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Happy Mother’s Day

I am her creation. I am result of her hard work. I am a result of her sacrifices. I am, because of my mom. Happy Mother’s Day everyone.

Why the future of media is full of snow

The NYT’s multimedia project Snow Fall was a huge success, attracting big audiences and lots of plaudits. But the paper can do even better — it can build a new business from this type of project, and change the definition of journalism in the new century. Continue reading

Congrats Jim & The Loop Magazine

My friend Jim Dalrymple (a veteran writer and a real beard) and one man publishing empire has launched The Loop, a new magazine for the iPad and the iPhone. Of course, it has some great Apple related content. But most importantly it is a sign that you don’t need much to create great editorial experience. Jim offers his reasons on why he started the Loop. I am thrilled for him and offer him my support as a customer. Of course, he asked me to write a piece and I went on vacation. Typical, for a magazine writer. But at least I live for another issue. Anyway, if you support independent publishing and want to see good writing flourish, then sign up for the Loop. The first issue if free. [iTunes Store link]

Blogging, Chit Chat and Listening

Siobhan McKeown, a young writer in the United Kingdom reached out to talk about a book she is writing and wanted to talk about blogging and how it has evolved. As someone who had learned the ethos of blogging from the likes of Doc Searls and Dave Winer, I told her, what I was taught by the giants:

• Blogging is a conversation.
• Blogs are a merely platforms of this continuous conversation.
• Blogging is sharing the way you look at the world with others, finding a community who wants to talk to you and your world view. (See. Fred Wilson’s AVC blog, Justine Musk)
• Blogging is not married to the platform. You can tweet, Instagram, tumble or write like I do – it is just sharing my worldview.
• Blogging is a conversation and what that means we have to listen. Listen, absorb, think and engage!
• Today there is a lot more chit-chat (thanks to social media platform) and lot less listening. I am positive that is going to change.

Here is Siobhan’s post.

Serendipity & Mr. Chen

San Francisco has one thing going for it – serendipity of interactions. Last night while having dinner with my friend Jared Kim I ran into Steve Chen, who in past life was co-founder of YouTube. These days he and Chad Hurley (another YouTube) run a holding company which now owns Delicious, the social bookmarking service that traces its roots back to the early days of Web 2.0.
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I have not seen Steve for a while – not since NewTeeVee Live when he was a speaker at the event in 2008. First words out of his mouth after a hug were — how is your health?

Chen, who stepped away from the limelight after spending a few years at Google is now a thirty something father of two. He is physically more fit than he was and still as goofy and fun as ever. We ended up sitting and chatting for an hour, though we didn’t talk about work.

We reflected on being founders and living the dream of running our own companies. What I like about him is that he hasn’t forgotten that while he and his cofounders may have started the company, it is millions who shared videos and watched them online who made YouTube a phenomenon. Chen, was quick to point out that what they did was supply servers, build a product but luck played a major role. Luck and a millions who tuned in.

The other day I read that nearly six billion hours of video was watched on YouTube. That’s an hour for every person on the planet ( though technically not true as many billions don’t have connectivity.) As we sat and talked about the past and how the valley has changed, Steve was quick to point out that there isn’t a genius to what hit services do – they just happen.

He is back to doing Startups, building products and having fun. And being a family man.

Meeting Kevin Abosch

Of all the things I did and people I talked to, I was most delighted to meet Kevin Abosch, a photographer, though to call him that would be unfair to this anthropologist of human soul. Well known for his portraits of the famous and the fabulous, former Los Angeles native lives on the edges of technology world.

He was an earliest adopter of digital cameras, helped shape the Sony RX-1 and more recently was involved with Ireland-based Founders initiative and a conference. A self taught material science enthusiast, a micro-biology student and later a photographer, Abosch’s life is “ripped out of the pages” of Californication.

We ended up talking about photos, cameras, aesthetics and most importantly the absurdity around the technology and technical details. His advice to me was very simple: don’t be shy and take a lot of photos and instead of taking a photo let a photo take itself. In other words someday if I practiced often enough the eye and the lens will become one.

Of course, if the conversation had been just about photos, it would have been short and brief. Kevin, when telling his life story told me about why it is important for one to value their work, never discount their talent and don’t be shy. Good advice! Looking forward to seeing Kevin and his lovely family on my next trip to Paris.

What I am reading today

• Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mahler—they all loved taking long walks. So did Steve Jobs. So does Jack Dorsey. In other words, walking is good for you.
• The ultimate marriage – technology and craftsmanship. Here are six examples.
• It is time to reinvent the personal computer. Michael Mace, argues why.
• Digital mess demands a spring scrub. In other words, your i-Life needs spring cleaning too.
• How you would define work in a networked world? danah boyd weighs in.
• Data science of the Facebook world. Stephen Wolfram weighs in.