May 2013
23 posts
“These are not illegal hotels. These are amazing stories within a core community...”
– New York today: the real story
“As so many of those same legislators have made clear since then, the target of...”
– New York today: the real story
“If other people can’t use pull-to-refresh, they can never build on top of...”
– Loren Brichter -
Twitter granted patent on pull-to-refresh, promises to only use it defensively | The Verge
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“in a dataset where the location of an individual is specified hourly,
and with...”
– Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, Cesar A. Hidalgo, Michel Verleysen & Vincent D. Blonde, Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility (PDF)
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Riding on Services
I’ve been working on an internal web app for the past few weeks.
I’m not a “real” programmer, so as usual I just figure things out as I go along and make lots of mistakes, but I always learn new stuff. This is how I learned programming in the first place, got my first gigs building websites, then ended up at OpenPlans, Code for America and now USV. My favorite thing...
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter on Samples, Creating... →
jedsundwall:
It’s really hard to say. The whole starting point of that record was to somehow question the magical powers of recorded audio at a time when pop music is mostly recorded on laptops with a small microphone and a pair of headphones in airport lounges and hotel rooms. We’re not really part of that generation. We’re part of the previous generation, where a studio was a collection of...
“But it’s a mistake to equate peer production with anticapitalism. This isn’t...”
– Chris Anderson, Wired 14.07: People Power
an oldie (2006) but a goodie, and as relevant today as ever.
Wantrepreneur vs. Entrepreneur →
The Wantrepreenur, the Glory getter Wannabe-Steve-Jobs’. They want the admiration, the envy, the success. They’re just not willing to do anything to jeopardize that dream. Mounting an all out effort for revenue and failing would kill that dream. So don’t ask those users who say they will pay to pay. Don’t knock on doors. Keep playing in the pitch contests and keep talking to the press.
The...
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“This is a problem that is unique to software. We wouldn’t permit in any...”
– Professor Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School, on the problem of “functional claiming”, or “patenting the problem, not the solution.”
from The Patent Quality Improvement Act on usv.com
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Schumer Taking a Whack at Patent Trolls
Today I’ve got a post up on the USV blog about Senator Chuck Schumer’s Patent Quality Improvement Act, and the problem of software patents and patent trolls in general.
The PQIA would make it easier and cheaper to defend against frivolous patent infringement suits. This isn’t everything we need to fix the problem, but it’s a step.
Let’s give Schumer some twitter...
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Powered by Us
The week before last, I attended the Mesh Conference in SF, which brought together a big group of folks working at the intersection of the web and the “new economy”: i.e., the “sharing economy”, “peer economy”, “connection economy”, “collaborative consumption”, “the mesh”, etc. As you might imagine, a large part of the discussion focused on the lexical problem that this “movement” faces, with...
“I’m happy to know we are the worst,” Dylan Germick said. “It’s like getting a...”
– IU graduate produces ‘worst album cover’ | Arts | Indiana Daily Student
“What’s next for you in your work/creative world? “Crafting a dance...”
– Dylan Charles Germick’s Profile - The Bold Italic - San Francisco
This guy is amazing. His band is Planet Booty.
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April 2013
28 posts
5 tags
The peer economy
I am writing this post from the balcony of my Airbnb apartment in nob hill in sf.
Its by far the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in sf. Beautiful duplex penthouse, with an amazing view of downtown, for less than the price of a hotel room.
To get here, I hopped a ride via Lyft, with a super nice guy.
I guess this is my first travel experience fully powered by the peer economy. And is...
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Antilockdown
Matthew Yglesias has a good piece up this morning on the immigration debate in the wake of the Boston bombings. He points out that historically, as we’ve tightened our border lockdown, we’ve not decreased illegal immigration, we’ve just made the coyote industry more lucrative.
In my favorite line, he suggests that rather than tighten our lockdown, we should open up:
by far...
“by far the best way to keep dangerous foreigners out of the country is to make...”
– — Matthew Yglesias
Border security, immigration reform, and the Tsarnaevs: A bigger guest-worker program can improve security. - Slate Magazine
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Living Scared
What happened yesterday in Boston so sad and awful. And it’s deeply scary. All of the communities I’m part of — family, work, school, city — have been shaken by this.
But the most important thing we can do coming away from this is not get scared in our core. If that happens, they win and we lose - way bigger than we lost yesterday.
I’ve been scared before —...
“Empathize, but refuse to be terrorized. Instead, be indomitable — and...”
– The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On - Bruce Schneier - The Atlantic
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Leading with Policy: Uber's Ridesharing Strategy
Over the weekend, Christina pointed me to Uber’s new policy white paper on ridesharing. In a nutshell, Uber has decided to compete (with Lyft, Sidecar and others) in the ridesharing space, and will use a framework for deciding how and where to do that, based on the perceived regulatory friendliness in each city. Here’s their rubric:
Uber’s Ridesharing Policy
Uber will roll out...
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“In the face of this challenge, Uber could have chosen to do nothing. We could...”
– Uber Blog » Uber Policy White Paper 1.0
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del-fi: Lessons from Mendeley: Where's The Open In... →
del-fi:
Look the gift horse in the mouth. And if the revenue model of a startup isn’t built on open, then feel free to use the tool. But don’t get emotionally invested, or dependent, no matter how seductive the rhetoric may be. Because at some point your use and attention and content will be monetized, probably in a way that bothers you.
“If you imagine Twitter not for tweets but for songs, you’ll arrive at something...”
– Pandora with friends: Turntable launches Piki, a social radio app for iPhone and web | The Verge (via fred-wilson)
“the challenges of the connected future are less technical and more legislative,...”
– Om
Uber, Data Darwinism and the future of work — Tech News and Analysis
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Google Fiber and Competition
It’s been pretty awesome to watch the roll out of Google Fiber.
For those who haven’t been following, Google is piloting a program to deliver gigabit internet service (symmetrical — equal speeds for uploads and download), starting with Kansas City and coming soon to Austin, TX.
This is important and interesting for several reasons: 1) the state of broadband access in the US is...
“As we move into an era in which personal devices are seen as proxies for public...”
– The Hidden Biases in Big Data - Kate Crawford - Harvard Business Review
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Fixing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a law that intends to protect computer systems from intruders and criminals.
For those that haven’t been following, this is also the law that Aaron Swartz was prosecuted under for downloading too many academic papers at MIT.
Right now, Congress is considering updates to the CFAA. It’s widely acknowledged that the way the law is written now, it...
“You don’t win by just being against things, you only win by being for things and...”
– Margaret Thatcher’s Best Quotes - WSJ.com (via khuyi)
sounds simple - but difficult to do.
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WatchLessig’s latest iteration. Really compelling.
(via Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim | Video on TED.com)
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Turning 17 for the Second Time
Today I turn 34.
For some reason, I can’t get Fred’s post about turning 17 for the third time out of my head. As I have been approaching this milestone, I can’t help but feel like I’m turning the corner to a new phase.
I definitely feel like the last 17 years have been about figuring out how to be an adult. I owe a lot of that learning to Frannie.
And I’m pretty...
“Sure, it would be crazy to think I might become the next Clapton or Hendrix, but...”
– Hugh Howey: Self-publishing is the future — and great for writers - Salon.com
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The Indie Web, Continued
I wrote last week about the Indie Web: the way that the web has the ability to help us grow and connect as individuals in awesome new ways.
Here’s my latest entry in that story:
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved doing everything by bike. As a kid, the bike was my favorite way to get around, and to this day I use my bike daily to run errands and get places. I particularly...
