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TechCrunch
Twitter to IM: Drop Dead
Steve Gillmor Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:29:25 -0000
It took a worldwide financial meltdown for Twitter to finally cough up the IM hairball. At BearHug Camp, I spent about 10 of the 30 minute executive visitation trying to pin down Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Alex Payne on when exactly Track and IM would be back, and in what order. Turns out the IM part isn't coming back; it's been moved from Broken to Build. Evan Williams delivers the bad news with a refreshing frankness, suggesting the ROI of IM services for a small percentage of Twitter users puts it down the list below other more pressing priorities. And at the bottom of the email, he points at a fledgling third-party service that gives you a way of "tweeting" over the Jabber XMPP gateway. The author is mulling how to provide access to users' follows. No mention is made of Track, of course.
Where are we going?
Dan Kimerling Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:59:09 -0000
The question of where we are going is on the mind of most people these days. While I for one do not know, Tim O'Reilly and Dave McClure have some great ideas.
During Tough Times, The Echo Chamber Can Be Your Best Friend
Brian Solis Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:40:37 -0000
We are witnessing either an epic financial meltdown or a long overdue resetting of existing business practices and the hollow markets they create. Or, perhaps we’re experiencing both of these phenomena. Either way, it has the nation gripped with fear, uncertainty, and an unsettling eruption of questionable advice confusing everyone, everywhere. While the floor is crumbling for many industries much in the same way it did for Silicon Valley during the dotbomb years, the sky isn’t necessarily falling on the startup industry – at least not for those with marketable technology or products, dedicated and capable teams, an executable business plan, and access to the resources necessary to help it reach users and customers. For those startups that are building and marketing something of value for consumers or businesses, there is much work to do. While there is always a need to attract mainstream users, this isn’t the time to stretch or over-commit resources to hit everyone all at once. Branding is an expensive proposition, one that requires time, capital, diligence, dedicated teams, enthusiastic customers, and patience. As counter intuitive as it may seem, this is exactly the right time to market into the echo chamber to earn the support of influentials who will create significant, concentrated brand visibility and momentum to carry you forward. Your business can grow with the groundswell and doesn’t necessarily require the instant adoption by the masses in order to succeed in the short term.
WeAre.Us is (Almost) Like Ning, But With A Heart. Wins First VenCorps Prize.
Serkan Toto Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:13:55 -0000
When you are suffering from a chronic disease, sometimes the only people who can understand what you are going through are other people with the same condition. But when that condition is rare, it can be difficult to find them. WeAre.Us wants to help. It is a platform of 16 social networks that connect people with chronic illnesses. And it just launched a revamped version (which mainly features an improved user interface). The site entered the crowded health 2.0 market last April, but stands out with its focused internal framework and commitment to supporting the patients who use it. In contrast to health platforms like DailyStrength or Revolution Health, which serve as a contact point for health-related topics of any kind, WeAre.Us connects people affected by severe illnesses only. In that sense, it is more like PatientsLikeMe. But rather than create an all-encompassing site, WeAre.Us decided to take more of a niche social network approach.
Yamli Makes It Easy To Use Arabic On The Web
Jason Kincaid Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:10:56 -0000
Approximately 60% of Arabic-speaking Internet users dislike using an Arabic keyboard, according to Yamli, a Massachusetts-based startup that launched last year. CEO Habib Haddad explains that many users have to use a Latin keyboard for their jobs or school, which makes the keyboards impractical (and many think they're just hard to type with). When it comes time to type in Arabic, many Internet users have adopted a phonetic web language that spells out Arabic words with these Latin letters. The result, Haddad says, is messy - especially when it comes to making sounds that don't exist in English. Yamli has built a system that solves this problem. Users enter words phonetically into a special text box that displays a list of matching words that are written in Arabic. This allows them to keep using their Latin keyboard, without having the resulting text look like gibberish. Because there are around 22 dialects in the Arab world, Yamli has to deal with multiple different phonetic spellings, which Haddad says it does with around 95% accuracy.
As Rome Burned, Team Cyprus Danced
Michael Arrington Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:26:10 -0000
Yes, the meme is just getting started it seems. 1938Media does his own take of the Team Cyprus video, set to the tune of AC/DC's HighWay To Hell:
ENN Investing and Corporate Social Responsibility
Study Suggests Carbon Market Encourages Chopping Forests
The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tons of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported Monday.
Technology Companies Tout Greener Credentials, but Significant Improvements Are Distant
With energy costs high and environmental friendliness making for good public relations, more tech companies are touting ways they are "greening" data centers, which serve up Web pages, swap Internet traffic, and process and store business information.
Westinghouse Seals Mega China Nuclear Deal
U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric signed on Tuesday a multi-billion-dollar deal with Chinese partners to build four nuclear reactors in eastern China, finalising a pact agreed between Beijing and Washington seven months ago.
The Financial Page
James Surowiecki: What drives market volatility?
James Surowiecki Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
American investors are frazzled. True, oil prices have fallen from their most vertiginous highs, the dollar is a bit stronger, and the stock market has actually risen over the past month. But none of those things have happened in a smooth and steady fashion. The stock market’s “ascent,” in particular . . .
James Surowiecki: Too many stakeholders can be a deal-breaker.
James Surowiecki Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In the second decade of the twentieth century, it was almost impossible to build an airplane in the United States. That was the result of a chaotic legal battle among the dozens of companies--including one owned by Orville Wright--that held patents on the various components that made a . . .
James Surowiecki: Sponsoring Recklessness
James Surowiecki Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
When do the words “not guaranteed” actually mean “guaranteed”? Whenever the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are involved. The two companies have long been required to tell investors that their securities are not guaranteed by the federal government. But in the financial markets everyone has always assumed that . . .
NYT > Your Money
Your Money: One Thing You Can Control: Your Credit Score
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:05:27 -0000
Tips for improving your credit standing since your credit score is something that you have a fair bit of control over.
About New York: When Plastic Seduces, a Reckoning Awaits
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:21:21 -0000
As the final stop on the subprime lending train, the Civil Court has become the 21st-century debtors’ court.
Your Money: Switching to Cash May Feel Safe, but Risks Remain
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:39:33 -0000
Fleeing the stock market for the comfort of safe and insured, investors with a time horizon beyond a few years may be doing real damage to their long-term finances.
The Economist: The World Bank and the IMF
The world economy: Bad, or worse
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
At best, the world economy is on the brink of recessionDEPRIVE a person of oxygen and he will turn blue, collapse and eventually die. Deprive economies of credit and a similar process kicks in. As the financial crisis has broadened and intensified, the global economy has begun to suffocate. That is why the world’s central banks have been administering emergency measures, including a round of co-ordinated interest-rate cuts on October 8th. With luck they will prevent catastrophe. They are unlikely to avert a global recession.According to the IMF’s most recent World Economic Outlook, published on October 8th, the world economy is “entering a major downturn” in the face of “the most dangerous shock” to rich-country financial markets since the 1930s. The fund expects global growth, measured on the basis of purchasing-power parity (PPP), to come down to 3% in 2009, the slowest pace since 2002 and on the verge of what it considers to be a global recession. (The fund’s definition of global recession takes many factors into account, including the rate of population growth.) Given the scale of the financial freeze, the fund’s forecast looks optimistic. Other forecasters are convinced that a global recession is inevitable. Economists at UBS, for instance, expect global growth of only 2.2% in 2009. ...
Chad: Breaking the bank
Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:08:08 -0000
A vaunted model development project goes awryWHEN the World Bank agreed to help finance a controversial pipeline from oilfields in Chad to a port in Cameroon, it claimed to be raising the bar for transparency and good government in the extractive industries. It insisted that the government of Chad spend almost all its revenue from the project on development; to make sure it did so, the oil firms involved were to pay royalties into an escrow account monitored by an independent agency. Eight years later, the bar has fallen with a thud. Rather than comply with the bank’s strictures, the government of Chad has repaid its loans in full. It will now do as it pleases with its oil money.The project did not get off to an auspicious start: the government spent a chunk of its $25m signing bonus on arms. As local rebel movements grew stronger, and the conflict in neighbouring Darfur began to spill over into Chad, the government’s urge to funnel cash to the army only grew. It bickered frequently with the bank and the oil firms about the terms of the deal. The lockbox for revenue proved insecure, since the government simply took the money disbursed for education and health care and diverted it to less worthy causes. “Ultimately,” says a World Banker, “these projects depend on the political will of the governments involved.” ...
Poverty: The bottom 1.4 billion
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
The world is poorer than we thought, the World Bank discoversCorrection to this articleIN APRIL 2007 the World Bank announced that 986m people worldwide suffered from extreme poverty—the first time its count had dropped below 1 billion. On August 26th it had grim news to report. According to two of its leading researchers, Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, the “developing world is poorer than we thought”. The number of poor was almost 1.4 billion in 2005. ...
