I would have liked to have published this Wednesday, but I couldn’t bring myself to write a third article in one day. So it goes :-/
My entire day today was under NDA. I can’t say why; I can’t say what; I can only say that it was totally worth it. I would definitely do it again. And I’m excited about it.
Good night everyone 🙂
This was Tuesday’s blog post, but I didn’t publish it in time. 2 in a row is bad. It won’t happen again!
My favorite (or maybe #1a) manager of all time, Eishay Smith, and his startup, 42, Inc. (inspired by the answer to all things), have launched their first product – finally. It’s called kifi, and I signed up tonight. I haven’t had a chance to play with it, but based on the intro slides it could be another riff on the social content 2.0/conversation angle (good thing amplifize is just a hobby!).
Some surface thoughts:
While I only know two of the folks involved, they are big time winners, and so I’m confident that the team will find a way to win. Good luck Eishay and team!
This is Monday’s blog post, but it posted 2 days late… Oops 🙂
Facebook just announced that they acquired Branch – a conversation platform – today.
This would have put the heat on amplifize had I been pursuing it, and I’ll tell you why. Between Google Reader, the websites that already have epic conversation modes (reddit, digg, etc), and the untracked, but still relevant flow, of link passing through email, the demand for sharing and discussing relevant, and targeted, content is clear. The business model is not.
The challenges in that arena are the following:
The solutions to 1, 3, & 4 are very well linked. Create an amazing product that compels folks to invite their friends simultaneously decreasing CPA while making the switching cost that much more expensive through network effects.
I know amplifize could have achieved that goal given time and resource. (Aside: what Branch did that was much smarter was not try to be a reader AND a conversation platform. They are inherently separate audiences, and by addressing both we (at least) doubled the work we had to do to succeed.)
And I’m sure that by using social login, sharing and discovery of Branch was much easier. I didn’t get there, and so I can’t speak to its effects on CPA, but those guys did a great job of helping a user broadcast content to their existing networks while building a compelling reason to come to Branch thereafter.
But there’s just no quick and dirty way around issues 2 & 5. And that’s where the problem lies for Flipboard, reddit, digg, amplifize, and, ultimately it seems, Branch.
My vision to solve this problem for amplifize was that user-powered curation was the future of monetizing content. A modern newspaper should only deliver the content I want and it should know how much I can consume and when I consume it. If I only read 3 long form articles per week, and only on Sunday, then have my Sunday edition be that. If I always read the top sports news Monday morning, then, bam, there’s my Monday edition. All of this can be built by watching my patterns of consuming, sharing, engaging, and dropping off. Simultaneously, by tagging content, or describing it in certain ways, I implicitly build an ontology that creates the sections of my own personal newspaper. It may not be A1, Local, Sports, but Comics, Technology, and Page Six. All implicitly observed and explicitly packaged for me, by me.
And my vision involved finding a way to do so at 50¢ per day with a $1.50 Sunday edition – using pricing nostalgia to connect old and new.
The modern editor is everyone. However, if the signals disappeared because the conversations moved to everyone’s existing social network, then creating the daily digest would become impossible. That’s why this acquisition would have created sleepless nights.
I don’t know where Branch was going to take their vision, and I’m now really excited to see what Facebook does with it. But I think that ultimately they too fell victim to the allure of a huge demand without cracking the CPA/LTV nut that had the goodies inside.
And this is why content 2.0 is hard.
What a wonderful week this one was 🙂
Getting back to work full time was actually really hard. I think it did everyone a lot of good though. There’s been a lot of late nights, waking up on funky schedules, and the like. It was getting to be too much for all of us :-/
Luka started pre-preschool this week.
I went to CES in Las Vegas with my dad and Aydin. It was fantastic!
With my dad and Doruk here this weekend, we got to do a bunch of family bonding. My dad and I swam with the kids, and then afterwards we went to Benihana for dinner. The kids love the show and the food (and so do I). It took me 4 years, but I finally converted Micky as well.
Today we went to soccer, and then created an awesome brunch. Turkey bacon is delicious, and something we’ll get into the fridge more often methinks. Amelia is on a weird no-nap kick, and somehow we have to break it. The hard part is she passes out at 4:30ish, and it just makes for a long afternoon. All the while, Micky was up in Marin having fun with friends. It was an awesome day.
We took my dad to the airport before dinner, and then Doruk to the airport after the kid’s bed time. Great week, and a great weekend to top it all off.
On to the next one!
It’s going to be a fun month of visitors. My dad and brother are here this weekend. Aydin is coming on Tuesday. Mike is coming on Saturday. Let no one say that we’re anti-family 🙂
Here’s a video of Dede and Amelia after swim class…
Ever the rule breaker!
And also a photo with Luka…
I’m posting this the next morning, but this is really Friday’s post
The final score is in. I lost a little bit of money, I saw a little bit of CES, and the rest of the time was better than it has been in years.
We stayed at both the Cosmopolitan and the Mirage. I’m too old for the former, and so I guess it’s the latter for me from now on. Vegas has definitely become a young person’s playground. The emphasis everywhere is clubs and pool parties. Blackjack and roulette. The slots are much quieter than they used to be…
CES was good. I didn’t get back to the emerging tech section like I would have liked too. Also, the partner device that I came to see wasn’t on display. I guess I can’t bail yet (let’s see if Ian is reading 🙂 ). All kidding aside, I do hope that they have it here next year. That would be a nice personal win.
The craps table was good while I shot, and bad otherwise. I threw 9, 6, 9 (win), 9, 9 (win), 11 (win), 11 (win), 7 (win), 8, 8 (win), 10, 9, 7 (out). That’s quite a good roll for me. After me no one hit anything. Oh well. I was happy with the strategy, and it was only my dad’s money anyway 🙂
The bonding is the best part though. Me, my dad, and my uncle – the three boys. We laugh about stupid stuff. Tell stupid stories. And all of a sudden the world doesn’t feel quite so big.
So final scorecard reads – another big win in Vegas
I think most folks know how much I love Las Vegas. I don’t think anyone really knows why. Here’s the history.
I first remember coming to Las Vegas when I was 12 years old. We stayed at the San Marino hotel which is right by the airport. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually for a conference for my mom, and my dad tagged along to gamble. That was 1996, and so no Paris, Venetian, Bellagio, City Center, Wynn…
We upgraded a few years later to stay at Bally’s, and this time it was my dad’s conference.
My brother and I entertained ourselves at the theme park that used to be behind MGM. We’d go play the midway games at Circus, Circus. Then there was the arcade in Caesar’s and in Treasure Island (now known as TI). The show at Treasure Island was one with real pirates fighting instead of scantily clad chicks fighting. Both the play area and the show are now gone 🙁
As Comdex became more and more a part of our lives, we became regulars in Las Vegas.
I celebrated my 16th birthday in the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris hotel. I’ve seen all of the Cirque de Soleil shows, Le Reve at Wynn, love the Improv Comedy that’s at Harrah’s, and even the Variety show at the Venetian.
When I turned 18, a friend of mine scratched out the 4 in my birth year, and made it a 1. Overnight I was 21 instead of 18, and then the fun really began. I found the craps tables, and I never looked back (in fact, last May I told a dealer who carded me that he didn’t card me when I was 18 and playing, so why did he card me now? He didn’t find it amusing. It was definitely the same guy 10 years later).
When my dad sold his company, we came out to Networld Interop, and then went to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Zion national park, and this awesome pizza shop in southern Utah.
Bryan’s bachelor party at Hard Rock. First time out here with John. I brought Micky here, and she wore this smoking hot blue dress. My bachelor party at Aria. Microconf 2012. First CES I brought Amelia too. First time Luka came out here.
With Comdex out for the count after the Internet bubble burst, we’ve used CES as the conference to rally around. We meet up every January for a few days of conference, gambling, steak dinner, and laughter.
Most people have these types of memories at a beach, in the mountains, or at a relative’s house. For me, it’s always been Las Vegas.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I have such a love affair with this forever sinful city.
So it’s finally happening…
My baby boy Luka has started pre-preschool. He gets to the door, waves at the greyhounds, and proceeds to the toys. He doesn’t even look back to kiss us good-bye.
He’s just too brave, and too excited to grow up. He’s so desperate to be where Amelia is, and not get left behind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier than this last week (and that’s saying a lot for Luka).
I guess the time has come for another baby…
Note: This blog was started on the 7th, and therefore I’m back dating the publish date. I’ll work on publishing on time moving forward 🙂
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to read one book per month. One of the books I’ve started this month is titled, “Astrophotography – A Step-by-Step Approach” written by Robert T. Little. The foreword is written by Isaac Asimov.
I’m fascinated by astrophotography. I think the ability to make photos of the Milky Way, other galaxies, planets, the sun during an eclipse is awesome. It reminds me of how small we are, and yet how special it is to be able to capture that hugeness in a 35mm frame.
But…
It’s really hard to do. You see, the earth moves, and so the stars blur. And it’s hard to really nail a galaxy photo without a telescope. And I don’t have a telescope 🙂
But this book is fantastic. It was written in the 80s, still talks about film, and has stamps in the front from being checked out with old school library cards. Further, the author is super clear, and makes everything really easy. I just need to photocopy the one summary page per chapter, and I’m set.
So… who has a telescope I can borrow to test it all out 🙂
I scored some sick goals tonight, but we lost 9 – 13. More details to come after my shower
Note: This is being updated a day later because I passed out and fell asleep
We showed up at a brand new gym ready to play soccer. The other team was half the normal team, and half ringers who came in to play. The quality was really good, and we had a lot of fun. I had 2 goals I’m really proud of. The court size was tiny, and it contributed to some challenges, but I think as a team we handled it really well. If we could just find a goalie, then I think we’d be in great shape for playoffs, but that’s not easy :-/
On to the goals…
The first goal was really the more slick one. It’s a basketball court, and so I had the ball at the top of the key with a defender on my right hip (with my back to the goal). The spot to shoot was actually directly behind where my left foot, and so I had to turn on a dime and shoot while holding the defender where he was. I faked right by stuttering that direction, and then literally turned in the same spot (semi-shielding with my left hip), and nailed it with my right foot. The goalie was actually in good position, but couldn’t get enough hand onto the ball, and I scored. That made it 6 – 8, but we just couldn’t get closer 🙁
The second goal was off of an inbound from Gustavo. The ball gets passed in from out of bounds. I was making a sideline run on the right sideline facing the goal we were scoring on. I took the ball on my right foot, and shielded the defender off with my left hip. I let the ball roll to about the equivalent of the free throw line, and then used my positioning to toe poke the ball towards the near post. The goalie, again, had good position, but just lost his post, and the ball snuck through. The defender (as I was in the air with my left leg wrapped around him), then air lifted me into the corner, and dropped me off. The landing wasn’t smooth, but the goal sure was 🙂
We would have easily beaten them without the “subs” there. It’s fine for a regular season game, but I’m keen to make sure that the playoffs are just players from a team’s roster.
Next week is a double header, and it’ll be tons of fun I’m sure…