Recently, my first contributed article ran in PCWorld which covered my favorite apps to ‘Enhance Your Productivity via the Web.’ I make five web app recommendations, a couple of which are IRL services that are delivered via the web – my standout favorite is listed last.
Click through to find out what’s been my biggest time-saver in 2011.
Posted in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, web 2.0
Great article on theme of big data at FOO Camp this year.
http://urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2011/06/20/all-watched-over-on-foo-cybernetics-and-big-data/
Posted in Uncategorized
You’re a tech startup based outside the Bay Area, and you’re wondering if you should bring company shirts to wear or give away at an upcoming conference or event in San Francisco.
While company branding is important, to bring shirts or not is a small decision. If you have the time and money, do it. If not, don’t stress about it as it’s not going to break you.
The obvious advantage of wearing a company shirt is being easily identifiable at an event. But you can run the risk of looking sloppy, unprofessional, or out of sync with trends with a poor fit or colors. For women that’s pretty much guaranteed if you’re wearing a men’s cut t-shirt.
American Apparel is the brand I strongly recommend for fit and fabric. If you have women on your team make sure to order them women’s sizes. Zendesk has great women’s shirts. The added advantage of having women’s shirts is because so few companies offer them, they tend to get worn more.
What you want to make sure to avoid is company polo shirts. Trust me when I tell you these shirts don’t look more business appropriate, they just look like a uniform for a 90s software sales guy.
If you’re wondering if a polo shirt might be a good option for those who play golf, I would say that while I know a lot of people in San Francisco’s tech industry, I don’t know anyone at a startup or in the tech press who plays golf. You’re more likely to find those folks rock climbing at Mission Cliffs or organizing a round of dodgeball or Ultimate Frisbee in Golden Gate Park.
If you’re meeting with a VC and want to dress it up a bit, any dress shirt is a better choice than a company polo. They know what company you’re with if they’re meeting you.
Most important for your next event or conference – be rested, have a smile, bring your business cards, and an iPad to demo your app.
Posted in Uncategorized
After spending two years reading and writing about the BlackBerry, I get a tinge of parental pride every time I read an article like the one in Fortune about RIM earlier this week:
“…According to industry tracker IDC, the bestselling smartphone in the U.S. so far this year by units is not the iPhone but the BlackBerry Curve.”
While many see the iPhone/BlackBerry competition as zero sum between consumer and business users, it turns out that Apple’s marketing job convincing consumers they’d enjoy having the power of a desktop in a handheld device has been a boon to RIM.
Jessica Hempel, author of the Fortune article, states, “Since the iPhone’s introduction in June 2007, BlackBerry quarterly sales have more than tripled, from $1.1 billion to $3.4 billion.”
Most interesting to me is the article’s note that RIM first started targeting mass audiences in 2008:
“Once considered mostly a business tool, of late the BlackBerry has made huge gains as a consumer product. RIM launched its first television ad campaign targeting a mass audience in 2008, and last quarter 80% of its new subscribers came from the nonbusiness crowd.”
During the research I conducted into RIM’s market positioning in 2006-2007, I found the campaign for the mass audience consumer to already be well under way as RIM was promoting the BlackBerry Pearl to consumers.
Below is a short excerpt from Chapter 3 of Constant Connectivity in a Wireless Age: The Discursive Promotional Strategies of the BlackBerry
The BlackBerry Pearl Website
Many of the themes found on the Prosumer and Corporate focused BlackBerry website are reiterated on the Consumer-focused Pearl website, albeit with a flashier designed website. The focus is on family and leisure, as well as the style component, as the profiles include several creative professionals who highlight the design features of the device. It is clear from the high-production value of the website that RIM is leveraging its best-in-class reputation (RIM, 2006 Annual Report, p.11) as a business tool to promote the Pearl as an aspirational, luxury brand smartphone. The Pearl is presented as an extension of the user’s personality, enabling one to mediate their successful personal and work lives with the technological assistance of a stylish device.
It seems RIM’s first foray into a consumer phones with the Pearl has been followed up by what looks to be the wildly successful BlackBerry Curve.
I wish them luck on the on-going battle for market dominance. The lack of exclusive service provider deal baggage should provide some real leverage as complaints about AT&T service continue to intensify.
Posted in BlackBerry, constant connectivity, iPhone, Mobile
Tagged Fortune Magaine, IDC report, sales
Single-themed picture blogs are hawt.
I’m late to the Tumblr party, but you can’t help but notice the Tumblr aesthetic taking over the web with the proliferation of awesome single-themed picture blogs (though they’re not all necessarily Tumblr blogs).
As with an web service or site, as soon as it hits a critical mass, the critics get snarky – a la Fuck Yeah Sharks:
Copy longer than 10 words is so Q2 2008.
My favorite Single Themed Picture Blogs…
Moron Ail – picture blog, though not single topic
What am I missing?
What are you favorites?
In addition to being beautifully designed, there’s a lot of great noises in this game – trolloping hooves under the head, an ear tug that turns into breathing fire, an airplane propeller nose, bouncing beach balls, a woman laughing when her foot is tickled.
Check it out at http://www.feedthehead.net/
There were some great mash-ups this week and I’ve posted a few of my favorites below.
Colbert kicked off the week during a convo with Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig.
Eclectic Method – The Colbert Report – Remix feat Lawrence Lessig
Other gems include a remix of excerpts from Obama’s audiobook autobiography and a hilarious video of Christian Bale’s audio rant remixed with the drooling and doped up kid in the back seat after the dentist.
Barack Obama is tired of you s**t (Techno Zuendli Mix)
Christian Bale takes David to the Dentist (Mash-Up)
A recent article on Mashable caught my attention with a headline about the problem with all the openness in a social media world. However, my attention was soon redirected by the mention at the end of the article about clever car thieves in the Netherlands who reverse engineer luxury car GPS systems by stealing cars at the airport and using the system to lead them back to empty homes.
The GPS scam struck me as a particularly civilized form of robbery, a Thomas Crowne type of an affair involving airports and luxury cars, as compared to the rude reminder of B.C.’s less glamorous car theft problem I received when I was recently visiting Vancouver. As I got on the SkyTrain to head downtown, a huge sign tacked to the wall of the mall overlooking a grey parking lot warned “Bait Cars Are Everywhere.”
The car bait program has been in place since 2002 and has seen a dramatic decrease in car thefts in the Lower Mainland, according to ICBC. The program has a sexy website (in comparison to ICBC or the VPD anyway), which is where I found this gem about how my hometown is managing to buck the province-wide trend of declining car thefts: Bait Cars Tackle Williams Lake Auto Theft Epidemic.
I’ll have to write something nice about my hometown next time. Until then, underscore_mouse and abbenquesnel have some pretty Flickr pictures of the area…
Posted in constant connectivity, social media
Tagged Bait Cars, Flickr, GPS, Vancouver, Williams Lake
Last week Valleywag wrote about Mission hipsters taking on the Google with spray cans.
This past weekend on my walk home after a Friday night tutorial at Zeitgeist on how to graffiti like the pros (it involves a paper bag), I noticed the same stencil spray painted on the corner of 24th & Guerrero.
I walk past the Google shuttle stop every morning and I don’t know that I’d go as far as to call them “trendy professionals”, but I think the graffiti guys and the googlites have a lot in common, per Richard Flordia’s thesis in “The Rise of the Creative Class.” Florida posits that creative professionals are simply seeking communities with a sense of ‘authenticity’… that would be panaderias over Banana Republic.
Shootings > Starbucks?
It’s too bad the salaries of Googlites can’t take care of drive-by shootings on the same corner. From SF Gate on June 23:
…
San Francisco police also were investigating a shooting Sunday night of a man in his mid-30s who was attacked near the corner of 24th and Guerrero streets by a person who jumped out of a car and started shooting. The shooter then jumped back into the car and fled with a driver, according to police.
In related news, if “young professionals” don’t do it, the government will take care of public blight for you:
Sad chapter in Western Addition history ending
The Fillmore, where 60 percent of the residents were African American, was declared blight in 1948. The first demolition project began in 1956. The second phase, the brainchild of the redevelopment agency’s then-head Justin Herman, began in 1964 and expanded the area to 60 square blocks. Eminent domain was used to purchase Victorian homes and buy out local businesses. The thriving black business community was destroyed as owners of nightclubs, barbershops, banks and retail stores were forced to close up shop.
…
The city plans to turn over 1,300 acres – more than half of the Bayview-Hunters Point area – to the Redevelopment Agency to help clean up blight, build affordable housing and stimulate business. The project creates the largest redevelopment district in San Francisco history.
** Update, Aug. 18: The graffiti lesson was delivered on Day 14, check out Notes from the Zeitgeist
Posted in San Francisco
Tagged creative class, gentrification, Google, Mission hipsters, Richard Florida
Yesterday BNET held a Lunch 2.0 speaker series with Mary J. Foley talking to Dan Farber, CNET editor-in-chief, about Mary’s new book, “Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era.”
The summation seemed to be that Microsoft will continue throwing a lot of money around for the foreseeable future.
As the talk wrapped up and Dan gave the final pitch for the book, he asked Mary how much the book cost and she responded with, “Free, like beer.”
The book in fact was not free.
Web 2.0 mistake… assuming the drinks are always free?
Lunch however was on CNET, which was enjoyed out on their sunny patio.
Posted in San Francisco
Tagged BNET, CNET, Dan Farber, Lunch 2.0, Mary J. Foley, Microsoft
SocializedGeek 
