The Great Seduction

Keen On... Chris Painter: Does the Internet Need More Global Regulation?

2011-09-02T16:03:19-07:00

Andrew Keen interviews leading opinion makers from the worlds of technology, media and policy.

Keen On... Robert McDowel

2011-09-02T16:02:18-07:00

Andrew Keen interviews leading opinion makers from the worlds of technology, media and policy.

Keen On... Kyle Dixon: Cord-Cutting Is An Illusion

2011-09-02T16:01:21-07:00

Andrew Keen interviews leading opinion makers from the worlds of technology, media and policy.

Keen On... Krish Prabhu: This is Not Your Grandfather's AT&T

2011-09-02T15:59:42-07:00

Andrew Keen interviews leading opinion makers from the worlds of technology, media and policy.

Keen On... Victor Agreda: It Will Be Difficult for Tim Cook to Screw Up Apple

2011-09-02T15:54:28-07:00

Andrew Keen interviews leading opinion makers from the worlds of technology, media and policy.

Keen On: Why Google Is Now A Social Company

2011-07-23T08:49:17-07:00

It was a first. Yesterday, we were fortunate to welcome Google’s two principle architects of Google+, Vic Gundotra (VP Social) and Bradley Horowitz (VP Product), to the TechcrunchTV studio in San Francisco for an extended interview about what they call their “project”.

So what is Google+? As Gundotra told me yesterday, it is an attempt to “understand people” and to make human relationships the heart of the Google experience. Both Horowitz and Gundotra acknowledge that this is a major project, something that may, in the future, redefine the company. This unGoogle-like goal to,as Horowitz said, put “people first”, may well, in the long run, transform Google from a algorithmic company to a social one.

Gundotra and Horowitz believe that today’s social web has only scratched the service of how to make the Internet into a truly human experience. Google+ is their attempt to transform Google into the leading player of the social age. It’s a massively important project, one that will define the company’s significance in the Web 3.0 age.

Thanks to our readers for sending in so many questions. Many questions came in asking when Google+ was going to add a certain feature. But, to each of these questions, the oracular Horowitz and Gundotra would only say “in the future.” That question and non-answer, therefore, was going to get old pretty quick and I thus mostly avoided this kind of (non)conversation. Many comments were also very specific questions about functionality which weren’t really appropriate for this kind of broad interview. That said, the Google team were happy to hear all the comments and are reviewing the feedback we generated.

TechCrunch.tv

Keen On… A Super Sad True Love Story

2011-07-23T08:44:40-07:00

America’s most talented writers are discovering the electronic network. In “Super Sad True Love Story,” Gary Shteyngart’s best selling trip into the digital future, Shteyngart invents a darkly disturbing world in which we all wear electronic pendants around our necks called “apparats” which reveal everything about us to everybody. In the future, he tells us, privacy will be dead and our blazingly public lives will be broadcast by transparent ranking networks (think Klout and Peer Index on steroids).

But, as Shteyngart told me when I caught up with him yesterday, the real challenge for today’s writer is that the future has already arrived. “You can’t make this stuff up”, he told me, while explaining that the present no long exists and that his most fantastic literary inventions such as entirely transparent onion-skin jeans (which reveal all our most intimate jewels) are more than simply figments of his sparkling imagination.

TechCrunch.tv

Keen On… Don’t Steal This Book

2011-07-23T08:40:20-07:00

“Steal this book,” wrote Abbie Hoffman in 1970. So, today, why should we pay for our books – especially in a digital age where intellectual theft is both ubiquitous and pretty much risk free?

According to Gary Shteyngart, the best-selling author of novels like “Super Sad True Love Story” and “Absurdistan,” paying for his books means that he doesn’t have to work at a gas station or a car dealership. When we pay for one of his books, Shteyngart explained when we spoke earlier this week, it “allows me to produce more work.” Buying a book, he insists, represents an investment in creativity.

And creativity – real creativity – may be at a premium today – at least according to Shteyngart. As he argues, the Internet may be killing our eccentricity and transforming all of us into 140-character conformists. Thus, in today’s networked age, he says, there is an acute need for writers who can grab our attention and drag us away from broadcasting our boring selves on Facebook and Twitter.

TechCrunch.tv

Why a Squirrel Dying on Your Front Lawn Isn’t More Important Than Somebody Starving in Africa

2011-06-21T08:26:19-07:00

The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You, Eli Pariser’s New York Times best-selling new book, has been applauded by net skeptics like Jaron Lanier and Evgeny Morozov as well as digital optimists like Clay Shirky and Craig Newmark. It’s an important book which argues that leading websites like Google and Facebook are delivering personalized information to us, thereby shielding Internet users from the broad news and ideas that traditional newspapers delivered to us.

Pariser, who is the President of the Board of MoveOn.org is concerned that the Internet isn’t living up to its original promise. And the Filter Bubble is a passionate polemic against Facebook and Google algorithms that simply serves up information that it believes the user wants to see. For Pariser, this is creating a less and less well informed public and compounding the ghettoization of contemporary intellectual and political life.

This is the first part of a two part interview with Pariser. Check in tomorrow to hear whether Pariser believes that progressives have lost faith in the Internet.

TechCrunch.Tv

Peter Stern: How Cable TV Can Win Back Our Trust

2011-06-21T08:22:39-07:00

As the Chief Strategy Officer at Time Warner Cable, Peter Stern is responsible for planning the long term future of America’s second largest cable company. Much of his job involves rebuilding both the appearance and reality of the cable industry in a 21st century world of ubiquitous online video and revolutionary consumption devices like the iPad.

Stern is at his most provocative in his acknowledgement that cable needs to rebuild trust with its customers. In our interview last week, he spoke about Time Warner Cable’s commitment to providing their customers with what he calls the “4 anys”: being able to watch any video content, anytime, on any device, anywhere. Most importantly, he stressed that a traditional cable provider like Time Warner Cable needed to change from selling products to providing their customers with great experiences such as his company’s new personal solutions agents.

This is the second part of a two part interview with Peter Stern. Check out yesterday’s interview, in which Stern explains why cable has a future and why it is the least expensive form of legal entertainment.

TechCrunch.tv