link: Einstein Says: Check Your Intellect at the Door
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious,” -- Albert Einstein
http://foundread.com/2008/02/20/einstein-says-check-your-intellect-at-the-door/
April 02, 2008
March 27, 2008
company: Kluster
Even though I seriously question whether or not the "wisdom of the crowds" is capable of creating and developing truly innovative and groundbreaking ideas - Kluster is a pretty exciting attempt at just that (and more).
"kluster is a place to harness the power of community collaboration to get stuff done. everyone has ideas, we provide a platform to get them out of heads and into the world…where they belong..." - kluster
March 19, 2008
link: My Case Against Venture Capital
Michael Simonsen, cofounder and CEO of Altos Research explains why he believes that taking venture capital actually reduces your odds of success.
http://foundread.com/2008/02/22/my-case-against-venture-capital/
March 14, 2008
link: 1,000 True Fans
Another insightful post by Kevin Kelly.
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php
"But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist's works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales." - Kevin Kelly
March 05, 2008
company: BigCarrot
The ability to create your own "X Prize" on a smaller scale.
"The site allows people with a common interest to come together and pool their contributions to create an inducement prize. Anyone can start a prize on any topic—from large social issues to smaller personal pursuits—and anyone with the ability to claim the prize can submit a solution. It’s the best way to achieve real results." -- BigCarrot
February 26, 2008
link: Better Than Free
An incredibly insightful article by Kevin Kelly. A must read for any entrepreneur attempting to understand where we are and where we are going in a digital economy where everything appears to be moving towards free.
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php
"Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of free copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies?" -- Kevin Kelly
February 19, 2008
company: SkyGrid
SkyGrid is an innovative financial platform for hedge fund managers, portfolio fund managers, and research analysts. SkyGrid delivers real-time access to thousands of sources of relevant corporate news – and millions of Internet sources – to surface accurate, rich, and immediate market Sentiment.
February 12, 2008
company: Freebase
Freebase has the potential to become far more important than Wikipedia could ever hope to be.
"Freebase is an open database of the world's information. It is built by the community and for the community - free for anyone to query, contribute to, build applications on top of, or integrate into their websites." - Freebase
February 08, 2008
companies: Flypaper & Sprout Builder
Content and content creation tools are finally starting to grow up. These companies are leading the way to a much richer content experience for all - and it's about time.
Flypaper
"Flypaper is the easiest way to create edit and share stories that stick. Now with Flypaper's free software and ever-growing Model gallery, anyone can design and publish high–impact, Flash-quality content live or over the Web — in minutes!" -- Flypaper
Sprout Builder
"Sprout is a service that allows anyone to quickly and easily build, publish and manage sophisticated multimedia content, including widgets, mini-sites, mashups and more." -- Sprout
January 29, 2008
link: The Danger of Free
Alex Iskold at ReadWriteWeb discusses the potentially dangerous trend towards free.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_danger_of_free.php
"Are we heading into dangerous territory? The paths that we are taking lead to confused customers at best; and monopolistic practices at worst. A culture where consumers think that increasingly more and more services should be free is not healthy." - Alex Iskold, ReadWriteWeb
