Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine provides a good insight into and video live from Davos.

The video with Arianna Huffington on new media and old media and politics is especially interesting.

And this post describing an exchange between Bill Gates and William Easterly on aid is brilliant.

“Easterly says that when VC companies screw up, they die. Aid agencies don

I’ve finally got web access on my treo going, so i’ll probably be blogging more often. treo 650 keypads break way too easily by the way. i’ve already had to replace the phone once. i’m making this post with a stylus on the on screen keyboard. i’ll have to pick up the 680 soon. 20 days past warranty expiration.

now that ive got the moblogging going the post frequency is likely to go up around here… the novelty of this will probaby wear off soon enough… but the ease of making a post any time ive got 3 minutes to kill will likely cause a couple posts per day

in the coming months and years ill likely be writing about technology, intellicontact, books, product reviews, entrepreneurship, politics, public policy, travel, sports, improv, venture capital, marketing, lessons I’ve learned, experiences growing broadwick, and conferences i attend like SES, Ad-Tech, CEO, and Brainstorm… i hope you enjoy whats to come

thanks to the hundreds of readers that have already subscribed to the feed… it’s www.ryanallis.com/blog/index.xml if you havent subscribed yet.

Broadwick closed on $500,000 in an initial round of funding today with local investment firm NC IDEA. We’re quite excited about the financing. Additional coverage can be found at the LocalTechWire, Triangle Business Journal, Carolina News Wire, and Tech Journal South.

Wow. Not much else needs to be said.

Another great day at Altitude. Here are the quotes from the day that Eben highlighted:

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu

“Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an opportunity.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“The essence of genious is to know what to overlook.” – William James

“It is better to be first than it is to be better.” – Al Ries and Jack Trout

“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I watch what they do.” – Andrew Carnegie

“Data is most valuable at the point of origin. The value of data is directly related to its timeliness.” – Lawrence Miller

“When you have mastered the numbers you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books. You will be reading meanings.” – Harold Greene

I actually got more work done today than I do in a normal day in the office with 88 emails sent and a number of key projects worked on.

Another member of Michael’s Super Friends group (see last post) is a guy by the name of Cal Newport. Cal is a Ph.D candidate in Computer Science at MIT as well as a published author. I received a question from a friend Cal yesterday that he asked me to share my response to. Here was Cal’s original email.

Hi Ryan,

We met once, in New York, many years back with Mike Simmons. But after receiving this e-mail from Michael I thought I might try to re-connect. I see from your blog that things are going quite well with your company. Congrats on all of that!

I actually had a semi-related note that I wanted to ask you about. Recently I’ve been having a lot of discussions—with Mike among others—about what separates doers from dreamers. That is, given two ambitious, intelligent people, who both have big ideas, why does one manage to start getting things done while the other stays stuck? In other words, I’ve been trying to explore what constitutes the action habit that seems to underlie many successful personalities.

Given your famed skill for execution, I thought you might be a good source of insight into this discussion. Specifically:

(1) From a general perspective, what do you think explains the difference between people who talk the talk and those whose execute?

(2) From a specific perspective, what’s your mindset/strategy/physiological states that fuel your day to day work? Think about an onerous project you started recently, what specifically got you going?

Talk to you soon,
Cal

Here was my response to Cal’s questions:

(1) From a general perspective, what do you think explains the difference between people who talk the talk and those who execute?

Well, I don’t know if I have a complete answer, but here are a few tips from my experience.

1. Don’t bullshit, don’t hype. Sometimes you do need to get certain people like VCs or the media excited about your company or product, but do it with real substance whenever possible.
2. Be brutally honest with yourself.
3. Surround yourself with really smart, hard working people.
4. Work hard and intelligently consistently for multiple years.
5. Set goals and write them down.
6. Track the actual results versus the projected results and write down why you did better or worse than expected on at least an annual if not quarterly basis. (very key)
7. Don’t jump from project to project. Stick with something dammit. It’s almost always going to take 5 years to build anything of significant value. So find a good idea and then run with it. If it doesn’t work out initially, if the core idea is good, keep at it. It took us 27 months to get Broadwick to $1 million in sales and just 7 months to make the next $1 million.
8. Read about how the world works. Read books like Lexus and the Olive Tree, Political Ideologies & the Democratic Ideal, Reinventing the Bazaar, The Commanding Heights, The Worldly Philosophers, The World is Flat, and The Tipping Point.

(2) From a specific perspective, what’s your mindset/strategy/physiological states that fuel your day to day work?

I just want build a lot of strong relationships and make some money so I can have influence to be able to change the world significantly through entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and politics to reduce human suffering in our world and one day be able to give back to the world and this country by being able to be elected as a U.S. Senator, or in some other yet to be defined way. It all comes back to the long term motivation, which has to be thought out and very strong. My personal mission statement (printed on the right side of ryanallis.com) has been extremely helpful and given me clarity in this regard.

James and I are moving this weekend from Durham to Chapel Hill. We have two open rooms in the new house. Shoot me an email at ryan[at]icontact.com if you might be interested in living with us. Here’s the description:

Num Rooms: 4
Num Baths: 3
Millingport Court (near Meadowmont Lane)
Square Footage: 3000

Two early to mid-20s entrepreneurs/social entrepreneurs are seeking two other roommates to live with in a unique 4BR, 3000 sq. foot newly built three-story home in Meadowmont in Chapel Hill. The two of us move in on August 10 and everything is gorgeous and brand-new. $900/person per month covers everything. We want to build a social environment around people working to make a difference in the world. Beautiful fixtures, excellent kitchen with corian, walk in pantry, laundry with storage cabinets, large dining room, large office, 1200 sq. foot basement/future game room, workout room, washer/dryer, large living area with fireplace, plush carpeting, outside hot tub, large outside screened-in deck, front porch with rocking chairs. Beautiful forest views backing up to 70 acre nature preserve. The absolute best place to live in Chapel Hill, especially if you enjoy discussions about anything along the lines of politics, business, education, investing, economics, travel, public policy, etc. Hardwood floors, gas stove, large stainless refrigerator, nice neighbors, and close to everything. A large Harris Teeter’s grocery store is right across the street, along with a coffee shop, dry cleaners, ABC store, high end shops and boutiques–four excellent restaurants, the renowned UNC Wellness Center, and all the amenities and walking trails of Meadowmont. It is 0.5 miles from a bus stop of the V line which takes you to UNC and downtown. Easy shuttle-access across the street at the Friday Center for UNC football and basketball games. All furniture except your bedroom furniture is provided, but feel free to bring other stuff to add to the house. The house is 2.0 miles (less than 5 minutes from UNC, UNC Law School, and UNC Business School), 8 miles from Durham/RTP, 9 miles from Duke, 15 miles from Cary and 21 miles from Raleigh. All utilities (cable, hi-speed wireless, water, electricity, heating) are included in the $900 per month price. We don’t have any pets but small dogs and cats can be considered as long as they are clean. Invest in your time in Chapel Hill. You can email me at ryan[at]icontact.com if you have any questions or to schedule a time to meet and check out the house. 102 Millingport Court, Chapel Hill, NC 27517. See www.meadowmont.com for more information on the community.
Listed at:

UNC
Raleigh / Durham, NC

As my Dad pointed out in the emailed link to an article on the new British PM Gordon Brown, it’s nice to have a world leader who’s focused on helping people. Here’s an excerpt:

“To address the worst of poverty, we need to summon up the best of humanity, and I want to summon into existence a great coalition of conscience in pursuit of the greatest of causes.

“And I firmly believe that if we can discover a common purpose, there is no failing in today’s world, that cannot be addressed by mobilising our strengths, and there’s no individual struggle that drags people down that cannot benefit from a renewed public purpose that will lift people up.”

He said the goal of providing primary education for every child by 2015 would not be met until 2100, while the goal of cutting infant mortality by two thirds would not be reached until 2050 unless action was taken now.

He said the situation had to be declared to be a “development emergency”.

He said 12 world leaders and 20 business leaders had signed a new “commitment to action” to meet the “emergency”.

“I want us to come together as one world. I want us to call an emergency meeting next year at which we report on where we are and what we have to do.”

He said scientists, engineers and the medical profession were key to helping reach the goals.

Mr Brown compared the plan to former US President John F Kennedy’s 1960 call for an international peace corps.

That was “an international commitment to harness the idealism many felt in the face of threats to human progress and world peace,” Mr Brown said.

“Today we should evoke the same spirit to forge a coalition for justice.”

Exposure.com posted an interview with me today. Here’s an excerpt:

Imagine starting your first company at the age of 16. Imagine gracing such prestigious magazine covers as Small Business Fortune and Success. Imagine running a million dollar company before you were even old enough to drink. This super whiz kid Ryan Allis sat down with Exposzure and filled us in on how he got started, what it takes to be successful, and his high expectations for the future. Do you still think you