seikatsu

A Browser Is a Search Engine [del.icio.us]

stent — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:42:45 PDT

Scott Suiter, a former Google intern, asked 50 passersby from New York what is a browser and the responses were almost unanimous: a browser is a search engine. Some even said that their browser is Google.

Full choir of 26000 singers [Flickr]

seikatsu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:16:57 PDT

seikatsu posted a photo:

Back after 40yr break [Flickr]

seikatsu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:15:51 PDT

seikatsu posted a photo:

Crowd [Flickr]

seikatsu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:15:48 PDT

seikatsu posted a photo:

Brass bands [Flickr]

seikatsu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:15:12 PDT

seikatsu posted a photo:

Found in the dark cellars of Tallinn old town [Flickr]

seikatsu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:14:32 PDT

seikatsu posted a photo:

10 lessons from a failed startup | VentureBeat [del.icio.us]

stent — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:46:29 PDT

A year and a half ago, my co-founder Dev Nag and I started an internet TV network for games called PlayCafe. [...] What follows is a post-mortem of what we did right and wrong and how we will improve next time. I feel too many entrepreneurs are afraid to discuss their failures, locking up important lessons.

A Dozen Don’ts for Entrepreneurs [del.icio.us]

stent — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:38:12 PDT

Guy Kawasaki: Most advice to entrepreneurs focuses on what they should do: build a great product, assemble a great team, provide great service. All are “duhisms.” Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t realize that there are things they should specifically avoid doing too. These are also duhisms, but somehow no one ever talks about them. Here is my list of the twelve most important things that entrepreneurs should not do.

To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with [del.icio.us]

stent — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:34:54 PDT

Cass Sunstein — co-author of the hugely influential Nudge and an adviser to President Obama — unveils his new theory of ‘group polarisation’, and explains why, when like-minded people spend time with each other, their views become not only more confident but more extreme

Has Your Job Expired?

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:33:40 +0200

If this looks familiar at all, click here: http://www.myjobhasexpired.com/

Global VC Blog Directory – Ranked By # of Google Reader Subscribers (May 2009) « Thinking About Thinking [del.icio.us]

stent — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:27:50 PDT

Larry Cheng: So, here’s a more difficult than expected attempt at pulling together a global directory of blogs written by current VCs. To help put the blogs in some context, they are ranked by their # of Google Reader subscribers. In addition, some blogs despite having subscribers have not posted in 3 months and they are denoted by an *. This directory will be updated quarterly highlighting any new blogs and the movers/shakers based on subscriber growth. If you don’t have the time to sort through all of the blogs, I will write a bi-weekly summary highlighting the “best VC blog posts” from the VCs in this directory.

ASI: Four Engineers Create a VC Fund - ReadWriteStart [del.icio.us]

stent — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:53:46 PDT

This is how it's supposed to work. A team of super-smart engineers/entrepreneurs comes up with a radical plan to disrupt a huge industry. It builds its technology, gets traction, and, in a few years, sells the venture for over a billion dollars. What do these super-smart engineers do with their new-found wealth? They create a VC fund to invest in early-stage deals with which other entrepreneurs/engineers can disrupt very large industries. Their fund has been investing since 2003 and has a portfolio of around 30 companies.

Lihtne ettepanek: riigiametnik, ära lenda äriklassis!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:15:50 +0200

Meil on masu ja riigieelarve ei tule jätkuvalt kokku. Selle taustal, kuidas jutt on kolinud nüüd juba maksude tõstmisele, justnagu poleks kulude poolelt enam midagi võtta, tuli mul möödunud nädalal üks mõte.

Sisenesin Brüsselis Tallinna lennukisse ja avastasin, et äri- ja turistiklassi eraldav kardin on sikutatud poole lennuki peale. Eespool kardinat istus palju (6 tooli korda ca 12 rida = 72) toredaid Eesti soost riigiametnikke, elukohaga nii Brüsselis kui Tallinnas. Mul oli seal ka teretuttavaid, nagu igal eestlasel kipub olema, seega rõhutaksin juba ette, et ei midagi isiklikku ega mingit klassiviha õhutamist - küsimus pole inimestes, vaid süsteemis.

Teisel pool kardinat leidub sellistel Euroopa-sisestel lendudel alati tudengeid ja vanemaid inimesi. Perega puhkajaid ja üksikuid müügimehi. Aga alati ka suurärimehi, kelle lendude arv aastas ületab kindlasti nädalate arvu. Investoreid, kelle isiklik vara ületab sadu miljoneid kroone. Tippjuhte- ja spetsialiste, kes väga harva mõtlevad sellele, kas lennupilet on tuhat krooni odvam või kallim. Aga ikkagi lendavad turistiklassis.

Miks? Sest lühikestel Euroopa-lendudel ei ole vahet. Eri klassidest pileti hinnavahe on kordades, aga tool on sama. Ühel pool kardinat saab lühikese otsa jagu "tasuta" (loe: mõne tuhande lisakrooni eest) süüa-juua sisse ahmida - teisel pool tuleb maksta sadakond krooni. Lennujaama äriklassi lounge'i saab vähegi rohkem lendav inimene sisse oma lennufirma punktikaardiga. Pole lisaväärtust.

Ettepanek: Eesti riik lõpetab homsest mistahes tasandi ametnikele mitte-turistiklassi piletite ostmise lendudel, mille pikkus ei ületa kuute tundi. Ilma eranditeta. Huvitatud ametnikel on lubatud teha upgrade'e oma raha eest või lennufirmade punktide eest.

Mul on vähe andmeid, et öelda, kui palju veel sel aastal kokku jõuab säästa. Tean vaid, et kui Skype ostab Eesti kontori töötajatele aastas ca tuhatkond (turistiklassi) piletit Londonisse aastas, siis selle numbri peale on vähemalt kahes ministeeriumis töötavad ametnikud muianud... Kui kellelgi on käepärast numbreid (lendude arv, reisieelarve-read eri asutustes, Estonian Airi klientide edetabel), siis palun pange siia kommentaaridesse. Ja kui siinne lihtne ettepanek tundub mõistlik ja õiglane, siis linkige ja levitage kus vaja.

Kõhutunne ütleb, et ülilihtne rahaline sääst ei tule väiksem kui näiteks see 75 miljonit, mille pärast oleks Padar valmis tõstma Eesti kõige targemate töötajate, majanduskasvu ja ekspordi arenduse vedurite tulumaksu 30% peale. Palun ärge kunagi enam rääkige seda juttu äriklassis lennates, see on silmakirjalik, demotiveeriv ja solvav.

Facebook Group: World Leaders [del.icio.us]

stent — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:04:18 PDT

OpenForum Europe

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:54:26 +0200

I spoke at OpenForum Europe conference last Friday, on the topic of open internet (aka net neutrality) and Skype's negative experiences of the lack of it, like Deutche Telekom's recent agressive blocking of our iPhone application.

The event featured an enlighting list of speakers and I truly enjoyed most of the day. However, instead of full-scale notetaking as I've sometimes done before, I decided to give live tweeting a try (as @seikatsu). From one end the 140 characters don't leave much room for analysis and force you to cut even the original thoughts. But on the other hand these notes were available to anyone in real time and even sparked some discussions right away.

Anyway, the cleaned-up full list of my tweets is below. You can see quite a bit more from other people too when you do a Twitter search for the tag #openforum. And the original presentations are online here.

Dinner with "father of the internet" Vint Cerf and Commissioner Vivian Reading. Lots of great things said out loud.
Ziga Turk: remember that the moon landing footage was as bad quality as youtube today
Ziga Turk: we've shifted investments from industrial to conceptual economy (value in meaning not function)
Vint Cerf: power corrupts. Powerpoint corrupts absolutely.
Cerf: it is absurd how we got away with opening the tcp/ip specs completely... in the middle of the cold war.
Cerf: proposed motto: if its not open, you can't call it internet [service]. it is against the original design.
Cerf: cloud computing is where internet was in 1973. It does not exist in the sense of vocabulary for using it universally.
Turk: if we didn't have the Lisbon strategy, we wouldn't even know how much Europe is lagging behind
Structural issue in browser competition - you have to win the SAME users over and over again from recurring IE defaults.
Mitchell Baker: 30m users today guarantee you nothing, no financial success, ipo, getting bought..
Anthony D Williams of Wikinomics fame on stage
Williams: blogger.com passed cnn.com traffic already in 2006
Williams: P&G has 1.8m external researchers networked, on call (9000 full time internally)
Williams: The Guardian DataStore - open access to the facts journalists have gathered
Graham Taylor: a person too old to be a digital native can live happily as a digital immigrant
People think standards are always good. They also often slow innovation and hide vested interests.
Two Web Masters: Spiderman and Obama.
Matt Asay/Alfresco, former student of Lessig asked "why have so many European open source projects left for USA?"
Minueesti? RT @PaulHofheinz: If ppl dont see public institutions solving problems, they will form other orgs to seek solution.

Memokraatia: Miks ma toetan Minu Eestit [del.icio.us]

stent — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:52:26 PDT

Daniel: Toetan selle pärast, et ma usun, et üritusest sünnib häid ideid ning ka sellepärast, et see suurendab inimeste oskust koos käia ning arutada ühiseid teemasid. See on eriti tähtis ajal, mil kõik kurdavad, et nende häält ei võeta kuulda. Ma usun, et see üritus õnnestub ja olen veendunud, et see on demokraatiale kasulik.

Paul Graham: A Local Revolution? [del.icio.us]

stent — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:18:15 PDT

The most likely scenario is (1) that no government will successfully establish a startup hub, and (2) that the spread of startup culture will thus be driven by the random factors that have driven it so far, but (3) that these factors will be increasingly outweighed by the pull of existing startup hubs. Result: this revolution, if it is one, will be unusually localized. (Graham also lists Skype as one of the best known counterexamples)

Ohtlik pensioni II samba peatamise retoorika

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:01:04 +0200

See, kuidas valitsus pensioni teise samba maksed peatas, on üks depressivne lugu. Mingil eriti kõrgel loogilisel tasandil oleks olukord justkui arusaadav - kui raha pole, siis ei saa seda ka jagada.

Kõrvalepõikena: jätaks siinkohal isegi sellel teemal põhjalikult vaidlemata, kas raha tegelikult ka pole. Kas see on tõesti viimane kaks miljardit kogu ligi sajamiljardises potis. Ma ei ole jõudnud debatte nii palju jälgida, et natukenegi usuks, et üldises majanduslanguses peavad iga hinna eest tõusma olemasolevate pensionäride pensionid tulevaste arvelt. Või kuidas õigustatakse Eesti suutmatust kärpida märgatavalt riigisektori palkasid, arvestades, et IMF teeb seda Lätis 30% kirvega ja paljude kohalike veel-mitte-koondavate eraettevõtete terariistad välguvad samas suurusjärgus.

Küll aga pean ma ülimalt ohtlikuks pensionite rookimist saatnud retoorikat, eriti peaministri esituses. Ja seda just pika perspektiivi ja julgete investeeringute seisukohalt, mida on meil vaja teistes valdkondades -- haridus, teadus, ettevõtlus.

Nimelt on nüüd riigi kõrgeimal tasemel võetud populismist nõretav seisukoht, et paari-kolmekümne- või isegi neljakümne-aastase horisondiga investeeringute toimist võib edukalt hinnata juba esimese paari aasta järel. Ja justkui selle "õigustusega" võib need investeeringud ära tappa.

Miks see ohtlik on?

Eesti-suguse väikese siseturuga riigi rahvusliku rikkuse suurendamisel on kodanike-poolne investeerimine alati parem kui tarbimine, sest suur osa tarbitavast ostame me paratamatult muult maailmalt sisse (suurendame kellegi teise rikkust). Pensionisambad on pea ainus instrument, mis on pannud laiasid masse natukenegi tarbimisraha ära investeerima. Mis on saanud eraisikute muude investeeringute tulumaksuvabastusest näiteks?
Peale pensionisammaste ei meenu mulle ühtegi tõeliselt valitsuste- ja valimisteülest pikaajalist projekti, mis oleks Eesti Vabariigis käima läinud ja jäänud. Heast pretsedendist sai üleöö halb.
Mistahes pika perspektiiviga projekt midagi teistmoodi teha on alguses status quo hoidmisest ebameeldivam ja kulukam. Hetkeolukorra hoidmine ei vii enamasti aga edasi. Seega tuleb uuenduste esimene ebamugavus lihtsalt alla neelata, mitte maratonijooksu teisel kilomeetril käega lüüa.
Väliskeskkond muutub alati. Selle peale ei viska aga edukad inimesed, firmad ja riigid oma visiooni nurka, vaid adapteeruvad ja kohanduvad, et võtta ka muutunud keskkonnast maksimum. Kui maailma rahaturud kokku kukuvad, siis vaatab mõistlik investor seda kui soodsat ostuvõimalust, emotsionaalne amatöör aga korjab raha turult tagasi, et see kiirelt ära tarbida - või "paremal juhul" aktsiate kallinedes uuesti siseneda. Pideva väikeste summadega investeerimise juures on veel see hea asi, et täpne absoluutse põhja otsimine ei anna erilitst täiendavat võitu, seega sellele pole vaja energiat raisata.

Kui sellised lihtsad põhimõtted tunduvad meie valitsejatele ebaratsionaalsed, ei ole mul usku ka ühegi järgmise pikaajalise projekti võimalikkusesse. Kõrghariduse reformimine võtaks 15 aastat, on kallis ja kolmandal aastal ei näita veel mingeid vilju. Uute välisinvesteeringute või rahvusvahelise talendi riiki meelitamiseks tuleb alustuseks kõvasti oma raha investeerida "võõraste poputamiseks" - kindlasti parajasti masu käes kannatavate kohalike masside seas ebapopulaarne tegevus. Uute ettevõtete loomiseks vajalikud maksumuudatused (nt tööjõumaksude alandamine) viivad esimestel aastatel kindlasti raha eelarvest minema - järelikult ei julge neid keegi teha?

Meenub President Ilvese räägitu Presidendi Kärajatel (video) -- enamik maailma suurtest tehnoloogilistest läbimurretest tuleb läbi sõja- ja kaitseelarvete sellel lihtsalt põhjusel, et neid eelarveid valimistest valimistesse ei näpita. Iga kongressi populist Pentagoni eelarverea sisse ei näe, selle kallale mineku võimalusest rääkimata. See võimaldab ette võtta projekte 'a la interneti leiutamine, mis eeldavad, et näiteks kolmkümmend aastat lastakse teoreetikutel möllata, ilma et nende esialgset näilist tulemusetust keegi igal aastal kahtluse alla seadma tuleks.

Kuidas tekiks olukord, kus riigi mistahes valdkonna pikaajalised projektid suudaksid elus püsida ilma, et neid piltlikult öeldes Kapo või Kaitseministeeriumi eelarvesse peitma ei peaks? Kõlab nagu Minu Eesti mõttekoja teema?

Minu Eesti Inspiratsioonikonverentsi ettekanne

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:35:06 +0200

MUUDETUD: kolisin video selle postituse "nurga taha", kuna BOMS serveerib seda viisil, mis video iga kord lehe laadimisel automaatselt käivitab. Tüütu. Kliki allpool "Continue reading" lingil, et videot näha.

Kolmapäeval toimus Teeme Ära 2009 projekti Minu Eesti avaüritusena Inspiratsioonikonverents, kuhu mind paluti rääkima sellest, kuidas võiks tehnoloogia abiga paremini riiki juhtida.

Kõige suuremat kaasasahistamist ja -elamist tekitas kindlasti professor Marju Lauristin (video). Soovitan vaadata Valdo Kalmu räägitud Minu Eesti sünnilugu ja Rainer Nõlvaku juttu rahast.

Ja videovaenulike huvides postitan siia ka oma esinemises kasutatud jutupunktid, toimetamata kujul:

Minu Eesti konverentsi jutupunktid

"Kuidas telefoni teel riiki juthida?"

Demokraatia olemusest rääkimine on keeruline ja abstraktne, ma pole selle ala mees ka
- Lihtsustaks selle jutu kõigile arusaadavaks: koosolekule olete sattunud?
Millal vajab üks inimene, et teine teda koosolekul esindab? Siis kui
- see koht on kaugel
  - Eesti valdade tekkimise legend - "hobusega peab saama valgel ajal keskuses ära käia"
- aeg ei sobi
  - kolme sõbra vahel lõunat kokku leppida on lihtne
  - mida rohkem osalisi, seda harvem saab kokkusaamise luksust lubada (laulupidu kord kvartalis?)
  - oma seisukohad saab koosolekule saata ka kirjalikult
    - kui teiste kirju ei näe, siis ei teki diskussiooni
    - paber on aeglane
- liiga palju osalisi tapaks diskussiooni
  - kõige interaktiivsem viis teise inimesega suhelda - näost näkku jutt - on kahjuks kõige ressursimahukam
  - suure organisatsiooni juhtkond on enamasti oma valdkonna kõneisikud (finants, IT, toomine, misiganes), kes koondavad ja esindavad oma tiimi arvamusi
- Oluline: vaid vähestel on koosolekutel käimiseks oma universaalsed esindajad. Need valitakse ikka teemade ja olulisuse põhjal - mida teed ise, kuhu saadad majandusspetsi ja kuhu palun minna laste vanaemal.
Mida tehnoloogia selles pildis muutnud on
- Igaüks saab olla "kohal" endale sobiva intensiivsusega: videosillad, konverentskõned, tekstivestlused, internetifoorumid
- Asünkroonne (enamasti kirjalik) osavõtt ei ole enam ühesuunaline toru
  - Teiste arvamusi nähes saab huvigruppidega liituda või neist eristuda
  - Vähem aega kulub ühisosale, millega kõik nõus on, rohkem saab fokusseeruda eriarvamuste lahendamisele
- Suhtluskanali saab sujuvalt ümber mängida vastavalt vajadusele
  - tekstisõnumist videokõneni on vaid üks klikk
  - leiab tehnoloogia suhtlemiseks nii internetivabal lennureisil kui kiire kontoriühenduse taga
- Lisaks infole haldab tehnoloogia ka metainfot
  - Mitte ainult teksti sisu, vaid selle liikumine, seosed teiste infobittidega jne
  - Paberkirjale vastulausega vastamine VS teise arvamuse ühe klikiga üles või alla hääletamine
  - Inimesed, kes rohkem teevad, võiks omada kaalukamat häält kui need, kes vaid räägivad?
- Tehnoloogia võimaldab anonüümsust, aga ka ülitäpset isiku träkkimist
  - Oma nime all esinemine = vastus
  - Kommentaariumite anonüümsus on näiline, ja vabastab vastutusest
    - Aga ka tõeline, "valimiste-anonüümsus" on võimalik
Mis siis saab kui see loomulik koosolekukäitumine ja tehnoloogia võimalused riigkorralduses kokku panna?
- Küsimus ei ole selles, kas meil on vaja valitsust, parlamenti, riigiametnikke - vaid selles, kas nad saavad teada, mida oma esindatavate nimel teha ja mida mitte
- Kas me peaksime kõik ennast puudutavad otsused pimesi delegeerima alati samale 101 inimesele?
  - Miks ei võiks meie "riigikogu" olla olulistes küsimustes 200,000 liikmeline?
  - Ja mõnes nishiteemas saaksid asjad kiiremini otsustatud ka 3 "esindajat", kui neil on vahendid
    - arvamuste konsolideerimiseks ja
    - nende tegevus on 100% läbipaistev
  - Mis oleks tänases finantskriisis meil kaotada 183-kohalisest 10% oma ajast panustavatest tipp-professionaalidest koosnevast rahanduskomisjonist?
  - Kui mitu filtreerivat ja moonutavat kihti peab olema mures kodaniku ja tema murega reaalselt tegeleva ametniku vahel?
Mina ja Sina lisame kodanikuna Eestile väärtust eelkõige oma peamisel tegevusalal
- Aga on otsuseid, mille tegemisel tahan juures olla ja oma sõna öelda
- Ja on otsuseid, mille juures lasen hea meelega end esindada sõbral, naabrimehel, tuntud eksperdil või isegi mulle täiesti tundmatul kodanikul
Miks Eesti?
- Me juba oleme õhemad, väiksemad ja operatiivsemad kui suur enamik esindusdemokraatiaid
  - Leida oma parlamentääri mobiilinumber on ühe google otsingu vaev
  - Mõned neist söövad isegi oma valijatega jaanipäeviti kartulisalatit
  - AGA selline 1:1 suhtlus kipub kujunema egoistlikult nahalähedaseks ja isegi lõhub ühise riigi tegemise tunnet kui välja peaks tulema
- Meil on olemas infrasturkuur ja oskus kasutada suhtlemisel tehnoloogiat
  - ID-kaart all
  - ja massid Delfi kommentaariumiga kõigi oma valudega pealpool

A Day in Twitter User's Life

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:17:36 +0200

I've found myself using Twitter more and more recently. In large part it comes on the expense of blogging here - the mental entry barrier is so much different from taking proper time out of a busy day to write a polished blog entry versus shooting away compressed 140 character thought-bits from my mobile in the middle of a meeting or in transit when travelling.

I've experimented quite a bit with what I tweet about. At some point I jotted down a few blogging principles (in Estonian here) and Twitter was initially a channel for the leftovers that didn't fit in, e.g. short messages about me, my location, my random inner thoughts - rather than something specifically designed for the reader. As my followers count has grown (getting very close to the number of RSS subscribers on this blog - interesting tipping point soon; now ranking in the top 2 of #Estonian users - hi, Cyrus), I've knowingly pulled back from more egocentric and personal stuff and craft my short messages for a broader, more anonymous audience. To a notable extent I'm also taking feedback from those near and dear to me about which content they feel could be uncomfortable or too revealing.

Either way, Twitter is a concept-stretching medium and part of the beauty of it is that though we more or less know what is the "old" stuff that it is changing we can have no clue yet to what, in which direction. Even better, it is still up to us as the users to define it - both when consuming microcontent (whom we follow, how we filter, what we re-share) and when creating it (just linking or creating new? talking about yourself or the readers? social realism or philosophical abstractionism?).

Anyway, what sparked this post was actually a funny incident today. Apple App Store opened up for Estonian users today. As we launched the Skype client for iPhone this week and it has skyrocketed to a million downloads in less than 48 hours, we are all of course very closely following this space right now. So, when I learned about Apple's Estonian expansion this morning, I of course tweeted it (at 10:58) as something my followers could care about. At 11:46 Eesti Päevaleht, one of the largest Estonian dailies, ran a news story, quoting my tweet as the original source. They had a comment from EMT (the local iPhone-exclusive mobile operator), who apologized that they still haven't heard about it from Apple and don't know what to say.

From one side I even feel a bit sorry for my friends at EMT for stealing the thunder from their official press if and when they were planning to run it. On the other hand - it is a great example of casual, yet targeted real-time content bending the borders between "mainstream" and social media.

Skype May Be The Biggest Winner From The Web 2.0 Era - ReadWriteWeb [del.icio.us]

stent — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:36:31 PDT

Skype does not get the respect it deserves, because eBay not only publicly admitted to overpaying for it but is making a mess of its core business. Another reason may be that Skype flies in the face of conventional Valley wisdom that says it has to be all about social media. Or maybe the fact that Skype came from Europe, and we all know that Europeans are just lunch-eating dilettantes. Whatever the reason, a company that has $500 million in revenue, is profitable and growing, and has a shot at becoming the largest player in what is now a $2 trillion (yes, "t" for trillion) market, should get more respect.

Phishing Scammer tries it on with CEO of an Anti-phishing software [del.icio.us]

stent — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:55:30 PDT

Quite funny chat transcript between a guy attempting the "nigerian money laundry" scam and his targeted victim who is smart enough not to go along. For some reason the scammer talks openly about what he is doing.

Beard Typography [del.icio.us]

stent — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:26:53 PDT

Probably one of the most creative typefaces I've ever seen.

Sentenc.es - A Disciplined Way To Deal With Email [del.icio.us]

stent — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:53:22 PDT

The Problem: E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it. The Solution: Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

On Skype and European Innovation at Stanford

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:40:30 +0200

I had an honor to speak at Stanford University on March 9th, as part of their European Entrepreneurship & Innovation Thought Leaders seminar series (see web site and Facebook group). I truly enjoyed the experience, meeting students, faculty and guests and joining a dinner in a smaller circle later for fascinating follow-up conversations around entrepreneurship.

(Photo courtesy of Steve Jürvetson, click on it for his notes from the audience)

Here are the slides I used:

The Story of Skype (Stanford 2009)

View more presentations from seikatsu.

As you might notice, my slides were just a light framework this time and most of content was oral and followed by interactive discussion. Unfortunately it is slightly more complicated with video this time. Please follow the instructions here, but beware that you need to create an account with the Stanford SCPD site (which you will hopefully find useful for accessing any other free seminars content they offer) and the videos are served using Silverlight, which may or may not be compatible with your choice of operating system or browsers, like Chrome.

Estonia's e-President hails the Skype effect [del.icio.us]

stent — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:39:13 PDT

The Earth Times: With a population of just 1.3 million, Estonia may be a geopolitical minnow, but in cyberspace it verges on superpower status. The latest example of the tiny Baltic state's obsession with all things online came Thursday when the country's president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, took part in what was described as an online "Chautauqua" - a temporary assembly with an educational aim. The event centred on a debate about innovation with Skype CEO Josh Silverman.

Scenes from the recession - The Big Picture [del.icio.us]

stent — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:03:10 PDT

It can be difficult to capture financial pressures in photographs, but here a few recent glimpses into some of the places and lives affected by what some are calling the "Great Recession".

Soov Vabariigi aastapäevaks

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:28:23 +0200

Andres Maimik mõtleb ja sõnastab, seekord Areenis "Seinte vahel" filmi arvustades:

Mind häirib tõsiselt, et rahvuslased on monopoliseerinud patrioodi mõiste. Eesti õpetaja, kes annab sisserännanutele eesti keelt ja kultuuri ning teeb seda sisyphosliku kannatlikkuse ning empaatiaga, omab mitu korda rohkem isamaa-armastust kui ennast eesti patrioodiks nimetav mehepoeg, kes päevade kaupa lõmpsutab internetis lõugu teemal, kuidas on tema inimõiguseks teise nahapigmendiga rahvaste kohta välja öelda seda, mida ta neist arvab.

Eesti Vabariigi 91. aastapäeval soovin, et selle riigi patrioodid käiksid ringi avatud silmade ja südamega. Looksid tulevikku suunatud uut väärtust, selmet üksnes ajaloost enese olemise õigustust otsida. Suudaksid ka kaaskodanikke veenda, et riik, mille jaoks kõik mitte-kohalik on võõras, ohtlik ja vale, ei kesta. Ei kesta, sest ta muutub muu maailma jaoks tasahilju irrelevantseks ja ei suuda ka omaenda tegelike patriootidega sammu pidada.

Riigid on kujuteldavad, neid ei eksisteeri objektiivses maailmas - nagu Daniel hiljaaegu kirjutas, lugege palun tema kogu ettekannet. Riigipüha puhul.

Presidendid omavahel

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:19:15 +0200

Täna hõigati maha uudis, et kuu aja pärast, 19. märtsil, toimub Tallinnas Tehnopolis Presidendi Kärajate egiidi all avalik vestlus Eesti Vabariigi presidendi Toomas Hendrik Ilvese ja Skype'i presidendi ja juhatuse esimehe Josh Silvermani vahel.

Räägitakse muidugimõista innovatsioonijuttu.

Kiirematele võib õnnestuda veel leida paar kutset, palun andke märku. Ja kuna kõik soovijad kardetavasti saali ei mahu, on plaanis teha üritusest ka videoülekanne internetis.

Interviewed by TigerPrises/ArcticStartup

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:04:18 +0200

Talked to Toivo Tänavsuu last week on what's happening at Skype, how is the labour market looking and how do we relate to the broader technology startup scene in Estonia. The video inteview was publised on TigerPrises and ArcticStartup.

Interview with Sten Tamkivi from Skype from Toivo Tänavsuu on Vimeo.

Migration Misery: Feedburner becomes Google

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:12:49 +0200

Google started this year with aggressively reviewing its product portfolio. A number of services were announced to be shut down recently. That's fine, times are tough. And even if they were not - I still admire the decisiveness of any large product company to occasionally merge similar things and kill the ones that haven't gained traction. I've had to make a few of those decisions myself and they are never easy.

So when logging in to FeedBurner a week ago they proposed they merge my feeds into my Google account, it really wasn't a surprise. After all FeedBurner had been already acquired by Google last June and something had to happen some day.

These sort of transitions are bound to introduce glitches, too. So I didn't feel like bitching at once, but give it some time. Now, a week after the transition this is becoming a textbook example of how not to merge products if you are not ready.

This is what I as a long time user am struggling with still today, 7 days after:

I used to be a paid customer for premium stats services of FeedBurner. It seems for the part they now killed because of the overlap with Google Analytics - makes sense. However, nowhere in the process have I learned what happened to my credit relationship, will I continue to be charged or not. Not even a note in the lines of "thanks for your business, now we're free", if that is the case.
The RSS subscribers count for this blog, for example, fell from 271 to 128. It was supposed to "get adjusted in a week", which it has not. And guess what seems to be the issue - the RSS reader type that seems to have vanished from the stats is... Google Reader...
I have been splicing public bookmarks into my feed via del.icio.us. This does not work any more. When I go to feedburner.google.com settings, the configuration data is still there, but re-saving it displays an error message of "username stent doesn't exist on del.icio.us". Which is not true, of course.
Splicing photos from my Flickr feed does not work either, automatically that is. I get a one time effect of images import by going to settings and re-saving the Flickr configuration. But the next time I upload something to Flickr, no automatic feedburner splicing occurs.
I often peek at blog stats from my iPhone. iPhone does not support Flash. Thus FeedBurner used to be a well-suited alternative to full Google Analytics to understand how things are trending, which referrals actively generate traffic, etc. Now, not only is GA Flash-centric enough that you can't even select a report date without it (and I'm yet to see a decent iPhone app for this), they have moved the new FeedBurner to partial Flash too...
Even if it was a geeky and technical service, I've always loved FeedBurner's philosophy, brand and language they talk to me in. So I sort of feel I owe them some and have spent a few evening hours trying to get the above feedback back to them. No such luck, virtually responseless Google Feedburner help group is all there is.

Apologies to all subscribers who are missing content or - I really don't know - are seeing any other technical difficulties with this feed.

A few more seats at ArcticEvening

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:14:39 +0200

As Jüri announced last week, ArcticStartup.com's ArcticEvening event is coming to Tallinn next Wednesday, Jan 28th, at Von Krahl. In cooperation with OpenCoffee Tallinn and Connect Estonia.

As the initially planned 100 seats filled up really quickly, the organizers increased it to 150. And at the time I'm writing this, there are some 28 still left. So sign up now, if you missed from the first batch.

I will be there sitting in a panel with Allan and Taneli Tikka from RunToShop. Looking forward to the pitches from two Estonian and two Finnish startups.

China Is Larger Than Germany

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:24:06 +0200

"Well, duh", you might say, but actually until recently it was not. GDP-wise that is. Based on 2007 numbers, the top economies in the world were:

the US of A, $13.8 trillion
Japan, $4.38 trillion
China, $3.38 trillion
Germany, $3.32 trillion

Media coverage around this change has a lot of interesting facts, worth reading Bloomberg and Washington Post for example:

China's economy is 70 times bigger than when leader Deng Xiaoping ditched hard-line Communist policies in favor of free- market reforms in 1978.

China also has a big stake in the U.S. economy, holding $652.9 billion of U.S. Treasuries.

Since introducing free-market policies, China has lifted 300 million citizens out of poverty, according to the United Nations

Global interests spanning African oilfields and South American mines are encouraging China to add to its military might.

And speaking of the future. If both China and US were both to keep their average growth rates, it would take 18 years to change the top spot. However, in the ongoing recession the curves will start changing:

China is one of the few major economies that is on track to have positive GDP growth this year. Merrill Lynch calculates that China will have a GDP growth of 8 percent as compared with a 2.8 percent decline for the United States, a 1.3 percent decline for Japan and a 0.6 percent decline for the European Union.

Under these circumstances, we're rather talking about a decade?

If you are interested in this power play, I recommend reading the ChinAfrica post from last summer. Or even just see the foreign exchange reserves graph from there.

Green Cars and Economic Stimuli

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:38:04 +0200

Heard on the morning news that the German $66B economic stimulus package passed today also includes a measure to encourage people replace their cars. It is sort of understandable as a short term measure, as their economy is quite reliant on the infamous German car makers who, of course, are looking at a bleak 2009. Still if you think of, say, a few million germans rushing to buy new cars and dump their (probably well-running) existing ones -- doesn't sound that reasonable from long term environmental damage point of view.

I looked it up, and it comes out that...

Other measures include a 2,500 euro payment for drivers who buy a new low- emission car.

Now, depending on what "low emission" means in this case the measure could work either way - for German manufacturers or for the environment. For some reason I doubt that these two goals could be obviously achieved together, or at least perceptionally "green" and "german" are not the first semantic associations that pop into mind as a bundle when thinking about cars...

Toyota announced their new Prius yesterday. Looking slightly better (but not beautiful), adding a few interesting innovations (such as solar-paneled moonroof that generates power for the ventilation on hot days) and less than 5l/100km (50mpg) fuel consumption it is a worthy upgrade to what has already been a great if somewhat quirky car till now.

Toyota basically owns the hybrid car market, claiming 91% market share in Europe in 2006. So putting one and one together - to what extent will the German government be supporting the Japanese economy instead of their own with their new car purchase support measure?

Blogimispõhimõtted

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:11:33 +0200

Villu küsis mult sama küsimuse, mis Telleriltki (ja ilmselt mitte ainult):

[15:44:41] Villu Arak: Räägin lähiajal korporatiivblogimise vallas ringikompavatele inimestele blogimise rõõmudest. Tahaks pisut tsiteerida tarku inimesi oma jutu kõrvale - olgu siis nimeliselt või anonüümselt. Kuna sa oled aktiivne blogiserverite bittidega täitja, mõtsin uurida, millised on nt. sinu 3 tipmist blogimisräkitiga seotud põhimõtet või käsku, mida sa ise kirjutades teadlikult või alateadlikult järgid.

Esimese hooga tulid sellised mõtted:

Internetist ei saa midagi kustutada.
Blogis ei saa öelda midagi, mida ei oleks valmis ka Päevalehe või New York Timesi esikaanel ütlema.
Anonüümsust ei ole tegelikult olemas, seetõttu teen elu lihtsamaks ja kirjutangi oma nime all.

Ja siis on veel üks fundamentaalne teema, mida kirjutades teadvustan, aga ei oska päris nii kompaktse reeglinimekirjana sõnastada. Blogisid on põhimõtteliselt kahte sorti: need mis räägivad kirjutajast ja need, mis lugejatest. Minu jaoks on see teine zhanr olulisem, kuidagi mõjutada ümbritsevat maailma, ühiskonda. Jagada kogemusi ja ideid või diskuteerida teiste omade üle. Panna lugejaid nende endi elule teisiti vaatama, õnnelikumal juhul ka seda kuidagi paremaks või lihtsamaks muutes. Seega, kui ma siin blogis ka kirjutan endast, siis ainult sellise nurga alt, millest teise eesmärgi jaoks mingit kasu võiks olla. "Sügasin kassi. Siis käsin poes. Tõnu helistas ka. Õlu oli soe." ei kvalifitseeru. Mõni veider mobiilne olustikupilt argielust ehk küll, aga need kolisin flickr'isse ära.