Hi, Somerset

Just recently my friends Nick and Chrysta Bilton became the proud parents of Somerset Bilton. As someone who saw their romance blossom, this was the perfect way for the story to continue. The birth of a child is such a magical moment for the parents, a reaffirmation of human continuity. A child is a bridge from our past to the future.

When I was younger, we would get baby announcements through snail mail. Then it was over the phone. These days most people announce the arrival of their baby on Facebook or via an email with a handful of photo attachments. Nick and Chrysta, however, went a step further and shared the whole experience with a special group created on WhatsApp.

The group included some of their closest friends, and each had his or her own history with the couple. We all know one another, and perhaps that is why there is a sense of great intimacy in




Jenna Wortham

Jenna Wortham is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. A graduate of the University of Virginia, she worked at Wired before joining the Times in 2008 and more recently, the New York Times magazine. Wortham is an important voice on digital culture and new technologies.


Introduction


Like any popular mass medium, the internet often reflects the time and place as well as the people who use it. From the directory web to the search web to the social web to the mobile web, each shift in core internet behaviors has spawned its own set of stars: companies, investors, celebrities and journalists. Jenna Wortham is one of those rare writers who is able to explain the shapeshifting culture of the younger and newer internet.

A heady blend of smarts, skills, poise and sassiness, she is the voice of the Snapchat generation, throwing herself into the change before making


What I am reading today


The Snapchat Drama

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For last few days, it has been all Snapchat, all the time. Following on the heels of the privacy breach at the ephemeral-moment sharing service, it seems everyone has an opinion about the company and it’s not-so-media-savvy co-founder and chief executive, Evan Spiegel. Some have said off with his head — aka he needs to go as CEO.

David Kirkpatrick, creator of Technology and the author of The Facebook Effect even went on to say that Evan has no vision (say compared to Mark Zuckerberg) and that Snapchat could end up like Myspace. Today, Forbes published a cover story with who else, but Evan on the cover. And even that has resulted in more controversy — apparently today we are mocking Evan for being arrogant and frat-boy like in his emails to Zuckerberg.

Have we forgotten that Zuckerberg showed up late at Sequoia Capital’s offices in pajamas. Have we forgotten



What I am reading today

Also, the photo up top is that of a Unifold Wallet created by Noah Lambert. Thanks Noah Lambert for that awesome (and handsome) wallet. Your attention to detail is simply amazing!


Airtime vs SnapChat vs Chatroulette

The other night at dinner a friend (a heavyweight in the tech industry) made an astute observation when he said that red-hot Snapchat and totally flopped Airtime are two faces of the same coin, aka Chatroulette, the Internet sensation that allowed strangers to randomly connect via video and was well known for frequent appearance of a certain part of a man’s anatomy.

Social Internet shaman Sean Parker (who apparently is a new dad, congrats dude) bet on “meet the strangers” part of Chatroulette phenomenon with Airtime Snapchat, on the other hand, is about exposing yourself to a person you know for ever so brief (including private parts) ephemeral period and using that as a way of communication. Snapchat is part of the Alive Web revolution I had talked about two years ago and we are finally starting to see that future slowly unfold.

The opposite growth trajectories of Airtime and