Monthly Archives: April 2008

Blogger v. Reality: Crossing the Chasm


Take a deep breath.

Bear with me and hear me out.

I joined the world of print press in September of last year, and the professional (albeit freelancing) world of blogging later in December (although my first post was right after the new year). I’ve had variations of personal blogs, from blogger to xanga to wordpress, for about five years, and surprisingly I’ve been known to speak the truth as I see it.

So it may (or may not if you know me) come as a bit of a shock when I say that bloggers, specifically tech/web2.0/startup bloggers (I don’t follow many other blogs so I’ll talk about what I ((think I )) know) are often out of touch with reality.

For two simple reasons …

1. Just because you wish something to be true, does not make it so.

If you think I’m referring to the great twitter debate, it’s probably because I am. (Don’t know what Twitter is?)

Kara Swisher’s post, “Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name,” was the straw that broke the camel’s back of the discourse.

Swisher, of popular technology blog All Things Digital, highlights her experience at a wedding in the US capital.

And I conducted a little experiment among the more than 100 folks gathered for the wedding, all of whom were quite intelligent, armed with all kinds of the latest devices (many, many people had iPhones, for example) and not sluggish about technology.

They were also made up of a wide range of ages and genders, from kids to seniors.

And so I asked a large group of people–about 30–and here is the grand total who knew what Twitter was: 0

She goes on to ask for predictions of “when the delta is reached when early adopter interest meets mainstream attention.”

Undoubtedly, there were various responses throughout the blogosphere (read: echo chamber).

And no surprise, many were stumbling all over themselves crying out “just be patient” and “give Twitter a chance!”

Now I use Twitter, so I’m just as un-objective as the next blogger, but I have to ask myself, “what vested interest does Joe Blogger have in Twitter’s rise to glory?”

See, all the bloggers defending Twitter so desperately WANT Twitter to go mainstream. It’s the very essence of web 2.0. — Simple app, built quickly with a small team, millions of dollars raised, adored and used (every second) by bloggers.

Oh, and it has no business model.

(Although in all fairness when Matt Marshall was running me through the ropes, this was the first question he told me I should ask the companies I interview — then again, he wrote for the Wall Street Journal so maybe he doesn’t count).

Put simply it’s an app that’s For Bloggers By Bloggers.

(Some comments on the post from “A-list” bloggers that I would put here, but the post was becoming way too long).

From the look of things, we’ve seen this debate before.

Digg and “social news aggregation.”

Digg, which was once Mike Arrington’s baby, (which YC-baby Reddit unknowingly cloned) doesn’t seem to share the same quality of space as Yahoo Buzz.

(see the whopping boost Buzz gave Techcrunch)

See Yahoo, which has millions upon millions of users, took a very “new” concept of social news aggregation, waited for it to catch on in the tech community, and then provided it to its hundreds of millions of users who never heard of Digg.

(I remember playing a game of Taboo at Thanksgiving, and the word came up Dig, and I said “think a website where you submit and share news stories and links ….. cricket, cricket, cricket).

What’s to stop Microhoo from doing the same thing to Twitter?

Oh, no! The tech world might collapse if millions of users are using a competing service to Twitter (and because most bloggers are driven by the need to draw traffic, they’ll of course –if not make a complete switch –at least utilize dual services).

So many tech bloggers want, in fact, need, Twitter to be worthwhile and sustainable that I wager it clouds their judgment just a tiny bit.

Just because you may wish for it to catch on and go multi-platinum does not mean it will. This desire to see the same tools and apps they (we) love, often times cloud their (our) vision and drags us that much further from reality.

Is there room in the market for more than one competitor? Of course, Twitter already has Pownce, Jaiku, and a range of others snapping at its heels. Even Digg and Reddit can somewhat co-exit, although uneasily, with the entrance of a dominant player like Yahoo.

But really, it’s about our mentality.

We’re not coming to the table to have our needs met, we’re swaggering drunken gluttons coming to eat to our heart’s content on all the hot, hip technology we can get our hands on.

2. The marginal cost of blogging means anyone can criticize a web/mobile application, but how many of the critics can build one?

One of the most cited quotes from the pre-WW II era belongs to Teddy Roosvelt (and in fact this quote hanging on my wall), clipped from his address “Citizenship in a Republic,” at the Sorbonne, Paris, on April 23, 1910:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

The danger of being a blogger, whether an “A-lister,” a professional blogger, or just a hobby blogger is being that critic. For the longest time in my life, I’ve considered myself the man in the arena. I ran track, played football, and did numerous other scholastic events and a few achievements that meant others wrote about me, not visa-versa. No, I wasn’t a Michael Johnson of course (more precisely Bernard Lagat, but maybe one day…) but I always scoffed at the journalists who would chronicle events and more often than not make a debauchery of quotes, criticism (unfounded or not), and their articles hacked away from the safety of a computer.

I’ve never wanted to be the critic — I’ve always wanted to be the doer, the competitor, or in this case, the tech hacker/entrepreneur.

So naturally, one of the things I fear most about writing for VentureBeat (freelance) — and what I think most other bloggers should think about, whether nor not they do — is that I’ll gain this higher-than-thou status from the perch of my chair, laptop and cellphone, giving death and life with the words mashed together on the tips of my fingers.

What have I — or any blogger — done noteworthy in this particular field to deserve to be the voice of reason or doubt, pride or prejudice, praise or shame on any of the start-ups, Venture Capitalists, angel investors, and existing internet behemoths that we cover?

Knowledge is power — and I imagine that journalism/blogging is a gate keeping of sorts, but there’s always a danger for one who has never been of assuming too much.

For all the gripe about Twitter down-time, how many of those same bloggers has built and scaled a web app to millions of users?

Arrington’s Edgeio certainly didn’t have that problem.

Power bloggers Jeff Jarvis, Dave Winer, AND Arrington’s Daylife again doesn’t have that problem.

I know Eric Eldon has launched a company, through Y Combinator (although it tried to start as a non-profit) that to my knowledge, hasn’t really taken off.

That’s not a knock against Mike or Eric — yet those two are terrific bloggers and seemingly, besides blogging, haven’t launched run-away successes (although neither’s start-ups are in the dead pool).

For this reason I say bloggers are in a constant struggle with reality — the power of the pen (or the keys, rather) is more than just that, it’s also a responsibility.

But there’s a recognition that we all must make: most of us haven’t made it to the promised land yet our passing judgment on those in various stages of their assault into it, and we must be careful not to swing the axe of hypocrisy.

I, for one, have a pretty cool idea I’m working on, that should be ready in the next six months or so — but what if it fails?

I believe in this era, the bloggers are much more closer to closing the chasm –between perception and reality, critique and participation — than journalists have been for the past several decades have been.

Why?

Because Mike HAS had a successful start-up (besides his previous ventures). It’s called Techcrunch.

Ditto for Matt Marshall at VentureBeat, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, and a host of others who have bootstrapped themselves to building companies out of popular blogs.

But the chasm is not closed — not between the echo chamber and reality, nor between entrepreneurship and those who critique — because each person who comes on after the fact (i.e. myself) that is earning bucks probably didn’t go through hell and high water to make the start-up take off.

A little blood and sweat sure — but again the gap is still there.

In fact, in an effort not to drink a bit too muchhaterade, and I certainly don’t want to come across as a better-than-thou type. In fact, the start-up I’m working on is sans-business model (although I do have one in the back of my head).

I simply enjoy telling people the truth: The Starbucks goddess does not rule the world, Facebook is great but not worthy of our worship, and you don’t need to have a Macbook Pro/Air to be cool, kind of truth. (but since you’re probably a “geek” ((awesome cliche word for anybody who reads Techcrunch and Engadget from an iPhone)), having one makes you feel better)

I have a simple piece of advice to make …

Keep a foot in both worlds — whatever you’re most involved in (in this case, the technological/ web/mobile application world) — and the real world. (i.e. people who don’t have a Facebook account, don’t know what Digg is, and send text messages ((how old school)) as well as those who are bootstrapping their existences for their company).

I seriously doubt that the chasm can or will ever fully close, but I humbly stay in pursuit with my words of what we all should …

Truth.

“A-list bloggers” comments on Twitter

I always laugh when I hear or see the word “A-list.”

Ah, people and their pride.

Let’s take a look at some of the comments on Kara’s blog and across the “blogosphere.” (Admittedly I laugh every time I type that word).

Scott Heiferman, Meetup.com CEO and maybe one of the lone voices of reason, says

Making a householdword is the great challenge. Not only does the word need to be universally known, but it has to be universally known for something that people need. eBay, Amazon, Google, and Craigslist are universally known, and people need what those words mean: People need to buy & sell & search in their everyday lives. SecondLife is known, but people don’t need it; Flickr could be the word that means photography — the Kodak of the 21st century — but it’s wide value prop is fuzzy, and my non-tech friends still send me their crappy Shutterfly links. I’m highly suspicious of most startups’ potential to reach sustainable householdword status because they’re not really serving real people’s needs. As for Facebook, people need to stay in touch with people they know, so they’re on-track, but I suspect their word is too muddied with pokes & kid stuff.

but popular VC (investor in Twitter) and blogger Fred Wilson chimes in (mildly) optimistically saying

it’s a great point and the second challenge twitter has, after scaling, is to go mainstream.

many think it can’t happen.

i have been slowly but surely turning on my friends who don’t even use facebook to twitter.

none of them work in the tech world (easier to find friends like that in NYC)

i just tell them to text “follow fredwilson” to 40404 and when/if they get tired of it to text “leave fredwilson” to 40404

what’s interesting to me is that some really like it and have been using it with their friends

so i am optimistic, but also mindful that crossing the chasm is not easy and that twitter has a long way to go on multiple fronts in order to truly go mainstream

He then later complains about wanting to temporarily unfollow people.
And the pure bloggers?

Dave Winer says

It’ll catch on, Twitter is powerful. We need more than one vendor though. There was a time when blogs were like this, outside a few thousand people, no one knew about them, and now you’re asking this classic question on a blog. Seems a little ironic, but perfectly natural!

While Dave McClure gives one of the few predictions (and boasts about twittering about the birth of his child):

mmm.. i predict twitter “mainstreams” in ~2-3 years, friendfeed in ~3-4 years.

(altho my guess is both get acquired / integrated into something else before then).

would have been interesting to ask about Digg, which i think has already crossed over a bit.

(ps - i twittered the birth of our second child, including 3 cervix dilation updates… NERD!

Sarah Lacy is surprised by the international ubiquity of Twitter (maybe because text messages are so expensive in the US):

My in-laws asked my husband if it was an invasion of our privacy to “follow us” and while I was out of town my parents– who use absolutely zero social networking or social media sites and are doing good if they read anything I write — sent an email to my husband that read, “What is a Twitter? Is it just like a one-line blog?” I was floored. And, let’s not forget international. Every time I travel outside the U.S. I’m stunned by Twitter’s ubiquity. After all, mobile apps are much stronger outside the U.S. In my own informal polls, people in Europe and the Middle East rank Twitter among the most global companies in the Valley, well above Facebook even.

In short, Twitter isn’t mainstream, but it’s getting outside the echo chamber fast. The problem is it’s not necessarily in predictable ways. It’s in random spurts

Jeff Clavier, an investor in Seesmic (which acquired Twhirl, an application built off of Twitter’s API), who at least realizes that the success of a micro-blogging platform does not mean it has go to be Twitter:

Note that I am making the case for a broad adoption of micro-blogging, or whatever that “super easy posting of a personal status update” is called. As to whether Twitter, Facebook or another yet-to-come service will be the “winner” in the space, who knows. But the broader audience, and the broader need, will be there. As to how you turn this into a business, and make money? There are enough smart people in and around these services, and enough usage, that something will eventually be figured out IMHO.


Matthew Ingram considers Twitter at the early-stage status of Chat applications or a Facebook:

But I don’t think the concept of Twitter is quite as foreign as many people make it out to be — and certainly no more foreign than the idea of “instant messaging” was not all that long ago. And as MG Siegler notes, there are some pretty cool apps being built on top of it.


Dan Farber quotes Steve Gillmour:

In this context, Twitter is a highly efficient way to share, discover, and market ideas. My journalist/blogger friends have taken to Twitter broadcasts of their posts, and on occasion I have Twittered live events, broadcasting my notes and observations to followers, who receive it in real time or for later consumption. You can also “Track” keywords to follow people or concepts without signing up to follow them. “It creates a public/private scenario where discoverability and special social interactions can happen,” Gillmor said.

but maybe more revealing says:


Twitter adds to the overflow of information, but if you find the right people to follow, or lead, it does offer a good ROI for the time spent consuming 140 characters at a time.

DING DING DING DING!

In a moment of pure echo chamber Robert Scoble says

If no one is on Twitter why am I getting a new Tweet every second?

Yeah, Kara Swisher’s friends aren’t on Twitter. Of course they are the same type who would look at you strange back in 1977 if you bought an Apple II for $5,000 like my dad did.

(Maybe he should try reading the Paul Graham essay on how to disagree)

My personal favorite, though, is MG Siegler’s take on Twitter:

Third, even within the tech world itself I’ve seen Twitter “haters” turn into “players” in a matter of months. I won’t name names, but there are several folks out there who had absolutely nothing nice to say about Twitter when they first heard about it and saw it in action. Every single one of those people have now changed their minds and use the service regularly.

To which I reply (via twitter):

Nurture vs. Nature: Is Entrepreneurship born or developed?

Shall I start this post with a quote?

“The common denominator of success — the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful — lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” Albert E.N. Gray, exceprt from a major address at the 1940 NALU (National Association of Life Underwriters) annual convention in Philadelphia.

There’s been some debate throughout history, with whether a certain trait or characteristic is innate, or whether its developed. A scientist may call it a discourse on Nature vs. Nature.

With the advent of entrepreneurship — the term at least, the practice of it has been around since the origins of humanity of course — that discourse has extended to it.

Is an entrepreneur born or is he or she developed?

A friend sent me an email today saying “I am becoming convinced that entrepreneurs are born and cannot be made. Not good if you teach entrepreneurship.”

A very interesting argument to be sure, based on this person’s experiences with start-ups, but I’m not sure I wholly agree.

I think, it’s a combined force of nature and nature.

Some have it in them sure, some entrepreneurial characteristics. I’d say a bit of a rebellious nature is probably necessary. Also some confidence (this helps to whither the tough times), resilience, and a general vision and the will to gut it out.

But is the “habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do” innate, or can it be developed?

If only I had an audience to pitch this to, we could have some valuable discourse, unfortunately I’m not a beggar and I won’t be riding any wishes :).

A habit, of course, can be formed, and I believe the same is true with entrepreneurship. It is more a habit and a way of thinking than it is an actual characteristic that one is born with.

Some are most likely born with a greater propensity to develop this habit (just the way some are born with a high propensity to be alcoholics), but I wouldn’t bet that entrepreneurs cannot be developed.

At the heart of this question is whether or not a man can change his destiny. If he can’t, then he is destined to be and to do the path laid out before him. (i.e. he can’t be an entrepreneur)

And if we can change our destiny … ?

Stream of consciousness: IM chat clients and the rise of Social Networks, Why Google will buy Scribd or Docstoc

Many in the start-up world frequently mention an interesting warning: don’t create a product that is a solution looking for a problem. Rather, find the problem, and create the solution to it.

I’m not here to debate the veracity of that argument, but rather present an interesting thought that I twittered.

On IM chat clients, specifically AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger, it took years before you could leave a message for someone and them receive it upon signing back in the service (if the message was sent while they were logged out.)

Add that to the skyrocketing use of the away message, and it was nearly impossible to know if the intended recipient truly read the message or not. Perhaps he or she signed in a different computer and logged out the computer logged in with the away message. Maybe the user signed in and accidentally closed the window with the message.

I wonder how much this contributed to the rise of the static social network (i.e. Friendster, Facebook, Hi5, Myspace, etc.)

Guestbooks, known on Fbook as “The Wall” and on MySpace as simply comments, has been around for years before the web 2.0 era, but usually hosted on an individual service platform, a la tripod or geocities, which wasn’t really well connected with users.

Xanga did a better job of this, but it was still more about blogging and sharing your life story than it was about connecting with your friends.

Even now, when I use AIM integrated with Gmail, my Gmail sidebar only shows me users who are “active.” I have about fifty friends who are always signed on, albeit with an “away message.” With the ability to send messages while in away status (and to even hide being signed on) this inevitably has led to most people simply never taking off their away message.

Obviously, this is a boon for privacy, but not so much for communication. That’s what I feel is the main attractiveness about the wall (besides being a lot less private than a direct IM). You leave a message, and if the user uses the service regularly, they WILL see the message, no doubt about it (as well as all of his or her friends).

Honestly I know this is a lot of analysis on such a small feature, but I strongly believe that it’s the small features that make or break a service.

Oh, and while using Gmail today, I realized that the behemoth must have plans to buy either Scribd or Docstoc.

Why?

Well when someone sends me an mp3, I can open that directly via Gmail, ditto for a 97-2003 word document, excel spreadsheet, or powerpoint.

But I can’t do that with a PDF.

I have to actually download the PDF to my computer, which is a big pain. And until they have Gdrive, maybe even more important when Gdrive releases, seamless PDF integration will be very important, and I believe Docstoc or Scribd will fit in nicely with Google Docs, Gmail, and the Google Apps suite.

The high price of coming to America

Death struck twice this week.

First a friend I went to elementary, middle, and high school with. Played football together even. Shot himself Thursday.

Second my dad’s mother, today, 2pm Nigerian time.

There’s a high price of coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

My dad came to the US in 1979, a bit after receiving his master’s degree, to study for his Ph.D in Petroleum Engineering, first at PSU, then finally at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

That decision would forever change a generation of Adewumis.

My mother came in tow, a year later after getting all the immigration stuff cleared, with my oldest brother and sister. I wasn’t yet born.

That happened several years later, after two more had been born, in State College, Pennsylvania, although my house is in Lemont.

I’ve always had my family: my dad, mom, brothers and sisters that is. The only other relatives we have this side of the Atlantic is a mother’s cousin in Baltimore, and my mother’s sister in Chicago.

I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to have odes of family to gather with at holidays, but I was grateful just to have the 7 or 8 of us there are here (and we’ve grown through marriages and children).

People would always ask “how often do you go back to Nigeria?”

Once.

In 6th grade, we mustered some cash (with a family of seven, flying during high season, each plane ticket is about $2k … do the math) and visited family for three weeks in South Western Nigeria.

Family I’d never known, some who spoke a language that is a bit native to my ear, but mostly foreign to my tongue.

Both my parents’ fathers had passed away, one over thirty years back, the other when I was four.

I never knew them.

I did meet both of my parents’ mothers, and it was a joy to meet in flesh and blood people you only know from stories, seemingly carved out of myth and legend.

My dad particularly would tell stories about his mother — how great a storyteller she was, and how every night when he was young, the family would crowd around as her words cast a spell over them and took them through time past, present and yet to come.

I’ve discussed before that I’m from everywhere and from nowhere — not truly from Nigeria being born and raised in America, but not truly from America with a heritage still strong and true running hundreds of years before this country’s birth.

I was supposed to go back to Nigeria last May. I secured my Nigerian passport, after a hassle, but had already missed my flight and as reliable as booking companies are, they bungled the chance for me to go in June as well.

I had always told my dad I wanted to go back before my grandmother’s passed away. Well now it’s too late to see one of them.

I firmly believe in God, despite the trials and tribulations we go through — and I’ve had a few over the past few years — but at times it seems a laugh in the face to have missed a chance to see the woman who brought my father into this world for only the second time ever.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, our second meeting will be in Heaven.

I don’t feel sorry for myself at all; quite the contrary I feel delighted to even know who my family is, where we come from, and to have a fair relationship with my parents and brothers and sisters.

After reading a wonderful memoir titled “Three Little Words,” by Ashley Rhodes-Courter, I know that here, even in America, hundreds of thousands are orphaned or even taken away (or abandoned) from their birth parents.

One of my best friends’ dad died when he was little. And another good friend’s dad passed when he was but a bit older — old enough to remember him, but not quite aged to be able to remember their experiences but more than fondly.

There’s a high price to coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

My dad’s mother was in the hospital for the past several months. She called him not ten days ago to plead with him to return to Nigeria to see her. He asked for more time — busy with school you see and a long and far trip at that to return.

Even for him who goes to Nigeria for work five times a year, the earliest he would be free was June.

You can’t turn the wheel of time back, and now she’s gone.

There’s a high price of coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

Whatever the riches and wealth in this country, with glory untold; where commoners eat, drink, and sleep like kings and queens of ancient times; where the lowliest can rise and dare to rule; where the heart yearns for the life with work left wanting — there’s a sacrifice we’ve all paid.

We’ve laid our families, for better or for worse, at the altar of dreams come true and success with sometimes nary a thought on what life could be, on how life SHOULD be lived.

I have no doubt my father has done what had to be done — and in fact has changed a generation because of it, and maybe one day two countries — even the world.

He provided for the education of countless cousins, nieces and nephews, and in fact was the one paying for the care of his mother — and will be handling the costs of her funeral — but yet, at the end of the day, is it really worth it?

I believe some truths, some rewards demand a high price to pay, and I strongly believe that my father has laid down his family at times, not at the altar of success, but with the knowledge in his heart, that the price he has sowed will reap times again and more.

There’s a high price of coming to America, and the creditor came-a-callin this week, and he asked for his due.

And we told him, fine, take what’s due, but there’s one thing abundant in a Nigerian, that at the end of life, there is not only death, a funeral, and sorrows untold. There is feasting and celebration, as the old pass into the sleep that from which none awake, one constant continues, one truth to hold on to dearly and share with the family that still breaths …

Joy.

Penn State beginning to dominate Ideablob

There have been two recent strong showings by Penn Staters on Ideablob. (One, Mashavu, wants to make medical care a bit more social).

So we’ve shown we can have good ideas, lets show the world Penn Staters can actually build successful products and companies.

Here’s an article from Daehee and IST Building (and another one from Rob Shedd):

One of our very own is running in the Final 8 on an entrepreneurship competition website called IdeaBlob. Matt Allison (Senior, Economics with minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship) has come up with a way to improve exercise at home. He suggests a personal trainer device that syncs up with a social networking website. Matt describes his product by introducing the pain in the market,

Individuals begin fitness programs each year, but set unrealistic goals or improperly structure their fitness programs and eventually lose interest. I’m developing a portable touch-screen device equipped with a heart rate monitor, acting as a personal trainer. The device uploads workouts from our website, where based off an individual’s fitness goals, they can build their own workout or use one of ours. The device displays progress charts, advice for future workouts, and can incorporate daily nutrition information. The website also functions as a social networking website centered around device results for exercise gurus, athletes, and anyone who enjoys living a healthy lifestyle.

Matt Allison can use all the votes he can get to rise to the top of the IdeaBlob competition this month. Support a fellow Penn State student and vote for his idea today.

IdeaBlob awards $10k every month to a top voted startup idea. If Matt’s team wins the money, he says,

With $10,000, we will invest the first $3,500 into web development fees to get the website up and running. Most of the website is already built; however we need some assistance in making the website sync properly with the device we are using. We will be purchasing 4 devices for prototyping at about $140/unit. The remaining $ 5,940 will be used for programming fees for the device.

Of course, $10k is not enough to begin manufacturing units for this commercial product, but it will allows Matt’s team to build a prototype that can then be used to raise millions of dollars in venture capital funding.

Back in February, another Penn State team won the IdeaBlob competition for a laptop networking solution for the medical infrastructure in third world countries. Because IST students have a wide exposure to and understanding of technology, I bet many of us have killer ideas that can solve current problems. So why not capitalize on an idea? Don’t waste it in your head, and IdeaBlob is just one place to start!

Life is a Gift — from the mouth of a US infantryman

A friend from basic, Grant Chapa, wrote this while in Iraq.

“Ive been in Iraq about 8 months now and I’m getting ready to go back to the states. In the time that i have been here, i have learned a lot of things, one of which being that life is a gift that we all too often take for granted. Ive seen comrades and friends of mine get killed. These people had families and children and were relatively young. They should have had many years left ahead of them. I realize that God has a purpose for everyone and that what happened was for a reason. I know too many people who have fucked up their lives, who have so much potential but just choose to let it go to waste. I’m not the best person in the world, either, but i now know and understand the value of life. Recently we had another comrade die. His convoy was going through a city and an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade, similar to a rocket) went thorough his window, through his head, and out the window on the other side of the truck. He was 9 days away from leaving this place. He had a family and a kid back home. Tomorrow isn’t promised to us. Unfortunately most of us don’t realize this because we are back home where the worst we have to worry about is getting gas money or figuring out how we can get Friday night off work. Being over here has showed me that Life is a Gift and that we could leave this world at any moment. Make every day count, because it could be your last.”

God bless our troops, God bless Iraq

A unified social graph

Or something like that, go check this out.

Twitter is …

1. that voice in the dark, all alone saying “look at me! listen to me! I’m important too! I have something worthwhile to say! I MATTER!”

2. It’s also that proverbial punching bag where you let out your frustrations (instead of randomly iming your friends)

3. above all, twitter is an active away message, where your twitter-friends will know what you’re up to because you may not be IM buddies.

Facebook Babel — the next killer app

Forget about the apparent challenges of the F8 platform, and check out Facebook’s new killer app: Facebook Babel.

One of my editor/colleagues at VentureBeat, Eric Eldon, is always breaking stories on Facebook, (in fact I think he managed to write four facebook stories in one day) although I did break one on the “people you may know” feature.

How bout this Eric?

I recognize French, Spanish, English, but what about those other languages?