Naked Venture

Blogging Reflection

2009-05-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

Reflection is a critical step in making progress. In order to better reflect on my growth as a blogger and writer over the past few months, I’ve picked out 10 of the posts that I felt were most interesting. Here are the top ten with my take-aways in chronological order:

1. Bold Growth, February 16, 2009: The earliest post, this one speaks to growth in blogging and touches on the critical question: what is the value of blogging? Having read a large amount of material on the subject, I took the descriptions that meant the most to me. It appeared that a weblog’s greatest strength was also its greatest weakness.

2. Blog Imagery, February 26, 2009: Another post on the elements of effective blogging, here I looked into the way “visual rhetoric” adds to the appeal of a blog. I analyzed a blog that had a strong appeal and illustrated how the imagery of a blog can create a kind of ethos when blended with text, which is critical for any blogger to understand.

3. Niched Media, February 23, 2009: With the ways in which we interact with media rapidly changing, the question of what makes a good media product hasn’t been more important. This post goes into a some of the philosophy and idealism behind the media.

4. Tip Towards Buyer Power, March 2, 2009: Blogs that I feel are of the highest quality are able to integrate interesting research. This post does just this, posing an answer to the question of how the “new economy” has changed and led to a more powerful consumer.

5. Technology Free Riders, March 3, 2009: This post again builds and goes beyond the required reading. I muse on the process of growth that internet technology has led us through and am cautious as to how well future predictions can truly hold up.

6. In Economist We Trust, April 2, 2009: This post goes into the foundations that led to the success of an magazine also published on the net known as The Economist. It addresses the critical features that make this publication such a trusted source of valued information.

7. Extended Mind and My Generation, April 6, 2009: The question of how the internet has changed the way we think is crucial in our current culture. Now, as we transition into new modes of thinking, is the time to investigate the changes that have occurred and the resulting costs and benefits. This post puts together some of the strongest arguments, empirical research and philosophy behind these changes.

8. Wisdom of Crowds, April 13, 2009: The idea of “collective intelligence” has been discussed in economics for a while. This post goes into some current research in this field and an application of it. This is likely to have a strong potential for the way we all interact in the future and one of the largest changes the internet has fostered.

9. Internet Audience, April 13, 2009: Addressing some of the past research on the way we interact with the internet, it cuts down and organizes the most interesting information on the subject. The psychology of reading online is different than through book reading and this has implications on the way in which internet texts should be constructed.

10. Social Media Musing, April 20, 2009: A current hot debate is the possibility of a web 2.0 bubble. This post was more personal than a lot of the other posts, so I think it adds a little different flavor. I also feel this was the best approach I could take to find the value behind social media.

Social Media Musing

2009-04-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Answering the existentially frightening question of “what are you doing?” is requirement for someone making consistent facebook or twitter updates.

Often these questions are easily answered: “Buying plane tickets” “Writing a paper” “or even “Making a sandwich” Trivial, maybe, but hey, it seems like other people are interested.

One cue to look at how social media will develop is see where I get benefits from it. Social media is a tool after all. It helps me stay in touch with friends, colleagues, professional contacts, even family on occasion, who otherwise wouldn’t know what I’m up to and vise-versa. The concern comes in where you decide to draw the boundary between your physical interactions (phone/skype calls would be a hybrid here) and through the net.

To use myself as an example, my boundaries are set in making email replies within 24 hours. This is occasionally subject to change, in the case I’m traveling/without access to a computer where I could set up an auto-reply or something similar. I also don't add people as facebook friends that I haven't met before in person, or know someone I trust can vouch for them in some way.

The key is setting expectations for the people you are constantly in touch with. At some point, everyone I know, knows that it's easier to get a hold of me through email than facebook. Being open about this can also be another way to set the expectation immediately.

In Clive Thompson’s I’m So Digitally Close to You he makes the remark that:

"growth of ambient intimacy can seem like modern narcissism taken to a new, supermetabolic extreme — the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world”

Once the hype of expressing yourself to everyone you knows settles down however, what is left is the actual value the service can provide. The people who don’t realize the benefit I just don’t get.

Intellectual Capital Giveaway

2009-04-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

“In the industrial age we went to school, in the communications age, school comes to us." –Andy DiPaolo, the Stanford Center for Professional Development director.

One of the interesting developments in the information technology and the Internet has been access to education.

In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) pioneered a model called OpenCourseWare (OCW). The mission, considered by many revolutionary at the time in its apparently non-profit motivation, was to give everyone access to educational resources.

With a few clicks you can navigate published teaching materials, syllabi, lecture notes and exams to any course at MIT. The only catch? You can’t get credit for taking them. However now, almost anyone with an interest in subjects that range from biological engineering to linguistics can learn on their own or update their knowledge base. Donations are of course encouraged.

This trend has continued with other schools following suite. Through venture funding by Sequoia Capital, Stanford currently has made available 10 online courses through a program called Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE). The current offering includes basics in computer science, artificial intelligence and robotics with the possibility of future additions in nanotechnology, bioengineering and energy/environment. Check it out.

Wisdom of the Crowds

2009-04-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever watched the show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” you know that one of the most reliable lifelines is asking the audience. With above a 90% chance for a successful answer out of 4 choices, what is often called the wisdom of crowds can be directly applied to leading to a correct final answer.

The wisdom of crowds has been widely documented in both economic and psychological literature. One of the fruits of this is a small company in Ireland that you might have heard mentioned on CNBC or Bloomberg. It is called Intrade.

With registered members from 162 countries and a 82,000 membership, the website brings together a broad audience which a lot of predicting power potential. In a book appropriately titled The Wisdom of Crowds James Surowiecki points so some of the requirements for a crowd to possess a “collective intelligence.” Surowiecki argues that questioning a crowd can often, as in the case of “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” lead to correct answers; answers that are much more reliable than had an “expert” been in charge. Intrade brings in all of Surowiecki’s preconditions such as (1) diversity of opinion; (2) member independence; (3) decentralization and (4) a good method of aggregating opinions. While the results can often be incredibly accurate, what are the members motivation to participate in making accurate predictions? For profits of course.

The exchange works in a way that is similar to options trading. You deposit some funds into an account with Intrade and with this deposit are able to purchase contracts and make a bet on certain events occurring (each that is valued at $10 USD). These events can be from anything, from how long the recession will last and political events to American Idol winners.

Take the event on the front page of Adam Lambert winning American Idol. As of today, the contract is selling (bidding) at 65.5. Each point on a contract is actually .10 cents, so if you had decided to purchase a contract at 65.5, you would be putting down $6.55.

In the event that Lambert wins American Idol, the contract will close at 100 points, making you a profit of $3.45 ($10-$6.55). If he looses, the contract expires at 0 and you lose your margin of $6.55. Another element that plays in, is that you can sell your contracts at any point before the event actually occurs, as long as you have a willing party on the other side of the contract. Low trading contracts then have the potential for a lower investment outlay and a high potential return.

This potential of this technology can even be expanded to other areas such as hedging taxes or other better forecasting decisions. In the case of the next American Idol winner, my mom has faithfully watched the show for the past 6 seasons and predicted each winner correctly. My money is on Adam; definintely a way to make the show interesting.

The Internet Audience

2009-04-13T11:11:00.001-07:00

The rules of "normal" pen to paper writing, just don't apply when you're publishing on the web.

Studies by John Morkes and Jacob Nielsen in the late 90's have made a number of telling observations about the different ways the audience of web-users read and process information. This has implications on the ways in which authors of internet texts should transform their presentation styles to meet their audience’s needs.

One aspect to always keep in mind about web readers is that they are content driven. Using revised websites based on a presentation that were concise, scannable and objective, the researchers found that respondents had better (159% improvement) of overall usability defined by:

Task time
Task errors
Memory
Subjective satisfaction

Instead of jumping into the more difficult to navigate content, links provide ways for author’s to reduce clutter and organize material for easy access. You want to do the opposite of what this Japanese site has done. Links lend a kind of internet credibility as long as they are well positioned. Content hungry users don’t want to waste their time reading inaccurate or flashy material and you will be rewarded for giving them what they want.

Also, the internet audience is likely to scan your material instead of reading word-by-word. And even then, the material that is scanned is read 25% slower than it would have been in a physical text. To combat this, information can be set up into a multimedia form. Concisely put together text should be complimented with relevant images, video, audio and interactive content that are designed to meet an a user's content needs.

Nobody is happy..

2009-04-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Nothing like some Loius CK to get a different perspective than you might be getting from the media:

College Textbook Profit Inflation?

2009-04-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

One growing concern for college textbook publishers has been recent scrutiny regarding elevated prices. In a widely publicized report released in January 2004, a public interest group (CALPIRG), found textbook prices to be unnecessarily high. A follow up study showed prices of U.S. textbooks to be significantly more than those in other countries. This is just another addition to the inflating costs of education.

Instead of money going to students, a lot of it appears to be going directly to professors. The main Physics professor at ASU actually wrote his own book with labs attached to the back of the book. The book itself is a customized fit for his course, but having labs just make the book useless for future students and therefore resale. This is similar to the adding of additions where newer books have supposed "needed" updates.

With these kind of margins and the average student according to CALPIRG spending between $775 to $875 per year, it is little wonder why many are looking for better options. Services are now available where books can be rented at sites such as Bookswim which claims to be "netflix for books." Investors are being attentive and a recent B-series round by KPCB and Foundation Capital of $25 million was confirmed in February for Chegg.

At this point, most of us prefer books to digital sources, although this is changing. Looking at Amazon’s Kindle 2, the screen is made to work like ink, with “no glare or backlight.” It is only through this kind of change that professors will not be discouraged from producing quality textbooks. Instead, costs associated with paper, retail and shipping (55.6%) could be eliminated for the most part (you still have the original fixed cost). So in actuality, while student costs will drop in the short-term, the overall solution could be a while.

Extended Mind and My Generation

2009-04-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Given its size (sometimes called "echoboomers") and consumer mentality, it’s not hard to understand why Generation Y is one of the most desirable targets for corporate marketers. It also is the most digitally active generation yet, with most being born plugged into internet and grown up around mobile technology. As Gen Y matures, it can be interesting to look at the question: “How will internet technology influence the way we think?” This question can be more complicating than it seems.

Some, such as Nicholas Carr have argued that being able to process the preceding question in its online form is a lot different than it would be if it were written down. In Is Google Making Us Stupid, Carr brings up some relevant points about the altered way most of us process and interact with information on the internet.

Instead of the slow and “deep” thinking that book reading fosters, Carr brings in a recent study of online research habits through the University College London which suggests that we are in a period of change in the way we process information. Researchers found that people jumped from one source to another of digital information. This is similar to the process of our own daily research, where we interact with a hyperlinked web with distractions that flash us from one tangent to another. Carr argues, it is this that leads us away from developing our own deep personal associations and ideas.

And actually, changing the form of what we process is likely to have a deep impact, rewiring the very circuitry of our brain. After all, speech is more of an instinctive skill. Studies in reading show that symbolic characters are like an additional layer, first decoded by the occipital lobe and then taken to be associated to certain signified objects. Here meaning is finally translated in the normal route - through the temporal and frontal lobes. As an example, variation between languages that have an alphabet and those made up of ideograms (such as Chinese) have shown structural changes that extend across many regions of the brain – including those that govern memory and the interpretation of visual and auditory stimuli. This all goes to suggest that the changes that come through internet reading can be even more different that those woven through book reading.

While reading on the internet is likely have changed the build up of how we think, in many ways it isn’t a bad thing for our generation. In an opposing argument titled How Google Is Making Us Smarter, Carl Zimmer has the last word. He cites philosopher’s Andy Clark and David Chalmers who in a paper titled The Extended Mind argue that we are all “natural born cyborgs.” The brain’s plasticity is a natural endowment that allows us to extend our mind into the tools we use – it doesn’t matter if that tool is a rake, a book, or access to the world wide web.

Instead of being some kind of hindrance, the net is a tool we can use to help us get a hold of more data. We are going through a process of adapting to this new environment. So while the output might change, it’s more likely to lead to the kind of results that the technology of the past such as the written word, or the printing press produced. In our postmodern world, we are faced with information that doesn't require us to process it in the same way as before - skimming is okay, even in "serious" research. An interesting study would be to look at if this glut of information has allowed American society overall to better question information than to accept it as truth. In the end, an algorithm is only as good as its programmer. It is up to us, and I’d prefer that option.

In The Economist We Trust

2009-04-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

Someone with economic interests is always looking for sources of information that achieve the right balance between relevance and accuracy.

In the internet space, alternative forms of media such as Blogs keep you abreast by aggregating information with a personal touch. Sharing an approach to specific audiences are Zines, which broadly defined, encompass any magazine published online. This can be found represented in the larger online presences, as seen in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times or even more a niche zine such as Investopedia.

As I write, Internet technology and market fluctuations have been able to continue to catalyze competition in this industry leading the larger publishers continue grow even more lean. Although alternative media forms can provide great supplemental information, the search for information and trends should be centered around a diet that of the more established and reliable sources.

One of the most influential has this as its mission:

“to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”

With these lofty goals in mind, The Economist puts out a weekly journal distributed every Friday and an editorial stand towards free trade and globalisation (yes, that's with an "s"). One aspect you might notice about the publication is that you won’t find an author in any of the articles. This anonymity of it authors causes its editor to be:

“not the master but the servant of something far greater than himself. You can call that ancestor-worship if you wish, but it gives to the paper an astonishing momentum of thought and principle.”

It can also be noted that this magazine’s moral tone was not meant to be moralizing. Instead, The founders ideas for The Economist were based on reason and would allow “us to sit in judgment of the dictates of our feelings.”

And the proof is in the results.

Some of the fruits of this have been the memorable Big Mac Index which gives insight into the cost of a Big Mac burger – almost anywhere in the world. As of February 4th 2009, the cheapest Big Mac can be found in Russia at a cost of $1.73 compared to $3.54 in the U.S. or up to $5.60 in Switzerland.

And a final point on their ownership structure, something always good to know. Since 1928, half the shares of The Economist Group have been owned by the Financial Times, a subsidiary of Pearson, the other 50% by a group of independent shareholders, including many members of the staff. The editor's independence is guaranteed by the existence of a board of trustees (who have no economic interest in the company), which formally appoints him and without whose permission he cannot be removed.

Website Trafficking

2009-03-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

The evolution of digital media has brought an amount of content and audience fragmentation. This had been the advantage of internet advertising which provides highly targetable marketing and/or larger audiences at cheaper rates.

One way of getting the inside look into specific audiences that traffic websites is Quantcast which delivers audience profiles inferred from directly measured website traffic. The company ended up receiving $20 million in venture capital at the beginning of 2008, on top of the original $6 million in seed financing.

This website is a great publicly available way to gain a perspective on what kind of an audience a website is attracting and the amount of traffic it is receiving relative to other websites. Its quantitative approach can lead to a more relevant audience profile than the previous panel-centric method.

Most importantly of course, it’s free.

Technology Free-Riders

2009-03-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

The financial thesis of representing increased volatility as increased risk is an apt consideration in looking at the current happenings of the market, but also the web. Along with this increased risk comes the enlightened idea that the commercial potential of the net still remains largely untapped.

The first flash of instability came in the explosive first-day gain of Netscape. Set to IPO at $14/share it made a $61 jump within the first day. With its goal of the commodization and leveling the playing field among operating systems Netscape was turned into a force that would end in a $4.2 billion AOL stock-swap valuation – only later to drop off into a part cyberspace antiquity.

Although early internet rebels foreshadowed a commercially driven arena, one of the surprising developments of cyberspace has been the manufacturing of the web through users rather than by corporate interests. While it was commercial interests that facilitated the space, its product has turned into a huge and organic positive externality. We are all free riders surfing this electronic wave.

Either way you see it, what has happened with this computing network hasn’t been in anyone’s ten-year plans. A seminal figure in the history of the internet, Ted Nelsen, envisioned a world of utopian benefits that would save us from our stupidity; obviously we are still a long way.

While little technological fetishism is okay, too much and you risk romanticizing the future possibilities instead of taking responsibility for them. As architects and consumers of the internet space, we are all leaders that gain a following by sharing. While a second-grader in 1993 could have imagined the year 2000 in a time capsule, to be a world of flying drag-racers and skateboards, we have to brace ourselves for something different, but also some of the same.

Tip Towards Buyer Power

2009-03-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

The proliferation of the internet and related technologies has certainly altered the balance of power between businesses and their customers. It is undeniable that in the current shake-out a variety of business industry structures have changed for good or are in the process. There is even reason to suggest that the larger and traditionally safer investments might now be facing the strongest challenges.

As Fred Wilson warns in a recent blog post Is There Such a Thing as a Blue Chip Stock Anymore? instead of the previous structured economy that was developed in the 19th century the new economy is “global and driven by information and technology.”

The name “blue chip” is derived from the poker chips that have the highest value. With GE and GM trading below $10 per share, just how much into perpetuity can the elite and established firm’s future dividends be assumed to reach? Just how valuable can they be assumed to be?

Of course, the situation needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. But it seems that in this troubling economic time, firms driven by technology are those nimble enough to take action and model themselves to a new set of criteria. In Adapting Marketing to the New Economy the authors mention technology as one of the drivers behind this new economy. With an ability to pull out a blackberry and purchase whenever and wherever, the Porter approved force of buyer power has grown across the business horizon. Customers are catching on, comparing notes on products and services, looking up housing prices, music, consumer reports, and checking movie ratings and trailers before going out (when the rated numbers are high enough and a movie is given a C, I probably won’t see it). The most enthusiastic people I know about internet technology are my grandparents who constantly use skype to make overseas calls.

There will always be a role for companies that deliver products and/or services with economies of scale and scope, and with already established access to financing and capital. These advantages are just too great for a smaller firm to directly take on.

The opportunity for a smaller firm comes in its ability to differentiate itself. A solution can be presented to a global marketplace for dirt cost; that is something hard to compete with.

Blog Imagery

2009-02-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

Reflecting on the visual rhetoric of blogs brings you to the ways in which each blog makes an attempt in trying to persuade. In How to Write a Misleading Headline, venture capitalist Fred Wilson chooses not to bore the quick moving reader. Instead, Wilson uses an appealing graph from a credible source to support his point. This is largely what the visual medium lets us do as bloggers – display credible information and get our points across quickly. Wilson shows us he is able to cut through the media spin, and get to credible NVCA data. He also allows the reader to speedily move to what is significant about his message and draws interest to getting at the analytic text surrounding his concrete image.

The colorful and emotive visual rhetoric stands out in a way that text can not and ensures a consistent image to those that view it. If you are going to contest Wilson's information, bring it up with NVCA. This addresses the challenge Meredith Badger brings to attention in Visual Blogs in stating that besides the imagery in a blog “there is nothing else to act as a means of verification.” Imagery concretizes the digital space and develops a context in reality.

Moving beyond mechanical reproduction, digital proliferation has mostly destroyed what Walter Benjamin calls the unique “aura” of any work of art. The monopoly is gone. Without its cult value, we are able to politicize any piece of imagery and use it to convince and persuade. The commingling of the visual with the textual shouldn’t be neglected in any awesome blog.

Niched Media

2009-02-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

From Thomas Paine’s Common Sense to today’s Op-Ed pieces, citizen journalism has played an important role within the American media landscape. Just like any product however, information needs to be “good” in order to even hope to gain a subscription in the world’s most highly competitive market.

In trying to understand the dynamic that is the current state of media in the U.S. the main question seems to be: What is a good media product is supposed to be? Understand this question and we should be able to predict the industry’s direction and growth rate. The answer that is most apparent to me is: good information depends one thing: the specific needs of its audience. For some, a good product is relevant and timely information with an only academically existent or disclosed bias: the stated goal of corporate journalism. For others it’s Brittany Spears’ latest hair cut. Television sources of today seem to try to meet both of these demands. Anywhere I turn, there seems to be no escaping a constant sensationalism and spin.

The need for customized information is an opportunity for niche forms of media. My subscription to The Economist, brings me global weekly updates that are relevant and interesting. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal also provides more daily information. It is difficult to see any non-profit form try to replace this without any of the financial or intellectual resources.

One of the most interesting developments toward receiving niched information is of course – blogging. In Andrew Baoill’s article Weblogs and the Public Sphere, he compares blogging to the model given by Jürgen Habermas of the ideal of a public space. This space is characterized by inclusivity, rank and rational debate. While Baoill presents more arguments as to why blogging doesn’t go to meet these ideals, I wonder just how close we can get?

This ideal public space after all doesn’t have room for the guy with a sign singing off religious verbage in front of the ASU Memorial Union. Although he has a chance to voice his opinion, his niche is likely only a few people on the nation’s largest campus. Most ASU students simply walk past him or find a moment to be amused by his sensationalist speech. In an episode that I witnessesed that was much to the crowd’s delight and the man’s horror, two gay men stop in front of him for a quick make-out session.

To say that traditional forms of media are facing competition from participatory media does not seem relevant. Media outlets have evolved and offer the elements of commentary and easy access that blogging and other forms of internet media have promoted. Blogging does however provide a connection, it's an outlet for a community. More than ever, the opportunity is there for a good information product to be widely distributed.

Bold Growth

2009-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

For some in the early 2000s, blogging was to be just a kind of self-centered fad. Now at the start of 2009, with the number of blogs now tracked by Technorati between then and now at 133 million, you can guess how this much this statement was in the wrong.

While I can't deny that a part of blogging isn't self-centered, from what I've seen, the lifeblood of any good blog is its ability to bring the content. It advances the fringe where ideas are evaluated based on their merit rather than their source. In The Art of Blogging, George Siemens refers to a blog as a tool for self-expression, learning, community building, self-marketing and campaigning. The real-time and free-flow elements of the medium are something to be harnessed.

The weaknesses of the uncensored, unmediated and uncontrolled voice are clear features that differentiate it. In this way it is a weblog's greatest weaknesses that bring about its strengths. Subscribing to a kind of ethical code referred to in Rebecca Blood's seminal 2001 article Weblog Ethics, a blog can be created to make a better contribution to topics of interest.

Just like any innovation which is built on existing perceptions and structures, the fruition of cyberspace and the blogosphere is not complete. This disruptive technology has continued its strong organic growth within the available means of technology.

What seems certain for now is that blogging satisfies some core human demand. Information, instead of just being put together by media organizations is now imagery-laced, hyperlinked, democratized and community-based. The story-telling is up to those that we can either relate to or choose to ignore.

Naked What?

2009-02-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

Without any protective or comfortable clothing, this blog is naked. Naked in a way that is completely transparent, exposed – or maybe even, unrestricted.

The various connotations of a naked venture come from the meanings and associations that these two very different words conjure. According to its denotation, naked can either mean a lack of status, being destitute or just not wearing any clothes; while venture brings in another factor that is financially motivated and risky. Just like any new entrepreneurial project, the practical reality is always there to strike out the bad and keep what works.

While I'll leave some of the other associations to your imagination, figuratively the name is supposed to represent the beginning point in an interesting conversation. What makes it this way of course, is that even I'm not sure where it will end up.

With my sense of pride as my only collateral, I'm going to try and explore the world of entrepreneurial finance and its many capitalistic outgrowths – and I hope to keep the ride there entertaining.