New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) TechCrunch Day 1 is over and in the wake of Carol Bartz F-bombs and S-boms highlighted a fascinating day. Here are some highlights:
1) Charlie Rose interviewing Menlo Park Venture Capitalist John Doerr, who explained the iPad's incredible public reception and its role in technical change in this way: "When the Iphone was introduced, it took 74 days for it to reach 1 million in sales. It took the iPad just 28 days to reach that mark." Doerr thinks we haven't seen the zenith of the iPad's popularity because he contends one of its best fields of use is health care. (Part one of that video is uploading and will be available later this evening, below.)
On the matter of the growth of companies that make Facebook-based-and-distributed games, he noted that Zynga is the fastest growing company he's ever funded, and that includes Google.
2) Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz cage-fighting Michael Arrington, getting off S-bombs and F-bombs, and calling his online publishing and tech event company "tiny" and emphasizing her point by bringing her thumb and index finger close together. If you missed that video, it's here:
3. Charlie Rose leaving TechCrunch Disrupt to board a plane to Syria and to interview the President of Syria. An interesting life, Rose leads. I could not help but notice that he didn't have a wedding ring; that's telling. (Not to mention a message for this blogger.)
4. Something called "Startup Battlefield" where startup companies give pitches to a panel of judges that consist of luminaries like former-Google exec, now VC, Chris Sacca, who also sang for the TechCrunch audience in this Robert Scoble video:
5. Some really interesting startups. One called Betterment simplifies the online investment process and makes it accessible to those who may be intimidated by the complicated websites of other more traditional investment companies.
6. New York Times Writer David Carr leading a panel of what he called "ancient white men" and consisted of Angel Investor Ron Conway, Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau, and Bloomberg Chief Content Editor Norman Pearlstine about the iPad and asking an Asian woman who worked for the New York Times to join the panel to "balance the demographic."
The panel revealed that while traditional media's working on applications for the iPad, and New Media company Huffington Post has a new one coming out in two weeks, what they're offering is not much different from what one gets if they just visit Google News.
Day two will be equally interesting with more of a focus on media and advertisers.
Stay tuned. Off to a party!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Mayor Mike's free rides on "Air Bloomberg" post by Suzannah B. Troy
The Conflict of Interest Board -- the biggest joke in town because this board which does exist -- almost never thinks anything is a conflict of interest.
Remember "The Conflict of Interest Board" said it was not a conflict of interest for City Council to vote themselves a raise? The Conflict of Interest Board said it is not a conflict of interest for City Council to vote themselves a raise! Yeah, right!!!!!
The press was like one large monolith protecting Mike Bloomberg's "purchase" of a third term but now articles are beginning to appear that show king Mike in less than a shining light.
Adam Lisberg's embarrasses Mike Bloomberg, Christine Quinn and even NYPD Police Commissioner Kelly and his wife all getting free rides on Mike Bloomberg's private jet! Yikes.
Lisberg writes, "We only know about Kelly's and Quinn's trips because they mentioned them to reporters. Who else is in the mayor's debt after taking a free ride on Air Bloomberg?"
Adam Lisberg writes he learned about this from reporters because free rides on "Air Bloomberg" left no paper trail by any city official and family members/friends being flown around the world courtesy of Mike Bloomberg.
My question is when did reporters learn about this? Did they know about this in Mike's 1st term, 2nd term or 3rd term, or all of the above and why is this coming out now...finally.
I am saddened to read this.
Foursquare-type startups? Robert Scoble at TechCrunch Disrupt
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| John Doerr with Charlie Rose |
TechCrunch Disrupt is a wonderful, dizzying array of people, companies, tech, and ideas. We're in a huge office space that was once used as a Merill Lynch Trading facility. TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington made the point that the space and what it's now used for is an example of the kind of "third wave" of tech change that the World is facing - even if it doesn't know it.
The idea of TechCrunch Disrupt is to bring together media, tech, and advertising industry representatives. So far, the idea is working very well. It even produces controversy: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, let loose with an F-bomb and an S-bomb, in the former case telling Michael Arrington to F-off.
But Carol Bartz and Yahoo! aside, for a moment, the interesting aspect of TechCrunch Disrupt are the sheer number of "Geo-based" social networks along the lines of Foursquare. That's what I talked with tech blogger Robert Scoble about in the video.
If you're not familiar with Foursquare, it's a mobile based software application that allows you to essentially tell the world (that's on Foursquare) where you are, be it a restaurant, an airport, or a football game. You can also locate other users at the same location or other places.
There are some really interesting startups that are variations on that theme. One of them, DeHood is designed for you to report, say, a crime being committed in your neighborhood in real time.
So as much as the buzz here is about Facebook, and something called "Zuckerberg's law of information" (after Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's determination that the rate of information flow between people has doubled in something like five years), the real interest is not in the next Facebook, but in the next Foursquare.
So far, Arringon's interviewed TV interview legend Charlie Rose, who in turn had a great talk with Venture Capitalist John Doerr. Doerr reported that Zynga, the startup famous for the Farmville game, is the fastest growing company his firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has ever funded, and that includes Google.
Stay tuned.
