Okay, I’m going to go ahead and admit that not doing a post in, oh.. 10 months now, is pretty shameful.  I just can’t seem to get into the flow of doing a new post.  Beyond that, I’ve been thinking about how much useless and old information is clogging up the Internet and search engines.  If content producers were a little more aware and took content offline when it was irrelevant, we would all have a better Internet experience.  So I’m going to do my part in cleaning up the Internet of useless sludge.

In the next few weeks I’m going to wipe this blog off the face of the Internet.  In it’s place will be a simpler site with just background info on me.

Now that my friends at MailChimp have bought TinyLetter, I’m going to put my TinyLetter account into action.  After this blog ceases to exist, I’m going to do occasional emails with a lot more focus on good and timely content instead of on pretty pictures.  If you want to keep up with me, you should sign up for my TinyLetter email newsletter right away.

Thanks for reading this final post on this blog.  A new adventure coming soon…

Like the saying goes.. it’s on like Donkey Kong (yes, Nintendo is trying to trademark that phrase but they haven’t yet).

It seems that the Georgia legislature spent all of its time massaging the wording on the ballot initative for Georgia Amendment One instead of making sure that the amendment was legally enforcable. So that gives us an opening of sorts. We still may have to suffer with this amendment being enacted but we can sure try to get it overturned. So here is what we need every single Georgian to do.

First go to congress.org and find out who your Georgia state senator and representative is. Second, since virtually every representative and senator voted for this amendment, we need to reach out and educate EVERY single one of them. So I encourage you to email, write, or call your elected official. Or better yet, do all three. Honestly I think phone calls will have the most impact, followed by written letters, and then finally emails. As always though, impact is the inverse of the ease of accomplishing the task. So do whatever you can. Personally I’m going to email and then follow up with a phone call.

To help you with your phone call, letter, email I’ve put together a list of five reasons why HR 178 / Georgia Amendment 1 is a bad thing for Georgia and Georgians. Feel free to use as few or as many of these items as you like. Here we go:

• If non-compete agreements had been previously enforceable, many Georgia companies wouldn’t exist. Most compelling are companies like Home Depot and Internet Security Systems that wouldn’t exist because of enforcements of non-compete agreements. See this post by Lance Weatherby for more examples.
• The enforcement of non-compete agreements tilts the employment landscape entirely towards large employers. This may sound like a good way to increase overall employment in Georgia but it is misguided. A recent paper from the Kauffman Foundation found that over the years 1980-2005, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. came from companies that were less than five years old.
• The argument by supporters of this law is that the state is hampered in attracting large employers to the state because of questionable enforcement of non-compete agreements. There is no evidence to support this argument. In fact, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (which supported the passing of Georgia Amendment 1), Atlanta ranks fourth in terms of Fortune 500 company headquarters (10 companies). Only Dallas (12 companies), Houston (24), and New York (42) have more. This is corroborated in a Georgia Power report as well. In recent years the metro area has attracted the relocation of First Data, NCR, and Newell Rubbermaid. These were all before the issue of non-compete agreements was put up for a vote.
• In 1985 Michigan reversed its law of banning non-competes, and this Harvard study shows that the mobility of inventors in Michigan fell by 8.1 percent and the mobility of individuals who specialized in certain technologies fell by 15 percent. Most importantly after reversing the ban, Michigan experienced an ever increasing emigration of inventors from Michigan to other states that do not recognize non-compete agreements. With Georgia’s focus on building up clusters of expertise within certain arenas (such as biotechnology), this move to enforce non-compete agreements is detrimental and will slow or stop our growth in these areas.
• The wording on the ballot was changed a number of times and the end result was something that sounds better than it is leading to a pre-ordained result. This is unethical and unfair to Georgia voters.

There are probably a lot more valid, well thought out reasons to oppose this amendment. If you’ve got one with supporting papers, literature, or other information, please add it below in the comments so that others may use the same arguments with their elected officials.

Hopefully by now you know about Georgia’s proposed Amendment One coming up for vote tomorrow.  If you don’t, read on and be a more informed voter.  If you weren’t planning on voting tomorrow I hope this post changes your mind and if nothing else you just go and cast a vote against this amendment.  We need your help.

The proposed amendment is on the ballot with this wording:

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to make Georgia more economically competitive by authorizing legislation to uphold reasonable competitive agreements?

Wow, that sounds like ponies and rainbows.  Who wouldn’t want to make “Georgia more economically competitive” and why wouldn’t you uphold “reasonable” competitive agreements.  I mean, they’re reasonable after all, right?

Well, that’s the problem.  We are one of a few states where the judiciary is able to take a narrow view on non-compete agreements and by and large, these agreements are generally viewed as unenforceable.  What that allows is for people to move from employer to employer fairly easily as well as leaving your employer to start a business within the same industry.  If Amendment One passes, this freedom to do what you want to do will go away.  Oh by the way, do you know what state doesn’t allow non-competes to be enforced at all?  That’s right – California.  Doesn’t seem like that’s caused a problem there.

Amendment One is being supported by interests who support big business.  According to this video posted on Peach Pundit, Jobs of Tomorrow (which should really be called Only The Job You Have And No Other For Tomorrow and is chaired by the former CEO of BellSouth) which is leading the charge for Amendment One (to the tune of $1 million in public relations and media spending) is funded by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and has been supported by the Technology Association of Georgia (see here) as well as AT&T.

What is heartening though is when individuals from other chambers of commerce say that Amendment One isn’t needed like when Nick Masino of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce tweeted this:

None of my Economic Development Prospects have been concerned with the ability to “uphold reasonable competitive agreements” Amendment 1

But let’s really talk about non-competes.  In the whole time I’ve run companies there was only one time that I had a employee go and work for a competitor.  It was irritating then and it is still irritating to me now.  But we never sued to prevent that or use any scare tactics to prevent it.  We clearly hired someone who we shouldn’t have hired and I swear I’ll never make that mistake again (although I’m probably wrong about that).  As John Kress tweeted:

Don’t hire someone you don’t trust #VoteNoOn1

Amendment One is about restricting what you can legally do and the industries you can work in to protect the interests of those big businesses.  Amendment One will stifle innovation in Georgia by preventing the free movement of individuals. Innovation is where new competition comes from for big business.  So no wonder why big business wants to stop you and me and everyone else from working in the industry of their choosing and instead be shackled to an organization for however long they want you there.

If Amendment One passes then the only viable employees for a lot of companies will be new graduates who have never signed any paperwork from any company before.  That may be (initially) good for new college graduates but will it be good for everyone else?

So the other issue is the perennial “my vote doesn’t matter” argument.  Ah, but it does and much more so in an off-cycle election.  I did some digging into the number of voters we see at the polls.  In the last presidential election (2008) we had about 3.9 million votes cast.  In the prior off-cycle election (2006) there were 2.1 million votes cast.  So about 54% of the people showed up at the off-cycle election than the presidential election.  That means your vote is worth 84% more in an off-cycle election!

Given that a little over 2 million votes will probably be cast tomorrow, it may not take a lot to defeat this amendment.  So given that here is what I need you to do today:

• If you’re on Facebook, join the movement on Facebook and use that as a mechanism of spreading the word to your friends about Amendment One.
• If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #VoteNoOn1 and explain why you think Amendment One is bad.  Also feel free to send out articles like this one to your followers and retweet the things you see on Twitter.
• Tell everyone you know why they should go vote tomorrow and why Amendment One is bad for Georgia.
• Call or email every talk show you know of focused on Georgia politics and get them to talk about why Amendment One is bad.  This issue isn’t a partisan issue – members of all political parties think this amendment is bad.  [Side note: through a concerted campaign Neil Boortz blogged, tweeted, and spoke on the radio about this issue.  A few people can create widespread awareness!]

Let’s get out there and defeat Georgia Amendment One.  After that we’re going to figure out a way to make sure this kind of fiasco never happens again.

I was originally trying to post this as a follow up comment to David Nour‘s comment on this Fast Company article.  For whatever reason the Fast Company site won’t accept this (too long?).  So instead, I’m just posting it here which has the added benefit of letting me link to relevant info.

Here is a point by point response.

I’ve lived and worked in Atlanta since 1989.  Eight years after you, David, but I think we can both agree that we’ve both been here a long time.

1. Lack of Ideas – You’re crazy.  There are a lot of ideas being worked on in town.  Are they all fundable?  No, not all but some are.  Are a lot of the entrepreneurs avoiding funding?  Absolute yes.  They’ve been conditioned over the last few years to know that funding is hard to get.  So instead they’ve oriented themselves towards businesses that they can bootstrap and ramp up to success.  Here is a list off the top of my head: ScoutMob (bootstrapped and crushing it), Regator (bootstrapped and crushing it), Zeevex (bootstrapped and acquired), Esgut (bootstrapped and acquired), Pieces of Flair (bootstrapped and acquired), Blinq Media (initially bootstrapped but now funded) and Twitpay (started at Startup Weekend as bootstrapped and now funded).

2. Lack of Seed Funding – This is absolutely an issue but there are many groups filling the void.  Know anything about Shotput Ventures, ProFounder, the Georgia Tech Edison Fund and the Seed Fund, and probably some others I’ve forgotten?  Speaking just for Shotput, we’ve done 9 deals in the last year and change – all at the early seed level.  Some of the startups we’ve funded are absolutely killing it.

3. Lack of Venture Funding – I won’t speak for any local venture fund since none of them probably want me to (or pay me to) but I’ll say I agree that there is a disappointing lack of venture capital.  That said, there are plenty of venture capitalists that are making the trips to Atlanta to see and invest in companies.  I know of quite a few myself and I’ve made quite a few introductions that are progressing nicely.  So if you are claiming Atlanta isn’t a great startup place because of a lack of venture capital then maybe your startup isn’t good enough to get venture capital in the first place.  Money finds opportunities regardless of location.

4. Lack of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem – Again, you’re crazy.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at a startup/entrepreneurial event in the 11 years I’ve been doing startups in Atlanta.  There are a lot of entrepreneurs who are giving back and doing their next round of companies.  To say that isn’t true shows you’re disconnected from the reality on the ground.  And by the way, I only know of one entrepreneur who has bought a lake house in the last 3-4 years.  And this just happened recently and I’d never say that entrepreneur isn’t focused on helping out others.

5. Lack of Leadership and Vision – I can’t believe it but apparently it’s up to me to defend the Atlanta [Business/Real Estate] Chronicle.  You should go pick up a copy before saying things about who is doing what and reporting on what.  Not that you’d ever find me reading a copy.  But that’s a story for another time.  As for the “local technology association” I’ll just say “no comment” lest I get involved in another fracas.  Any chance you want to mention the awesome work that the folks at Startup Lounge have done?  No?  Then, how about the little Startup Riot event I run each year with the goal of just helping out other entrepreneurs?  Don’t know about these?  Then, go sign up for the weekly newsletter I do at atlanta.startupgossip.com and you’ll see how many events and how much leadership is being shown at the grassroots level.

And really, Leadership Atlanta as an indicator of entrepreneurial support?  In my experience entrepreneurs are busy building companies and don’t have time for those organizations.  I spend a lot of time with these types of organizations but I have slightly different goals than a lot of entreprenuers.  In fact, I serve on the selection committee for one and we rarely see entrepreneurs as applicants – so it isn’t that we’re not selecting them, it’s that they aren’t applying.

I think your commentary and criticism shows just how disconnected you are with the reality within the Atlanta startup and entrepreneurial community.  Seriously, I haven’t ever seen you at an startup/entrepreneurial event in all the years that I’ve been doing this and I know you, David, and know what you look like so it isn’t like I would have just missed you.

In arguing all these points I will say that I don’t think Atlanta is perfect.  But then, no city or community is perfect.  Sure there are things we need to be better about but convicting everything that is happening here and proposing that no one is doing anything about it is completely disingenuous and outright inflammatory.

Sanjay Parekh (proud Atlanta entrepreneur)
Not a title, just a description – I’ve got nothing to sell and people listen to me not because I’m published but because I speak the truth.

This morning I’ve been playing around a little bit with Firesheep. This Firefox extension integrates network packet capture with Firefox and then allows you to login as others onto web sites (mainly social sites but others as well).

After playing around with this tool (on my home network and with only my machines involved) I realized how big of a hole this opens up.  If you’ve ever noticed those Facebook or Twitter login widgets on all the web sites out there, those are by and large communicating via http.  That’s right – they’re all insecure.  I hit a web page that had these widgets and given that I was logged into both Facebook and Twitter, Firesheep was able to pick up my account details.  That’s right – I didn’t even load up Facebook or Twitter and yet I was still captured.

So how do you protect yourself from these exploits?  Well, personally I use a SSH tunnel to route all my insecure traffic through my house.  Sure that slows down my surfing but I’d rather be secure than be fast.

So is this going to change how you interact with the Internet or will it still be business as usual for you?

UPDATE: By the way, I just realized that my blog uses the same kind of insecure widgets for Twitter that I was mentioning above.  Hah!

And with this…

so ends an era. Thanks Sig for all your support and effort in improving the Atlanta startup community.

Now that I’ve got some of my database woes solved I’m digging back into some interesting Twitter data again. Today, we’ll take a look at the set time zone of active Twitter users.  As in the last analysis, this one is based on active Twitter users.  Specifically I’m looking at the results from a set of almost 3.5 million recently active Twitter users.

When looking at Twitter users, it’s hard to use location information from profiles since some people may use a specific location (e.g., Atlanta, GA), others will use latitude and longitude coordinates, and still others will use things so arbitrary that they’re unhelpful (e.g., Earth, the Internet, etc.).  Unfortunately the time zone specification also falls prey to this same issue since supplying the information is optional but the benefit is that the data, if available, is a simple number that can be easily manipulated and collated to provide meaningful information.

So here is a chart of the 3.5 million users I had captured when I ran this analysis.

Of the data that I had available, about a quarter of users had no specified time zone.  I’m assuming these users are uniformly spread throughout the world so I’m just going to ignore this group.

The first interesting insight is how much larger the east coast (of the USA) users are than west coast (again, of the USA) users.  I would have expected that the west coast would have been a larger number of users just because 1) Twitter is based in the Valley and 2) there are a lot of people in California.  But as the data shows, this isn’t true.  This same analysis has repeated over different time frames over the last week or so as I created and destroyed my database.  I’m not sure what this means but it might mean that Twitter (and others) should be paying as much, if not a little bit more, attention to the east coast as has been paid to the west coast.

The other data points that pop up (but are hidden on the chart above) relate to two of the smallest time zones.  The second to the last smallest is at UTC+4.5.  This time zone is solely for Afghanistan.  I would have thought that Afghanistan would have had the smallest representation due to challenges with Internet access and overall security.  But the smallest time zone was indeed a surprise, at least for me.

Myanmar (formerly Burma) and the Cocos Islands are covered by the smallest time zone, UTC+6.5.  I would have assumed there would be no Twitter users in Myanmar given that the military junta has blocked Internet access in the past and continues to restrict free and open access.  I spot checked a few of these accounts and they seem to by Myanmar related.  So either these folks are nearby Myanmar, mistakenly set their time zone to UTC+6.5, or somehow they have acquired Internet access within the country.  Either way, I’m declining to share the numbers or specific accounts related to this area for obvious reasons.  Personally I hope these people are in country and if so, I find it encouraging that they’re using Twitter to discuss their issues and the facts on the ground in Myanmar.

More to come as I continue looking at this data.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been working on a Twitter app/project of my own for the last week or so.  I’m still working out the kinks and some of the ideas.  Because of this endeavor, I’ve been collecting a lot of data.  Given that I’m a data junkie, I just had to do some analysis on what I’ve seen so far.  So here you go, the first snippet of insight that may help you understand who Twitter users are and what other sites they value.

I did this analysis on a little over 1 million active Twitter users.  I took a look at the sites they list in their personal URL fields to point to for more information.  The majority of users (about 52%) don’t list a web site and have essentially stand alone Twitter accounts.  They may have URL’s in their profile background pages but that’s not something I can easily scrape for.  Additionally, about 22% of users are using a domain that showed up fewer than 1,000 times.  Of those that remained, here is a breakdown of the sites represented.

As you can see, Facebook is the main site listed by Twitter users.  Somewhat surprising to me is that Blogger.com/Blogspot is in second place as well as MySpace being in third place.  Who knew?

Also surprising is how much Tumblr outpaced WordPress as well as where Posterous is on the list.  Don’t bother looking, it isn’t on the list.  Posterous had less than 1,000 references and this isn’t shown.  Tumblr had about 30 times more references in my sample set.

Formspring.me has a very strong showing which is surprising given how young the service is.  If the site can maintain usage and their growth momentum, it could easily jump up in the rankings.  They also need to educate their users that the URL is formspring.me and not formspringme.com or formspring.me.com.  Fortunately they already own formspringme.com.

Finally what surprised me was the number of people who put their email address in their URL field (it was only 0.35% but still it shows up on this list).  Obviously the links don’t work since Twitter assumes a URL and not an email address.  That said, this may be an area for Twitter to adapt given how many people have done this as well as how many people tried to list multiple addresses (I only counted the first URL provided if there were multiple).

One last data note – the entry for Last.fm is actually composed of multiple sites, most of which are country specific.  I bundled them together since they represent the same company/service.  I did the same for bit.ly since some people used j.mp instead.

If you’ve never listened to NPR’s Intelligence Squared, you really don’t know what you’re missing.  This blog is becoming more focused on intelligent (?) debate and this podcast does an impressive job at debating and analyzing issues.  The recent episode is about cyberwar and if the threat has been exaggerated.  If you’re interested in technology you should really listen to this episode.