Net

Off to San Francisco & SuperNova 2007

I'm off to San Francisco (again) for a bunch of meetings and SuperNova 2007. I have a lot of interesting meetings lined up, amongst others: meetings with my two favorite platform providers: Facebook and the Twitter. I know most of my readers have lots of request for new features and improvements - dump them here and I'll make sure they reach the right people.

I will spend all Wednesday to Friday in San Francisco and will be in Palo Alto the rest of time (until 27th). I you wanna meet up please leave me a comment or just get in touch directly.

I will also try to post a daily video on Facebook so feel free to tune in from time to time. Also, don't forget to join The Maxthon Lovers group on Facebook. It's growing and would love to see you there as well. Oh, and don't forget to join the Le Web 3 group as well.

Maxthon also have a skin competition coming up soon for the 2.0 version with cool prices. If you want to create a cool skin and spread it to millions of users around the world and even have the chance to win the default position - please let me know. Start- ups and companies are also welcome!

Technorati Tags: Jaiku, Maxthon, leweb3, leweb3.1, Supernova2007, Twitter

Microformats Now On Maxthon

At Web2.0 Expo last month Alex Faaborg, Chris Messina and other Mozilla folks talked alot about Microformats. Alex mentioned how important Browsers are to drive the uptake of it. So here you are guys, Maxthon 2.0 now has a Microformat plugin!

Supported Microformats:

• geo
• hCard
• hCalendar
• adr
• tag

Give me your feedback!

Technorati Tags: Microformat, Maxthon,

Twitter For Maxthon!

Faster than a Twitt, Maxthon super plugin developer Neo101, created this cool Twitter toolbar for Maxthon 2.0 The toolbar enables you to post to Twitter straight from Maxthon. Add me as your friend.


Technorati Tags: Twitter, Maxthon, Maxthon 2.0

Frenzoo- Second Life in Hong Kong

I told you and showed you about HiPiHi - China's Second Life. Hold the fort! Here comes Frenzoo - Second Life for teenage girls in Hong Kong..According to Brand Republic "Frenzoo, an Asia-centric 3D virtual world aimed at teenage girls, will soon come out of stealth mode to connect consumers in a Second Life-like experience.".Via Angus.

Technorati Tags: Frenzoo, HiPiHi, Virtual Worlds, Hong Kong, Second Life, SL

Jerusalem - The Open Source City?

Is Jerusalem the true Open-Source city? I have been invited to participate in a workshop about Digital Society, Policy and the Internet at the beautiful Mishkenot Sha'ananim located in the heart of Jerusalem. The workshop is called " Jerusalem - An Open Source City in the Test of Time". The workshop is aimed to examine: How can we develop a rich and pluralist digital culture? And, what are the conditions to promote the cultural growth offered by the Internet? It is certainly a very interesting concept and Mishkenot Sha'ananim is a very special place indeed. Thanks to Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski, co-founder of Plymedia Inc (on who's Advisory Board I am a member) for inviting me. More about this later.

Technorati Tags: P2P, Open Source, Jerusalem, Digital Life, DRM

Virtual Worlds, Games and Avatars

Susan participated in an Avatar panel at SXSW in Austin and shared some of her notes with us on Avartars, Virtual worlds and Gaming. She also points to a very interesting academic study on Game Studies (download).

Main points:

1. Games need more laughter in the slaughter
2. Players want to help other players do well in the game even when the game is competitive
3. Games need non-white characters who are not gangsters or criminals.
4. Gamers are less social than you think they are, less social than even THEY think they are
5. How do players learn to play? If it looks like a sniper, it should act like a sniper
6. Gestural interfaces that make sense, make sense for specific reasons.
7. You can quantify which factors matter most in immersive game design.
8. There are multiple ways to approach realism
9. There is such a thing as ethical videogame design
10. Death matters..

A Visit to HiPiHi - Chinas Second Life

After a very good board meeting with Maxthon, I paid a visit to HiPiHi - Chinas answer to Second Life. This came about after I had written a short post on them earlier and got an invitation to swing by their office. Kaiser Kuo (Ogilvy) and Xinhua Liu (early investor in HipiHi & Technology Director at Burson-Marsteller).. also joined me.

Armed with camcorders, cameras and curious minds, we invaded HiPiHi physically and virtually. I must say that I was really impressed. I always felt like Second Life was too geeky and to inaccessible, and therefore had only signed in a couple of times and flied around out of boredom.

Not so at HiPiHi. They have been smart enough to realize that most of us deadly are not geeks and need a more user-friendly user-interface to motivate us enough to play around in this virtual world. Although they are just in private alpha, they have come along way with a team of just 60. The user is offered a bunch of pre-fabricated avatars, buildings, hills, rocks, objects and event water to furnish their own worlds. Should they feel for it later, the user can always customize or create any object from scratch as they see fit.

It is clear that HiPiHi has given much thought into making the virtual world more user-friendly. HiPiHi's CEO Hui Xu (beside me on the picture above) explained to us that the service will be launched in four stages based on traditional Chinese creational mythology (read Kaisers summary for an expansion on this).

Revenues will come from virtual property sales and advertising. And I can definitely see how advertisers will love this. Especially since HiPiHi is targeting the young and cool rather than a bunch of geeks in pajamas or "social media stars".

I shot a couple of short clips of a walk-through in HipiHi-land with a simple digital camera. Comments are both in Chinese & English. More clips here.

I have a very good feeling about HiPiHi and am waiting eagerly for the public launch.

(Image above: Sunset in HiPiHi-land).

Piper Jaffray Conference Day 2

Today I spend the day with knowledge hungry investment bankers, then participated in "Emerging Internet Companies" on behalf on Maxthon before running off to Maxthon's Headquarters for a sneak peak of a very new cool service and some upcoming product features. Looks great!

I also ran into a cool newly launched streetwear fashion clothes company just kicking-off here in China. Nice to meet with non-Internet related business people for a change ;). The name of the company is Eno , and the conversation with them certainly triggered some interesting ideas I want to explore...

Tomorrow, I have a breakfast meeting with a leading advertising agency am then off for a board meeting. Time is certainly running fast here and it's great to see so much activity in the Internet space. Before I head home I am going to pay a visit to HipiHi - the Chinese answer to Second Life. I got an invitation from them after I wrote a short post on them. Will certainly be a lot of fun. Bill Tail & Kaiser Kuo has promised to come along as well. Hopefully I will have time to shoot a short video from the visit - we'll see.

Finally, if you are looking for some new interesting investment oppertunity in China that are not related to the Internet. Digg deeper into alternative energy...it's getting very hot..

Technorati Tags: Altertnative engergy, Beijing, China, Eno, Fashion, Hipihi, China Investments, Second Life

HipiHi - The Chinese Second Life

My good friend Kaiser Kuo, made me aware of a Chinese Second Life wanna be called HiPiHi. It is still in private beta, but there is a demo video on the site that you can download. What I find interesting here is that as Kaiser points out, there is a female element here which seems to indicate that the site is going after female gamers: female narrator and avatar, emphasis on the outfits, the landscaping and the houses.

I agree with Kaiser that it would be interesting to see if they will give HiPiHi a more Chinese touch. I personally would find it much more compelling wandering around in a Chinese environment with a Chinese architecture, marble lions guarding my house entrance etc. And here is my personal advice: Why not offering foreigners like me wandering around in HiPiHi to learn Chinese? I could not think of any better way to learn and practice a new language in a virtual world. Just imagine, taking a taxi from the airport, telling the driver where you want to go., going shopping at the market, or join a Chi Gong class? The reverse could also be a great way for Chinese locals to learn English. I would definately be the first to sign up for such an opportunity.

Finally, Kaiser asks if we are going to see advertisers lining up, companies building themselves a presence there just like in SL? I definatley think that can become very big. Just considering the Olympics 2--8 around the corner. Creating a virtual olympic inside HiPHi could be great fun, enabling you to run with the stars. Then, arrange competitions live that could be broadcasted live as well with prices... The site should obviously implement a full mobile payment mechanism so you can by avatars, apparel and real-estate on the fly. Oh, and HiPiHi should definately provide a mobile version as well.

China is such a huge country with so many opportunities, so why should a virtual China world be a success?

Technorati Tags: Avatars, China, Second Life, Virtual Worlds

BitTorrent Opening Media Store

BitTorrent, is opening up a media store tomorrow, Monday. The download site will distribute more than 5,000 titles from digital movies, TV shows, games and other media. After long having been the bad kid on the block, BitTorrent has finally managed to sooth Hollywood. 

When opening the store on Monday it will offer: Superman Returns, Mission: Impossible III and An Inconvenient Truth. Among the available TV shows are 24 and Chappelle's Show.

The good thing about it is that people will finally be able to download movies without the fear of viruses and bad copies. The question is, will the crowd that has long relied upon BiTorrent for free goodies stay or turn elsewere?

Second Life & Anthropology

Thanks to Kaiser's new blog I came across anthropologist Grant Brackens great insightful post on "Second Life the New Disney of Vaporville?" Its alwasy great to find some real thinkers up in the cloud (too many linkers and not many thinkers..). I often get a lot of questions about Second Life. And to their surprise I am not all that excited about it. Sure, I have a SL identity : Net Nakamura, I have been been flying around, waded the deep waters around SL islands - but from this to open to buy and island, open a radio station, buy a building or launch a company? Please - get a life!

Grant holds that SL is really a stage without actors, and with no people - no anthropology. I couldn't agree more. Most of the time you just find yourself walking around alone, until finally you run into some geek either insulting you, leaving crytical comments or some gal' that is trying to get a hold on flying..

As a matter of fact, when I think about it - its a totally dead place, no action, full of emptyness and geeks dreaming of flying around. Don't know about you, but I prefer REAL life - life is with people.

Having said that, I believe that SL will pave the way for more entertaining and accessable virtual worlds in the years to come. Its a nice experiment, but to appeal to real people - there has to be more meat on the bone..The more I think about it, I think Virtual Worlds have to be more similar to a good gaming platform

New Research:The User Revolution

Piper Jaffray just published a fat report called "The User Revolution: The New Advertising Ecosystem and The Rise of the Internet as a Mass Medium". Here are some of its key findings:

• We expect global online advertising revenue to reach $81.1 billion by 2011, representing a 21% CAGR (2006-2011).

• The User Revolution. The advertising world is going through a revolution, one that we call the "User Revolution" as it is happening primarily with the consumers, who are taking control of content consumption and branding. We believe this trend will cause a significant rise in prominence of the Internet as a major content consumption and marketing medium.

• "Communitainment." The Internet has increasingly become a principal medium for community, communication, and entertainment--three areas that have collided together and are impacting each other's growth--generating a new type of activity that we call communitainment.

• The Internet Is Mainstream. The Internet has become a mainstream media outlet that now rivals traditional media for reach and advertising dollars.

• Media Fragmentation. The proliferation of online and offline media outlets has resulted in shrinking television audiences and an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

• The Golden Search. We believe search continues to gain ground, driven by the rise of search as the New Portal, the increasing use of search in branding campaigns, and the local search opportunity.

• We believe Google's wide variety of non-search-related products creates a virtuous cycle of brand affinity that drives incremental search volume.

• Video Ads Could Drive The Next Wave. We believe Internet video ads could become a game changer for large brand advertisers, who are used to the 15- or 30-second TV commercial

• Internet Usage Patterns Are Changing. Portals maintain the highest reach, but the fastest growing category of destinations is communitainment sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

• Ad networks are experiencing increased demand due to increasing Internet fragmentation, desire for more targeted inventory, increasing usage of networks for branding, and increased site visibility.

• Agencies are rapidly evolving into more sophisticated, technology-savvy entities that combine best of breed offerings.

• Companies to watch: Google (and YouTube), Yahoo!, Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Microsoft, InterActive, Facebook, Craigslist, Brightcove, Yelp, SINA Corp., Baidu, aQuantive, ValueClick, 24/7 Media, Netflix, Wikipedia, MobiTV, Digg, and Hakia to be the most important players to watch.

Like my good friend Kaiser Kuo, Group Director for Digital Strategy, for Ogilvy China, mentions in this new (and great) blog " Ich bin ein Beijinger" : none of this should come as a surprise, but the report is full of eye-opening finding regarding the decline of TV viewing, changing viewing and decline of broadcast TV ad as percentage of total ad spend.

Kaiser who has a unique insight to China (and was very much responsible for Maxthon getting discovered and funded..) is confident that advertisers will flock to video ads and all the opportunities that are opening up for digital media advertising in China .However, he wonders how ready people really are for pre-roll commercials stuffed in to things they want to watch.

I tend to agree with Kaiser, although there is a fantastic opportunity for advertisers, the Internet savvy users might very well prefer to block ads if possible. This is something we have learned at Maxthon and seems to be especially true for Chinese Internet users. Al the sophisticated ad-blockers and filters that come pre-installed in Maxthon has definitely been one of the key driving factors for Maxthon success in China.

Anyway, next week I am flying down to Beijing again to talk on Piper Jaffrays Annual China Growth Conference on behalf of Maxthon. I will then have a chance not only to meet up with Safa and rest of the Piper Jaffray gang, but also to meet with Kaiser again and plot how we can deliver some interesting advertising opportunities together in China.

 

Thanks to Mark Pols for sending me this fat report!

Bonus: Video Interview with Kaiser I made just before he left the Red Herring.

The $15 IKEA Guitar!

I love this story! Zachary created an electric guitar out of an $15 IKEA table! I don't know if it is the Swede or the musician in me, but this is so cool.

Zachary seems to be very pleased himself with this work:

This is one of the most interesting guitars I ever built and it is also one of the best.The action is great, the tone is unbelievable, the neck is super fast, tuning stability is as good as it gets. In short, everything just worked out great on this guitar. This amazingly figured top is from Ikea Furnishings. I bought one of their unfinished end tables for $15 and I can get three guitar tops from it. What a shame that they would use such amazing "tone-wood" for their cheap furniture. Its a sacrilege.I introduce several new things in this guitar. I use DiMarzio Virtual P90 pickups for the first time and I love them. They are powerful and have a lot of guts. Its some kind of a midrange tone which screams Texas blues and Billy Gibbons.

Something about Zachary tells me that he should be a Maxthon user..

The one thing that does not appear from the story is what table did he use? You know all the IKEA stuff carries swedish names. Was it the table Oskar or Rasmus? Anyway, I am eagerly awaiting for the next IKEA hack..

Oh, and if you have checked out the IKEA Hacker go there now - a wonderful blog dedicated to IKEA hacks for all of us who grew up in IKEA land ;)

Technorati Tags: Cool, IKEA, IKEA Guitar, IKEA Hacker, IKEA Hacks, Music, the art of the pitc, Zacharyguirars

Google Apps Launched - Office War Just Begun

I promised never to cover Google here anymore unless it has anything to do with Maxthon or Mashup Media. However, since it has, I cannot help to mention it. The Bloggers are buzzing around the Web now for the release of Google Apps. See stories here, here , here and here for more in-depht info.

Why do I mention it here then? Well, one for that I already tried to sign-up putting all of Mashup Media on Google Apps, but failed since Israel did not appear in the countries listed when you register. Please fix it Google! I am eager to spend $50 + ..

Second, some voices has been raised that it is still lacking enough compelling features and products like Jotspot, CRM tool etc. However since I know the people behind these products I know that the fun has just begun..  I wonder what one could do with this in a browser?

Something on M comes to my mind..Oh enough said already - time for a falafel..

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Apps, Maxthon, Office, Mashup Media

BandWagon - Free Backup of iTunes Library

Hyper Happen is letting us know that Bandwagon is about to launch (February 22). Bandwagon offers online iTunes backup (something I have long been waiting for). An in a smart marketing move to get bloggers onboard to spread the message, bandwagon is offering all bloggers who link to them a free one-year account! Very smart. And judging from the comments their blog has generated,  they will have to give away quite some number of free accounts.

I think this is an excellent marketing strategy that others should follow. The key thing of course, is to really offer something of value for free with no strings attached. The upside for bandwagon except all the buzz it will create, is that once you have backed up your iTunes library, you are probably very willing to pay the subscription fee ;).

Oh, and bandwagon is currently only available for Mac.

Technorati Tags: backup, backup, bandwagon, hyperhappen, iTunes, mac, marketing, blogmarketing, puppy, puppy, puppy

The Third Generation Web Coming

Nova Spivack, the technology visionary and entrepreneur writes that "threshold to the third-generation Web will be crossed in 2007. The focus of innovation will shift back from front-end improvements towards back-end infrastructure level upgrades to the Web.  Spivack holds that Web 3.0 might be defined as a third-generation of the Web enabled by the convergence of several key emerging technology trends:

• Ubiquitous Connectivity - Broadband adoption, Mobile Internet Access & Mobile Devices
• Network Computing - Software-as-a-service business models, Web services interoperability, Distributed Computing (P2P, grid computing, hosted "cloud computing" server farms like Amazon S3)
• Open Technologies -  Open API's & protocols, Open Data Formats, Open-source software platforms, Open Data (Creative Commons, Open Data Licence, et.)
• Open Identity - OpenID, Open Reputation, Portable Identity & personal data (the ability to port your user account & search history from one service to another)
• The Intelligent Web - Semantic Web Technologies (RDF, OWL, SWRL, SPARQL, Semantic Application Platforms etc)
• Distributed databases - (wide-area distributed database interoperability enabled by Semantic Web technologies)
• Intelligent Applications - (natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents)

It's interesting to see how the focus is shifting back from front-end to back-end. As for the future role of the browser, I don't think that the browser will disappear but it will definately become more and more an information broker that just a "news paper format reader tool". Thanks to Alan.

Technorati Tags: Browsers, Intelligent Web, Nova Spivack, Technology, the pitc, Third Web, Web 3.0

On Media NYC Wrap Up

I am sitting on the plane between JFK and San Francisco after having attended On Media NYC and am trying to summerize my thoughts about the conference. My overall impression is that its was a great event in terms of networking, speaker line ups and of course the reception. I had a chance to re-connect with old friends, business partners and make new contacts.

Having said that, I felt like in many other conferences: "heard it before, been there, said that and know that". Most of the panelist were all too predictive and didn't really contribute with anything new and refreshing. However, Tony Perkins and Bill Cleary and did a great job setting it all up and with the fantastic backdrop of Central Park and Colombia Circle ! Tony & Bill also showcased their home made videos that triggered many laughs.

A few speakers and panelist sticked out though:

• Peter Hirshberg, Technorati's Chairman did a great and entertaining presentation.

• Can Brands Get Away with "Buzz Marketing" in the Blogosphere? With Jeff Jarvis, David Weinberger, Rich Murray, Gordon Gould and  Barry Reicherter. Funny enough the only thing I can remember from this panel was Davids' attach on Pay Per Post, and the word "lubricant..".

• Workshop: Venture and Angel Financing for Private Companies with Sam Angus, partner Fenwick & West, Ron Conway, Angel Investors, Garry Kitchen, CEO Skyworks,  Howard Morgan Idealab (very funny guy) and Mark Stevens, partner, Fenwick & West. It was the first time I attended a workshop at a conference and really felt that I learned something new and useful. Compared to other lame workshops (especially the one on how to become a power blogger - most bloggers are better Online than Offline..). This workshop was well prepared, provided the audience with a great hands on advice, very helpful hand outs out and really offered some very valueable advice to start ups about raising angel/seed or venture capital and what a kind of template for how a well balanced deal should look like.. What I didn't understand is why Mark Steves several times ditched CRV's Quick  Start program. Do I sense some kind of fear of loosing fees...?

  Oh, and there were some great CEO Showcase presentations as well. Anyway, it was a great event in terms of networking I will definatly come next time too.

Technorati Tags: Alwayson, Media, OnMedia

Pandora, Last.fm & Maxthon

We just released some great music plugins at Maxthon. One for Pandora and one for Last.fm . Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Last.fm, Maxthon, Pandora, Music, Radio

Off to New York & San Francisco

I am off to AlwaysOn Media New York, 28-31 to meet with the disrupters of marketing, advertising, branding and PR. Will definitely be fun.  Not that I expect to hear anything new, but it looks like a great event and and a good place to catch up with friends, acquaintances and potential Maxthon partners. After that I continue to Palo Alto for partner meetings and some potential hires @ CRV. Finally finishing off with Tomas Wiesel Venture partners Tech2007 conference in San Francisco Feb 6-7. If you want to meet up please feel free to drop me a line or call me on my US cell 650 862 46 56.

Technorati Tags: AlwaysOn, AlwaysOn Media, CRV, Maxthon, Maxthon, Events, puppy, puppy, TWVP

BitTorrent Tutorial Roundup

Torrentfreak has published a great round up of BitTorrent related tutorials:. It's so good that I have published it here in its entirety:

The Basics

1. How to Make a Torrent

Torrents are great, they are the best way to share large files with your friends, or even with people you don’t know at all. But surprisingly enough, not many people create torrents when they need to share something.

2. How to find Torrents

10 Great Torrent Sites + Firefox Search Plugins.

3. How To Encrypt BitTorrent Traffic

More and more ISP’s are limiting and throttling BitTorrent traffic on their networks. By throttling BitTorrent traffic the speed of BitTorrent downloads decreases, and high speed downloads are out of the question.

Speed Up Your BitTorrent Downloads

4. How to Optimize Your BitTorrent Download Speed

BitTorrent can be fun, as long as you get decent speeds. Not satisfied with your current speeds? These suggestions might help yo optimize your download pleasure.

5. How to Speed Up Bitcomet and uTorrent

90% off all people use the default settings on their client, and that’s a problem.

6. How to Protect Your Torrent From Failing Trackers

Nothing is more frustrating than your download getting stuck. The fact that a torrent has stopped downloading can have several reasons.

Technorati Tags: Bittorrent, howto, p2p, tutorial, uTorrent, puppy, puppy, Torrentfreak

VC Investments In Chinese Video Sites

ChinaVenture reports that 17 Chinese Online Video sites got $95.5 million in funding since 2004 with an investment peak of $52.7 million in 2006.
Below is a chart illustrating the investments. As you can see WI Harper invested in Radio.cn but missing from the list is Charles River Ventures investment in Wangyou Media in March 2006.

Technorati Tags: Blogcn, Charles River Ventures, China, CRV, Wangyou media

Nice Maxthon Interview on ReadWriteWeb

A few days ago I was interviewed about Maxthon by Gang Lu, a very nice guy I met at Le Web 3 a couple of weeks ago. The interview was published in Read Write Web today.

>Technorati Tags: Maxthon, ReadWriteWeb, Leweb3, Gang Lu, Netanel Jacobsson, China, Web 2.0

Me Talking Maxthon On the Scoble Show

Robert Scoble interviewed me about Maxthon on the Scoble Show. In the first interview I talk about Maxthon and give a little background on its history, philosophy and we are all about. In the second part I demonstrate Maxthon 2.0 Beta and show some of the new cool features in it.  Enjoy!

 

Technorati Tags: Browser, China, Maxthon 2.0 Beta, Podtech, Web2.0, Robert Scoble, ScobleShow, Technology

What I Will Not Post About in 2007

In order to reduce the noise, clutter and meaningless posts, I have decided not cover or post anything in 2007 related to:

• Google
• Yahoo
• YouTube
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Digg
• Microsoft
• Apple
• News Corp
• Any newly launched services already discussed else where in BlogLand

The reason for this is that I am getting so tired so read the same old story over and over again all over the blogoshpere. Really. How interesting is it to read that Google launched a new service 50 times the same day? Or about which company will acquire Facebook. Vista this and Vista that. Zune here and Ipod there. Alexa this and Digg that? Put a couple of these companies to John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance" and you''ll get the spirit in which I am writing this ;)

Although I do not believe in New Year resolutions (I'm Jewish) I will try to be more selective about what I am writing from now on, less clutter and try to be more original rather that mirroring all the noise out there.

Disclaimer. I will only write about any of the above if the have anything directly to do with my business or changed something dramatically in my or other peoples life...

Digg it?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Digg, Facebook, Google, MySpace, Microsoft, Yahoo, YouTube

Bloggers for a Better World?

A few weeks ago at the closing note of  Le Web 3 , Yossi Vardi and Loic called for the creation of a new movement, "bloggers for a better world". The idea was that every blogger that joined this new movement would commit themselves to write at least one post on social responsibility and change per week. David Sifry bought the domain and it would be tagged bfbw or b4bw. Every blog part of  this Bloggers for a better world movement, would carry a special badge. Shimon Peres also accepted to be on the Board for this movement which obviously added extra weight to it.

Now, I am all for everything that is positive and that would make this world a better place for us all. However, the following questions come to my mind:

• Is Yossi Vardi blogging?
• Is Shimon Peres blogging?
• Doesn't that say something?
• Will writing a post on social responsibility lead to that you take social responsibility?
• Isn't the real issue to work for a better world in general regardless of "platform" ?
• Are bloggers who badmouth, lynch, attach each other and wash their dirty laundry in public up for the challenge?
• In the light of the mob-like blog lynch of Loic in true Medieval spirit after Le Web 3, are bloggers mature enough to be a part of bloggers for a better world?
• Is this the blog version of "We are the world" and Live Aid?" were money for charity has been replaced by blog posts and rock stars with A-list bloggers?

I just say like Michael Jackson sings in "The Man in the Mirror":

"If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change" (nana na naa...;)

Technorati Tags: b4bw, bfbw, bloggers for a better world, Leweb3, Loic lemeur, Social responsibiliy, Shimon Peres, Yossi Vardi

The Dragon's web: what can we learn from Internet in China?

LeWeb3 conference, 11-12 December 2006, Paris, France Here is the video from the China panel I participated in at Le Web 3 last week together with Bo Y. Shao, and Pierre Haski. As I have mentioned earlier, to my disappointed the panel never really discussed "what we can learn from Internet in China", but became to focused on freedom of speech and democracy (which would have been fine if that would have been the scope of the panel but it was not). Unfortunately we ran out of time just as we started to discuss that subject, which I really regret. Going forward, I will try to share my experiences and thoughts about what we can learn from Internet in China here instead. Anyway, I want to thank Loic and Ouriel for inviting me and wish them all the best for the next year.

Technorati Tags: China, Entreprenurs, Leweb3

Le Web 3, Politics & The Truth About Censorship

In the aftermath of the storm surrounding Le Web 3 it cannot be easy to be Loic Le Meur... More than 1000 bloggers, media people and techies looked forward to the follow-up of last years Les Blogs 2. After having survived a relatively good day 1, the menu being serviced on day two swept us all away. Or what do you say about Shimon Peres for breakfast, François Bayrou for dinner and finally Nicolas Sarkosy for dessert.... As an Israeli, I cannot say I was over excited about Peres sudden appearance. I cannot say I really share his political views but I have tremendous respect for the person. Anyway, it was a nice chit chat and words of wisdom was spoken. Peres even came forward and said hello to me (see image below with David Sifry, Simon Peres and me) and asked who I was which was a nice unexpected surprise. He asked if I was related to the Jacobsson's from Rechovot...;) It seems that the audience liked the fact that Peres appeared, although we all seemed confused about the relevance for the conference. Then is seemed to get out of hand with the presidential candidate François Bayrou and current minister presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkosy. TV, radio and journalists were all over the place and it looked more like a presidential campaign.

A lot of people got really upset it seems. I personally didn't mind since it spiced up the other would-have-been-predicted conference. It is true that the schedule was totally re-arranged, speakers were interrupted and the panelist got too little time. So what? Big deal. I can understand that people felt like Loic went to far, and I can to a certain degree agree with that. However, the following public lynch was really an over reaction in my view. I know Loic and the team had worked really heard and I think they deserve better.

Having said that, I must add that I feel these type of conferences has lost their momentum (read: web 2.0 conference etc). Even the so-called unconferences have failed. Does this prove that blogs, Vlogs and the social media bag are already passe' ? Or perhaps everything that can be said about it has already been said?

I personally just regret that the China panel (once more like last year) never got passed the discussion about democracy and censorship. I know that there were people in the audience that really wanted to hear about what we can learn from the Internet in China. Talking about freedom of speech and censorship - I just learned that Sam Sethi was fired from Techcrunch UK for expressing his point of view. Shame!

Conclusion: you don't have to be a government to exercise censorship...Serves us all as a good lesson about freedom of speech in the "free" world.

My five cent for next event would be to hold a separate Les Politics - a focused event on social media and its role in politics (not joking). I also believe that the true place for discussions about blogs are on the Net alone. Perhaps some spontaneous gathering there and there for the social side. Personally I prefer to move these type of events to a much smaller bistro like setting. Good wine has the unique capacity to feed conversations - or at least make them more interesting..

Anyway, hang on in there Loic and ride out the storm. You are a nice guy and I enjoyed the show. Politicians and mainstream media disrupting the disruptors ;) It certainly added some spice to the soup. There are more important things in life....I think people really have over reacted. Good thing that we don't live in the Middle Ages anymore - I guess you would have been on your way to the guillotine by now then...One thing is sure, this Blogosphere is an uncontrolable animal...

Technorati Tags: puppy

CRV Entrepreneur Idol @ Stanford

There certainly was lot's of laughter and energy today at the Stanford Campus when 60 Stanford MBA students made their pitches to CRV on the CRV Entrepreneur Idol contest. As yet another creative idea from the guys at CRV. George, Bill and Susan let 56 Standford MBA students and potential entrepreneurs-to-be, pitch in 60 seconds. I watched in the background as George, Bill, Susan and Matt Marshall from VentureBeat listened to 56 pitches in 60 minutes...

Afterwards, George made a short presentation of CRV and its' new exciting initiative - QuickStart. Maxthon and Skyrider, was presented as two very exciting and promising companies in the CRV portofolio with a particularily explosive growth and potential.

After the presentation, 5 lucky pitchers where chosen by the panel. Two received honorary mention and collected $100 each. The remaining 3 pitched again in front of the whole audience, and the audience then voted for the best pitch by applause volume...(and it was high :)

The winner (image below) won $2000 and the other two each $1000 - not back for a 60 minutes appearance...Needless to say it was very funny, sort of Ido-meets-stand-up-meets-VC. You could really feel the excitement among the MBA students and you could see that George, Bill and Susan really enjoyed it too.

John Furrier and Valerie Cunningham from Podtech.Net made sure that it was all documented so tune into Podtech.Net for full video coverage on the event.

CRV is definitely disrupting the traditional VC business model and seem to be enjoying the ride too.

For me it was all clear after having watching 60 pitches. It is the way you frame your pitch that makes the big difference. Energy and
presence is king - just like in IDOL - but it obviously has to be accompanied by a good ideas too of course.

Thanks to George, Bill and Susan for dragging me along. You guys are winners!

See my Flickr for more pics of the event and others here. Susan Wu and Matt Marshall should soon have some posts up covering the event with more details.

Now I'm off to Mayfiels Holiday Party and tomorrow I will talking at Asian Ventures. Man I am jet lagged and the week has only just begun...

Technorati Tags: Bill Tai, Charles River Ventures, CRV, George Zachary, Podtechnet, Stanford, Susan Wu, Valerie Cunningham, VC, Venture Capital

Upcoming Events: Asian Ventures & Le Web 3

I have just barely been home for a week but it's time again for yet another trip. This time in the other direction, but under the same theme - China. I'm off to San Jose on Sunday to talk about Maxthon at Dow Jones Asian Ventures on Dec. 5th. It will be a good opportunity to meet with Chinese entrepreneurs and exchange experiences. Time permitting I will try to make some Vlogs with interesting companies.

After that I will be working out of Palo Alto for the rest of the week (we will probably be making a major announcement next week..) until Sunday, and then directly off to Paris to participate in a panel at Le Web 3, named " The Dragon's Web - What can we learn from the Internet in China?" Dec 11-12. Man I'm slowly turning slightly yellow...

Le Web 3 is going to be jammed packed with bloggers, media people, entrepreneurs and VCs. Many are old friends and familiar faces so its going to be a great opportunity to catch up. I must say I have neglected Europe lately...Looks like its going to be a great event. I will also keep an eye open for new interesting start-ups looking for funding and potential Maxthon partners.

BTW, if you are Chinese and read this, what do you think we can learn from the Internet in China?

If you want to meet up in Palo Alto 4–9 or in Paris 11-13, feel free to ping me.

After this trip I am going to take a break. Chanukah is knocking on the door..

Technorati Tags: Asian Ventures 2006, Blogging, China, CRV, Israel, Leweb3, Maxthon, Social Media, Venture Capital, Web 2.0