netZoo

Kickstarter: Crowdsourced Funding for Ideas that Matter

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:37:36 +0000

I finally made my first Kickstarter pledge today – toward an Invisible Children film project including Yeasayer and Polyphonic Spree.

Kickstarter is a new website and funding platform for “artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers….” Started by entrepreneurial blogger and developer Andy Baio, Kickstarter invites anyone to submit a project for funding and/or to fund a project with little risk. [CORRECTION: Baio is the CTO. Kickstarter was started by CEO Perry Chen, along with cofounders Yancey Strickler and Charles Adler.] You invest in the final product which reaps rewards. Should the project not reach its funding goal, your money is returned, so as not to be wasted on something that runs out of fuel halfway through. Baio also created one of the infamously useful-before-Yahoo-bought-it online apps – Upcoming.org.

Kickstarter is a brilliant concept because it feeds on the positivity and karma of giving, sharing, and creating on the web. But it’s not just the ethos — it’s the stories. And the stories behind the stories. Take the story of Greg Bayne an aspiring filmmaker who — with the help of a final push — got the funding to succeed (+ an extra 2 grand) in his goal of raising funds for a documentary on legendary MMA fighter Jens Pulver. It’s addicting enough to follow these projects and see if they get funded or not — there is only 48 hours left to raise another $10k for the Invisible Children project.

UPDATE 3/10: The project was fully funded with ten hours to spare.

But that’s only the beginning — it’s a gift that keeps giving and giving back, through blog updates from those who are funded and in many cases, a final product such as a film, or a DIY mixed-use space, or a book of war comics.

Have a look for yourself and see how many intriguing projects you come across. Or if you start your own, let me know. I want in!

Zynga Gets Slammed Over Haiti Donations – Deserved or Exaggerated?

Andy Sternberg — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:53:34 +0000

If a company is not entirely transparent in it’s charitable dealings, it could cost it’s reputation, especially when inaccurate rumors start to spread.

via Mathew Ingram at GigaOm:

If you want to see a Twitter mob in its larval stage, just do a search on Zynga or Farmville and Haiti and you will see one emerging over a report that the social-gaming company kept 50 percent of the money that it raised in donations for the country in the wake of a devastating earthquake. The report originally appeared in a Brazilian magazine called Superinteressante, which did a feature on Zynga and Farmville and mentioned in the piece that it had only given 50 percent of what it raised to Haiti. That was in turn picked up by a leading Brazilian newspaper called Folha de Sao Paulo , which said that Zynga had admitted to only sending 50 percent of the money it raised for Haiti to that country.

That story got written about in several places around the Web, including at Social Media Today (in a post that has since been removed and replaced with a different one featuring an altered headline) as well as at the opinion site True/Slant, where Marcelo Ballve — a former Associated Press reporter in Brazil — summarized the Falho story about how Zynga had misled Farmville players into thinking 100 percent of their donations would be going to Haiti for earthquake relief (he has since posted an update). The story was also written up at Gawker, which also repeated the allegations.

The Folha story, however, blurs together two Farmville campaigns to raise money for Haiti: One was set up before the earthquake, and specifically said that only 50 percent of the money raised would be sent to Haiti (a screenshot is embedded below). The second, which involved the purchase within the game of special “white corn” for a user’s farm, said that 100 percent of the proceeds would be sent to earthquake relief. According to an emailed statement from a Zynga spokesperson that I’ve embedded below, this is exactly what happened (a similar statement has been posted at the bottom of both the True/Slant post and the Folha story, and referred to by Gawker, but not by Social Media Today, although the latter has since posted an update and apology). The initial campaign for Haiti raised $1.2-million for the country, and the subsequent “white corn” campaign raised an additional $1.5-million.

Meanwhile, dozens of Twitter messages are still being posted every minute (based on a recent survey of the social network) saying that Zynga “admits to keeping half the money it raised for Haiti,” despite the repeated efforts by Zynga CEO Mark Pincus to rebut such claims through his own Twitter account. The eagerness with which people seem to believe such claims could have something to do with the language barrier between the initial reports and those who have repeated them — but it could also be a result of some negative press that Zynga has received in the past, alleging “scammy” behavior related to lead-generation offers within its games.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Rusty Boxcars.

via gigaom.com

###

Is this backlash deserved or exaggerated?

Personally I was turned off by Zynga’s Haiti campaign before I finished reading the first paragraph of the Press Release that hit the wires 48 hours after the January 12th earthquake:

Starting tonight, Zynga (www.zynga.com) will run a special relief campaign in three of its top games that reach over 40 million users daily.

It seemed to me that this blatantly took advantage of PR Newswire and others’ waiving of distribution fees for Haiti earthquake-related news.

I was speculating but I’ve always been skeptical of such campaigns by hard-to-trust startups. I was impressed by Zynga’s earlier partnership with the World food Programme over the holidays but hadn’t seen any mention of its results.

You can’t be too transparent when acting in the wake of any disaster. While Zynga made no mistake in clearly mentioning it’s user base (both daily and monthly) the press release — especially if it was distributed gratis — should have elaborated on Zynga’s existing relationship with WFP to avoid any fingerpointing / confusion.

President Obama on the Final Push for Health Care Reform

Andy Sternberg — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:22:10 +0000

Get behind it!

State of California takes aim at ‘risks’ of Twitter, bans Facebook friends

Andy Sternberg — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:52:17 +0000

State takes aim at ‘risks’ of Twitter, bans Facebook friends

February 26, 2010 | 3:55 pm

The Internet can be a wild place, with all the damage one can do from an office cubicle on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like. So the state of California on Friday unveiled a “Social Media Standard” to ensure that its employees aren’t running amok.

“As with most technologies, there is a measure of risk that must be addressed and mitigated,” the state’s chief Information officer, Teri Takai, wrote. Those risks are significant, according to Statewide Information Management Manual Section 66B: tweeting and facebooking can hamper employee productivity, strain Internet connections, cause “reputational risk to personnel, the agency, and the State,” result in the leak of sensitive materials, introduce viruses into the “IT environment,” and more.

As a shining example of how to do it right, Takai pointed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who she said had “used these communications channels with great success.” Among the governor’s dynamic use of social media: a video mocking state lawmakers for debating about cow tails, a picture of a smiley face made of fruit in his oatmeal, a photo of his Popeye-like biceps, and a video in which he brandished a big knife while proposing to cut the state budget.

The new standard doesn’t seem to leave room for such creativity by most state workers, who must follow an “acceptable use policy” and only use social media sites “to fulfill the business requirements.” Only authorized users can participate, and some sites should be disabled to prevent “unnecessary functionality” such as instant messaging. The agency should curtail or eliminate “web links to other web sites, such as ‘friends’ ” so users won’t be led to inappropriate material. Users can only speak on behalf of the state if authorized, and within the scope of that authority, and must identify their names, titles, agencies and contact information.

And in case some worker might decide to film a video dressed like the Terminator or Conan, there is Rule No. 8: “Users shall not utilize tools or techniques to spoof, masquerade, or assume any identity or credentials except for legitimate law enforcement purposes, or for other legitimate State purposes as defined in agency policy.”

–Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

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Real-time case study in generating comments. Is timing everything?

Andy Sternberg — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:20:38 +0000

Hidden Los Angeles posted a simple “what are you doing” query to its fan page in the 5 o’clock hour on a Friday and started an avalanche of commenting from like-minded people who were likely wondering the same thing.

“Hidden Los Angeles wants to hear all about he awesome local LA stuff you’re doing this weekend! Do tell…”

153 comments in 43 minutes. Of course, HLA is an exceptionally well run Facebook page. I seem to remember it only having 1,000 or so fans about a month ago. Today it’s up over 140,000. That’s a lot of Facebook News Feeds to capitalize on.

What we see here is just how vital Facebook is to building a following and creating a community. The HiddenLA website is only 8 months old and up until January, only attracted 1-3,000 unique visitors per month. Will be interesting to see how the growth of its fan page affected it’s web traffic in February.

UN Report: 4.6 Billion Mobile Phone Subscriptions Worldwide, Cell Penetration Doubles in Developing Countries

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:06:09 +0000

Amazing to read this latest report from the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (emphasis mine):

By the end of 2009, there were an estimated 4.6 billion mobile cellular subscriptions, corresponding to 67 per 100 inhabitants globally (Chart 1). Last year, mobile cellular penetration in developing countries passed the 50 per cent mark reaching an estimated 57 per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2009. Even though this remains well below the average in developed countries, where penetration exceeds 100 per cent, the rate of progress remains remarkable. Indeed, mobile cellular penetration in developing countries has more than doubled since 2005, when it stood at only 23 per cent.
Internet use has also continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace. In 2009, an estimated 26 per cent of the world’s population (or 1.7 billion people) were using the Internet. In developed countries the percentage remains much higher than in the developing world where four out of five people are still excluded from the benefits of being online.

Can only hope that broadband internet penetration access is the next to take off — in the U.S. more than one-third are without it, largely due to cost, according to a Pew Study also released today. Hopefully the U.S. FCC’s National Broadband plan, due to be formally announced March 17, is aggressive enough to make a difference. It’s our future.

The executive summary of the UN report:

Measuring the Information Society 2010 – United Nations International Telecommunications Union –

Broken Bells @ Bootleg Theater, LA 2.19.10

Andy Sternberg — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:51:01 +0000

We were lucky to be among a few hundred people to catch Broken Bells’ first-ever live performance Friday night at the Bootleg Theater in Echo Park. Broken Bells — if you haven’t heard yet — is a collaboration between James Mercer (of The Shins) and Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse).

Try to imagine what that might sound like and your expectations would be met and likely exceeded by the first single — “The High Road” — alone (video after the jump). Stack that on top of Burton’s track record as a multi-instrumentalist and producer over the past decade (The Grey Album, Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, MF Doom, Beck) plus the mystery of it being Broken Bells first live performance and the Bootleg was buzzing with anticipation.

The crowd was a good mix of industry, critics, serious music freaks, and fans (we scored tickets out of the lot that went up for sale after 10am Friday for $15 each – and were gone by 10:30am, according to the Fold’s website).

After a spirited set by the house DJ’s, Broken Bells took the stage as a 6-piece band (two guitars, two keyboards, bass, drums). The band seemed well-rehearsed and the onstage demeanor was rather serious for a “surprise” show — the only announced Broken Bells concerts to date are London and Paris and as part of a SXSW showcase next month. A couple people mentioned that it was Burton’s first time playing drums onstage (he played keys on one or two tracks with prerecorded supporting beats). On the record — much like with the Gnarls Barkley collabs with Cee-Lo — Burton handled all the instrumentation as well as production, James Mercer wrote the songs and played guitar.

Mercer’s voice was strong and rose above Burton’s shuffling timekeeping. Several songs had a lilting bass groove reminiscent of the Manchester sound of 20 years ago — Stone Roses, Happy Mondays. It was also apparent that these musicians were influenced by the likes of Damon Albarn and Beck — not necessarily a bad thing. Add four- and five-part harmonies and some ace songwriting by Mercer and the live experience had a wall of sound, Floydian feel, melodies grinding through spiral video projected on the stage.

After each song everybody seemed to turn and look at each other with eyebrows raised as if to say, “wow, that actually sounded really good.” After ten songs the band left the stage briefly and then returned with the two greatest surprises of the night. First, the duo of Mercer and Burton rattled off a beautiful version of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” and then the rest of the band returned for a spot-on cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover.” Mercer led into it saying gingerly (to the crowd, the band or both?) “I don’t know if you’re ready for this but here it goes.”

Lights up. The house DJ cued The Turtles’ “Happy Together” and the crowd filed out, smiles all around.

Broken Bells drops March 9 on Sony / Columbia.

Originally posted at LAist.

Will All Major U.S. Cities be Connected by High Speed Rail by 2050?

Andy Sternberg — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:02:20 +0000

It’s possible, according to a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) calling for a New Deal-like public works juggernaut that would eventually connect all major cities located within 100 and 500 miles of each other.

Here in Los Angeles, we’d be happy to see our long-promised subway to the sea come to fruition (it’s still due this year). Check out the U.S. PIRG report below:

The Right Track: Building a 21st Century High-Speed Rail System for America –

All my Google Reader lists and feeds Embedded here

Andy Sternberg — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:39:29 +0000

I wish Reader would allow for this natively — not to mention create a more robust mobile app. Thanks to for making this rather easy to do.

Click to expand by category and by newsfeed.

download OPML (700 feeds as of Feb 3, 2010)

Click below to listen to my radio station, WOOZradio!

The State of the Internet – a Pretty Infographic.

Andy Sternberg — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:38:26 +0000

via focus.com

via @mashable

Posted via web from Andy Sternberg’s posterous

netZoo

Kickstarter: Crowdsourced Funding for Ideas that Matter

Related Posts:

Zynga Gets Slammed Over Haiti Donations – Deserved or Exaggerated?

Related Posts:

President Obama on the Final Push for Health Care Reform

Related Posts:

State of California takes aim at ‘risks’ of Twitter, bans Facebook friends

State takes aim at ‘risks’ of Twitter, bans Facebook friends

Related Posts:

Real-time case study in generating comments. Is timing everything?

Related Posts:

UN Report: 4.6 Billion Mobile Phone Subscriptions Worldwide, Cell Penetration Doubles in Developing Countries

Related Posts:

Broken Bells @ Bootleg Theater, LA 2.19.10

Related Posts:

Will All Major U.S. Cities be Connected by High Speed Rail by 2050?

Related Posts:

All my Google Reader lists and feeds Embedded here

Related Posts:

The State of the Internet – a Pretty Infographic.

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