I am so inspired by Kid President. If you haven’t seen the video, go watch it now, and get your pep talk on. So… with kid on our shoulder, let’s think about how to make NYC more awesome. From a tech policy perspective :) A few weeks ago the (already awesome) NY Tech Meetuplaunched a call for conversation about how to make NYC a better place — for the tech community specifically, and for the broader community more generally. The set of goals they kicked off the conversation with were:
Make New York City the most wired city on earth by providing every New Yorker and every New York business, regardless of location, access to the fastest broadband networks at the lowest cost.
Reinvent the education system to allow every child, young adult, and all New Yorkers to develop the skills necessary to thrive in a 21st century economy and world.
Make New York City the clear choice for entrepreneurs, software engineers, and other technically skilled professionals to start a business and build a career by making it easy to find partners, financing, office space and housing, employees, and access to markets.
Support the appointment of a Deputy Mayor for Technology Innovation with an appropriate budget charged with the responsibility of reinventing New York City government with a 21st century framework.
Make New York City’s system for civic participation the most open, transparent, accountable, participatory, and innovative in the world.
Make New York City the most citizen-connected community on earth, where its people connect with each other to unleash a powerful new 21st century economy: selling to each other, renting to each other, funding each other, sharing with each other, coworking with each other, meeting up with each other, and hiring each other.
Support public policies that would ensure that technology and the opportunities available to the tech community can reach all New York’s citizens, and help solve issues related to healthcare, human rights and justice, gender equality, transportation, the environment, and other issues of fundamental importance to all New Yorkers.
(note: I had a hard time bolding the last one :-) These ideas are a starting point, and it’s been interesting to see how people have reacted to it so far — re-prioritizing (through voting) the list above and adding new ideas. What I like about the NYTM’s list is that it’s not just about making NYC a place that’s inviting for companies to locate to (through things like tax breaks, etc), but about making NYC a leader as an open, connected, wired city. It’s about using tech policy as a starting point to bring opportunities afforded by the internet and networks of people to the city as a whole.
"What if there really were two paths… I want be in the one that leads to awesome." -#kidpresident — Brandon Hatmaker (@brandonhatmaker) February 3, 2013
So, in the words of Kid, let’s get on the path to Awesome. In NYC and everywhere.
Today, we announced that USV is investing in Hailo. I am psyched about this for a number of reasons, but primarily because it’s infrastructure that connects people to their city in new ways. What’s most fascinating is that we almost certainly don’t yet know what those ways are. I want to point out one quote from Fred’s interview in the Wall Street Journal. He says:
“We think this is a kind of Trojan Horse to get people using a large network on their mobile phones to actually transact and get real stuff,” said Fred Wilson, managing partner at Union Square Ventures. “From there, I think lots of interesting things can happen. Alone in the taxi cab market, there’s a pretty big business to be built, and the fact that there’s potential beyond that gives us a lot of confidence.”
We talk a lot about backing into your network - in other words, starting with a thin edge of the wedge and ultimately finding a secondary purpose that may in fact be more profound than the first. For instance, we often say “twitter backed into identity” — when Twitter started out, it didn’t start by announcing itself as the de facto identity provider on the web. Instead, it became that after achieving ubiquity in public messaging. Relatedly: a few weeks ago at the
This was a pretty fun weekend for alternative media experiences. Of course, House of Cards launched on Netflix, testing a new model of distribution, and the Super Bowl was interrupted by a 30-minute blackout, leading to a rush to “newsjack” the moment on social media. What I like about both the Netflix move and the social media reaction to the Superbowl Blackout is that they are both attempts to deliver an experience in a way that matches the way people actually think & operate. I love that Netflix is stripping the bullshit (false cliffhangers, false scarcity, annoying recaps) out of the show, and giving the show to people exactly in the way they like it — mainlined. Netflix knows that lots of people like to watch TV this way: they practically invented it with the DVD business, and certainly have seen it from the inside via the streaming business. I watched three episodes in a row on Friday night. It’s good but not great, but I was still compelled to watch a bunch back to back, and am now basically hooked through the rest of the season. More importantly, I’m definitely less likely to quit my netflix subscription (as I tend to do every few months) now. With the Blackout Bowl, it was interesting to see which responses resonated the most on social media, and which didn’t. In general, the brands that chose to
I am so inspired by Kid President. If you haven’t seen the video, go watch it now, and get your pep talk on. So… with kid on our shoulder, let’s think about how to make NYC more awesome. From a tech policy perspective :) A few weeks ago the (already awesome) NY Tech Meetuplaunched a call for conversation about how to make NYC a better place — for the tech community specifically, and for the broader community more generally. The set of goals they kicked off the conversation with were:
Make New York City the most wired city on earth by providing every New Yorker and every New York business, regardless of location, access to the fastest broadband networks at the lowest cost.
Reinvent the education system to allow every child, young adult, and all New Yorkers to develop the skills necessary to thrive in a 21st century economy and world.
Make New York City the clear choice for entrepreneurs, software engineers, and other technically skilled professionals to start a business and build a career by making it easy to find partners, financing, office space and housing, employees, and access to markets.
Support the appointment of a Deputy Mayor for Technology Innovation with an appropriate budget charged with the responsibility of reinventing New York City government with a 21st century framework.
Make New York City’s system for civic participation the most open, transparent, accountable, participatory, and innovative in the world.
Make New York City the most citizen-connected community on earth, where its people connect with each other to unleash a powerful new 21st century economy: selling to each other, renting to each other, funding each other, sharing with each other, coworking with each other, meeting up with each other, and hiring each other.
Support public policies that would ensure that technology and the opportunities available to the tech community can reach all New York’s citizens, and help solve issues related to healthcare, human rights and justice, gender equality, transportation, the environment, and other issues of fundamental importance to all New Yorkers.
(note: I had a hard time bolding the last one :-) These ideas are a starting point, and it’s been interesting to see how people have reacted to it so far — re-prioritizing (through voting) the list above and adding new ideas. What I like about the NYTM’s list is that it’s not just about making NYC a place that’s inviting for companies to locate to (through things like tax breaks, etc), but about making NYC a leader as an open, connected, wired city. It’s about using tech policy as a starting point to bring opportunities afforded by the internet and networks of people to the city as a whole.
"What if there really were two paths… I want be in the one that leads to awesome." -#kidpresident — Brandon Hatmaker (@brandonhatmaker) February 3, 2013
So, in the words of Kid, let’s get on the path to Awesome. In NYC and everywhere.
Today, we announced that USV is investing in Hailo. I am psyched about this for a number of reasons, but primarily because it’s infrastructure that connects people to their city in new ways. What’s most fascinating is that we almost certainly don’t yet know what those ways are. I want to point out one quote from Fred’s interview in the Wall Street Journal. He says:
“We think this is a kind of Trojan Horse to get people using a large network on their mobile phones to actually transact and get real stuff,” said Fred Wilson, managing partner at Union Square Ventures. “From there, I think lots of interesting things can happen. Alone in the taxi cab market, there’s a pretty big business to be built, and the fact that there’s potential beyond that gives us a lot of confidence.”
We talk a lot about backing into your network - in other words, starting with a thin edge of the wedge and ultimately finding a secondary purpose that may in fact be more profound than the first. For instance, we often say “twitter backed into identity” — when Twitter started out, it didn’t start by announcing itself as the de facto identity provider on the web. Instead, it became that after achieving ubiquity in public messaging. Relatedly: a few weeks ago at the
This was a pretty fun weekend for alternative media experiences. Of course, House of Cards launched on Netflix, testing a new model of distribution, and the Super Bowl was interrupted by a 30-minute blackout, leading to a rush to “newsjack” the moment on social media. What I like about both the Netflix move and the social media reaction to the Superbowl Blackout is that they are both attempts to deliver an experience in a way that matches the way people actually think & operate. I love that Netflix is stripping the bullshit (false cliffhangers, false scarcity, annoying recaps) out of the show, and giving the show to people exactly in the way they like it — mainlined. Netflix knows that lots of people like to watch TV this way: they practically invented it with the DVD business, and certainly have seen it from the inside via the streaming business. I watched three episodes in a row on Friday night. It’s good but not great, but I was still compelled to watch a bunch back to back, and am now basically hooked through the rest of the season. More importantly, I’m definitely less likely to quit my netflix subscription (as I tend to do every few months) now. With the Blackout Bowl, it was interesting to see which responses resonated the most on social media, and which didn’t. In general, the brands that chose to
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
, which is related — the idea that we can cause big shifts in enterprise behavior by drawing the change out the back end, rather than pushing it through the front. I just love the idea that the direct approach is not always (or perhaps is hardly ever) the right one. It’s so interesting to think of other areas where this is happening or could happen.
. I just like — in both cases — the trend towards more authentic and net-native media experiences. It’s great to see brands experimenting with / figuring out how to go with the flow of the net, rather than fight it.
, which is related — the idea that we can cause big shifts in enterprise behavior by drawing the change out the back end, rather than pushing it through the front. I just love the idea that the direct approach is not always (or perhaps is hardly ever) the right one. It’s so interesting to think of other areas where this is happening or could happen.
. I just like — in both cases — the trend towards more authentic and net-native media experiences. It’s great to see brands experimenting with / figuring out how to go with the flow of the net, rather than fight it.
