it out ... in print
Is it ironic that perhaps one of the greatest arguments about the legitimacy of social media is happening in print? First it was Shirky’s book. Then it was Gladwell in The New Yorker. Shirky countered with a piece in Foreign Affairs. Now, they both have columns in Foreign Affairs. Does this mean that Gladwell wins by default?
From an item in today’s WWD:
In the March/April issue of...
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Funny how that works
At the Globe, [Alan] Taylor’s job has been to be both a web developer and The Big Picture’s editor. “Part of the agreement to let me run the Big Picture was that I kept doing the other web development that needed to be done,” he noted in a blog post. “I agreed to that arrangement, and tried my best to make it work, but in the end, it was often unworkable — one or the other job would suffer...
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Something's missing
While reading today’s story in the Times about publishers angry with Apple’s refusal to create a subscription option for their iPad apps, I was struck more by what was missing from the article than what was in it. The reporter certainly did his homework when it came to polling publishers on their frustration with Apple, but he entirely failed to show Apple’s side of the...
Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
strle:
tpdsaa:
This tumblr has been an excellent addition to my dashboard.
YES.
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What is the True Measure of a Project Manager? →
I like this list, but there’s an element that’s missing: Creativity. A great project manager not only creatively adapts to problems as they arise, but creatively avoids them. There is perhaps this assumption that creativity is a natural talent. I find that, at least as far as project management in web development is concerned, creativity is something that is earned through a dedication...
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He Wishes Tech Journalists Would Learn This Stuff.... →
Yelvington is on point on metrics. But I think the problem is more systemic. If tech journalists are reporting traffic numbers incorrectly, it’s because they’re reflecting the misguided interpretation of their bosses and of the advertising industry that supports their publications. Perhaps one should expect more of journalists. Perhaps they should be the ones who educate. And I’m...
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“What is there to say about Saturday? Less than 48 hours, more than a million...”
– Buzz Bissinger
Bissinger is on a tear, bringing a hint of Socrates to Twitter: “The only real wisdom is knowing you [fucking] know nothing.” Even the Web can’t change an elemental truth. Thanks for reminding us, Buzz.
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“When it arrived the web […] was surprisingly good at emulating a TV, a...”
– Paul Ford
NAIL ON HEAD. Go on …
For those who have read on: I can’t say I agree with Ford that the web’s purpose can be boiled down to one question (although I am intrigued by the idea), but I’m a fan of any analysis that begins with this observation.
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Readers don't know if they RECOMMEND the new... →
Color me a little confused, too.
futurejournalismproject:
A clash between data-driven story recommendations and and organic user experience is playing out on the pages of The Huffington Post, as the so-called Internet Newspaper unveils a new story recommendation engine powered by Facebook and built by Adaptive Semantics.
In an effort to drive user…
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“There is a company I know of that is one of the most exciting new startups in...”
– Fred Wilson
This is a problem in Gowanus, too: No good Internet where the cheap commercial rents are.
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BRYCE DOT VC: Twitter Click Through Rates →
Interesting post about Twitter engagement. Keeping my fingers crossed that there’s going to be a followup that compares the Twitter numbers to his Tumblr numbers.
brycedotvc:
“Don’t look at your stats”. That was the advice given to me by a good friend shortly after I started posting here more frequently. It was well intentioned and came from a very genuine place. Basically, he was...
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Anil Dash is worried about the ephemeral nature of...
Here’s his two solutions:
1) Blog more.
2) “I should make a pitch that this is part of the reason I am so enamored of the work the ThinkUp community is doing. A free, thriving, powerful, relatively accessible app that archives Twitter and Facebook updates with a mind towards incorporating them into more persistent and meaningful media is an essential part of the ecosystem.”
...
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Dude has had it up to here with infographics. →
futurejournalismproject:
What he really seems to be saying: do it with an NYT budget or don’t bother, because you’re not really telling the story better.
Brier seems to be conflating BAD infographics with ALL infographics. What’s interesting is that he’s more willing to admit that he’s wrong—”Where I struggle with this a little, is that it feels fairly contradictory to...
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“[Former Dolphins] Coach [Nick] Saban used to say you’re worrying about a mouse...”
– Ricky Williams, running back for the Miami Dolphins, who failed to make the playoffs—playoffs!?—this year.
I don’t ever post about football, but I felt this quote had broader appeal.
(Small football specific sidenote: When one of your runningbacks starts quoting a former coach, who...
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iPad Publishing: What Went Wrong, Lessons Learned →
cameronmoll:
A really thoughtful article from Frédéric Filloux on what went wrong during the first six months of major publishers creating content for iPad, and some lessons learned for creating better experiences in 2011 and beyond.
I second that. Great article. It is a must-read summation of the first 6 months of iPad publishing. Some of the publishers’ failures will be fixed, like...
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“Not that I think the old way was boring, but to spend another two years with the...”
– Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips
Sounds like Wayne needs a Tumblr.
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It's Instapaper for ads—and it now has $43M in... →
Scott Kurnit, founder of About.com, has raised $43M (!) for AdKeeper, “a way for advertisers to include a ‘keep’ button on their ads so users can save the ads somewhere and browse them later.”
Don’t know exactly what the user is “keeping” when they click on the button. Is it the URL? The ad itself? The most important thing to note is that it keeps the...