Dave Winer on the Bubble
This is what bubbles do to us. Even if you’re not going to hit the jackpot, all that money floating around still makes it hard to focus on things that take time. Rush. It’s a game of musical chairs. The music will stop and you won’t have a place to sit. It’s all the more dangerous today because the employment situation, outside the bubble, is bleak. I think for most of us, the Facebook IPO is a transition, maybe to something better. A peak. It sure isn’t making us rich. And it’s not giving us much to hope either.
Dave has seen many cycles. When he speaks, he speaks the truth. And sometimes truth is hard to internalize.
I am currently listening to most of my music on the new Big Jambox as part of my continuing hands-on review. While, it is no where close to my Sonos Play 3, which essentially sounds like a pint-sized Luciano Pavarotti, it is turning out to be a decent addition to the growing list of wireless speakers that work with iPod, iPhone, iPad and Spotify.
In addition, to Big JamBox, I spotted two more that are worth keeping an eye on. I have no plans to buy either one, but if you are looking to acquire one, check these two as well.
I am particularly intrigued by Aris by Aperion Audio though it is really made for Windows PC environments. It uses WiFi to stream music and costs $500. Expensive!
Bang & Olufsen have also come up with a brand new iPad-focused speaker/dock, BeoPlay A3. It is going to cost around $727 and is a high-end device to dock your iPad. This one looks so sleek, that I almost want it for aesthetic purposes.
I have written 696 posts about Facebook (and its competitors) on GigaOM since I started covering the company back in 2004.
A day without Google, no matter how bad its critics say it has become, would make it virtually impossible to find things on the web. But a day without Facebook, is quickly making the web unusable. Sure, there aren’t any mission-critical applications that are using Facebook — but in the future there might be. More here.
In 2006, I was one of the doubting Thomas’s who made an observation that Facebook should sell to Yahoo. At that time, it hadn’t gotten any traction or launched its platform or gotten traction across the web. Of course, six years later, I have been proven wrong and thus giving others an opportunity to gloat. Of course, as I said on twitter, in hindsight we are either geniuses or idiots. On that one, I was clearly wrong.
I course corrected, however, when Facebook launched Facebook Connect. The big picture fell in place at that moment. And here is what I thought then:
In addition to offering a simple authentication method, FC allows granular social interactions to be embedded in non-Facebook services. If Facebook can work with its partners to build interesting use-case scenarios that go beyond simple sign-on, it is quite feasible that Facebook can out-execute Google, MySpace and everyone else with its ID ambitions.
Why? Because this is their one chance of building a monetization engine. The company makes no bones about trying to build a platform that allows it to offer branded advertising in a manner akin to Google’s Adsense. A simpler person (like yours truly) would call this a platform that serves ads for all occasions, reasons and seasons.”
when asked how the company will make money, Mark apparently said the company isn’t currently focused on monetization and will be looking to extend their platform’s reach. He doesn’t have to – if Facebook Connect works, the money will follow.
(Why Facebook Connect Matters & Why It Will Win)
