Paul Papadimitriou - posts tagged 'Commentary'

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:54:12 GMT

http://www.marco.org/2011/12/29/bullshit?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bullshit">

Everyone has their bullshit. You can simply decide whose you’re willing to tolerate.

In a nutshell, yes.

Facebook Adds Private Messages for Pages

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:33:06 GMT

the implications are actually quite significant: these private message will make it much easier for brands to interact with fans and – critically – complainants, in a more direct and individual manner.

Private interaction, in order to cut on the noise but also be more specific and personal, is welcome. Pages should look more and more like personal profiles. Facebook also made a good UX choice by not allowing Pages to directly message users, only reply.

LeWeb Peaks at .11% of Worldwide Tweets

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:28:31 GMT

Pretty amazing impact to reach 1/10th of 1% of every Tweet generated around the world.

Indeed. This conference is an absolute must.

Google Plus Circles Katango

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:54:35 GMT

But Google+ has a feature that’s analogous to Facebook’s Friend Lists: Circles. And while Google has promoted Circles heavily, both in its marketing and on Google+ itself, it doesn’t do much in the way of automatically helping users sort their friends into Circles — there’s still a lot of legwork involved. Which Katango seems perfectly suited to help with.

As I hinted at recently, I don’t think algorithms can yet achieve the true fabric of human relationships.

Now, Facebook Smart Lists make a decent job of breaking it down for me, but only in the most obvious ways: location, occupation, school. The suggestions given to me are usually odd, but I’m also odd, having lived in so many cities, having no particular place I stayed too long in, having no family linked, being my lone wolf-self or something.

Google+ has nothing like that. Katango is thus a natural fit, but I don’t see yet making it a better experience than on Facebook.

Cross-contextual data is where those algorithms should look next.

Europe Tech Coverage and the English Language

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:18:47 GMT

Let’s stop complaining about the very US-centric tech coverage. Let’s make sure that Europe gets its coverage —and gets constantly at the top of TechMeme— by pushing ourselves like that kid.

My own rant about Europe’s fragmentation in languages —a natural given— and the need to adopt the de facto lingua franca, English, as the common denominator.

Inspired by Mike Butcher.

Different Amounts of Social Relationships

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:19:42 GMT

Mark Zuckerberg:

I think that humans have a capacity for different amounts of social relationships. And I think it varies from person to person but it’s also not about what you should do. You should use the product to keep in touch with whatever set of people you want to. And we try to build all kinds of products that make it so you can stay in touch with small groups.

This is the big challenge for all social network. The fabric of human relationships is vastly more complex than any algorithm can currently handle. Relationships vary over time, context, subtext. They are nonlinear, variable, uncertain.

Existing and not existing at the exact same time.

Will Facebook be the first to grasp the quantum superposition of the human ethos?

Artists Steal the Future

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:48:46 GMT

When Steve called Apple TV a hobby, he meant that Apple is borrowing ideas because they don’t yet know how to steal the industry. The future is still up for grabs.

This is probably the best post I’ve read about that on-going debate on who stole what and who did what first. The gist of innovation.

Ideas Begin As Fragile Thoughts

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:32:41 GMT

Steve used to say to me a lot, ‘hey Jonny, here’s a dopey idea.’ sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room and left us both completely silent. Bold, crazy, magnificent ideas or quiet simple ones, which in their subtlety and detail were utterly profound. He understood ideas begin as fragile thoughts, so easily compromised.

— Jonathan Ive

Don’t Let Salespeople Run Your Company

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:47:31 GMT

I have my own theory about why the decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The product starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.

— Steve Jobs.

Enough said.

Cutting Out the Advertising Pros

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:55:02 GMT

social media is more complex and less linear and more anarchic than the Web. There is no straight path for a message to get through

The business of interruption is becoming tougher. It has more to do with some in the advertising industry not being agile enough to start understanding technology. I will always remember this Dentsu executive at ad:tech Singapore 2010 who was puzzled at the reasons why I’d follow what startups were doing in that space.

A business that supports itself with advertising, that, effectively, has only one revenue stream—advertising—is almost entirely run by people who, effectively, want to cut out the advertising pros.

Exactly. Get real. The advertising industry should start to pay attention to the message and who sends it, not only delivering an outdated one.

I’m Coming to Paros

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:00:37 GMT

At one point, he said: “Hey, do me a favor, will you? Don’t let what happened to the music business happen to yours — keep coming up with better ways to provide people with your content.”

Jim Gianopoulos tells a great story.

A Paper Magazine Is A Broken iPad

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:17:43 GMT

It’s hard to say if the video was fabricated or not, but the crux of the matter is: as humans, our senses are defined by what surrounds us.

Just try asking what is a VHS tape or a floppy disk to young kids. Or watch this other video —in French, but you’ll get it.

Touch screens are the new norm. Siri-like communications with devices might also become one. All of us will be old farts.

Useless Fans

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:08:59 GMT

Roughly 70 percent of Facebook users say that they do not want to be advertised to by businesses that they are fans of.

A bit of a link-bait tactic in titling the article ‘Why Facebook fans are useless’. Yet, the major reasons why brands should still consider Pages is clearly the Open Graph, as Amielle Lake ends up pointing out:

When a user becomes a fan, Facebook aggregates trending and demographic information to give you an indication of who your fans are and where they come from.

And, yeah:

The trick to deriving value is figuring out how to convert a fan.

What Next for Apple

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:19:00 GMT

Google will face its existential crisis not from another webpage with a centered white box, but from the interface and context of search changing completely.

This piece by Matt Mullenweg is really well thought out. It’s no surprise Google has acquired Motorola. Mobile is the most natural screen, the one you have an intimate affair with and carry everywhere.

People who make hardware should get their software act together before Apple does for them.

Nails it.

Last Time He Saw Steve

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:10:56 GMT

The father turned to Steve as he passed close by and asked, “Excuse me, sir, would you mind taking our photo?”

Just go read that story. My favorite.

Beautiful prose. Dark backdrop.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:01:16 GMT

Late last night, long hours after the news broke that he was gone, my thoughts returned to those grass stains on his shoes back in June. I realize only now why they caught my eye. Those grass stained sneakers were the product of limited time, well spent.

56 is too darn young.

Real Time is Often Not Real Time

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:54:15 GMT

It’s not measurement it’s monitoring : Too often, communications professionals mix these two elements up. And, if they monitor the immediate response to an action, they are very likely to make decisions upon data received in a very short time frame. It’s like deciding that you’re destined to be a Hollywood Star based on a standing ovation you got in sixth grade. Measurement looks at trends over time.

I love the analogy. I wouldn’t go as far as calling real time tracking the “worst consequence of the social media revolution” though. There’s a difference between what the tools offer —a potential— and how we understand and use them.

Think. Talk. Analyze. For each step its measurement. For each step its tool.

Professional Data-Miners

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:04:30 GMT

Marketers have vastly more information about potential consumers than ever before. Every time you use a loyalty card you surrender personal information. Every time you do a Google search or hit the “like” button on Facebook, you surrender yet more. Google and Facebook protect personal privacy, but they also make money by selling generic information to advertisers. Professional data-miners use electronic data to create a detailed picture of what you have bought in the past (“history sniffing”) and how you bought it (“behaviour sniffing”). They can then draw your attention to products they think you might want to buy in the future. Smartphones can tell you that there is a shop nearby that stocks just the thing you have been looking for.

And consumers are learning more and more about marketers.

The Conscience of Television

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:41:57 GMT

I actually believe that television directly reflects the moral, political, social and emotional need states of our nation – that television is how we actually disseminate our entire value system. So all these things are uniquely human, and they all add up to our idea of conscience.

The mapping of the US society psyche through the history of television shows, by Lauren Zalaznick.

the digital folks did not invent disruptive.

Indeed.

Steve Jobs Lessons

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:37:53 GMT

1. The most enduring innovations marry art and science
2. To create the future, you can’t do it through focus groups
3. Never fear failure
4. You can’t connect the dots forward – only backward
5. Listen to that voice in the back of your head that tells you if you’re on the right track or not
6. Expect a lot from yourself and others
7. Don’t care about being right. Care about succeeding
8. Find the most talented people to surround yourself with
9. Stay hungry, stay foolish
10. Anything is possible through hard work, determination, and a sense of vision

I usually really dislike these kinds of ‘motivational’ articles —and top 10 lists as well— but I must admit that this one struck a chord. Maybe I’m getting older and sentimental.

May you change the world.

Mobile Broadband Traffic To Increase By 2600% In 5 Years

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:44:12 GMT

iSuppli reckons global smartphone shipments will double by 2015 and account for more than half of all mobile phones sold. At the same time, mobile broadband traffic volumes will see a 2600% increase in the next five years, say Nokia Siemens Networks’ own figures.

My stance has never bulged since the 90s. Mobile is not a mere platform. It’s not just a strategy. Mobile will be the first screen, the main screen.

The Nokia Siemens numbers are mind-boggling nonetheless:

— a 1000-fold mobile data traffic increase by 2020, and

— a 550% increase in mobile broadband subscribers by 2015.

We All Know How To Play The Social Game

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:30:42 GMT

People act naturally, they walk around, they talk in small groups […] they’re hanging out, it’s not awkward for them. They’re not gamers, they’re just casual people […] in a casual environment.

People are facing each other, that’s key to any experience […] the social game is really a complex game that we all know how to play […] we know all those rules in our brain.^[1]

In technology, we use what we get, as one of the Shaker founders say. Kudos to them for pushing the limits all the while trying to align with the basic rules of human interaction online.

—

transcript from the Robert Scoble video

Facebook Friend Risk

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:01:21 GMT

Among the first things reporters do when a non-public persona surges into the spotlight for something as big as the UBS rogue trading crime is search through Facebook “Friend” lists to get insight into the person. It’s actually the first thing IBTimes did this morning, for instance — sending e-mails to many among Adoboli’s Facebook “Friend” list.

The fact is that it’s also what I did. As soon as the name popped up in news articles, I went to look on his Facebook profile —but also on LinkedIn. Macabre curiosity. I’m not looking for excuses here.

It’s only the nature of the job of journalists: they will try to find a glimpse of who is the alleged criminal through what he willingly displayed online, but might also try to contact acquaintances on social networks to learn more. It doesn’t make any of his connections suspects of any crimes obviously, but I understand how uncomfortable this situation could be for the 419 of his ‘Friends’.

One cannot hide from another Friend list. It’s a decision that isn’t taken by third parties. For instance, having a public profile myself, everyone can see who is linked with me on Facebook. I’m okay with it, but I don’t know about every single one of my connections.

It is again a case of the reversal of the private sphere. What was private by default —no one had a list of my acquaintances— is now public by default.

Beyond 9/11

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:05:45 GMT

If the story of the United States has a theme so far in the 21st century, it is surely one of resilience. To hail that spirit on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, TIME revisited the people who led us, moved us and inspired us, from the morning of the attacks through the tumultuous decade that followed. These astonishing testimonies — from 40 men and women including George W. Bush, Tom Brokaw, General David Petraeus, Valerie Plame Wilson, Black Hawk helicopter pilot Tammy Duckworth, and the heroic first responders of Ground Zero — define what it means to meet adversity, and then overcome it.

10 years.

A Pyrrhic Victory

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:10:34 GMT

AOL executives have decided to terminate Arrington. It is unclear how this will officially occur. Maybe a pink slip. Maybe Arrington submits a (public?) letter of resignation. Maybe Tim Armstrong simply gives Arrington a phone call, and he quickly dashes off a note to TechCrunch employees on his iPad.

The Arrington ousting is a Pyrrhic victory for an industry that, for the most part, cannot face its own demise.

The Thin Inexistent Line

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:08:34 GMT

David Carr, New York Times:

If insiders can trade on the news they publish, readers may become an adjunct to a business that is less about public information than private gain.

“A Tech Blogger Who Leaps Over The Line”. Really? This is utter bullshit. That supposed line between insider and observers is just a creation of the mind. Not that it doesn’t matter to know where one stands, but let’s not pretend traditional journalists —for the lack of a better word— have some kind of ownership on objectivity.

Objectivity doesn’t exist. Full point. We all see the events the way we see it, unconsciously amending them with our own frame of thought, our own life experience, our own judgements. This was the underlying meaning of my article’s title: ‘Arrington: One Man’s Terrorist, Another’s Freedom Fighter‘.

In Rashomon, one can hear the bandit’s story, the wife’s story, the woodcutter’s story and the samurai’s story. They contradict each other and the movie watcher, first inclined to believe the narrator’s recollection as objective, is left with a sour taste because of the impossibility to grasp the truth. There is actually no truth or reality. Reality exists only in our own framework of thought. It is the same narrative paradox that can be found in countless conflicts where one can be alternatively called a freedom fighter or a terrorist.

Is Carr’s journalist story actually closer to a “truth” than Arrington’s tech blogger story? We can endlessly debate about this and we will never, as in Kurosawa’s masterpiece, have one reality.

But where I stand firm is that it is not to any caste to decide for the public. A journalist diploma, no more than so-called “traditional rules of journalism”, can attest to any objectivity more than any other standard. The validity of opinions comes from the varied source of information^[1] and transparency through constant disclosures^[2]. It’s a tough exercise, but a worthy one to have daily for the sake of our free societies.

As Carr correctly points out, there are topics we are leaving out. Sometimes willingly, sometimes not. But we do. It’s human we do. We triage information, we curate it. We leave stuff out much more than we include. It’s valid for journalists as it is for a tech blog, as it is for me or anyone reading this.

You don’t have to like Mike Arrington. Nor TechCrunch or any of its writers. But claiming that there’s a line that the former has crossed is just acting blindfolded.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

—

and in that sense, the current debate, if sometimes over-the-top, is a sane one to have in public
and yes, linking back to authors of an original story is part of this disclosure, often lost on “traditional” newspapers

Facebook Translate

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 08:23:54 GMT

In tests that we and others are now seeing on some parts of the site (only on Pages, at this point), comments in languages other than your account’s current one now include “Translate” button next to them. If you click on the button, the comment is automatically translated to your account language. The Translate button is then replaced by “Original,” which if clicked will untranslate the comment.

Simon Kemp mentioned in his SMWF Asia talk this Friday in Singapore how global brands were adapting to an audience that speaks many languages. Some brands go the route of having only one global Page presence, holding multilingual conversations.

This is a human-intensive and time-consuming option that works for big brands. Many smaller players simply use Google Translate, if they care at all. The launch of a Translate option on Page comments would therefore be welcomed by many. My guess is that it’s using the same crowd sourced Translation Tool that’s been offered to app developers since July 2008.

I would advise brands that look for a more precise approach to their own comments —but also their content in general— to look at myGengo‘s innovative solution: the Human Translation API.

Groupon Is Not In The Silicon Valley

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:17:50 GMT

Sarah Lacy, on TechCrunch:

Mason simply hasn’t benefitted from the raft of mentoring, gut-checks, constant scrutiny, in part because Groupon is based in Chicago. But also because the company was such a phenomenon, growing so quickly, that many of its investors have come in on the company’s terms at much later stages. Like a spoiled only child, it has the dually corrosive reality of being a big fish in a small pond as the startup who put Chicago on the high-tech map, and a big fish in a big pond getting global attention, and all the kiss-ass press and money it could ever want. I don’t say this to knock Groupon or its CEO Andrew Mason. The company and the team have shown extraordinary natural ability. But like a child prodigy it’s been a victim of that easy success too.

Fair assessment of Groupon’s situation of being somewhat an outsider. Mentorship is a key element in startup growth and this is what is usually sorely missing in locations other than the Silicon Valley.

Stating that Silicon Valley is only a state of mind is easier said than done. I’ve witnessed it again and again, being myself a mentor for various startups and accelerator programs located outside of the eye of the cyclone.

Does it mean that Groupon’s business model could actually be sound if it had the right guidance? Or that the daily deals models itself is sustainable in the long run? Call me a skeptic. I have yet to witness a single company doing it right.

Going Global Report by MyGengo

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:51:21 GMT

Going global and accessing these new markets is not trivial. But by using the latest technology and streamlining your approach, it’s easier than ever before.

Excellent report from an awesome startup.

Plus The Entire Web

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:53:57 GMT

the Google +1 Button extension allows you to “+1 a web page, anywhere you go on the web”. That’s important. You no longer have to rely on a site to implement the +1 Button, you can invoke the functionality through your browser. Imagine if Facebook made their own browser and offered an extension to “Like” any page on the web through it — same idea

People will Plus you (and soon Like you) whether you’ve asked for it or not.

The Twitter Ads You Never Asked For

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:51:32 GMT

Peter Kafka, AllThingD:

That means that users who aren’t following Virgin America on the service might still see an ad for the airline in their “timeline” — if Twitter thinks they have things in common with people who do follow Virgin.

Outside of Promoted Tweets, this is a new era in how Twitter displays advertising. Until now, the user had to have made some type of action to see ads. An algorithm matching your profile with similar ones will now trigger them.

Apple Loves Bars

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:51:16 GMT

Here’s a theory: Maybe there’s some sort of connection between drinking and losing things?
We’re looking at you, Apple employees of America.

Who wants to place bets on which tech blog will get it first?

There Are More Important Things Than Apple

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:42:22 GMT

There Steve stood, tears streaming down his cheeks, his smile wide and proud, as his son received his diploma and walked on into his own bright future leaving behind a good man and a good father who can be sure of the rightness of this, perhaps his most important legacy of all.

LinkedIn Users In Japan

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:18:38 GMT

Serkan Toto:

Japan has always been a difficult market to enter for LinkedIn, which currently boasts 100 million registered members worldwide. But how many of them are located in Japan?

[…] it seems that the number stands at just below 370,000 […] To put things into perspective: that’s 10% of Facebook’s current user base in Japan.

An uphill battle.

Steve Jobs v. Steven P. Jobs

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:37:55 GMT

Why does the New York Times refer to Steve Jobs as “Steven P. Jobs”?

I learn something new everyday.

The Future of Apple in Advertising

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:37:33 GMT

Advertising will be an early indicator of whether people without vision and taste are moving in at Apple. It will be interesting to watch.

While I can’t say I agree on everything written in this article, this last line rings very true.

21km Tokyo Apple Logo

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:37:05 GMT

This morning’s run, which spanned central Tokyo, took me first down the western side of the Imperial Palace, across to Roppongi, through Omotesando, then up to Shinjuku. The leaf is in Kagurazaka, and the start/finish point just by the entrance to Yasukuni Shrine.

My dear Joseph has done it again. I’ve been begging for an Apple logo for so long. But he figured the timing out better than I ever could have imagined. Awesome.

The Phase 2 of a Website

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:09:49 GMT

But when was the last time you reviewed and updated the content on your website? If you haven’t touched your site since the “let’s get through Phase 1” launch, you’re not alone. And if it has been more than six months, you may want to surf to the dot.com featured in your email signature and check things out.

Not exactly what happened on my site here, but I’ve certainly been sucked away from blogging for too many idiotic reasons. A website is a presence. A presence that has to live and breathe continuously.

SalesForce Goes Touch

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:54:13 GMT

Using the open standard HTML5 technology, touch.salesforce.com will allow you to access Salesforce from virtually any smartphone and tablet. Best of all, your customizations and recently accessed items will travel seamlessly among all of your mobile devices, whether it’s your laptop, smart phone or tablet.

Along with the recent Seesmic news, here’s a company that seem to understand mobile. It has also added another mobile-compatible philosophy to Chatter: real-time.

Flickr Updates Geo Privacy

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:41:01 GMT

But geo is special. I often override my default geo privacy. Every time I upload a photo taken at my house, I mark it “Contacts only”. Same for my grandma’s house. And that dark place with the goats and candles? Sorry, it’s private.

Managing geo privacy by hand is tedious and error prone.

Geo privacy done right. They seem to understand overlapping circles of connections well.