After the change, we shifted into surplus capitalism, or what I call Capitalism 2.0. In this version, there’s no limit to what corporations can produce; their problem is finding buyers. A sizable chunk of GDP is spent to make people want this unneeded output. And credit is lavishly extended so they can buy it.

Capitalism and Credit is Out Of Control

Sound familiar? It’s what exist now, and why I wrote my last post. It’s upsetting to think about because you know everyone knows this is true, deep down in side, but they don’t want to admit it. I had a couple of very good conversations this July 4th. One of them went the way of defining what the left perceives the right to be and vice versa.

My observation simply is that the right says everyone must pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and the left says everyone needs a little bit of help. I think we can have the best of both worlds and ensuring capitalism have more than one bottom line might be the way. Peter Barnes says “To put it bluntly, the rich are rich because (through corporations) they get the lion’s share of common wealth; the poor are poor because they get very little.”

What’s next for Capitalism?

So, whats the next steps? Another discussion over the 4th boiled down the whole left vs. right issue of pretty much the only thing in common being “good government”. Now, I wont elaborate on “good” other than “good” is an extension of moral and ethical values, which are usually an extension of religion. However, what should “government” be defined as?

Once again I’ll quote Peter “we must have a proper view of government’s role. That role isn’t to run the economy, or even to manage the commons directly; it’s to assign common property rights to trustworthy guardians who will. ” You will need to read his book Capitalism 3.0 to fully understand the depth and breadth of commons, its deep and wide and didn’t I say it was a free book?

Whats next for you and me?

It’s different for everyone. After the last post I had a big wake up call and that wake up call was that this isn’t going to be easy at all. And here I am, many months later posting late as usual. In the spirit of keeping an open mind, it’s important that everyone is on the same page when discussing the matter. I can’t save the world, but we all can.

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It looks like Hank Williams and I share some of the same RSS feeds. His recent post on his site WhyDoesEverythingSuck.com in my conclusion mentions that there are many smart minds harping on the fact that 90% of everything is crap.

I would say that Sturgeon’s Law needs to be updated to reflect that it’s more like 99% of everything is crap. The 9% increase coming from the massive increase of the laziness in western countries, globalization and consumerism bottom feeders. So, while everyone is bitching and moaning about why everything sucks there should be some practical and actionable advice (as you can see I’m trying to fit into that 1%). As my dad would say, don’t complain unless your constructive, /slap Hank (just messing with you, 99% of the time your posts are great reads).

So, I’ll aggregate a bit more on what these smart minds are saying (since aggregation is all the rage these days), extend on their advice, attempt to glean some of their inference and provide you with my agenda and eventually where you can help.

Tim Oriely

I think Tim Oriely says it well to “not follow the headlines” in the context of entrepreneurism and web/software development. This reminds me of the investment advice that warns against doing the opposite of a trend because a stampede of bulls or bears will run you over or eat you alive. What I like about what Tim is saying is that there needs to be a new trend, a new direction. So, no worries of being run over just yet.

Tim’s specific suggestions noted on ReadWriteWeb.com ring the bell of “let’s change the world for the better” as seen from this list below…

• Changing government structure
• Publicmarkup.org
• Everyblock
• InStedd
• Tracking illegal deforestation using Google Earth
• Earth Day
• An Inconvenient Truth
• wattzon.org (how we use our energy)

Umair Haque

To get straight to the point Umair’s advice is the following “So here’s my challenge. If you’re a revolutionary, then be one: put your money where your mouth is, and fix a big problem that changes the world for the better - if you really have the courage, the purpose, and the vision, that is.”. If you don’t know who Umair is then I highly advise reading up on him.

So, let’s rack up another point for the broad goal of “let’s change the world for the better”.

He then goes on to actually walk in the “world changing” shoes and says “In fact, I’ll happily put my money where my mouth is. I think these problems are so important, I’ll take a bit of time away from setting up my new lab, to advise five startups, funds, or companies that I think have the greatest insight into fixing them - you know how to get in touch with me.”.

So, no direct examples on how Silicon Valley or the two kids in the garage next door can actually go about this. Before we go there let’s see what Paul Grahm had to say.

Paul Grahm

Paul attacks the venture capital industry standard decisions they use for funding companies. He says the system is broken and needs to re-invent themselves to play the percentages with more smaller investments vs. fewer larger investments.

Now, this is good as it will indirectly contribute to “let’s change the world for the better”. VC’s have oceans full of cash and the inability to figure out a system to get the most gain from their risk (except Paul Grahm). So, more investments means more companies have the opportunity to change the world.

But wait, the internet has changed the world for the better!

Let’s keep in mind the context of this post. Internet 1.0 has and continues to break down barriers and the middle man like nothing else ever has. But, the problem has been mainly the last 3-4 years of 99% Internet crap!.

A web site can’t make rice pop out of a monitor like popcorn from jiffy pop and solve the worlds rice shortage. Nor can it turn your spare CPU cycles into some sort of net gain electricity generator (hmm, there’s an idea). So, what are the next steps and how can the Internet “change the world for the better”?

Putting on the World Changing Shoes

I don’t have the actual solutions, but, I’m going to instead share with you a methodical approach to this in a new project of mine focused on “let’s change the world for the better, together!”. Here’s what I will be doing.

1. Look at the actual big problems that the world currently faces and or will very soon (not re-inventing the researched wheel on this one, just aggregating as a 1st step).
2. Drill down into each one and discover current efforts, where there are gaps in those efforts and where can those efforts be served so that they accomplish their goals quicker and more efficiently (there goes the entrepreneurial mind in me, ironically my new job started last week with the University of Washington Foster School of Business).
3. Then, either start work on something that comes out of step 2 or something with more of a global effort that facilities that process for others.

That’s for the next posts, which I promise won’t be 2 months from now! So, stay tuned. I’ll most likely be creating a .org that will house this effort and allow others to partake in the process. It would be a shame to not share my efforts with others and I doubt this blog can truly present everything fully and or facilitate cooperation. If you know of any sites like this then please comment and let me know.

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Now, I’m not too worried about the patent because there is a ton of prior art in various formats making the patent a huge waste of companies time/money in the end.  I’m not worried about competition since that can be a good thing and they aren’t focusing on the consumer like I had in mind.  The biggest concern I have is the “quality” of the product.  Safe to say, I’ve saved myself and others a lot of time and money by backing out now.  No sense in having a grand opening if everyone comes inside and doesn’t buy anything.

I was about 25% complete with the business plan, it was coming along well.  One fact does remain, Internet news junkies (like myself) are left with a disservice when it comes to offline news, or better put, the ability to get their online news while offline during a commute or exercise.

You may be saying “what are you doing telling everyone what your doing, just wait, the technology will get better”.  Well, I’ve talked with the vendor that makes this product in particular (mostly a B to B product) and there is no road-map currently or planned to improve their product in the way that it needs to.  And while I’m a web application developer it’s a far cry from being a computer scientist that can actually create a better product from scratch.

So, on to the next “idea”…

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I thank Mark Modzelewski at Bang Ventures for actually reading what I submitted, and, that his company sees what it can become. A HUGE THANK YOU!

What Is My Idea And Whats Next?

While my career over the last 10 years has shifted from client side technologies (the web browser) and into server side technologies I still have a passion for good user experience design, without it your web site will die. This passion seems to be shared by one of the judges, specifically Marissa Myer (Google VP of Search Products and User Experience). Her impact at Google has been huge. So much of what you take for granted in Google’s products came from the teams she ran.

Below I outline specific quotes during an interview last November on CNBC with Marissa and Mark Modzelewski (Managing Director and Co-Founder of Bang Ventures).

• “I think we are going to see a lot of different companies in a lot of different spaces…natural language, mash up and social applications.”

After hearing her say that last November I just new it was time to dig up an old project of mine that encompasses exactly those three things together and give it a shot.

When she was asked “What’s in the DNA to make a successful startup” she responded with the following statements

• “focusing on the users…working on something that really matters to people… where they use it every single day…”.
• “building a technology that can be deployed in a bunch of different ways…”
• “strength of the founding team and early players…”

Use it every single day indeed. The old adage of “there must be a better way to do this” is the why behind what I submitted. I was and still am experiencing a problem that needs a better solution and no, this isn’t one of those “my idea for web site x is better than web site y because of abc” but rather the way I go about doing this thing in particular and the need for a better method of actually doing it.

The reason why I didn’t build this myself out of my garage (other than the fact its not insulated) is related to her comments on having the right team. I could’ve made an attempt, and you never know it may have panned out. But I wanted to do it right vs. working in a vacuum. And the only way to do it right is to get the funding for a complete team, the right talent, smart talent.

What you can do to help

For starters subscribe to my blog via rss or email so that you know the instant the Judges accept my project as one of the final 20 ;-). Once that happens voting begins and your vote will make this much needed technology come to fruition.

One last note, my other posts on this blog relate to other smaller projects of mine started prior to being notified about being one of the top 100 finalist and have nothing to do with my You Be The VC application.

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Imagine if YouTube wanted to charge you 2 cents to view todays top video(2/6/2008). With 79,758 views at 2 cents per view and a 20 cent fee for the transaction, YouTube could receive $1,595 in payments and end up paying $15,951 in fees. So, the way around that obviously for YouTube is to use a payment gateway that allows the user to make deposits into an account and simply deduct from your balance over time.

So, you aren’t YouTube owned by Google and don’t have your very own payment gateway called Google Checkout? Then what is the lone ranger web application developer to do?

Use A Branded Micropayment Gateway

Content is king, usability is queen and when it comes to users handing over their credit card online the right payment gateway is God. The last thing you want your user to do on the checkout page is question the legitimacy of who they are giving their credit card to.

There are many payment gateways out there, OK tons. But, most are either laying wrapping up one of the branded gateways into their own and adding more fees on the top or more often simply have no brand recognition amongst your user base.

Branded Payment Gateways

Like I said there are many, but I, and most likely you if you are reading this need one that has an API of some sort, and, a simple and quick process for your users. Also, the most important thing for payments less than or equal to $1 is that the fees are as low as you can possibly get.

All of the following assume a “business account” vs. a “personal account” as well as a transaction between 5 cents and $1.

PayPal

PayPal is obviously leader of the pack in brand recognition, but, their fees are atrocious and their audience isn’t necessarily micropayments. For both PayPal to PayPal as well as Credit Card to PayPal payments a simple $1 transaction will cost you 33 cents.

Now, I should simply be done with talking about PayPal in the context of this post, but, if you are fine with that 33cent fee, then right now it’s your best option due to them being the long time leader in this space as well as the sheer number of your customers that are likely to have a PayPal account.

Integration Homepage - Fees

Google Checkout

Same story as PayPal with a difference in fees of 1 cent on a $1 transaction. Also, while Google has a trusting brand for your users it’s adoption is not as wide spread as PayPal.

Integration Homepage - Fees

Amazon FPS (Flexible Payment System)

The clear winner here and the largest brand bar none for your customers. While in a limited beta that I am part of I must say PayPal’s and Google’s API don’t even come close to the functionality you can build into your apps. I wont elaborate on that here but, most importantly is their 10cent fee on a $1 transaction. While 10% is a lot, it’s half of Google and PayPal’s fees and something I can live with and the end user trust is already established.

I highly recommend any social web application developer who wants to integrate micropayments to implement Amazon’s FPS. If you want a simple “buy now” button or something a tad more flexible it’s a breeze, and if you need a flexible two way interface into their gateway that’s where it really shines.

Integration Homepage & Fees

Facebook

This has the potential to be bigger than all other payment gateways. Imagine a teenagers parents give them their allowance on Friday and instead of cash, they transfer from their Facebook Wallet to their kids Facebook Wallet. Now, Facebook Wallet is just a fictitious name as I don’t have any worthy details about this other than their beta invite. But, they have a growing brand and a large user base.

Beta Sign Up (I will update this post when more info is available)

In Summary

As long as Facebook watches their privacy stance (beacon anyone?) the end user trust will be there, in the mean time (tonight) I’m implementing Amazon FPS into my Facebook application Utmost Kudos. Also, with the adoption of Open Social by the recently launched MySpace API you can bank on Facebook’s payment gateway using Open Social as well. The PayPal of social networks will be owned by Facebook, and it will happen in 2008. Well, that’s just my 2 cents anyway.

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Utmost Kudos is wrapped up. All that’s left is the integration of the soon to be released Facebook Wallet (or whatever they call it) and a rock solid Illustrator to join my efforts. I posted in Deviant Art about this job. So for all the details please go there, a summary is below.

About The Job

• Are you an Illustrator?
• One that can create original line art?
• One that can take advantage of 70×150 pixels?
• One that can define with their art the constructs of “Generosity”, “Stylish”, “Honesty” and “Crazy” (theres 40 altogether)?
• One that can knows their colors and how they are related to emotions?
• Can actually start work on this right away, this or next week!

Payment

It’s like this, want cash? Great, no problem as I will pay well for good skills, however, don’t expect attribution. Otherwise, attribution and commission will be given. I don’t care either way. What I do care though is that your method of payment that you choose should be the one that motivates you the most to do the best job.

Interested or know someone who is?

Go to my post at Deviant Art and read through what you need to do to apply for this job. I’ve received 5 emails already overnight, many of them have a great portfolio.

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It’s my opinion that in the long run you need to have value from the get go otherwise the crowd defines your business, which could leave you with nothing in the end (there are exceptions like Google, however, exceptions are not the norm).

Defining Value is Simple

Take Amazon.com for example. It’s a site that I can use to “buy things”. ebay is a site that I can use to “sell things” (although with much pain and high prices now). But what would you say sites like LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook allow you to do in very few words? They are sites that I can “communicate with others” or “find others”, or are they more than that?

Now, not everyone wants 100 friends to communicate with, but, given the opportunity to play games with those 100 people and now you have a site whose value is one where you can can “play games”. So, unsubscribe right now to the hype companies or blogs are boasting about as to their X number of members/users because it doesn’t mean squat unless there is true value behind those numbers.

Why Gaming is a Proven Value for the Social Web

It’s all about “attention”. We’ve gone from “hits” in the early days of the web to “page views” to “unique users”.  Now we should be phasing out the current standard “qty of registered users” and phasing in “attention”. This is simply the quantity of time a user spends on your site. Now, if you have a high quantity of members and a high attention, then WHAMO! There’s value somewhere, focus on that value and make it grow and grow and grow. This is where Facebook’s growth should be focused, now feed it Zukerberg.

How does a social site feed attention?

Simply, games! From compete.com’s recent analysis on the top leaders of attention, 50% of them were either games or had some aspect of gaming involved. It’s a shame it’s taken this long for web 2.0 venture capitalist to wake up to this fact.

An analogy to the growth of the PC

Looking at the time frame of 1985 to 1995 I would venture to say, but have nothing to link to as proof that the major reason for PC adoption outside of business use was in fact games on the PC. So, one could easily look at the current growth of the social web and identify who is going to be big players in this space, be it on a PC or other device is doesn’t matter because they are serving up html over http.

In Summary

The semantic web is coined “web 3.0″, and it seems “web 2.5″ is all about data portability, so I’m left with “web 2.9″, and it’s here now in it’s infancy. All it will take is for a good combination of a “gaming platform” and “games” on that platform for widespread growth like the Wii has had. Right now, it’s either the platform that’s great, or the games, but I haven’t seen both under one roof just yet. Will Facebook be the first, doof.com, cafe.com? Have fun playing and developing and no I don’t work for Facebook but I am currently focused on building a Facebook application.

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A Facebook application that generates revenue?

How can that be you ask? With advertisements right? No, god no. Anyone can do that, and, I applaud those that are and are making a profit. It seems Zuckerberg cant figure out how to make money off his own site other than advertisements and the Gifts application. Why haven’t they looked deeply into what Blizzard has done with the 9 million people world wide paying them $10-$15 per month to play World of Warcraft? Facebook is a game, got that Zuckerberg?

Facebook is a game?

My wife has 7 games of scrabulous with just one friend, and many other scrabulous games with others. She thanks me for introducing her. Simply looking at many of the applications on facebook they can be boiled down to games. Whether it be seeing who can create the coolest slide or the coolest wall post it’s a game. However, facebook has only just started to realize this with their Gifts application which has made more than $24 million selling $1 digital gifts. Now, lights should be going off in your head, enough to pay their current 400 employees expanding to 700.

So what’s your game Marc?

Utmost Kudos. It’s 75% complete at this time. Once I’m done I will be either paying for a graphic designer to design the digital assets or giving them a percentage of the revenue. It will be their choice. The other dependency will be my applications implementation of the current beta Facebook Pay Pal like payment gateway. So what is it you ask? An application that creates a competitive atmosphere that has a $0 barrier to entry and fosters honest as well as jokingly pats on the back so to speak. Of course thats the not as high as a birds eye view but you get the point. And, there are other apps vaguely similar, but their implementation is very weak.

So how do I play?

When the application is finished you can simply install the application and start right away. No need to invite friends or fill out stupid surveys for game credits. Now, while it’s not a “game” in it’s traditional definition, it’s a game in the social networking definition. More on that and Utmost Kudos another day.

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This “second job” as I call it is one rooted in passions of web development, so it cant really be called a job in that context, but, I call it that as I am unbelievably fed up of dead weight and getting paid for the time I contribute vs. being paid by the value I add. Don’t get me wrong, I’m able to support and have a lovely family and house, but if one is spending 8hrs a day in an environment that they don’t want to be in then it’s time for a change.

So, this is my new home and the start of a new journey along a newly chosen path. Where it will take me I “do know” as I’ve set the goals and will be putting my money where my mouth is. Who will I meet along they way is unknown. It will be a blast and I’m looking forward to it. Please contribute if you like, it’s welcomed and I will contribute to your efforts as well.

Please visit these links for more information about who I am and the purpose for this blog.

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