I was recently contacted by a computer scientist, Sergey Bulanov, who has been working quietly for 20 years on a new approach to artificial intelligence. It’s a pretty interesting and novel approach, and I would like to see what others think about it.… Read More “A New Approach to Artificial Intelligence: Non-Computational AI”
Author Archives: Nova
How I Got Into College (by Doing the Opposite of What I Should Have Done). An Essay.
Today I had an interesting phone call with an alumnus of my alma mater, Oberlin College. He called me for an informational interview, asking for some career advice. It was a good conversation. At one point, on a tangent, he asked me why I went to Oberlin?… Read More “How I Got Into College (by Doing the Opposite of What I Should Have Done). An Essay.”
I Get 13,000 Messages/Day via Different Streams – Here’s the Analysis
Continuing with the theme I’ve been writing about lately, focused on the growth of the next phase of the Web, what I call “The Stream,” I’ve started to analyze the messages I get on a typical day.
First of all, through all the different channels I use, I now receive approximately 13,000 messages a day.… Read More “I Get 13,000 Messages/Day via Different Streams – Here’s the Analysis”
Keeping Up With the Stream — New Problems and Solutions
This is Part III of a series of articles on the new era of the Stream, a new phase of the Web.
In Part I, The Message is the Medium, I explored the shift in focus on the Web from documents to messages.… Read More “Keeping Up With the Stream — New Problems and Solutions”
Drowning in the Stream — New Challenges for a New Web
This is Part II of a three-part series of articles on how the Stream is changing the Web.
In Part I of this series, The Message is the Medium, I wrote about some of the shifts that are taking place as the center of online attention shifts from documents to messages.… Read More “Drowning in the Stream — New Challenges for a New Web”
The Message is the Medium – Attention is Shifting from the Web to the Stream
Shift Happens
A major shift has taken place on the Web. Web pages and Web search are no longer the center of online activity and attention. Instead, the new center of attention is messaging and streams. We have moved from the era of the Web to the era of the Stream.… Read More “The Message is the Medium – Attention is Shifting from the Web to the Stream”
Consciousness is Not a Computation
In the previous article in this series, Is The Universe a Computer? New Evidence Emerges I wrote about some new evidence that appears to suggest that the universe may be like a computer, or least that it contains computer codes of a sort.… Read More “Consciousness is Not a Computation”
Is the Universe a Computer? New Evidence Emerges.
I haven’t posted in a while, but this is blog-worthy material. I’ve recently become familiar with the thinking of University of Maryland physicist, James Gates Jr. Dr. Gates is working on a branch of physics called supersymmetry. In the process of his work he’s discovered the presence of what appear to resemble a form of computer code, called error correcting codes, embedded within, or resulting from, the equations of supersymmetry that describe fundamental particles.… Read More “Is the Universe a Computer? New Evidence Emerges.”
Bottlenose Beta 2.0 Launched Today!
Bottlenose Beta 2.0 launched today, and it’s pretty innovative.
Three good articles came out covering it:
ReadWriteWeb – Bottlenose is a 6th Sense for the Social Web
SemanticWeb.com – Bottlenose Beta Two Features New Layout, Visuals
TechCrunch – Bottlenose 2.0: Taming the “Share-pocalypse”
Also Robert Scoble blogged about it on Google+ here.… Read More “Bottlenose Beta 2.0 Launched Today!”
Live Matrix Acquired by OVGuide
I’m really pleased to announce that a startup I helped co-found, Live Matrix, has been acquired by OVGuide, a leading video portal.
TechCrunch covered the deal here.
The new combined company is a unique powerhouse in the online video space – covering the entire life cycle of online videos from when they are upcoming, to when they go live, to when they are on-demand.… Read More “Live Matrix Acquired by OVGuide”
StreamGlider Launches Today!
Today I’m happy to announce the launch of StreamGlider, a new tablet app (initially on iPad) that provides the first live streaming dashboard for keeping up with your interests.
TechCrunch just broke the story.
The inspiration for StreamGlider was a product that launched in the early 1990’s called Pointcast.… Read More “StreamGlider Launches Today!”
The Problem with Stream 3.0
After my former project, Twine.com, was sold, I began to turn my attention to the Next Big Challenge: How to make sense of the growing real-time Web, or what many call, “the Stream.”
I could see the writing on the wall, and it was less than 140 characters: Social media’s own success was going to be its biggest challenge.… Read More “The Problem with Stream 3.0”
Bottlenose has Launched!
Today, after almost two years of work in stealth, I am proud to announce the launch of Bottlenose.
While I have co-founded and serve on the boards of several other ventures (The Daily Dot, Live Matrix, StreamGlider, and others), Bottlenose is different from all my other projects in that I am also in a full-time day-to-day role as the CEO.… Read More “Bottlenose has Launched!”
Announcing Common Crawl
Several years ago my friend Gil Elbaz (CEO of Factual; forefather of Google AdWords) approached me with an ambitious vision – he wanted to create an open not-for-profit crawl of the Web to ensure that everyone would have equal access to a Web-scale search index to build on and experiment with.… Read More “Announcing Common Crawl”
Creator of Delicious Wants to Meet Your Needs With Jig
Joshua Schachter, the creator of Delicious, has launched his newest creation, Jig.
At first glance the site seems a bit like Twitter, but it has a different focus. Instead of posting about what you are doing, you post about what you need.… Read More “Creator of Delicious Wants to Meet Your Needs With Jig”
Check out the new visualization widget on my sidebar
The team at Icosystem invited me to try out their new Infomous cloud widget. You can see it on the top of the right column of this blog. It visualizes the concept graph in my blog posts. It has some cool features – click on any topic and explore the related posts.… Read More “Check out the new visualization widget on my sidebar”
The Daily Dot – Our Newest Venture Production – Launches Today!
Today I’m pleased to announce that, The Daily Dot, our newest “venture production,” has launched into public beta.
The Daily Dot is the first of its kind – it’s the Web’s newspaper — the first community newspaper about the Web.… Read More “The Daily Dot – Our Newest Venture Production – Launches Today!”
The Future of Facebook
I was interviewed in a number of video segments for a project called The Future of Facebook, part of the Open Foresight initiative by Venessa Miemis and Alvis Brigis. One of the videos was just on CNN. You can see my other segments on my Videos page.… Read More “The Future of Facebook”
Sharepocalypse Now
The social media landscape is changing quickly, but this change won’t be immediate, or for that matter, efficient. And that’s going to be a big problem for all of us.
I believe that Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn are fundamentally different, and thus, should not be in competition.… Read More “Sharepocalypse Now”
The New Social Media Landscape: A Roadmap
It may look like Google+ is competing with Facebook and Twitter, but I don’t think that is what will happen in the end. I think Google+ is a very different kind of service and it’s not clear that it can or will, or should, replace these other services.… Read More “The New Social Media Landscape: A Roadmap”
Why Google+ Is Really For Sharing Knowledge, Not Social Networking
Everyone, including possibly even the Google+ team, is currently thinking that Google+ is a Twitter and Facebook competitor. But I think in fact, Google+ is for something entirely different.
Google+ is not really for socializing; it’s for sharing knowledge. That’s what makes it different from other social networks.… Read More “Why Google+ Is Really For Sharing Knowledge, Not Social Networking”
Should Facebook be Worried About Google+?
In previous articles, I’ve written about how Google+ can build a developer ecosystem on Chrome that is different from Twitter’s ecosystem, and how Twitter must change to survive against that. It’s clear that Google+ and Twitter are very different animals.
Now what about Facebook?… Read More “Should Facebook be Worried About Google+?”
Why Twitter’s API Strategy Must Change in a Google+ and Facebook World
As a result of the emergence of Google+, Twitter could soon find itself in a tough spot. A large chunk of their core developer base might migrate to Google+ because there is simply more opportunity there.
Why? Well for starters, it’s really easy to crank out Chrome extensions and you can market and sell them instantly in the Chrome Web Store to a ginormous captive audience that is many multiples of the size of Twitter’s user-base.… Read More “Why Twitter’s API Strategy Must Change in a Google+ and Facebook World”
The Google+ Developer Ecosystem Will Be Different from Twitter
Google+ has seen some good initial uptake from early-adopters in its first few weeks. But how will it leverage developers and partners?
In order to really build value around Google+, of course Google will integrate it with their other products, including Search, Gmail, and more.… Read More “The Google+ Developer Ecosystem Will Be Different from Twitter”
My Best Interview: About Global Brain, Consciousness and AI
I was recently interviewed by Stephen Ibaraki and Alex Lin (CEO of ChinaValue) in what turned out to be the most interesting, far-reaching, and multi-disciplinary (and long) interview I’ve ever given. I was very pleased with the depth of their questions and the topics we covered.… Read More “My Best Interview: About Global Brain, Consciousness and AI”
[Excerpt From My TechCrunch post] Why Twitter Should Adopt a Freemium API Model Immediately
TechCrunch kindly ran my most recent article today — the full version is available here.
Here is an excerpt:
I’ve been puzzling over Twitter’s recent tactical moves around their API, Ubermedia and Tweetdeck, for a few months now, and it just doesn’t add up.… Read More “[Excerpt From My TechCrunch post] Why Twitter Should Adopt a Freemium API Model Immediately”
The e-G8 Summit, Unveiled
I was recently honored to be invited by President Sarkozy of France to participate in the e-G8 Summit — a new and potentially useful summit of global Internet leaders, right before this year’s G8 Summit in Paris.
This event will bring together Internet leaders and political leaders, for two days of discussions about the Internet.… Read More “The e-G8 Summit, Unveiled”
Bottlenose Begins to Unstealth
It’s been a busy week for the team at bottlenose one of my coolest venture productions.
Bottleno.se has developed a very powerful new personalization system that is optimized for making sense of Twitter and other real-time information streams. The product is in alpha and invite beta is planned for June.… Read More “Bottlenose Begins to Unstealth”
Announcing my newest production, The Daily Dot
I’m pleased to announce that my newest venture production is beginning to unstealth. It’s called The Daily Dot and it promises to be “the hometown newspaper of the Web ” — the community newspaper for Web.
The story of The Daily Dot began several years ago when I was thinking about where the Web was headed.… Read More “Announcing my newest production, The Daily Dot”
What I’ve Been Up To: The Venture Production Studio Model
UPDATE NOTE: June 8, 2017:
The original post below was written in 2011. In that article I discussed the concept of venture production studios as a model — what are now being called “startup studios.”
I actively produced nearly a dozen ventures starting in 2011, using my venture studio model.… Read More “What I’ve Been Up To: The Venture Production Studio Model”