Class V

Brilliant: Jan Chipchase

One of my favorite TED speakers is being featured this weekend in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, in this lengthy, but thought-provoking, article. 

Here's Jan's talk from TED 2007:

And I just added his blog, Future Perfect, to my Blogroll.

Jan's TED talk represented (to me) one of the most perfect syntheses of design and technology, in the context of addressing large, meaningful problems.  When people ask me what TED is all about, it is moments like these that I attempt to describe to them.

Technorati Tags: Jan Chipchase, Nokia, TED Conference

Brilliant: iPhone

I know I am only a few months behind the curve here, but yesterday I received an iPhone ... and within an hour, had transitioned from my BlackBerry 8800.  Since I am exclusively a Mac user, I expected the transition to be generally painless, and with the exception of setting up my wireless account with AT&T, it was.

My favorite features are the Safari browser and WiFi reception, and my least favorite is the keyboard (am still getting used to the lack of a tactile response.)  Related to the keyboard, please be warned that if you receive e-mails from me in the future, that I have composed on my iPhone, you can expect them to be rather brief and direct in tone, and to contain a typo or two.

I've been too busy the last couple of months to really get my gadget freak on.  Although this past weekend, I did drive out to Emeryville just to hit the one Best Buy in the Bay Area that had the Nokia N810 in stock.  For a $450 handheld device, I refuse to buy without being able to see, touch and feel.  When the "Customer Service Manager" there told me that he could not allow me to open a box to examine the device, and that Nokia had not sent them any demo units ... well, I left the store empty-handed and a tad disappointed. 

One of the things that appealed to me about the Nokia N810 was the plethora of applications that the enthusiast community has developed for it.  By AppSnapp, I was hoping to take advantage of the growing number of native iPhone ap's that are being released daily.  But I may have left my gadget freak dormant for too long, because I just don't seem to be able to execute this hack.  (I've restored the iPhone a couple of times, and still get the blue question mark square on the installer page.  If anyone has any suggestions, please post them here!)

So for now, I am limited to playing with the web apps available for the iPhone.  My favorites so far are Starry Night and SportsTap.

Give me a few more months, and I might even upgrade to Leopard! 

Technorati Tag: iPhone

Brilliant: Charles Monroe King

Happy New Year to all!  While no one is truly happier to see 2006 go away than I, this post is not exactly going to be a merry one.  This morning, I was so struck by the following article, that I've decided I have to draw attention to it.

First of all, yesterday marked the 3,000th death of a military serviceman or servicewoman in Iraq since March 2003.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the New York Times is running an article today about First Sgt. Charles Monroe King.  The piece is written by his fiancée, Dana Canedy, and discusses a 200 page journal First Sgt. King wrote for his newborn son, Jordan, in case he did not make it back from Iraq.

Dear son, Charles wrote on the last page of the journal, I hope this book is somewhat helpful to you. Please forgive me for the poor handwriting and grammar. I tried to finish this book before I was deployed to Iraq. It has to be something special to you. I’ve been writing it in the states, Kuwait and Iraq.

The journal will have to speak for Charles now. He was killed Oct. 14 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his armored vehicle in Baghdad. Charles, 48, had been assigned to the Army’s First Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division, based in Fort Hood, Tex. He was a month from completing his tour of duty.

Every passage Canedy chose to reveal in her article, absolutely broke my heart.

On paper, Charles revealed himself in a way he rarely did in person. He thought hard about what to say to a son who would have no memory of him. Even if Jordan will never hear the cadence of his father’s voice, he will know the wisdom of his words.

Never be ashamed to cry. No man is too good to get on his knee and humble himself to God. Follow your heart and look for the strength of a woman.

Charles tried to anticipate questions in the years to come. Favorite team? I am a diehard Cleveland Browns fan. Favorite meal? Chicken, fried or baked, candied yams, collard greens and cornbread. Childhood chores? Shoveling snow and cutting grass. First kiss? Eighth grade.

Though clearly the best gift First Sgt. King could have given his son would have been his day to day presence, I hope one day Jordan appreciates the effort, foresight and selflessness that his father's journal to him represents.

Back to being truly happy to ring in a new year, I understand all too well just how short a life can be, how suddenly someone's presence can be taken away from those who love him or her.  This story of First Sgt. King and his journal to Jordan is yet another poignant reminder that nothing can be taken for granted.  One of many gifts I have received as a result of my interesting journey during 2006 is a deeply held appreciation for life and for loved ones.

My New Year's wish for everyone is that they can develop that kind of enthusiasm and verve without necessarily having to suffer loss.  Again, Happy New Year to all!

Technorati Tags: Charles Monroe King, Iraq war, fatherhood

Brilliant: Lorena Ochoa

Golf is not my thing.  At all.

So until this week, I had no idea who Lorena Ochoa was.

But as a female athlete, I am compelled to draw attention to this year's AP Female Athlete of the Year. 

Apparently, Ochoa took home every significant LPGA award this year, unseating Annika Sörenstam (I have heard of her) as the number one female golfer in the world.  Even as she failed to win her first major championship.  According to the experts, this is just a matter of time.

What I find particularly compelling about Ochoa's story is how proud she is of her nationality, as detailed in this quote from USA Today:

Intensely proud of her heritage, Ochoa reaches out to the Mexicans she sees at golf tournaments, many of them working on maintenance crews, all of them stopping to watch whenever she goes by.

"I'm very proud to be Mexican, and every time I see some Mexicans on the course, it could be the workers, or Mexicans that live here ... it gives me extra motivation," she said.  "It makes me want to do things better and play good for them."

Would have never picked golf to showcase ethnic minorities such as Tiger Woods (who, coincidentally was this year's AP Male Athlete of the Year) and now Lorena Ochoa front and center, but it's all good.

Not that any of this will ever compel me to pick up a driver.  Like I said, it's just not my thing.

Technorati Tags: Lorena Ochoa, golf

Brilliant: The Week

I am a voracious reader of all kinds of periodicals, but if I had to limit myself to one, it would be The Week.

On the not so brilliant front, I came across the following snippet from the current issue:

Eighty-five percent of consumers say they've sworn, shouted, cried, smashed things, or experienced chest pains while waiting for help on tech-support call lines, according to a survey by Harris Interactive and RightNow Technologies.

This particular survey's findings were covered in depth in this USA Today article.  While I laughed out loud at the thought of chest pains and smashed objects, part of that laughter stemmed from being able to relate a little too well to the frustrations described.

When soccer parents, college students, and neurosurgeons are all suffering from such significant pain, there is major opportunity ...

Technorati Tags: The Week, tech support

Brilliant: Continuum

While in New England in late August, BG and I took in the John Mayer/Sheryl Crow concert in Mansfield, MA.  I had seen Mayer live at least three times (and his performance in August was only marginal, due to a bout with laryngytis) but Crow just astonished me.   She and I both had winters earlier this year we would just as soon never relive (more about Crow's here) ... and yet she strutted on stage in this beautiful silk cream pantsuit with a haltertop, and gave a performance infused with so much positive aura it was hard to not just be left in utter shock at both her inner grace and outer beauty.

Back to Mayer ... participated in my first ever iTunes pre-release, and had ordered Continuum weeks ago.  Midnight local time today, I receive an e-mail telling me it is ready to download; September 12 is the album's official launch date. 

This album is bloody brilliant.  Stayed up until the wee hours listening to it, it was that good. My favorite song so far: "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)".  So brutally honest and raw.

This whole pre-release concept intrigued me, especially as it relates to digital media.  I can see placing a deposit at a retailer for a physical album, because there may only be limited physical inventory to meet demand.  But for digital downloads, where the only potential issue may be traffic congestion or bandwidth (which never occurred earlier this morning, by the way) ... why?

A couple of answers come to mind:

1. Improved cash conversion cycles for the eTailer. 
2. Preliminary feedback (that could be given to the publisher) regarding how hot a specific title looks to be. 

Because eTailers already enjoy excellent cash conversion cycles, am more intrigued by (2).  On the plus side for eTailers, there could be a new line of business here: charging the publishers for what could be perceived as valuable information, helping publishers decide how to allocate their massive marketing budgets at the time (launch) when it most counts.  Not to mention the free marketing that anticipation and buzz represent, which is so effectively created by the pre-release mechanism.

At the same time, am going to hazard a guess that the vast majority of those who preorder are - like me - passionate fans of the artist, and were going to buy the product anyway.   In other words, any given artist can probably find a diehard niche of fans who will participate in a pre-release.  Not to pick on Mayer's friend, but I bet the pre-release numbers for Jessica Simpson's new album and Mayer's were similar.  After all, she has her own hard core niche of fans too.

Now that both albums are out, and everyone can evaluate for themselves the qualities of each, I predict Mayer's album will seriously outsell Simpson's.  So do the pre-release numbers really provide any insight?  Despite all the enthusiasm for The Long Tail, what most publishers (and major eTailers) care about is how much of the true mass demographic is going to open their wallets: 20,000 or even 100,000 die hard fans don't really move the needle for them.  To conclude, to the extent that pre-releases are valuable, it is not in the quantitative numbers but in the far squishier realm of buzz.

PS  Mayer's blog is not only insightful (and intelligent), but at times, hilarious.

Technorati Tags: John Mayer, Continuum, Sheryl Crow, prerelease

Brilliant: PEARL Project

Must have received at least ten e-mails today directing me to the Sunday New York Times article on thirty-something women and Wall Street careers.  For what it's worth, I didn't find that piece particularly insightful.  But the article on building hope in Rwanda through commercial activity was very much worth my time.

One global issue that I invest a bit of time on is the current crisis in Darfur, where at least 250,000 lives have been lost to date.  Been the only subject matter that has inspired me to write my Congressional representatives on a regular basis.   (And for those readers who wish to do something, SaveDarfur.org is a good website to start with.)

Like most Americans, I admit I was caught unawares with regard to the Rwandan Genocide.  Embarassed by my own provincial ignorance, I resolved to never find myself that unconnected to the global community again.  Which is how Darfur landed on my personal radar screen.  Today's New York Times article on the PEARL Project was full of so much promise ... it reaffirmed my passionate hope that someday there will be brighter days for those currently suffering in Darfur, and that capitalism can in fact be a positive tool for change.

From the article:

The partnership, which is known by its acronym as the Pearl project and is directed by Timothy T. Schilling of Texas A&M University, has since made a 300 percent return on its investment, with 90 percent of its revenue being paid to farmers. Pearl has promoted the production of higher-grade coffee by organizing farmer co-ops and training their members in farming techniques, coffee processing, quality control, marketing and by building relationships directly with the roasters who buy coffee.

Not a bad investment, from both a financial and - more impressively - social perspective.

Technorati Tags: Rwanda, Darfur, PEARL Project

Brilliant: Lewis Gordon Pugh

TV isn't my thing ... except for sports and HBO. So it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite shows is Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. I am not a big fan of Bryant Gumbel himself, but I do love how the show's correspondents, such as Frank Deford or Bernard Goldberg, pull larger observations on society or life out of stories on "just" sports.

The current episode features a story by Goldberg on cold water, long distance swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh. From Pugh's website: "[He] has pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other swimmer in history." These swims include the most northern and southern long distance swims, being the first person to swim around the Cape of Good Hope, and the longest polar swim.

"I never do the same swim twice, unless it is for training. The next swim must be harder and more challenging, otherwise I am going backwards," Pugh says.  "Sometimes we set boundaries for ourselves in life, or even worse, we allow others to do so.  In many cases, these boundaries are just in our mind and need to be pushed away."

At the end of the piece, Goldberg quoted Dave Wienbaum, who wrote, "The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings." I was struck not only by how obviously appropriate this is to my own personal life, but also, to entrepreneurship in general. Especially when the IPO market remains as dismal as it is. According to the NVCA and Venture Economics, only ten VC-backed companies raised $540.8 million (a minuscule amount) through IPO's in Q1 2006. Very cold water indeed.

Technorati Tags: Lewis Pugh, IPO

Brilliant: Now This Is mLife

Wireless isn't my thing from a personal or professional front. There are other venture capitalists and gadget geeks who are much smarter on mobile technologies than I, so I leave it to them to tell me when to upgrade my BlackBerry or switch carriers. For years, campaigns like AT&T's mLife promised a day-to-day existence where the mobile phone would be the primary computing device. A vision that I never truly bought into, at least for the US market.

AT&T Wireless is dead, and mLife is only a memory that separates me from the supposed MySpace age bracket.

But two items in the last day have caught my attention, and have provided a glimpse into a future where the mobile phone is the central computing device for most of us, most of the time.

1) DEMOstrator LocaModa and their Wiffiti product (screen shot (left) from the Someday Cafe in Somerville, MA). In a world where flat panel prices are now dropping 35% year over year, I see Wiffiti transforming previously static mediums like billboards and store signage into dynamic and highly personal experiences. What particularly fascinates me about Wiffiti are the uses for the product that no one can predict at this time. That is innovation.

(In the spirit of my last post, let me give a shout out to Mark Johnson for joining the LocaModa cheerleading squad. Also nice to see Engadget pick them up.)

2) Wireless advance check in for Southwest Airlines.

Technorati Tags: DEMO 2006, LocaModa, Wiffiti, wireless

Brilliant: Amelie Mauresmo

Those who have known me for a while know that I have been a huge fan of Amelie Mauresmo since she first burst on the scene in 1999 as an unseeded 19 year old who made the finals of the Australian Open. These friends ridiculed me as Mauresmo failed in every Grand Slam since to even make another final, no less win one.

Still ... that one handed backhand! Those athletic instincts at the net! That physique, which I consider one of the most perfect among all current world class female athletes!

Well, my faith in Mauresmo was finally rewarded this past weekend when she won the Australian Open in her first Grand Slam final appearance since that remarkable run back in 1999. As a measure of time, when Mauresmo came out as a lesbian during her first Australian Open final in 1999, it was major news and other players such as Martina Hingis were quoted as calling her "half a man". In 2005, thankfully, her sexual orientation has hardly been mentioned in the coverage of her victory.

When I was a NCAA Division I Head Coach, one of the things I found most rewarding was spotting the potential in a high school player and seeing her blossom at the collegiate level. I imagine this gratification is not much different than what venture capitalists enjoy when their startups make it big, although I will admit that I am too new in the field to know about this firsthand. But in any case, my joy in Mauresmo's victory reminded me of the importance of recognizing potential when no one else sees it, and keeping one's faith when everyone seems to lose it.

Technorati Tags: Amelie Mauresmo, Australian Open