I've made the move

Go to jimbursch.com for my latest and greatest.

Or http://jimbursch.typepad.com/

And furthermore, Mr. Blogger.com

Don't tell me, "You get what you pay for," because if you do, I'm stomping right over to Typepad and I'm throwing down my credit card for a full year.

No matter what your business model is (God only knows), you need satisfied customers for it to work.

By the way, you're working just fine right now. It seems early afternoon is yack time over there.

When does Blogger.com suck?

It seems to be certain times of day when Blogger.com yacks.

If I only knew when that was -- then I could schedule my brilliance accordingly.

I'm looking longingly at the green grass on Typepad's side of the fence. But is it an illusion? Is it worth the time and effort to make change? What if this is just a bad week for the server administrators at Blogger.com/Google?

Election debrief

My response to this blog "On Totally Losing Perspective":

"Right on."

Campaign rhetoric is necessarily exaggerated to make a point and contrast with the other guy. You're not supposed to believe it; you're just supposed to get the point, then discard the rhetoric.

Campaigns are trying to get your vote. Period. They are not trying to tell the "truth." It would be nice if they did, but they don't.

Now that the election is over, it's time to stop the campaign rhetoric and make an honest attempt at getting at the truth of matters.

Bush is not Hitler. Fundamentalist Christians are not the Taliban. Carl Rove is not Satan.

The question Democrats need to ask is, why do so many people vote Republican? If you answer that question with "because they are dumb," then plan on remaining a minority party and stop whining when you lose.

The problem Kerry had is that he got pulled left to keep his base in tact. He had to go further left of center for his base than Bush had to go further right of center to secure his base.

Essentially, Kerry was pulled off balance by Howard Dean. Kerry was forced into the untenable position of being for and against the war in Iraq. In his attempt to satisfy the party faithful with his nuanced position on the war, he ultimately came across just the way Bush campaign painted him -- indecisive at worst, disingenuous at best.

The Democrats were screwed by the left end of their party, who threaten to go with Nader or nobody if they are not satisfied. Kerry would have won if he unabashedly stood by and defended his vote for the war and told the left to take it or leave it. Americans would have respected that and voted for him.

Americans want a president who will not hesitate to pull the trigger in a gunfight. That's what Bush did in Afganistan, and that's what Bush did in Iraq, although Iraq just had a toy gun that looked real.

Personally, I believed Kerry wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger in a gunfight, and his aim would be true. That's why I voted for him. But my belief didn't come from the campaign; it came from reading the book "Tour of Duty : John Kerry and the Vietnam War" by John Brinkley.

On domestic policy, Kerry lost due to mind-numbing wonkishism. Here are two rules that Kerry broke:

1. Never tell people to go to your Web site for the details of your plan. They won't, and they will think you're a nut for writing a plan before you're even elected. Just tell the people what you are planning to do.

2. Round to the nearest billion. Were electing a president, not an accountant. The numbers after the decimal point don't matter in a presidential debate.

Here's a third rule:

3. Every time the words million, billion, or trillion are used in the presidential campaign, EVERY taxpayer in the country winces. It's like a little electric shock. It doesn't matter if you're talking about something good or bad; you could be talking about the X trillion dollar surplus, the taxpayer will still wince. Then classic conditioning kicks in, and the voters associate pain with the candidate who uses those words the most.

Bush had an advantage because he could barely pronounce those words. Kerry, on the other hand, used those words with elan. It was like he was dancing on the button that administers the electric shock. By the time voters got to the booth, they were like fried monkeys who just wanted the shocks to stop.

Blogger.com bordering on suckdom

I'm this close to switching to Typepad. Seems like every other time I go to post to my blog, the Blogger.com servers are yacking.

C'mon folks, with all those Google bucks you should be able to deliver a whoop-ass service.

"...human yacht"

This got a chuckle out of me:

"Kerry vs. Bush was a contest between two rich guys, one of whom has always done a great job of faking an aw-shucks background. The other came off as a human yacht."

From Doc Searls.

Fertile path

The network is always stronger than a node

Art of blogging

Network effects

Let reconciliation begin

As a Kerry voter, I think it's time to unite with all Americans in making our government the best that it can be.

Collectively we create our democratic institutions, including the presidency, regardless who holds the office. Our honest efforts make a difference, even when things don't turn out as we would have liked them.

Passing it along

The latest edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists found here.

What's to come

Ready for the 5th Estate?

Nice piece on what's up with blogging.

More wacky rationalism

Here's a gem on a restaurant in London that doesn't charge for meals -- strictly tipping: The proverbial free lunch?

RSS explained

Here's a plain English explanation of RSS:
What is RSS?

Now that I'm an addict, I may as well become a pusher.

Everone should use an RSS reader. I use Bloglines.

Hug a libertarian and a tree

Here's a well expressed libertarian take on environmentalism: Libertarianism, the Environment, and Kyoto: Part 1

I can probably be best described as a Libercrat (Libertarian Democrat). A good friend of mine is a Republitarian (Republican Libertarian), which is probably more common.

I think what determines which shade of Libertarian you are depends on which wacko end of the political spectrum you can tolerate. Right wing wackos, particularly the Christian evangelists, really disturb me, whereas I find left wing commie pinkos rather quaint.

Google heresy

Russell Beattie posts "On Cancelling My Google Interview"

We got hooked on Google for two reasons:

1. They gave us good search results
2. They gave us clean search results

Two reasons we will get unhooked from Google:

1. Others are figuring out how to give good (better?) search results.
2. Google must muddy search results with ads for revenue.

Consumers DEMAND clean media. Advertiser-supported media is dirty media.

Consumers are arming themselves with more and more powerfull solvents to clean their media (Tivo, satelite radio, Napster, etc.)

What's desperately needed is a clean media business model.

Too cool video

This is too cool. Must learn more.

Crash Ballet

One link leads to another, check this out.

I am an incrementalist

I have a habit of doing things just short of complete completion.

I say "complete completion" because as far as I'm concerned, when I'm done, it's complete. Others (such as my wife) may disagree.

For example, when unloading the dishwasher and putting away clean dishes, I always leave one dish on the counter, just above where it's supposed to go. My wife says I didn't finish the job. Of course she's right, but as far as I am concerned, I finished the job to my satisfaction.

The deep psychological quirk that causes me to do this is the need to always have options. By definition, you can never revisit something that is complete. An artist who completes a painting can never go back and change it. If she does, then the painting wasn't complete.

Don't ask me why I need to keep my options open with regard to clean dishes. That's why it's a quirk.

I am an incrementalist married to a completionist.

There's a saying that I identify with: Why plan when you can react?

Before we leave on a trip, my wife leaves detailed instructions for the house sitter covering every contingency. If it were up to me, I'd just give the house sitter $100 and a phone number to reach us.

If we were going to war, my wife would bring a sniper rifle, I would bring hand grenades.

My wife does perfect trajectory, I do course correction.

We make a good team and a happy marriage.

Patrimonious crap

"You have to remember that as an employee, you don't have total free speech anymore," says Jeffrey Matsuura, director of the law and technology programme at the University of Dayton.

This from "Blogger grounded by her airline" at BBC online.

Here's another along the same line: "Death of a Voice - 4th Floor Quits Watching City Hall ."

I'm thinking it might be useful to start collecting stories like these.

Anyone know of any organized effort to protect blogger speech from unjust retribution?

I think the only just retribution for public speech is more public speech. Words should be fought with words, not suspensions, or firing, or worse.

I am by no means advocating slander or the misuse of company assets, including trademarks, but the company assets do not include an employee's thoughts, experiences and their expression publicly.


UPDATE: Other blogs on this topic

• The sky is not the limit
• Another Blogger Fired
• Queen of Sky, grounded for blogging

Quinset blog moved

I orgininally started this blog to chronicle the trials and tribulations of taking an idea and trying to turn in into a business (Quinset).

As you can see below, I've since gotten way off track.

So I've created a new blog for the Quinset stuff, and this blog will continue as my personal, mixed up blog.

The new blog is called the Quinset Advisory Board.

You know it's time to move on when ...

You know it's time to move on when you feel righteous indignation at being interrupted while writing your personal blog ... at work.

Crack House Diaries

Here's another installment from the 'hood. Rogan is getting downright poetical with his description of the sounds of South Central.

Thanks to LAVoice.org for bringing this to us.

Ain't she perty?

Our candidates as we'd like to see them.

Aside from that, this is a very ... inventive ... blog.

Thar's gold in them thar hills

Here's a comment I made on a very important blog from John Battelle, "Meeker on Digital World: Blogs, Yahoo Are Winners".

The subject is an analyst's assessment of the business of blogging.

Key quote: "...Despite all the noise and random content in blogs, many bloggers have become sources for breaking news, fresh ideas, and expert commentary...."

Here's the text of my comment:

This is very good news for bloggers, but I'm not so sure it's good news for Yahoo! and cohorts.

Case in point, I switched from My.Yahoo to MyWay to escape the advertising on Yahoo!. Essentially, I moved (as a consumer) from the Yahoo business model to the Google business model.

My next step, with RSS and all the tools that are evolving, is to quit MyWay for an RSS constructed page. I won't need a Yahoo! or a MyWay to contruct the page for me. And it will be a page that has advertising that I want - not advertising that is foisted on me - if it has any advertising at all.

We shall see what business models emerge in the environment I envision, but I wouldn't bet on Yahoo! or MSN or Google.

I'm betting on Quinset.

The apathetic employee

I like the comment I made on Jeremy Wright's blog The 1 Year Letter

It's one of those sensitive topics that you don't always want your current employer to see.

Social biological evolution at work

Here's another crazy rational idea from Marginal Revolution: That social factors have a direct effect on biological processes.

The flip side is that we can have a direct effect on biological processes by manipulating social factors.

Doctor, you need to know that what's in the patient's head is also in the body, and vice versa.

Wacky quantom mechanics

Here's something that's WAY over my head, but will someday explain psychic phenomena to me. I mention it mainly for the benefit of my wife.

There's some crazy rational stuff at Marginal Revolution.

Crack House Diaries

Here's the latest installment from our intrepid cracker in South Central L.A.

Thanks to LAVoice.org for bringing this to us.

In this edition, our hero struggles to reconcile urban and rural gun values.

When does a pregnant woman become a Siamese twin?

Harper's Magazine has a great article that covers the legal/political fight over partial birth abortion.

It's the first article on the subject I've read that actually sheds light on the debate without blinding me with polemics from both sides.

Unfortunately, I can't find a useful link to the article online (old media can be very aggravating).

I came away from the article with the above question, "When does a pregnant woman become a Siamese twin?"

It seems like a way of exploring the ethical question without getting mired in the rhetoric of the political debate.

For example, imagine a Siamese twin where one of the twins is severely underdeveloped, but the other is fully developed and healthy, and to separate the twins means the underdeveloped twin will die, but the other twin will live a healthy life.

Someone who is pro-life will say the analogy doesn't apply; that the only correct analogy would be that the twins will always be separated, both alive and well, at the end of nine months.

Someone who is pro-choice will also say that the analogy doesn't apply, because an unborn child never has the same standing as a twin. Even if the disabled twin has only minor retardation, it is entirely up to the healthy twin to decide whether or not to separate.

For me (and I suspect most people), the analogy does apply.

Near birth, the unborn child and mother are like healthy Siamese twins, about to be successfully separated. At conception, the unborn child is more like a new skin growth (a mole, for example), and not like a Siamese twin. But as the fetus develops, it goes from undifferentiated cells to something recognizable as a growing person, but yet not. It eventually becomes the severely underdeveloped twin of my analogy, on its way to becoming a full-fledged twin.

The question is, when does a mole become a full-fledged twin, with equal standing as a twin?

That's what the partial birth abortion debate is all about, but it's being fought by people who do not accept my Siamese twin analogy, so no matter which side "wins," my question will remain unanswered. It almost doesn't matter who "wins." There will be no consensus and the debate will rage on. Politics divorced from problem resolution.

UPDATE:
The article is in the November issue of Harper's, titled "Gambling with Abortion: Why both sides think they have everything to lose" by Cynthia Gorney.

Carnival of the Capitalists

I'm proud to say that my Slacker Theory of Labor Productivity has made it into the latest Carnival of the Capitalists.

Blessed investor

This is just a place holder right now, but I want to explore my response to Paul Allen's Attention Entrepreneurs: Search for Angels, not VCs!.

I'm digging Paul's blog - there a lot of good stuff there.

Finally, a practical application for nanotech

"The NanoWater congress, which kicked off the Aquatech 2004 water-technology trade show, outlined how nanotechnology can create drinking water from contaminated water, salt water and all forms of waste water, including bong water..."

I love the word "bong." It's one of those words that cause an adolescent snicker whenever I see it, like "titular" or "flatulence" or "expurgate."

It reminds me of when John Ashcroft got a subdued chuckle from reporters at a press conference when he used the term "round tripping," with emphasis on "tripping." Ashcroft looked up from his prepared text and, like the square that he is, said "What?"

Thank you to Michael Bradbury at Wired for the nanotech update.

Blogger blues

What does it mean when that silly spinning exclamation mark appears to just be looping when it's supposed to be posting my latest brilliantly crafted blog?

Am I going to have to rewrite my blog if it fails to post? Will it spin forever? How long should I wait?

If I post this blog, written in a different window, will it cause problems for the post trying to publish in the other window?

It's been at least 5 minutes now and the damn thing is still spinning.

Will my rewritten post be as brilliant as the original post? Will humanity gain or lose from this mishap?

-----------
UPDATE: After spinning for about 10 minutes (probably less), an error message came up and gave me the option to try again. So I did, and it worked! Nothing was lost. We will never know if humanity would have benefited from a rewrite.

Gay, straight, bi, ... asexual?

Here's a group of folks I'd like to hear more from: the asexual.

If, indeed, they are as prevalent in the population as gays, I think they would have a lot to contribute to the sexual milieu, even though by definition, they don't.

CNN covered a study on asexuality, and there's a support Web site:

"The Asexual Visibility and Education Network is devoted to creating dialogue among and about the rapidly emerging group of individuals who identify as asexual. The site includes information for sexual, asexual and questioning people as well as an active community here in the forum. Sexual and questioning people are more than welcome to post!"

Tabloid business plan

This is a great idea: craft a business plan in the form of press releases.

"... make a list of all the press release headlines they hope to issue during the next two years."

As a former newspaper headline writer, that's something I can do, and have fun doing it. Imagine doing it in the form of tabloid headlines: "Elvis Underwrites Quinset First Round Funding" or "500 lb. Baby Joins Quinset Board."

Thanks to TJ's Weblog for passing this along.

Slacker theory of labor productivity

In the last ten years or so, we have seen huge strides in labor productivity, thanks in large measure to the deployment and networking of technology.

I believe that reported productivity still vastly understates the true rise productivity, evidenced by the "slacker" phenomenon.

Measures of productivity account for productivity gains accrued to employers, but do not take into account productivity gains that accrue to employees.

Let me illustrate my point.

Let's say Acme Widget, Inc. hires William E. Coyote to do 8 hours of work per day at a given salary. Acme Widget provides Mr. Coyote with a new computer and a fast Internet connection to do this work. Mr. Coyote, a skilled computer worker, is able to complete the 8-hour task in 6 hours, a 2-hour gain in productivity. But Mr. Coyote does not inform his employer of the 2-hour productivity gain. He only discloses a 1-hour gain in productivity.

The management of Acme Widget is delighted with the 1-hour gain in productivity, and give Mr. Coyote a glowing evaluation, but no increase in pay. The 1-hour gain in productivity helps Acme Widget's stock price go up, gets entered into the nation's economic statistics, and Alan Greenspan crows before Congress.

Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote is utilizing his unreported hour to maintain his blog, chat with friends, and write open source software that will eventually put Acme Widget out of business.

Slightly distasteful exposition

Here's a little something that reveals something 'bout me: Dispatch from the Westside

Itsy bitsy progress

People who have been closely following the development of Quinset (my imaginary friends) will notice a few little changes on the site.

I've been sick lately of looking at code in a text editor, so I've been playing with Photoshop.

Made a cool-looking "Q" logo. It would have been cooler, but the very cool version looked too much like the Salon logo -- it looked better than the Salon logo, but too similar for my comfort.

I also did a graphic rendering of the Quinset Ladder that doesn't look bad. It's better, but not great.

Right now I'm working on re-writing a few pages that will enable me to clean up the homepage.

Blog v. Blog

Here's a variation on Quinset that I'm developing that drops all pretense about promoting art:

Vlad and Judith

Among the chorus of voices in my head, there's one small voice way in the back. Let's call her Judith.

Judith is an artsy, North Beach type who is moody and always wears dark clothing in contrast to her colorless complexion.

She's the one who says art is not a sport, and it's a vile perversion to pit artists against each other in competition.

I counter with the argument that competition can be good for art, that it can propel art forward, reward innovation, skill, dedication, and hard work. And if done correctly, there need not be any "losers" in art competition - everyone can win. Some will win more than others, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Always sitting next to Judith is Vlad, and whenever Judith starts to sulk, Vlad chimes in.

Vlad is a self-identified neo-Marxist ingrate, whose real name is Barry, and he owns a used book store in Judith's neigborhood.

He likes to point out that in Quinset, it's the losers who are paying for the winners, and is yet another example of capitalist exploitation of of the proletariat.

After I point out that "neo-Marxist ingrate" is redundant, I try again to make the case that there are no "losers" in Quinset, and that the net experience of everyone participating is positive.

Then I toss out Schumpeter's creative destruction, noting that Quinset will not survive long enough to exploit anyone if I'm not right.

Since both Vlad and Judith are products of my imagination, they are convinced I'm right.

Look at me

I challenged the folks at Flickr/Ludicorp to steal my idea for Quinset, riffing off this quote:

"The Flickr folk succeed, essentially, by stealing damn near every single great idea that's floating around on the Internet."

It's just me crying out for attention.

Quinset needs an official partner in the photo blogging space, as well as the blog-provider space.

Relief in the asylum

Here are some words of encouragement when I think I've totally spun off into the unreality of my own mind: Fanaticism Is The Secret Weapon

Aspects of Quinset

Shhhh, the voices are whispering something...

It's becoming clear to me that there are two distinct aspects of Quinset: There's the Quinset Contest Format and the Quinset Contest Platform.

The features of the Quinset Contest Format are:

1. Contests entries are divided into sets of five (Quinsets).
2. Each Quinset is judged by three judges
3. The judges are paid for their work by a portion of the entry fees.
4. The judges are in turn judged and scored by contest entrants.
5. Quinsets are laddered, such that there are five levels with ascending entry fees and prizes.

The features of the Quinset Contest Platform are:
1. Contests are created by Producers.
2. Producers received a portion of the entry fees.
3. Anyone can produce a contest.
4. The platform is Web-centric and media-neutral, meaning contests can be text, audio or video as long as it's delivered in a Web page.

Another simple question needs an answer

Towards the end of my conversion with John at Drake Associates, he asked me a very simple question: What can Drake Associates do for you?

I didn't have an answer to that question.

Here's a tip: Know going into a meeting what you want coming out of the meeting.

Actually, I'm being a little hard on myself. I knew I didn't know what I wanted, but I got what I wanted. Make sense?

I came out of that conversation with information that has helped clarifiy my thinking, and when I have the next conversation or meeting, I will have more and better answers.

Process is progress.

Knowing and meeting expectations

I came across guidelines for submitting a business plan to a venture capital company called Ignition (catchy name).

The good news is they look for a 15-page business plan. The thought of writing a 20+ page document gives me hives. Funny how I don't freak out about writing 20+ pages of code, but a Word doc that big is nauseating.

The most useful information in the guidelines are the questions they want answered in the b-plan:

"What is your business? What problem do you solve? Who currently has the problem? How do you solve it? How big is the market potential? What is your distinct advantage? What industry and in which segments of the value chain does your business fit? What is your business model - primary source of revenue, primary distribution mechanism, primary competitors, lead partners and/or target partners? What are your financial projections - margins, volumes, etc.? What are the assumptions and sensitivities behind these projections? How much capital will you need to develop your offering and bring it to market? Who are the key members of your team, their backgrounds and references? In what stage of development are you (idea/investigation, early development, shipping product or service)? Why will you succeed? "

Toe in the water

I had a very nice conversation this morning with John Dmohowski of Drake Associates.

Drake is a consulting shop that I learned about because they host Carnival of the Capitalists.

This is the first conversation about Quinset I've had with someone in the biz dev field. John was very gracious and candid, and gave me a lot to think about to further develop Quinset.

The biggest question I couldn't answer was, how big is the market for online contests? Of course, there isn't a definitive answer to this question, but I need to work on a better answer than, "I have no idea" - preferably an answer that isn't totally lame and has some dollar value.

You'll probably see me struggling with this question in this blog for some time to come.

By the way, if you're in the market for business consulting, take a look at Drake Associates. I didn't feel hustled or patronized - just a straight conversation about business.

Ahh, validation. I'll take it

Here's an article that nails why I think Quinset has legs:

The Internet And the Death Of 80/20

What's in a name?

There were several considerations that went into the naming of Quinset.

First, it had to be a name for which the domain was available. Because this is an online venture, it's imperative that the Web site be easy to locate. The name and the domain had to be the same.

This requirement drives the second - I wanted a unique name. There are several features of Quinset that differentiate it from a run-of-the-mill online contest, and if I called it something like Econtest, it would elicit on its face some things I don't want elicited in the mind of the user. With a unique name, I have the opportunity to create something new in the mind of the user.

The number five plays a key role in the structure of Quinset, thus I arrived at the prefix for the name, quin-. This has the added benefit of the letter Q - a letter in the alphabet that I kind of like. There's a lot that can be done with the letter Q from a design standpoint.

Once I settled on Quin-, the next step was to find a root to complete the name. That was just a matter of trial and error, playing with different derivatives until I ended up with Quinset.

The last question I had to answer was, which syllable gets the accent? Is it Quin'-set (like Quin'-cy) or Quin-set' (like quin-tet'). I decided on the later - call me a word freak.

Genesis of Quinset

Sometime last April or May, during my daily trek from work to home, NPR broadcast a story about a group of poor musicians in Durban, South Africa who held a contest at the local YMCA gym. They collected a modest entry fee from contestants that covered expenses and prize money. The result was a lively musical event that attracted a large audience.

I thought it was a terrific idea - a system of rewards and cost-sharing that results in an attractive, valuable event. Quinset is my attempt create such a system online.

In the beginning of June, while on vacationing in Vancouver, B.C., I worked on the data structure behind Quinset. Once I figured out the basic data structure, the next step was to build the Web site.

At the time, there was a significant gap in my programming skills. I knew how to build a database, and I knew how to build a Web site, but I didn't know how to connect the two. With Quinset, I had a strong incentive to fill that gap.

There are several solutions to the data-driven Web site, but the one I arrived at was ASP.Net. I doubt that .Net is the best solution, but it was the solution that worked for me because of my prior experience with Microsoft products - specifically ASP and MS Access.

So in July and August I built a working prototype of Quinset. I call it a prototype, first because I don't have a lot of confidence in my ability to build anything other than a prototype, and second because I'm certain a Web site driven by MS Access is not scalable.

Stay tuned for my next installment on "Where did the name 'Quinset' come from?"

Blogger.com is yacking

My apologies. My blog host is coughing up a hairball. Hopefully they will fix this soon.

Update: seems to be working OK now.

Carnival of the Capitalists

This is as much a reminder to myself to explore the Carnival of the Capitalists.

Looks like a very interesting collection of articles, and it's recommended by The Entrepreneurial Mind .

Feedback on Quinset

Below is some very good feedback I got from someone at Ecademy:

"I had a quick look at your new service [Quinset].. I guess it could also be a product. Its a great idea. One bit of feedback if you don't mind. If I did not know what the site was about when I went to it I may not have known for a good few paragraphs.. If I was the average web visitor you had about 3 seconds to hold my attention. The best thing to do may be to ask the folks at the Web Crtique club here -- they are normally quite forthcoming with their feedback."

Network overload

Three days ago I didn't know of any business networking Web sites, now I know of four and have joined three.

Ryze.com
Ecademy.com
LinkedIn.com
Soflow.com

Ryze seemed to be saturated by multi-level marketing. Ecademy is feature-rich and looks good, but it looks like it's primarily based in the UK. It also has a motivational-speaker pungence that's a little bothersome. An online aquaintence invited me to join LinkedIn. I joined, but know nothing about it yet. Soflow was suggested to me by someone quitting Ecademy.

I'm sure all these sites have strengths and weaknesses. The question is which combination of strengths and weaknesses will work best for me.

The question I need to answer for myself is, what am I looking for? I know I need to network, but I need to get it clear exactly what is the objective of my networking. To answer that question requires thought, not yammering on a networking Web site.

Firefox on rise

Within the last week, I've heard three recommendations for Mozilla's Firefox Web browser.

These were three widely divergent sources - first I saw a recommendation on Omidyar.net, then an IT technician recommended Firefox to my wife at work, then this morning it came up in a story on NPR.

So today we're downloading it and will install it over the weekend.

This development raises some anxiety, recalling the pain caused by trying to build Web pages that rendered correctly on Netscape and IE.

Let's hope this Firefox development doesn't turn into a multi-platform nightmare.

Sensible advice

It's nice to see sensible advice for developing a business. Here's my favorite quote:

"... a business plan starts with you and your needs. And equally important, it provides a process that helps you learn about the business. It is a process with many exit points that you need to pay attention to so you don't get in too far too fast."

Source: Jeff Cornwall "The Entrepreneurial Mind"

Going public with a business plan

The following was originally posted at Omidyar.net. The question related to the pros and cons of publicly developing a business plan, seeking public input in the process.

Here's my thinking on the question and why I decided to "go public" with the development of the business plan for Quinset.

Since I don't have closed access to the kind of people I think I need to expose the business plan to, and I don't have credentials to gain access, and I don't even really know who would be interested in this project, I'm going public with the hope that someone will see it, find it interesting, and pass it along to others who may be interested and contact me to get involved.

I don't think my idea is so unique that anyone couldn't figure it out. If it is unique, maybe it's patentable. I've developed a time-stamped prototype, and I believe I've got at least a year to file for a patent.

If someone takes the idea and runs with it, I can either make a case for ownership or not. If somebody does run off with it, I take that as evidence that it's a good idea -- which helps me. Rather than risk being accused of "stealing" my idea, anyone who thinks it's worth stealing would be better off hiring me to develop it for them. That's fine with me -- I'm trying to make a good job for myself, not get rich (although I'm not opposed to getting rich -- that's a good job, too).

As far as investors are concerned, if you're an investor, and you're worried about losing "first mover" advantage, send me a check ASAP and we'll get "first mover" advantage.

Quinset is a platform that depends on user-participation to work. A certain amount of transparency is required to engender trust. It makes sense for the business plan to be apparent.
Nobody understands Quinset better than I do. In fact, I already know the mistakes that someone trying to steal the idea will make. Anything built on a stolen idea will have bad ju-ju and kill community. Quinset won't work without community.

I don't think I'm going to publish financials. The rest is no big secret.

Reaching out through networking

For the last few months I've been developing Quinset in my head and on my computer, two very unreal places.

The time has come in the process to get other people involved. You can go only so far in your own world. It's time to strike out and share this thing with other worlds.

To that end, I've been trying to figure out a comfortable way to network.

Networking on its face is aversive. It means meeting people - strangers - and trying to get them involved. It means selling.

If it were up to me, I'd rather just enter the URL for Quinset in some magic search engine, which then delivers it to all the people who would find it interesting, and they would all send me email saying how wonderfully it is and what they would like to do for it.

But the geniuses at Google haven't figured that one out yet.

Luckily, though, other geniuses have been working on the problem and have created tools that enable me to network online. Thank God! I really hate chamber-of-commerce mixers.

The first network I stumbled upon was Omidyar.net, a social activism site built by the founder of EBay.

It's an interesting site, populated by some very bright people. But it really isn't right for what I need. It's more for people interested in doing social good, not building businesses.

So yesterday a did some browsing to try a find a more appropriate network.

In my browsing, I came across Bloglines, which opened the blogosphere to me. I found high quality blogs on just what I'm trying to do.

That in turn led me to Ecademy, a site dedicated to business networking.

So I've signed up at Ecademy. We'll see if it works for me.

It's real, baby!

Well, I'm hooked. After tapping in to rss feeds at Bloglines, I can say I now get blogs.

Now I'm overwhelmed with what I'm finding.

Stay tuned.

Just testing

I'm new to blogging, and I have to admit, I'm not sure if this is a vacuous trend or something real.