Todd Pinkerton

There's an old saw that goes something like,  "On the interwebs, nobody knows you're a dog".   Or in my case, a lazy dog with poor grammar.  What I'm trying to say is, "blogging is hard!" and I haven't done much of it lately.  Which makes me wonder, maybe there is something to this microblogging / twittering stuff after all. It's human nature to be lazy, and maybe people will be more likely to write or "create content" as they say if the threshold for writing is lower. This flies in the face of my 'twitter is dead' assertion, we'll see which side wins ou.    I also have a problem with staying on topic. I tend to write about web development here, and I feel a little weird whenever I veer away from that. Know your audience, and all that. But lately I've just been working, and watching the economy blow up, and haven't had anything interesting to say.  Or anything I thought was interesting, anyway.  I'll spare you my poutine recipes and holliday photos.

I picked up my usual box of Frosted Flakes cereal at the grocery store this week, when I noticed the giant GUITAR HERO FREE TOY INSIDE! promotion.  The picture took up half of the box cover, with the Guitar Hero brand featured prominently.  I figured hey, they must be doing really well, to promote their games to such a mass-market audience like... like everyone who buys cereal. So when I got home and opened the box, you might say I was a little disappointed. That's a bit of an understatement.  I was a bit more, WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING.  This game is possibly the biggest turd to ever come out of a box of cereals, and that's including the short-lived "Turd Crispies". First, its in some weird clunky wrist-watch form factor. Maybe 5-year-olds like that, whatever. Not a major gripe, just... whatever. Second, the 'game' consists of a tiny LCD screen with a few sprites representing musical notes your character is supposed to catch. They 'move' by disappearing from on position and re-appearing in a nearby position. This is the basic principle behind video games and motion pictures, but in this instance there are exactly 3 positions for the notes to ...

 Dan Ariely, behavioraleconomist   *ok, so maybe it's still partly about economics. But a recent talk by Dan Ariely shed some light on the quirky, human aspects of our financial decision-making.  A few days ago I saw Dan Ariely speak at MIT as part of the Media Lab's Center for Future Banking.  The Center is sponsored by major banks like Bank of America,  so in that context Ariely spoke about his research and how it relates to the current financial problems we're facing.  Ariely is known as a 'behaviorial economist', which is to say he studies how people relate to money.  I've been following his work for a few years now, but recently he's been getting a lot more attention for his book Predictably Irrational and regular NPR radio series.  So Ariely's big thesis is that we incorrectly assume people behave rationally, always acting in their own self  interest and maximizing their personal gain. As a society we enact policies that assume these economic principles.  For example, we increase penalties as crimes get bigger, because we assume people will weigh the risk vs. reward and decide the increased jail time is not worth the payoff.  But reality is different. People do not always behave ...

I hate talking about Twitter. Everyone has their opinion -- "Twitter will be such a hit it will absorb Google", or "Twitter is a flash in the pan only used by web 2.0-type techies". So to blog about Twitter really doesn't make me very happy. But. I think there is a bigger conversation to be had. A conversation which is only a little bit about Twitter. Bear with me. Twitter is often referred to as 'a micro-blogging platform'. Users are asked the simple question, "What are you doing right now?". The answers are as varied as the people that use it. From the mundane ("eating lunch") to the useful ("eating lunch at http://localcafe.com ; try the reuben!") Users 'follow' other users, whether they are friends or just good tweeters who post interesting content. Now, why is twitter so popular? And here is where it gets interesting: Twitter is popular precisely because it asks so little of its users. To maintain this blog (which I do a terrible job of, even when I'm trying) takes quite an effort. I need to host my blog somewhere, I need to choose a layout and title, categories etc. And then I need to think of something interesting ...

In a typical startup, The Management (even if its just you) often wants to do lots of different things at the same time. This is difficult, because you have limited time, people, money, and other resources to carry out all these initiatives. Here are some ways you can get all those projects under control. Create a charter for each project. This is a simple 1-page document that simply describes why you're doing this project (the business goals). It also lists the project's Sponsor, the person you go to for money or resources and whose neck is on the line to get this project done. The charter lets everyone on the team know what the project is all about, and is the guiding force in making decisions. All the work done on the project should support the reasoning in this document. It also includes success criteria, so the team knows what the desired outcome is -- whether to lower the amount of time spent waiting for customer support, or increasing revenues by providing a new paid service for your users. This should be quantifiable and measurable, so you know whether the project has achieved success. ...

In my consulting career, I've been fortunate to see similar problems multiple times -- hopefully, I'll learn from each one and not make the same mistakes the next time I encounter that particular situation. One situation in particular involves a conversation with an entrepreneur, and it goes something like this : Entrepreneur: I have an idea for a web app that will revolutionize the [blank] industry, and make us bajillions! me: That's great! I can tell you are passionate and excited, and that's critical to your success. But do you have enough cash to pay for this coffee? Entrepreneur: Yes, we have some funding to get started. And I have a business plan explaining our strategy, and I have a powerpoint deck of what the product does. Me: That's even better! I'll have another espresso then. Entrepreneur: We'd like you to get us started on our website development. Here's our feature set for beta release. How long is this going to take? How many people, and what other stuff do we need? Me: Ummm....and that's where the conversation gets difficult. Because the business plan doesn't go into great detail about the product (it shouldn't), and the powerpoint slides have a bunch ...

I've long been a fan of Guy Kawasaki. From the early days as Apple evangelist, to his current role as early-stage VC, Guy has always had keen insight into technology and social trends. He's written a few books with some practical advice on building successful companies, drawing upon his own experiences in the trenches. Guy preaches what I have understood for a long time: the cost of starting a web company has dropped dramatically in the past 5 years or so, to the point where the economics of funding and launching a startup are drastically different. Old and busted: $5M in series A VC funding, years of technology development, then hopefully some revenue. New hotness: bootstrap on credit cards or angel investors for

Today Google made available the Android SDK, which makes it possible for developers to build applications for the Android open handset platform.  There is a new section for Android on code.google.com, and a video showing off the capabilities of the platform. I haven't yet installed the SDK, but it looks promising.  Google also announced a $10M prize purse for developers building Android apps, although I'm not sure the fires really need all that stoking -- the media buzz around this platform has captured enough interest that I'm sure we'd see some amazing handset apps even without the prizes. If you haven't read my previous post, be sure to check out the Android demo at the upcoming MoMo Boston event.

Next week (Nov 13) my good friend Alan Blount will be demonstrating what the press has been calling "the gPhone", or "Google Phone". In reality, what Google has been working on is the Android mobile phone platform and SDK, not a specific phone. Also in the discussion is the Open Handset Alliance, the industry organization (including tech and mobile companies) to bring about a better user experience by leveraging the Android platform. The event is being held in conjunction with the Mobile Internet World conference in Boston -- free passes are available, details on the MoMoBoston site. This may very well be the first time the public gets a glimpse at the Android platform, so it should be a fun evening.

I feel like it does little good to blog about events after they happen. But better late than never, right? This weekend was Harvard Business School Cyberposium 13, a conference of technology and business leaders. It's interesting in that the entire conference is organized by students, and draws a pretty diverse crowd of MBA-types, tech-types, and startup entrepreneurs. The Philip Rosedale (founder of Linden Labs, makers of Second Life) talk was more interesting than I expected. His talk walked us through the virtual world of Second Life, as he described how the simple rules of the world led to some very interesting emergent behavior when the user population began to grow. For example, SL users can earn real money by creating and selling virtual goods within the SL world, to a truly global marketplace of buyers. Unlike the web there are no currency or language barriers, since SL has its own currency and a visual mode of interaction. I didn't stay for the whole conference, instead I wanted to see John Palfrey speak at the Leadership Institute on the other side of campus. Palfrey heads the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law school. ...