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May 31, 2003D Conference ReportThanks to Denise Howell for blogging highlights of the WSJ's "D" Conference this past week. Here's her summary of the Steve Jobs talk, and here's the one for Bill Gates.
Posted by brian at 05:35 PM
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May 30, 2003Aliens DVD CommentaryThere's a new sort of literary twist on MST3K emerging on the web and I think it's wonderful and hilarious: the fake DVD commentary. McSweeney's has a new two-part series online entitled Unused Audio Commentary by Dinesh D'Souza and Ann Coulter, Recorded Spring 2003 for ALIENS Special Red-State Edition DVD. Part One is there and part 2 is here.
Posted by brian at 07:35 AM
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May 27, 2003eBay: did it need to lose?So eBay loses its patent suit. Did it need to? I mean, there's plenty of prior art. Hell, I built an online auction system in 1991 and 1992. MercExchange, the plaintiff in the eBay case, didn't even exist then. I even hired a programmer to help build the database back-end. The system, written in C and using my old company's CocoTalk API C library and COCONET server and client software, enabled sellers to post items online for sale, and buyers to bid on those items and then settle the transaction. Sounds like the "electronic marketplace" that MercExchange claims they invented.... a few years later. eBay has boasted that it is defending itself "vigorously" in this and other pending cases. I wonder why they deemed the auction system my company built for a client in 1992 immaterial to their defense. Oh well.
Posted by brian at 04:15 PM
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Blogiday, SchmogidayDave Weinberger suggests all bloggers take the first two weeks of August off in a mass "blogiday". He's even got the logo you're supposed to attach to your blog during that time, to let everyone know you're taking off time when Dave is taking off time.I say, keep on bloggin'! If the blogerati want to take off two weeks in August, fine. It's a great opportunity for other blogs to get some attention. A suggestion to vacationing bloggers: rather than just showing a blogiday logo, how about providing some prominent links to a lesser-known blogs, ones they like but for whatever reason ones they haven't put in their blogroll. A sort of "while I'm away, I recommend the following fine blogs" followed by a list. Share your discoveries!
Posted by brian at 07:32 AM
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May 23, 2003Rivers and TidesFinally got to see Rivers and Tides at its brief San Diego screening. I've blogged about it over at Nettle.
Posted by brian at 09:46 AM
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May 21, 2003Venture blogs(Originally posted 19-May-03, updated 21-May-03)Some VC-related blogs I'm reading regularly:
So are there any more VC types out there blogging?
Posted by brian at 03:27 PM
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May 18, 2003Pitching Battle-of-the-Fans to Tim DraperVC Tim Draper seems to be seriously considering the pitches over at AlwaysOn so what the heck, time to pitch this thing I've wanted to do for ages: Battle of the Fans.
Something I've been thinking about for years: an eBay-meets-Meetup-meets-MP3.com idea. A new twist on "music-on-demand." Remove middlemen from the concert scene equation, empower fans by enabling them to BID on their favorite artist/performer/band, COMMISSIONING them to appear at their local HS gym, town square, playhouse, concert hall, park, destination resort, whatever. Imagine: a "battle of the FANS" where towns can duke it out with each other racing to get the highest bid for a performer.
Idea: integrate with Apple's iTunes Music Store, and you could not only BUY THE SONG, but BID ON THE BAND: an upsell oppty where users buy the song then get asked if they'd like to "demand" that this artist play live in their town. When demand reaches critical mass then each user gets is charged a fee (a FRACTION of a Ticketmaster ticket price since much of the mktg & promo costs removed) and the concert goes on!
Artists could register w/ service & indicate their minimum commission rate & geographical restrictions. Some artists would probably be willing to accept very low numbers (the "I'll play in your living room for $800 with 25 of your closest friends" kind of artist) while others might need 250 people paying $200 each before they'd agree to do play a private venue or charity event.
Ideal service for fans of both new, struggling bands as well as washed-up/retired types (say, burnouts from 60s/70s). Fans would "bid" for their favorite performer to come out of retirement and come play in their town. Heck, entire TOURS could be automatically generated this way, and artists would have a new way of reaching their fans, and getting paid directly, etc. (Who needs record companies? They're so... 20th century :)
Extend the service to all kinds of other "by-popular-demand" events:
A service like this could ONLY exist using the Internet. This kind of thing is GOING to happen, it's inevitable. Let's do it!
So, that's what I pitched to Tim. Let's see what he has to say. I wrote about the Battle of the Fans idea back in February in this blog. I referenced a case in point where Paul McCartney performed live for some millionaire woman's birthday party in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. Patrick Moraz was doing this back in the mid '90s: a genuine for-$800-I'll-do-a-concert-in-your-living-room gig. Not sure if he's still doing that.
Posted by brian at 12:13 PM
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May 13, 2003MusicMatch tinkeringCouldn't resist downloading and tinkering with the new MusicMatch Jukebox v8.0 player for Windows, and of course, this led to a MusicMatch review over at my Nettle blog.
Posted by brian at 03:14 PM
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May 07, 2003Microsoft iLooGives whole new meaning to where do you want to GO today?.....I keep wondering if this is for real or a late April Fool's Joke (maybe April Fools is celebrated on May 7 in the U.K.?)
Posted by brian at 11:33 AM
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May 06, 2003Busy Week, Quiet BlogReally quiet around here lately, because I'm simply too busy to blog, or even to read blogs. I'll be lecturing at Stanford University on Friday. Details here.
Posted by brian at 09:44 PM
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