David Lidsky's Blog, page 4636

Amazon's Chief Scientist Andreas Weigend on Web 3.0 Marketing, Twitter, "WeBusiness"

Andreas Weigend, former chief scientist of Amazon, spoke to audiences Tuesday at the World Innovation Forum about how to bring your business into Web 3.0 marketing. Weigend, who teaches at Stanford and is an expert in data mining, argues that we've moved from "eBusiness" (essentially, getting businesses online in Web 1.0) to "MeBusiness" (customer focus in Web 2.0) to "WeBusiness," which realigned marketing with a community focus. Weigend used his time as Amazon to teach lessons on how...

Meet the New Music Festival: Lilith Expands Tunes for a Cause With i4c Grants to Entrepreneurs

Sarah McLachlan and the founders of Lilith and the i4c Campaign want you to know that attendees will be in for music and participation in a global effort to support eco-conscious entrepreneurs at the 2010 Lilith Festival kicking off this month. Not only will part of the ticket proceeds go to support local charities, but the "Village" at each of the festival's 36 venues will showcase the winning recipients of a capital infusion made by Lilith through the i4c Campaign.

"Supporting social causes...

It's Not the Suit, It's the Sizzle: What Tony Stark Can Teach Medical Companies

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I caught Iron Man 2 this past weekend with my two boys.  It was every bit the fun, summer romp you'd expect. But as I sat there watching Robert Downey, Jr. own the screen, it struck me that medical device companies could learn something from Mr. Stark. It's not the suit, it's the sizzle.

True, medical companies don't live in Tony Stark's world. They live in a world filled with people with very real, very life-challenging problems. Medical devices must function without fail. But often in...

Twitter Founder Biz Stone on Foursquare, Ron Howard, and Dressing Like Steve Jobs

At the World Innovation Forum Tuesday, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone took the stage to talk

about life at Twitter.

Stone began by redefining his company for the audience. "We're not a social network--that's been a myth since the beginning," Stone explained. "We're much

more like an information network or a source of news." This definition feels a bit like wishful thinking given how many accounts lack actual news (The top tweeted messages, for example, according to the Oxford English...

AT&T's New iPhone Fees Forcast Smartphone Use

AT&T's iPhone tariffs just got a big makeover ... or possibly a downgrade in performance, depending on how you look at it. The iPhone 4 is driving the changes, and it actually tells us a lot about how we'll use 4G smartphones. 

AT&T's moves are designed to adjust their tariffs to
better fit the profile of the average U.S. user on an iPhone. According to the
network, some 65% of its users consume under 200MB per month and just a
"fringe" 2% of data-hogs munch down over 2GB every thirty...

Sneakers Left Over From "Art" Installations Sold at Steep Prices

Buyer be warned: "The shoes may contain imperfections due to their usage within the artworks."

ALIVESHOES is an Italian entrepreneurial venture that takes the whole
sneakers-as-high-art craze to  absurd extremes: High-tops are
recycled from art installations, then sold individually as "wearable
art" -- dirt, dust, and all. So shoes that were strewn across
the woods of Monte San Vicino for a piece about raising consciousness
(or something) can be bought for a mere 160 euros! And then you wear...

Infographic of the Day: BP's Horrifying Safety Record

When you see it laid out in a graph, its almost hard to comprehend.

The Gulf Oil spill has everyone focused on BP's offshore activity--but onshore, BP's safety record is so bad that it looks like a bunch of typos. Sadly, it's not.

Between June 2007 and February 2010, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) checked 55 oil refineries operating in the U.S. Two are owned by BP, and those racked up 760 citations for "egregiously willful" safety violations--defined as committed...

Meet the New Music Festival: Lilith Expands Tunes for a Cause with i4c Grants to Entrepreneurs

Sarah McLachlan and the founders of Lilith and the i4c Campaign want you to know that attendees will be in for music and participation in a global effort to support eco-conscious entrepreneurs at the 2010 Lilith Festival kicking off this month. Not only will part of the ticket proceeds go to support local charities, but the "Village" at each of the festival's 36 venues will showcase the winning recipients of a capital infusion made by Lilith through the i4c Campaign.

"Supporting social causes...

The Fundamental Attribution Error: It's the Situation, Not the Person

Sometimes what looks like a problem with a person is really a problem with the situation. Let me tell you the story of a woman named Amanda who worked for Nike in Vietnam. She traveled a lot, and when she got home, she had a pile of work waiting for her. But she wanted to stay accessible to her team, so she established an "open door" policy, inviting her direct reports to come see her any time.So she was astonished when she got some performance reviews back and found that her team...

Turkey Bans Google Access for "Legal" Reasons, but Why?

Turkey has long blocked Google's YouTube service, but now it's announced an indefinite ban on Google search and other services, citing "legal reasons." Is it a sign that Turkish-U.S. relations have got sourer, or a mistake?

The statement from Turkey's Telecommunications Presidency is at once clear and mystifying. It notes that many of Google's IP addresses have been banned outright, while access to some others has been crippled so they'll take long times to load. That's pretty emphatic. But...