A VC - Latest Comments in Digital Strangelove

Re: Digital Strangelove

Adrian Palacios — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:02:20 -0000

To supplement what I wrote above (my belief that "digital isn't a 'thing' anymore" is a rather presumptuous attitude), I'd like to point out this infographic a friend sent me this morning: http://www.toby-ng.com/file...

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:36:09 -0000

No. But I think that was a smart move on their part

Re: Digital Strangelove

Adrian Palacios — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:17:29 -0000

curiosity is killing me...when you say "dealing with creation costs," does this mean union square ventures will be joining spark capitial in investing in aviary??

Re: Digital Strangelove

Mark Essel — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:38:56 -0000

It's possible David has the magic touch when it comes to putting words to images in a concise manner to convey a message. It's as much as an artform as it is a design skill.
Short comments.
Crapton of slides.
Great work.

Re: Digital Strangelove

Mark Essel — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:21:52 -0000

I was sure a few months back twitter would get acquired for the social contextual advertising angle.

Wonder what the deal for the pipeline was?

Re: Digital Strangelove

Mark Essel — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:18:11 -0000

That's Hugh Macleod's work. I love it as well.

Re: Digital Strangelove

ShanaC — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:25:25 -0000

I applied for the Zynga product manager new grad position. I sent them an abnormal cover letter that doesn't tell them that I'm wonderful. I'm just Shana. I sent them an idea for a game based off some behavior I observer elsewhere:

1)People like buying trophies when they complete a task
2) the Most sticky part of facebook is the photos
3) certain activities people want to do alone, certain activities
4) There is a mobile makret for games emerging, they need to have an entry point to it, but they don't need to be totally stuck to it in case it rapidly shifts. Photos, movies, and trophies are really good for that, since people will always have various ways of dealing with memories.

Therefore, let's play a crazy scavenger hunt game. I'd play that. In fact, I completed an item or two in the world's largest scavenger hunt. (The gematria of the phrase "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" and I dressed up as a Cowen). I might do it again this year. Let's see if they can top the list from the world's largest. And post pictures and movies. And be able to buy trophies in order to both unlock more items, be able to have larger teams, etc.

Trust me, there are enough people out there who will try. Especially if the list is kept relatively clean and fun, and there are some unattainable items, or nearly unattainable items.

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:47 -0000

You can write the book at any time. Joining a startup would be a great experience for you

Re: Digital Strangelove

johnfurst — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:01:50 -0000

Was definitely worth my time.
Thanks for pointing it out to.

Re: Digital Strangelove

markslater — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:40:01 -0000

well when you put it like that david i see your point - and you most certainly made it more 'understandable' and enjoyable. The one theme i did not see you touch on which i think about alot is the notion of atomization of data. Free the data and bring it down to microchunk (that could be a fred phrase) is a cornerstone concept in the flattening of these silos.

again thanks for the preso - apologies if i was a bit harsh but i did not know how this was being positioned.

anyway Umairs of down some tangent of 'awsomeness' recently - talk about cryptic.

Re: Digital Strangelove

ShanaC — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:04:44 -0000

I could read way more- I just notice what I read and what I see, when I try. Plus I failed at a bunch of things and had to get up and try again. Which sucked but it teaches you stuff about how to think. My parents thought this was very interesting when I was younger. They should have pushed more math on me, alas. They weren't sure what to do with me. I don't think they know yet.

You see the majority of what I think-the only way to get more, is to literally stick me in a startup, then to startup or do something, and then to retire (that's half a joke, I'm just not sure). There is definitely stuff that I am hiding *evil grin* Do you really want to read the book/work with the person/talk to a person who reads Snow Crash and wonders what the ordinary people and the everyday "seamless" institutions that appear in it?

I mean- I don't always and I am me. Sometimes, that book should not be written, because you alter the flow of what could happen. There are other ways of making that sort of revolution. Why do you think I think it so important to make a webpage of just flash advertisements that say absolutely nothing? Why do you think I think its equally important to one day join some sort of digitzl company, or even better, a start-up. And from there, build an institution of my own. The revolution is not just writing.

Your the 5th? person telling me that for some reason they see a revolutionary- write the book, build the thing, do it. It's scary. Huge pressure. I'm less frightened of this possibility because I came here by accident or fate, so I feel less alone. None of my friends that I grew up are doing anything remotely like this. I know only one or two from college: Warning to people out there- even learning about this world can be isolating. Be sure it makes you happy

In the end though: I'm much happier. I'm more myself. We'll see what happens now. Have to get this quarter done, and I'm behind on applying for a job at one of your portfolio companies due to school work. (They have an opening) Wouldn't have done that 6 months ago. Among other places.

We'll see what the non-book looks like after that.

Re: Digital Strangelove

ShanaC — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:35:34 -0000

Cameron is trying to avoid Blue screens and is using a scary amount of animation tech. I thought UP! was scary when it comes to the progression of digital animation. Most people didn't notice that the backgrounds moved in subtle color in UP! There are over 40 people alone on Up for both RenderMan and System Admin- that's before the animators. They were split into teams so they could animate the background. You can see the technological progression if you watch the original ToyStory and Up side by side.

Cameron looks like He is pushing every boundary of every chip, server, and program he can find- there will be way more than 40 people doing that sort of stuff, before the animators. He's probably going to be bringing in whatever the most current Rotoscoping technique is too- which is going to be expensive since you will be watching faces. And then rendering all this stuff, and fixing so it looks natural That's Hollywood for you.

Re: Digital Strangelove

David Gillespie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:40:50 -0000

Mark, thanks for taking the time to read and respond, I appreciate it. It should go without saying I really enjoy Umair and think he has a fascinating perspective on things. I also agree with Fred in that he goes over a lot of people's heads. The intent (...if you will...) was to share a lot of things I was thinking about in a way that made the ideas accessible to everyone, not just those of us who read what Umair has to say.

To put it another away, being heard is not enough. You must also be understood.

One other thing: I wouldn't put any stock in where people show up in the deck, unless everyone is to be considered second best to an upside down digital clock =]

Re: Digital Strangelove

David Gillespie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:37:48 -0000

I won't say it's the best money you ever spent (given your line of work), but it is great. Garr also writes an excellent blog of the same name.

Re: Digital Strangelove

Adrian Palacios — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:36:23 -0000

but it would seem there's a potentially bigger upside for *not* offering paid services to large brands; meaning, if you offer the same capabilities to everyone for free, then veritably anyone can play. that means the larger companies can spend thousands of dollars on ads and/or page promotion, while at the same time letting the small garage band in albuquerque, new mexico, spend a couple hundred dollars on advertising their upcoming show. and it looks like this helped facebook become cash flow positive quicker than expected.

one advantage facebook offers larger brands/clients is full-on banner advertising, rather than just little text ads on the side. by working through microsoft, if you buy enough impressions you can place skyscrapers on the right hand side (which i am very jealous of...).

Re: Digital Strangelove

Adrian Palacios — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:24:12 -0000

awesome; i can't wait to hear what you've got cooking.

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:28:16 -0000

Facebook's self serve ad platform is doing really well. It is integrated into fan pages (not sure that's the right name)

Twitter will head down this path at some point I imagine

Re: Digital Strangelove

Mark Essel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:22:10 -0000

Yeah Shana, write us a modern media transformative perception book. I'll certainly read it!

I'm tight on time to read all the other great stuff you and others reference, so at least it's one way I can at least taste some challenging ideas.

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:11:22 -0000

You could write it shana. You read so much and love to write

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:11:22 -0000

The screen that's the hardest to avoid is the one I'm using right now. The mobile screen

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:10:45 -0000

The reason I like david's prsentation so mich is that he explains all of this stuff in a way that's much easier to grok

Umair was right but he's hard to understand at times

This presentation is simple

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:01:49 -0000

I've got some ideas for dealing with creation costs and will be announcing something on that front shortly. But it won't solve cameron's 300mm problem

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:57:46 -0000

I'm getting it now. I try to do presos like that and mine suck compared to yours

Re: Digital Strangelove

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:33:51 -0000

Evolution

Re: Digital Strangelove

Jeremy Campbell — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:19:35 -0000

I'm surprised they don't charge large brands for Facebook pages, or offer premium paid features for the users. I guess the Facebook's and Twitter's still need to find their own unique "AdSense and AdWords" type of breakthrough.