Nike CEO and designer Mark Parker unveils the new Flyknit shoe (Click Image To Enlarge)
THE NEW FLYKNIT SHOE WAS THE PRODUCT OF FOUR YEARS OF R&D, WHICH YIELDED NEW MACHINES FOR A FABRICATION TECHNIQUE THAT NEVER EXISTED BEFORE.
When most of us think about what we want in a shoe, a sock probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Sure it has comfort, but what about stability? And how about some support?
Nike is filling in those blanks with its newest line, Nike Flyknit, which will make its big splash in the Olympics. Four years in the making, Flyknit is the product of an entirely new shoe-making process that can produce a single, lightweight knit upper (tongue included). The resulting intricate patchwork of yarn, cables, and fabric boasts a heretofore unseen look and feel.
Flyknit was powered by athletes’ input, says Tony Bignell, director of footwear innovation at Nike’s Innovation Kitchen. And what they wanted, head-scratchingly enough, was a sock. Bignell explains.
“A sock fits great, feels snug, goes unnoticed, and you get no irritation. So the idea was, how do you engineer a sock into a high-performance shoe?”
A simple enough conceit, but one that proved harder to execute. Ben Shaffer, studio director for Nike Innovation Kitchen says.
“We had no interest in just creating a shoe that looked knit. This is where we found our first biggest challenge: There was no technology in the world available to do this for footwear.”
The intricacies of the work--building static structures and support into a dynamic knit--demanded entirely new machinery and software, Shaffer tells Co.Design.
“We were challenging a fundamental way of making shoes.”
Nike gathered a team of programmers, engineers, and designers to build technologies capable of micro-level manipulation. With machines in place, designers could engineer exactly where they wanted to add structure and flexibility to the knit upper. The next step was figuring out what yarns and fabric variations to use, requiring what seemed like an “endless” amount of prototypes, Shaffer says. The team settled on a feather-light, high-quality polyester yarn of varying elasticity, durability, thickness and strength (and all softer than anything you’ll find at the bottom of your sock drawer).
Click Image To Enlarge
To provide structure, Nike Flywire supportive cables are weft into the knit. The cables loosen and contract with your foot, offering the comfort and ease athletes were looking for. A Lunarlon cushion sole completes the shoe.
Shaffer and co. have come a long way from the original prototype--a tube sock stitched to a sole. Shaffer tells Co.Design.
“In one layer, you have only the essentials built into a fabric.”
That one layer has some spillover benefits: Since the upper doesn’t require the usual cutting, stitching, and gluing of shoes past, it reduces waste. The Flyknit is also 19% lighter than the traditionally crafted Nike Zoom Streak 3 (worn by the gold, silver, and bronze winners at the 2011 World Championship’s men’s marathon).
The warp and weft of the shoe’s texturized knit also opens up the possibility for some interesting color combinations. Nike CEO and designer Mark Parker says.
“You have to almost think three dimensionally about the colors.”
The Flyknit Racer (Click Image To Enlarge)
The Flyknit Racer will be worn at the Olympics by marathon racers from the United States, Kenya, Russia, and the U.K. Nike is also releasing a limited edition run of the line called HTM Flyknit, a collaboration between influential stylist Hiroshi Fujiwara, Nike Vice President of Creative Design Tinker Hatfield, and Nike CEO Parker that provides a streetwear-friendly application of the technology. The three-shoe line (see below) will be sold for a few weeks in New York City, Tokyo, and London.
Click Image To Enlarge
COMMENTARY: The Nike Flyknit running shoes are absolutely beautiful. I like the fact that they are formfitting and very light. If you are a runner, these shoes will turn eyeballs whether you are running on the street, on a trail, or just walking around in a shopping mall. Sorry, no prices yet. If anybody knows, post a comment.
Courtesy of an article dated February 23, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
Growing faster than some experts expected, Google’s display advertising business is on pace to surpass Facebook’s by next year, according to eMarketer.
In 2013, eMarketer anticipates that Google’s U.S. display revenues will grow 45.3% to $3.68 billion, while Facebook’s will grow 27.6% to $3.29 billion.
David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer, attributes Google’s astonishing success to a thriving mobile display business, YouTube’s expanding role as a venue for premium display inventory, and strong growth from the company’s DoubleClick ad network.
According to Hallerman.
“The strength of Google’s existing relationships with search advertisers has also been a tremendous help for the company’s display business.”
At the same time, eMarketer revised its figures for Facebook downward slightly after the company’s S-1 filling revealed a slower-than-expected growth rate for 2011, particularly in the fourth quarter.
Last year, net U.S. display ad revenues at Google hit $1.71 billion, while Facebook raked in $1.73 billion -- helping the social network beat out Yahoo as the top seller of display advertising online.
This year, domestic display revenue growth at Facebook and Google will be nearly identical -- around 48% year-over-year -- with Facebook expected to earn $2.58 billion in revenue, compared to Google’s $2.54 billion, eMarketer predicts.
In 2011, the overall U.S. display ad market -- including Web video, sponsorships, rich media and banner ads -- grew 25.2% to $12.4 billion in 2011, eMarketer estimates -- and will increase to $15.39 billion in 2012.
Facebook’s share of U.S. display ad market revenues grew to 14% in 2011 -- up from 11.5% in 2010. This year, Facebook’s share is expected to grow to 16.8%. Google’s share of U.S. display ad revenues is expected to reach 16.5% in 2012 -- up from 13.8% in 2011, and 12.1% in 2010, when the company closed its deal to purchase mobile advertising company AdMob.
Sure to worry some marketers, Google and Facebook are pulling away from other contenders in the display advertising business. Representing immense power, Google and Facebook’s combined display ad revenues will account for 33.3% of total display ad spending in 2012, eMarketer predicts -- rising to 38.8% in 2014.
Conversely, Yahoo will see its share of the U.S. display market fall to 9.1% this year -- from 10.8% in 2011. That’s a far cry from 2008, when Yahoo’s share peaked at 18.4%, eMarketer notes. Also, Marketer expects Microsoft's share of display revenues to shrink to 4.4%, this year from 4.5% in 2011, while AOL’s share will fall to 4% in 2012 -- from 4.3% last year.
COMMENTARY: If eMarketer's 2013 revenue forecasts for Facebook are correct, this signals the beginning of noticeable decline in revenue growth that I predicted would occur for two key reasons:
Facebook's ad-supported revenue model is flawed. The same applies to all other social networks regardless of flavor. The ad-supported revenue model was a "quick-and-dirty" way to monetize Facebook's growing user base. It was borrowed from MySpace and Friendster, and has remained relatively unchanged since that time.
Facebook reached a critical inflection point towards the end of 2010. Facebook claims it now has 845 million users, but the social giant is quickly reaching maximum market penetration. Forrester Research could not have said it any better, "Facebook is running out of eyeballs." I pointed this out in a great detail in a blog post dated March 20, 2012.
In spite of its humongous lead in ad impressions, social media only represents 15% of total advertising spending. Social networks are having real problems squeezing revenue out of their users. According to whitepaper by Deloitte, there were 1 billion social network users worldwide in 2011. The average revenue per user of social networks reached $4.00 in 2011, up from $3.50 in 2010 and $3.25 in 2009. Social network advertising average revenue per user reached $3.50, up from $3.00 in 2010 and $2.50 in 2009.
Facebook's average revenue per user was $4.10 at the end of 2011. By comparison, Google generated average revenues per user of $21.00.
Facebook believes that the solution to its anemic ad revenue growth is to throw more ads at users, so it is coming out with in-stream ads and more social premium display ads. I am not convinced that advertisers are going to buying it.
The data also shows that Facebook users consider their Facebook page a very private social space and the majority consider ads very invasive and interrupt the enjoyment of the Facebook experience. Advertising represented nearly 89% of Facebook's revenues at the end of 2011. The other 11% are sales of virtual goods from social games, primarily from Zynga. It is obvious that Facebook needs to reduce its reliance on advertising.
In its recent IPO filing, Facebook claimed that 430 million users now access Facebook through a mobile device, but admitted that it has been left behind the competition when it comes to mobile advertising. Facebook plans to enter the mobile ad market very soon, although it did not reveal any specific products or strategies on how it will do this.
In a blog post dated December 5, 2011, I reported that Facebook had acquired Gowalla, a location-based social network check-in service. It’s not clear how Facebook will integrate Gowalla’s technology. Gowalla is similar to Foursquare, but Foursquare has a much larger user base — 15 million vs. Gowalla’s 2-3 million. Facebook shutdown Facebook Places, its check-in service, in 2011, so the question arises: Why acquire such a small LBS check-in service like Gowalla?
In order to justify its humongous post-IPO market valuation of $100 billion, Facebook must be able to squeeze $4.61 per user by the end of 2012, if not sooner. It was thought by many social media analysts, that F-commerce would become a huge revenue generator, but in a blog post dated February 17, 2012, I revealed some very alarming trends that say otherwise.
In March 2011, Google launched Google+, its own social network. Google+ has quickly grown to an estimated 100 million users by the end of January 2012, and some social media experts believe it will grow to 300-400 millon by the end of 2012. Although it may not be quickly evident, and Facebook would never admit it, Google+ presents a huge potential threat. Google+ is already offering branded pages, and plans on selling ads in 2012, so it is moving quickly to monetize its new social network.
Google is rapidly adopting the Apple business model, slowly transitioning towards hardware by acquiring Motorola Mobile to give it a foothold in mobile phones. Google will also introduce an Android-based heads-up-display (HUD) glasses running Android latter in 2012. The Motorola Mobile acquisition gives Google a stronger foothold in mobile advertising, and if you combine Google+ with those AR HUD glasses, this could become the hottest new technology to impact social media in a very long time. So, watchout Facebook.
So what is the solution for Facebook to increase revenues beyond advertising? Facebook should concentrate on increasing added-value to its users through new products that increase the overall user experience. In short, Facebook walks a fine line between increasing ad revenues and pissing off its users, and this could create an avalanche of exits to Google+.
Courtesy of an article dated February 22, 2012 appearing in MediaPost PublicationsOnline Media Dailyand an article dated March 30, 2011 appearing in Online Marketing Trends
People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.
According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.
The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the project.
Seth Weintraub, a blogger for 9 to 5 Google, who first wrote about the glasses project in December, and then discovered more information about them this month, also said the glasses would be Android-based and cited a source that described their look as that of a pair of Oakley Thumps.
Click Image To Enlarge
They will also have a unique navigation system. Mr. Weintraub wrote this month.
“The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click. We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.”
The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.
Internally, the Google X team has been actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses and the company wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera.
The project is currently being built in the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main campus that is charged with working on robots, space elevators and dozens of other futuristic projects.
One of the key people involved with the glasses is Steve Lee, a Google engineer and creator of the Google mapping software, Latitude. As a result of Mr. Lee’s involvement, location information will be paramount in the first version released to the public, several people who have seen the glasses said. The other key leader on the glasses project is Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, who is currently spending most of his time in the Google X labs.
One Google employee said the glasses would tap into a number of Google software products that are currently available and in use today, but will display the information in an augmented reality view, rather than as a Web browser page like those that people see on smartphones.
The glasses will send data to the cloud and then use things like Google Latitude to share location, Google Goggles to search images and figure out what is being looked at, and Google Maps to show other things nearby, the Google employee said. They said.
“You will be able to check in to locations with your friends through the glasses.”
Everyone I spoke with who was familiar with the project repeatedly said that Google was not thinking about potential business models with the new glasses. Instead, they said, Google sees the project as an experiment that anyone will be able to join. If consumers take to the glasses when they are released later this year, then Google will explore possible revenue streams.
As I noted in a Disruptions column last year, Apple engineers are also exploring wearable computing, but the company is taking a different route, focusing on computers that strap around someone’s wrist.
Last week The San Jose Mercury News discovered plans by Google to build a $120 million electronics testing facility that will be involved in testing “precision optical technology.”
COMMENTARY: In a blog post dated February 8, 2012, I commented on the article by Seth Weintraub of 9to5Google.com, that revealed Google's development of "Terminator" style, Android-based head-up-display (HUD) glasses. That was just a rumor, but it now appears that Google is rapidly moving towards launching their new HUD glasses by year-end.
I hate to say it, but these augmented reality HUD glasses are going to be very controversial and create many privacy concerns and liability issues. Information about you is now readily available on the internet, especially from social networks, and Google will be able to tap into that information to display your name and possibly your contact information, and anything else you may have posted online.
In an article February 22, 2012 by Thomas Claburn appearing in InformationWeek, there were 7 potential problems Google may encounter with their new augmented reality HUD glasses:
"Here are a few potential pitfalls:
"Privacy - The outcry over people beaming images back to Google's data centers will be deafening, far worse than complaints about Google's monitoring of Web browsing habits. Google engineers are said to be actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses. But the company's history of repeated privacy blunders suggests controversy is inevitable."
"Google has the technology to enable facial recognition with its Google Goggles app, but has avoided doing so for fear of privacy problems. And that's the real shame here, because augmented reality glasses should be able to do things like present the name of the person you're looking at. That kind of technology will be available eventually, at least to police departments. But as a society, we're not ready for it."
"Redundancy - Augmented reality is cool. But putting the technology into a pair of glasses isn't strictly necessary. Everything your Google glasses might be able to do, your Android phone will do better, particularly given the assumption that the glasses will be intended for periodic rather than constant use."
"Cost - For several hundred dollars, you'll get what? Services already available on your smartphone. Augmented reality makes a lot of sense if you're, say, a NASA astronaut who needs to see Space Shuttle schematics in your visor while you're on a space walk to make repairs. Augmented reality makes less sense for consumers. A more cost-effective solution might be a smartphone scaffold for mounting your phone on your baseball cap."
"Health - There's already enough FUD about mobile phones and brain cancer. But even the most scientifically-minded are likely to balk if Google's glasses rely on anything more powerful than Bluetooth to transmit and receive data. And that's to say nothing of the potential health effects of visual distraction and impairment. No one wants their last thought to be, 'Hey, Google Maps says I'm walking across Highway 101...'"
"Liability - And if there are health risks, there will be liability problems. People will wear Google's glasses while driving, despite explicit warnings not to do so. They will collide with elderly pedestrians and someone will get hurt. Someone will end up going cross-eyed. There will be lawsuits. And some politician will hold a hearing. Add the cost of an insurance policy to your Google Glasses bill."
"Battery Life - Battery life continues to hinder the utility of smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers. And in these devices, you can generally feel the weight of the battery. Glasses need to be light to be comfortable, so the battery will necessarily be small. As a consequence, the glasses are unlikely to be useful for very long, unless they require a separate tethered battery ... and that would ruin the experience. The ideal augmented reality glasses will be able to run perpetually on sunlight. We're probably several decades away from that kind of photovoltaic and processor efficiency."
"Control - Head-tiling will not be enough if the glasses are to offer services beyond navigation. The glasses will either have to convert hand gestures to commands or accept voice commands. So add a microphone, which adds another layer of privacy problems and engineering requirements."
"The glasses will also have to be extraordinarily responsive--when you turn your head you won't be happy with information related to where you were looking three seconds ago. That will mean either a very fast network connection--something many mobile carriers can't manage consistently--or displaying as little data as possible for the sake of speed and to appease mobile carriers, which already consider you a data hog."
Wow, it looks like Thomas Claburn covered all the possible pitfalls that Google could experience. Notice that privacy was No 1 on his list. I wonder if Google's X-Labs team asked themselves, "What would Steve do?" Better yet, did Google confer with their attorney's about liability and privacy issues and did they conduct field studies and get feedback from consumers?
This is a great time to mention that the Obama administration is working hard to legislate an online "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" bill, and if the proposed bill passes in its present form without Congressional infighting, it could change the entire internet landscape with regard to privacy concerns. Checkout my blog post dated February 23, 2012 about Obama's proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights bill.
I also envision a lot of ads appearing to the HUD whenever you look at a restaurant, movie theater, product whether a book or consumer electronics device, and a message telling you what it is, where you can get it, the price and if there is a deal on that item. So unless you don't mind receiving these invasive ads appearing on your HUD, then its going to open up a whole new world for those individuals willing to forkup $250 to $650 and the software to use these new HUD glasses.
I have always felt that technology would be heading this way, and it looks like it will be happening sooner, rather than later. You can expect Microsoft, Apple and others to introduce similar devices, but they will probably wait to see just how much traction Google is making with their new HUD augmented reality glasses before launching their own.
The Obama administration just rolled out something it’s calling a “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.” It’s a first draft at this point — think of it as a blueprint for legislation down the road, a statement of principles companies can voluntarily sign onto — but given what it’s meant to do, and how it could impact future law, it’s definitely worth canvassing the key points.
CNN has a copy of the full text of the bill, if you want to read the preamble. I’ll summarize: It applies to personal data, which the bill defines as
“any data…that is linkable to a specific individual.”
That’s an over-broad definition, of course — it’s semantically linkable to pretty much every kind of data — but given the sensitivity of the subject matter, better to err on the side of breadth at the outset. And as the White House notes,
“Even without legislation, [it] will convene multistakeholder processes that use these rights as a template for codes of conduct that are enforceable by the Federal Trade Commission.”
Here's a summary of the major provisions of the Obama Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights:
“Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.” This is the bill’s first point and arguably its most important. The White House says companies “should provide consumers appropriate control over the personal data that consumers share with others and over how companies collect, use, or disclose personal data.” The bill says the choices should be easy to use and access, as should our ability “to withdraw or limit consent.” While that sounds like a no-brainer, think about how byzantine or cryptic today’s company privacy strictures tend to be, whether it’s your bank, your credit card company, or the “this today, that tomorrow” mercurialness of social networks like Facebook. Many companies require you opt-out instead of opt-in, as well — I’d like to see a requirement that all forms of personal data sharing be opt-in and never opt-out, and that we place the onus on companies to sell us on the benefits of opting-in instead of hoping we never bother to check. What’s more, personal data collection practices should be front and center, not buried in the fine print or tacked on like those laughable motormouth disclosures at the end of ebullient drug company TV ads.
“Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.” This is the “clear and accessible” clause. The White House says “companies should provide clear descriptions of what personal data they collect, why they need the data, how they will use it, when they will delete the data or de-identify it from consumers, and whether and for what purposes they may share personal data with third parties.” And they need to do it “[at] times and in places that are most useful to enabling consumers to gain a meaningful understanding of privacy risks and the ability to exercise Individual Control.”
“Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.” Translation: A company like Ticketmaster shouldn’t (without explicit permission, anyway) use those Bruce Springsteen tickets I just bought as license to share my information with a merchandizer like Amazon, such that the latter starts emailing me every time one of Springsteen’s albums is on sale. If companies want to use personal data for inconsistent purposes, the bill, in so many words, say they have a right to ask, but “must provide heightened measures of Transparency and Individual Choice.” And there’s a rudimentary age clause in this one that definitely needs to be fleshed out, but crucially states that “Companies should fulfill the obligations under this principle in ways that are appropriate for the age and sophistication of consumers.”
“Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.” Simple and straightforward: Companies need to secure your data using “reasonable safeguards.” The question that’s not answered, of course, is what’s “reasonable.” For instance: Were Sony’s safeguards to the PlayStation Network “reasonable” before hacker group Anonymous broke in and absconded with millions of users’ personal information? What about the new ones Sony’s put in place since the breach? And how will this be decided legally speaking, say a data breach occurs and lawsuits ensue?
“Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.” This is the “how do we make sure what companies think they know about us is correct?” clause. It states that companies “should provide consumers with reasonable access to personal data that they collect or maintain about them, as well as the appropriate means and opportunity to correct inaccurate data or request its deletion or use limitation,” and that the principle should be construed “in a manner consistent with freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”
“Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.” Again, simple and obvious: Companies need to be able to justify why they’re collecting your personal data (and securely dispose of what they don’t or no longer use). The White House says that justification should be contingent on the “Respect for Context” clause (see above).
“Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.” Last but not least, this is the “we should expect companies to adhere to these principles” clause. It also says companies should “hold employees responsible for adhering to these principles” and take measures to ensure the company as a whole is in compliance.
The takeaway in two words: transparency and consistency. I’m cautiously optimistic at this stage, given the bill’s language and scope. Granted some of the points seem over-broad and could do with clarification, but as a first step, with an eye toward FTC enforcement off the block, this is a significant document, and it’s already earning subscribers: AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have already signed up.
But it won’t be just about getting companies onboard (the bill is voluntary), it’ll be about those companies figuring out how to comply. That’s not as straightforward as it sounds. There’s no standard Internet template for privacy mechanics (nor does the bill argue for one). One of the biggest implicit challenges here will thus be how companies structure their consumer privacy mechanics to meet the bill’s imperatives — call it the “feng shui of consumer privacy transparency.”
COMMENTARY: Right off the top I don't like the fact that Obama's Online Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is not mandatory across the board, but only VOLUNTARY. That's a fucking joke. Excuse my French. Do we honestly believe that companies who make their living off of our data, like credit bureaus, banks, credit card companies, direct marketing companies, employment and recruting firms, market research firms, social networks, and so forth, will actually volunteer to adhere to the provisions of the Online Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights? Very doubtful. That's the only reason social networks exist. Like I have told you before, WE are the product.
As far as I am concerned, my privacy should never, under any circumstances be compromised. All information about me should be strictly on a "need to know basis." If you don't need to know, you don't get to know. My private information should go into an impenetrable blackbox, where only a court subpoena could get access to it. That's the only exception.
Unfortunately, the genie got out of the magic bottle years ago, and the data about us is already out there "in the wild." Information about us is everywhere, so the laws would only apply to new data. It gets rather complicated as you can see.
I knew that since early 2011, members of Congress had proposed a number of different bills on online privacy. Unfortunately not a single one of those bills has been voted on. Most have been stalled or stuck in respective subcommittees on consumer privacy. In the meantime, Google, Twitter, Facebook, lower tier social networks, game sites and mobile app makers continue to invade our privacy with reckless abandon. It is only because some individuals have filed private or class action lawsuits that Congress has taken notice and began to act.
To give you an idea just how many bills have been stuck or not acted upon by our elected representatives, you will find a complete list courtesy of PrivacyWonk.net. Warning, the list is unbelievably long. Our Senators and Congressmen/women all have different ideas about online privacy. Apparently tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, anti-marijuana, anti-gay marriage, Obamacare and foreign wars are more important. Screw our privacy.
Courtesy of an article dated February 23, 2011 appearing in Time's Techland and an article dated August 7, 2011 (with updates through February 7, 2012 appearing in PrivacyWonk.net
Now that all Facebook users have to switch over to the new Facebook Timeline, questions are being raised about the possibility of Timeline for brand pages. It seems like it’s not a matter of if, but when. Sources say the new format will be rolled out for businesses this Feb. 29. Although Facebook hasn’t confirmed these rumors, companies should still start preparing to make the switch and figure out how they’re going to integrate the new format into their social marketing strategies. Here are a few changes brought by Timeline that brands can take advantage of:
The cover photo. The cover photo is a big, bannerlike photo that appears at the top of personal timelines, and we expect it will appear at the top of brand timelines, as well. At 840 x 310 pixels, this is a lot of free advertising space, and it allows brands to completely customize the top of their page. Its possible uses are endless, such as promoting sales and fan offers or importing an image from your business’ website.
Increased prominence of posted photos. Photos are getting a lot more space in timelines than they did on walls, causing them to stand out more and attract more attention. Businesses can take advantage of this by posting photos along with their status updates, giving that status update greater importance.
Apps for Timeline. Other tools businesses have recently started using are Facebook’s Apps for Timeline. When users add an app, it appears at the top of their page, and all of their interactions with the application are published to their timeline. Businesses are creating apps for their brands in order to integrate themselves into users’ timelines and increase their visibility.
Facebook actions. As a part of the new Apps for Timeline tool, Facebook is also giving users more options for how they interact with brands. Instead of being limited to “liking” something, users can express that they “love,” “want” or “own” a product, along with a selection of other verbs. This is a great way for brands to engage their fans and another form of free promotion.
Telling a story. One of the most noticeable aspects of the new Timeline is that now you can tell your personal story. Chances are this will be no different for brands. Brands will also be able to share their company story and to start thinking of their posts as part of the larger brand picture.
Timeline will inevitably be rolled out for brand pages and you want to be prepared for when it happens. The businesses that start thinking now about how they’re going to incorporate the new format into their social marketing strategies are the ones that will have the greatest success when it’s finally released.
AFTER DECADES OF WEARING THE WRONG COAT, NEVER AGAIN, I SAY!
Thermometers are superb at measuring temperature but lousy at describing it. A bulb of mercury tells me it’s 55 degrees--but what’s 55 degrees? When was the last time I walked into a room and said,
The Cryoscope Haptic Weathervane, created by Robb Godshaw of Syyn Labs, conveys the temperature by allowing you to experience it. Syncing with Wi-Fi to online weather reports, you can touch this aluminum cube to actually feel the outside temperature rather than simply reading about it through numbers or whimsical sunshine icons. Godshaw tells us.
“I sought to develop a device that conveyed the forecast in a manner which left nothing to the imagination. It provides a thorough and instantaneous understanding of what awaits the user outside.”
Technically, the 4-inch milled aluminum cube is stuffed with quite a bit of hardware, including an Arduino that controls a Peltier element and a heat sink, which work in tandem to pump heat appropriately. After the first weather sync, it’s just a few minutes before the device comes to temperature.
Click Image To Enlarge
But the best trick of the Cryoscope isn’t its ability to hit a perfect temperature, but its ability to hit the perfect perceived temperature. Godshaw writes.
“Due to the ‘cold’ nature of metal, the temperature is adjusted to match human perceptions of hot and cold.”
For the cube to feel neutral on human skin, it’s set to an 85°F baseline. From there, the cube adjusts its temperature by the number of degrees the outside differs from 73°F room temperature. In other words, if it’s 60°F outside, the cube will technically cool to 72°F.
So the imperfect temperature ends up feeling perfect.
Currently, Godshaw is open to commercializing the proof of concept, but that hasn’t stopped him from considering improvements to the simplistic temperature-only design to include all aspects of weather. Godshaw writes.
“A version of the device that could communicate precipitation or wind would be beneficial. The addition of water would present numerous technical challenges. An Internet commenter suggested that a lightning feature should be added, where it gives the user a small shock. I do not plan to implement that feature.”
And if I might add, the water mixed with lightning sounds especially dangerous.
COMMENTARY: I never thought I would say this, but this is the worst design for a household temperature thermometer that I have seen in a long time. Steve Jobs designed the Apple cube idea too, and it didn't work. The ability to feel the perceived outside temperature by simply touching the cube is a novel idea, but I would like to know the actual temperature displayed on a digital display. How many individuals can tell the difference between 85 and 90 degrees fahrenheit, do you suppose? See my point?
If I want to feel the outside temperature, I go outside. I want to feel just how the temperature feels to the skin of my face. If it's too hot, I will know. I will instantly go into a sweat. The Cryoscope Haptic Weathervane just does not shake my world. I just don't think that this cube gives you the sensitivity of the outside temperature as it would feel on your face. For a blind individual who can't see a temperature reading, this might work wonders, but for normal people, this is not very practical. In my opinion the Cryoscope Haptic Weathervane is a dude.
Courtesy of an article dated February 13, 2012 appearingi n Fast Company Design
Sites like Tumblr, Meebo and Pinterest not only refer traffic to Facebook and Twitter, but gain viewers in return
As second-tier social media sites become more popular with consumers, these sites are finding their place within the social media ecosystem, referring traffic to larger social networks, as well as seeing traffic arrive from Facebook and Twitter.
In November 2011, Compete analyzed referrals of US traffic to Facebook, and found that, in addition to retail sites bolstered by holiday traffic, Meebo and Pinterest were two social sites increasing in influence. Meebo’s US referral traffic to Facebook grew 314.48% in November 2011 compared to the previous month; Pinterest’s referrals rose 57.22%.
Pinterest is a social site to watch, as it is gaining users at a rapid rate. According to Compete, the top sites visited by US internet users after visiting Pinterest included several social networks:
Facebook, 13.94% of the time.
Blogspot, 8.74% of the time.
Tumblr, 1.67% of the time.
Etsy, 1.57% of the time
As a visual-focused social network, it makes sense that Pinterest would refer traffic to other sites with photos and visuals, such as Tumblr and Etsy.
Additionally, larger social sites are referring traffic back to these second-tier sites. This demonstrates that consumers may be experimenting with these newer or second-tier social sites, but they also feel the need to share content from the larger networks and point it back to Pinterest or Tumblr. According to Compete, the following sites increased their share of traffic referred from Twitter from October to November 2011:
Tumblr's climbed 817.78%.
Meebo's climbed 262.05%.
Mevio's increased 48.61%.
CafeMom's grew 40.80%.
While referral traffic isn’t a traditional measure of success for a website, looking at social networks in this way demonstrates the connectedness of the social media world. Marketers that want to test how their brand works with a second-tier social site like Pinterest or Meebo should work to connect their social media strategies and accounts to best take advantage of the increased interconnectedness in the social media ecosystem.
COMMENTARY: If you blog or use social networks, and would like to increase the traffic to your blog or social network page, I recommend that you provide an RSS feed to all your posts between your blog and other social networks, and vice-versa. In my case, whenever I post something to my blog, it automatically posts to Twitter. I also use an RSS feed for all my Tweets from Twitter to Facebook, so I am covering "two birds with one stone." I have not been able to get my RSS feed to work for Google+ and Twitter to work properly, so I cut-and-paste my Tweets to Google+ daily, to get all three major social networks synchronized. The result. My blog traffic has increased from 15,372 visitors/month at the end of September 2011 to 44,100/month as of today. If yo do the math, that's an increase of 286.9%. It works people.
Courtesy of an article dated February 10, 2012 appearing in eMarketer
This blooming plant was regenerated by Russian scientists from 32,000 year-old seeds from the Ice Age that were discovered in a frozen squirrel burrow next in Siberia
Fruits in my fruit bowl tend to rot into a mulchy mess after a couple of weeks. Fruits that are chilled in permanent Siberian ice fare rather better. After more than 30,000 years, and some care from Russian scientists, some ancient fruits have produced this delicate white flower.
These regenerated plants, rising like wintry Phoenixes from the Russian ice, are still viable. They produce their own seeds and, after a 30,000-year hiatus, can continue their family line.
David A. Gilchinsky, Head of Soil Cryology Laboratory, Institute for Physiochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences (Click Image To Enlarge)
The plant owes its miraculous resurrection to a team of scientists led by David Gilichinsky, and an enterprising ground squirrel. Back in the Upper Pleistocene, the squirrel buried the plant’s fruit in the banks of the Kolyma River. They froze.
The 30,000 year-old Silene stenophylla seeds that were regenerated into plants by Russian scientists were discovered in a fossilized squirrel burrow in permafrost along the banks of the Kolmya River in Russian Siberia
Over millennia, the squirrel’s burrow fossilised and was buried under increasing layers of ice. The plants within were kept at a nippy -7 degrees Celsius, surrounded by permanently frozen soil and the petrifying bones of mammoths and woolly rhinos. They never thawed. They weren’t disturbed. By the time they were found and defrosted by scientists, they had been buried to a depth of 38 metres, and frozen for around 31,800 years.
Regenerated Silene stenophylla plants were potted from seeds over 30,000 years old by Russian scientist Svetlana Yashina and two years later bloomed flowers (Click Image To Enlarge)
People have grown plants from ancient seeds before. In 2008, Israeli scientists resurrected an aptly named Phoenix palm from seeds that had been buried in the 1st century. But those seeds were a mere 2,000 years old. Those of the new Russian flower – Silene stenophylla – are older by an order of magnitude. They trump all past record-holders.
Russian researcher Svetlana Yashina extracted the placentas from the recovered fruit, she was able to coas the tissue into producing roots and shoots (Click Image To Enlarge)
Svetlana Yashina from the Russian Academy of Sciences grew the plants from immature fruits recovered from the burrow. She extracted their placentas – the structure that the seeds attach to – and bathed them in a brew of sugars, vitamins and growth factors. From these tissues, roots and shoots emerged.
Yashina potted the plants and two years later, they developed flowers. She fertilised the ancient flowers with each other’s pollen, and in a few months, they had produced their own seeds and fruits, all viable. The frozen plants, blooming again after millennia in the freezer, seeded a new generation.
S.stenophylla is still around, but Yashina found that the ancient plants are subtly different to their modern counterparts, even those taken from the same region. They’re slower to grow roots, they produce more buds, and their flower petals were wider.
This is the first time that anyone has grown plants form seeds deeply buried within permanently frozen burrows. But it’s not the first time that someone has tried. In 1967, Canadian scientists claimed that they had regenerated Arctic lupin from 10,000 year old seeds that had been buried by lemmings. But in 2009, another team dated those same seeds and found that they were actually modern ones, which had contaminated the ancient sample.
Mindful of this mistake, Yashina carefully checked that her plants were indeed ancient ones. She dated the seeds directly, and her results matched age estimates from other samples from the same burrow. The burrows have been buried well below the level that animals dig into, and the structure of the surrounding ice suggests that they have never thawed. Their sediments are firmly compacted and totally filled with ice. No water infiltrates these chambers, much less plant roots or modern rodents. There are a few pores, but they are many times narrower than the width of any of Yashina’s seeds.
This closed world provided shelter, a continuous chill, and an effectively dry environment, that allowed the fruits to persist. At subzero temperatures, their chemical reactions slowed to a crawl. Extreme age was no longer a problem. A fruit’s placenta is also chemically active, and is loaded with several chemicals that might have protected these specific tissues against the cold.
But the burrows weren’t completely benign environments. The underground rocks contain naturally radioactive elements, which would have bombarded the seeds with low but accumulating doses of radiation. The ones that Yashina regenerated would have amassed 70 Grays of radiation – that’s more than any other plant has absorbed while still producing viable seeds.
S.stenophylla’s resurrection shows how many treasures lie buried within the world’s permafrost. This soil, defined as that which stays below freezing for two years or more, covers a fifth of the planet’s land. It is home to bacteria, algae, fungi, plants and more. In the fossil burrows that Yashina has studied, scientists have found up to 600,000 to 800,000 seeds in individual chambers.
In Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault, scientists have frozen thousands of seeds in an underground cavern, as a back-up in case of agricultural crises. But nature has already produced similar frozen seed banks. Siberia, Alaska and the Yukon could act as one massive freezer, where ancient life has been stored, waiting to greet the world again.
COMMENTARY: This is an amazing scientific breakthrough if the regeneration of the 32,000 year-old seeds can be confirmed by other scientists.
UPDATE: Tragedy has now struck the Russian team that was involved in the discovery of the 32,000 year-old seeds and the successful regeneration of a living plant from those seeds. Dr. David Gilichinksy, its leader, was hospitalized with an asthma attack and unable to respond to questions, his daughter Yana said on Friday. On Saturday, Dr. Price reported that Dr. Gilichinsky had died of a heart attack.
According to The New York Times, this incredible scientific breakthrough in plant regeneration from seeds that were carbon dated to be 32,000 years-old, is by a team led by Svetlana Yashina and David Gilichinsky of the Russian Academy of Sciences research center at Pushchino, near Moscow, and appears in Tuesday’s issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Grant Zazula of the Yukon Paleontology Program at Whitehorse in Yukon Territory, Canada said.
“This is an amazing breakthrough. I have no doubt in my mind that this is a legitimate claim.”
It was Dr. Zazula who showed that the apparently ancient lupine seeds found by the Yukon gold miner were in fact modern.
But the Russians’ extraordinary report is likely to provoke calls for more proof. Alastair Murdoch, an expert on seed viability at the University of Reading in England said.
“It’s beyond the bounds of what we’d expect.”
When poppy seeds are kept at minus 7 degrees Celsius, the temperature the Russians reported for the campions, after only 160 years just 2 percent of the seeds will be able to germinate, Dr. Murdoch noted.
Some of the storage chambers in the squirrel burrows contain more than 600,000 seeds and fruits. Many are from a species that most closely resembles a plant found today, the narrow-leafed campion (Silene stenophylla).
Working with a burrow from the site called Duvanny Yar, the Russian researchers tried to germinate the campion seeds, but failed. They then took cells from the placenta, the organ in the fruit that produces the seeds. They thawed out the cells and grew them in culture dishes into whole plants.
Many plants can be propagated from a single adult cell, and this cloning procedure worked with three of the placentas, the Russian researchers report. They grew 36 ancient plants, which appeared identical to the present day narrow-leafed campion until they flowered, when they produced narrower and more splayed-out petals. Seeds from the ancient plants germinated with 100 percent success, compared with 90 percent for seeds from living campions.
The researchers suggest that special circumstances may have contributed to the remarkable longevity of the campion plant cells. Squirrels construct their larders next to permafrost to keep seeds cool during the arctic summers, so the fruits would have been chilled from the start. The fruit’s placenta contains high levels of sucrose and phenols, which are good antifreeze agents.
The Russians measured the ground radioactivity at the site, which can damage DNA, and say the amount of gamma radiation the campion fruit accumulated over 30,000 years is not much higher than that reported for a 1,300-year-old sacred lotus seed, from which a plant was successfully germinated.
The Russian article was edited by Buford Price of the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Price, a physicist, chose two reviewers to help him. But neither he nor they are plant biologists. He said.
“I know nothing about plants.”
Ann Griswold, a spokeswoman for PNAS, as the journal is known, said the paper had been seen by an editorial board member who is a plant biologist.
Eske Willerslev, an expert on ancient DNA at the University of Copenhagen, said the finding was “plausible in principle,” given the conditions in permafrost. But the claim depends on the radiocarbon date being correct:
“It’s all resting on that — if there’s something wrong there it can all fall part.”
If the ancient campions are the ancestors of the living plants, this family relationship should be evident in their DNA. Dr. Willerslev said that the Russian researchers should analyze the DNA of their specimens and prove that this is the case. However, this is not easy to do with plants whose genetics are not well studied, Dr. Willerslev said.
If the claim is true, then scientists should be able to study evolution in real time by comparing the ancient and living campions. Possibly other ancient species can be resurrected from the permafrost, including plants that have long been extinct.
Courtesy of an article dated February 20, 2012 appearing in Discover Magazine blog, an article dated February 21, 2012 appearing in The New York Times, an article dated February 21, 2012 appearing in The Guardianand an article dated February 21, 2012 appearing in io9.com
In a bid to broaden its revenue streams, Twitter is rolling out the self-serve ad platform to 10,000 small and midsize businesses through a partnership with American Express.
Starting February 16, 2012, American Express cardmembers and merchants can register to use the platform on a first-come, first-serve basis and also receive $100 in advertising credits to put toward bidding on promoted tweets and promoted accounts -- hopefully whetting their appetites for more. Twitter had begun the rollout of self-serve, which lets advertisers make electronic payments instead of being invoiced by the sales team, in mid-November with a group of fewer than 20 advertisers and expanded the group to about 100.
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo
CEO Dick Costolo noted that opening the self-serve platform is a key development for Twitter in a potential banner year. The company is also focused on reaching the market for its political ad products and scaling its international ad offerings.
Mr. Costolo said.
"So many hundreds of thousands and even millions of small businesses have been using Twitter effectively for years already, so by opening up our ad platform to all these folks as a mechanism for them to amplify the value they're already creating."
As is the case for any of Twitter's 3,000 advertisers, small businesses can set bids for promoted accounts on a cost-per-follower basis and for promoted tweets on a cost-per-engagement basis. In the latter case they pay only when users actively engage with the tweet (by retweeting, for instance.) While national brands might be bidding on keywords or hashtags associated with major events like the Oscars, which makes bidding competitive and expensive, small businesses would be more likely to bid on highly specific terms and to localize their bids, according to Mr. Costolo. (Twitter currently allows for city-level targeting at its most specific.)
Mr. Costolo pointed to Glennz Tees, an online T-shirt retailer that was part of this winter's pilot group, as a small business that has already had success using the self-serve platform. After a character on "The Big Bang Theory" appeared on the show wearing a Glennz shirt, the owners took to their Twitter account and bought up terms related to the show. Mr. Costolo claims they doubled their holiday sales over the previous year and tripled their Twitter followers.
eMarketer projects that Twitter's ad revenue in 2011 was $139.5 million and will grow to $259.9 million this year and $540 million by 2014. Self-serve is expected to be a cornerstone of Twitter's revenue growth, though its contribution is likely to be small early on while Twitter looks to scale the number of small-business advertisers using the platform, according to eMarketer's principal analyst, Debra Aho Williamson.
According to eMarketer, Twitter ranked No 3 behind MySpace in total worldwide ad revenues, but is expected to vault ahead of MySpace into the No 2 spot in 2012 with $259 million in worlwide ad revenues.
Twitter nudged out LinkedIn for No 2 behind Facebook in the number of U.S. unique active users:
Ms. Williamson noted that Twitter's partnership with American Express is typical of its methodical approach to rolling out new ad products.
She said.
"One of the big challenges that Twitter was going to face was keeping rogue advertising or spammers from overrunning the systems, and by partnering with American Express and focusing at first on this small subset, it provides an easier roll-out for Twitter."
The self-serve platform will go live for the first group of 10,000 businesses in late March and then be rolled out more broadly.
COMMENTARY:
Twitter New User Page Redesign
Twitter's new small business self-service platform comes right after Twitter completed the roll-out of its latest user page redesign. The new design comes with the ability to embed tweet and some new keyboard shortcuts, as well as redesigned brand pages:
Twitter's new profile page redesign (Click Image To View)
Twitter Rollsout New Brand Pages
In a December 8, 2011 by AdAge, Twitter unveiled its new brand pages, which it launched with a group of 21 marketers including Coca-Cola, Nike, Disney and PepsiCo in late January and early February 2012. The new brand pages are available for advertisers committed to spending at least $25,000 on its ad products, including Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.
Click Image To View Nike's Brand Page
Click Image To View Coca-Cola's Brand Page
Click Image To View Disney-Pixar's Twitter brand page
Brand pages can be customized with large header images that advertisers can use to give greater visibility to their logo or other branded elements, which are often partially obscured by the timeline of tweets in the standard format. They can also be programmed to keep a particular tweet at the top of the timeline, which can auto-expand to reveal an embedded photo or video without the user taking action -- thus giving the page more visual impact.
Courtesy of an article dated February 16, 2012 appearing in AdAgean article dated December 8, 2011 appearing in AdAge and an article dated January 27, 2012 appearing in AdAge
After seeing many of its portfolio companies come to life with newfound traction after participating in its Start-Up University program, Google Ventures has decided to expand the program, and will soon move it from the 12,000-square-foot building it occupies to a space nearly twice that size.
Google Ventures Managing Partner Bill Maris is looking for companies that are “transformational.”
The firm, which calls itself “the most operational VC firm in Silicon Valley,” is backing technology companies at a faster clip than rival firms–making two investments per week, on average–and is looking to engage with company founders on a level that is probably unknown outside of the Googleplex in Mountain View.
Not only will the new building feature a theater-style lecture hall where more than 100 people can gather to hear advice from the valley’s top business leaders, the new, 20,000-square-foot space will feature a dedicated “user-experience laboratory,” where entrepreneurs and investors can watch from another room as volunteers actually use technologies under development. (Venture Capital Dispatch previously wrote about the firm’s expansion plans.)
If Google Ventures seems like the “helicopter parent” of venture firms, there’s a simple reason for that.
Google Ventures Managing Partner Bill Maris said.
“We’re not trying to enable the next generation of online casinos. We’re looking for stuff that’s transformational. … We’re looking to make a dent.”
For every investor at Google Ventures, there are six high-level staff members—all of them industry veterans and experts in various fields—whose sole purpose is to help portfolio companies get over hurdles, Maris said.
Among their areas of expertise are product development, recruiting, user-experience design, legal matters, growing the number of users and recruiting staff.
Google Ventures is entirely separate from Google Inc., and investments made by the venture division do not always indicate a larger interest from Google. However, the firm—which has its own separate building—shares the same drive that Google has for going after the big problems.
While the firm only publicizes a fraction of the deals it makes, Google Ventures has bets in life sciences, mobile technology, cloud-computing and big data, all areas that have the potential to shake up the status quo. The firm—which reports to the top brass at Google—has about $200 million per year to invest.
And Start-Up University—which offers workshops, lectures, networking, office space and the first-ever user-experience laboratory—will be the place where many of these bets go from obscurity to being household names, Google Ventures says.
The firm has never disclosed the number of companies it has invested in, or how much they invested. But moving Start-Up University to a bigger building means Google Ventures expects more bodies to fill that building.
Maris said.
“This is a program that people are vigorously signing up for. We have a waiting list of teachers, and these are all people who have started companies before, and who have been there. We can’t feed this stuff to our portfolio companies fast enough.”
COMMENTARY: YouTube project manager Rick Klau was brought in as a partner in charge of running Startup University, which offers regular office hours, mentorship and classes to the startup teams backed by Google Ventures.
Klau and Managing Partner Bill Maris spoke to Cromwell Schubarth on October 7, 2011 about the goals of the Google Ventures fund that was started about two years ago and how the school that was launched in 2011 will help the entrepreneurs it backs "change the world."
Google Ventures Managing Partner Bill Maris, right, brought in YouTube Product Manager Rick Klau, left, to run Startup University, which offers classes and office hours connecting the search giant's seasoned tech team with the entrepreneurs the fund invests in.
Here are some other excerpts from my conversation with the two Googlers.
What is the idea behind Startup University?
Bill Maris:"The reasoning behind Startup University is similar to the reason why Google has the largest corporate photovoltaic array on the roof at our campus. There was a lot of sunlight falling on the roofs of our buildings. We decided, let's take advantage of that. There are tons of resources here at Google that could help the startups at Google Ventures that we don't want to waste, either. So Startup University was created."
What kind of startups does Google Ventures invest in?
Maris:"We're looking for great teams and really special people, somebody with goals that may seem really crazy at first but can really make a difference when they succeed. We're looking for special people, but not crazy people. We're looking for somebody with a really big idea, usually somebody who has a technical background to make that big idea happen. They also have to be somebody who has the ability to adapt their ideas to make it a success. We are making a 5 to 10 year investment in the companies that we invest in. We want to make sure we invest in somebody we will want to work closely with for that amount of time."
Besides the logical sectors you would expect Google to invest in, such as mobile and consumer Internet, you also back startups in sectors like life sciences. Why?
Maris:"There is a deep caring at Google and at Google Ventures about improving the world and making it a better place to live in. Part of that is helping people to live healthier lives or maybe find a cure for cancer. A lot of those goals have data needs or have a need for technical expertise from people who work with very large amounts of data like Google does. We have the resources that can make a difference."
Rick, why did you make the move from being a product manager to running Startup University at Google Ventures?
Klau: "It was too perfect an opportunity to pass up. I have known all of the partners for a number of years now. There's a great group of startups at Google Ventures and I've been given the opportunity to translate for them what has made Google successful. We have a lot of experience on campus and tens of thousands of people who can help them. Today, for example, we had classes on how to do user research, how to hire and tech sourcing, how to build the first three to five members of your team. There will be a lot of experiments we will try and we will listen to the feedback we get to adapt what we offer as we go along."
Are these classes mandatory? (A question both Maris and Klau found humorous).
Klau:"Definitely not. We only want to offer opportunities that are interesting and valuable to the people in the room. If there are entrepreneurs who are too busy creating and don't want to be distracted, they can do that, too. Nobody is going to go around saying, you haven't been at office hours or shown up at a class in a long time. Where have you been? That's just not going to happen."
Maris:"If you ever tried to tell entrepreneurs like Sergey and Larry, or the type of people we invest in, that they have to do something like attend classes, you are probably going to get the opposite reaction from what you wanted."
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