La start-up de la Silicon Valley s’appuie sur un algorithme pour déterminer quels articles produire pour un maximum d’audience et de publicité.

Des milliers d’articles et de vidéos produits et diffusés sur Internet chaque jour, grâce à un algorithme qui révèle les envies des internautes. Cauchemar de journaliste ? Rêve de patron de presse ? Non, c’est la réalité d’une des start-up les plus en vue du moment dans la Silicon Valley : Demand Media. Celle-ci produit du contenu pour Internet, vidéos et articles destinés à être placés sur ses propres sites et sur des réseaux sociaux comme MySpace ou sur YouTube. Ses recettes sont générées par la publicité, grâce aux liens placés en regard de ses produits. Jusque-là, rien de bien novateur.

La particularité de Demand Media, c’est que tous les sujets sur lesquels elle produit des contenus sont déterminés par un savant calcul, plutôt que par les réflexions et brainstormings d’êtres humains. Et visiblement, ça marche, du moins financièrement. Si Demand Media refuse de communiquer sur ce point, son chiffre d’affaires 2009 est, selon le magazine “Business Insider”, estimé entre 200 et 300 millions de dollars et la société est valorisée “cinq à six fois plus”. L’entreprise de Santa Monica revendiquait déjà en octobre dernier plus d’un million d’articles et de vidéos publiés sur le Web et il y a un an, elle était déjà le contributeur numéro un à YouTube.

Fournisseur de pages vues

Créée en 2006 par Shawn Colo et Richard Rosenblatt – l’ancien directeur de MySpace qui avait revendu un an plus tôt le réseau social à News Corp pour 580 millions de dollars -, Demand Media était au départ destiné à acheter des millions de noms de domaines pour les monétiser ensuite grâce à des liens publicitaires. Avec l’invention de l’algorithme, la société a recentré son activité sur la production de contenus.

Demand Media est, pour résumer, un énorme fournisseur de pages vues. Idéal pour les publicitaires. Son ambition ? Prédire les questions que quiconque pourrait se poser un jour, et générer, sous forme de vidéo ou d’article web, la réponse qui apparaîtra en premier dans Google. Surtout, qui dit bon classement dans Google, dit centaines de milliers de pages vues, et donc revenus publicitaires potentiels… Demand Media gagnerait 15 à 60 cents par clic sur un lien publicitaire, estime le site du magazine américain “Wired”.

Pour déterminer quels sujets doivent être traités, l’algorithme de Demand Media prend en compte les termes les plus recherchés sur Internet, les mots clés les plus demandés par les publicitaires, et l’existence ou non d’articles relatifs à ce sujet sur le Web. Il met en balance ce que veulent savoir les internautes et combien les annonceurs sont prêts à payer pour apparaître à côté de ces sujets.

Une fois la demande identifiée par l’algorithme, les sujets à traiter sont mis en ligne sur Demand Studio, la plate-forme par laquelle passent les 10.000 rédacteurs et vidéastes freelance qui fournissent à la société articles et vidéos. Il suffit à ces derniers de s’inscrire sur le site internet du Studio et d’attendre les commandes de sujets qui s’y affichent – parfois 62.000 suggestions en un seul jour. Payés à l’article (10 dollars) ou à la vidéo (20 dollars), ils peuvent réserver 10 articles ou 40 vidéos à la fois. Au vu du tarif, bien sûr, c’est la quantité et pas la qualité qui prime.

“Les Ford de la vidéo en ligne”

Le but de Demand Media n’est en effet pas de décrocher des scoops. Parmi les vidéos les plus regardées et les articles les plus lus figurent principalement des recettes pratiques ou des modes d’emploi : quelle est la meilleure vodka, comment faire certaines figures de skate, que mettre dans sa valise pour un voyage à Rome… L’objectif est de faire du chiffre. “Ce sont les Henry Ford de la vidéo en ligne”, a déclaré Jordan Hoffner, directeur des partenariats de contenus pour YouTube.

Récemment, des journaux “traditionnels” comme l’”Atlanta Journal-Constitution” ont commandé à Demand des articles pour les publier en ligne et dans les pages de leur journal. Pour Dave Panos, vice-président exécutif ( lire son interview), le modèle de contenus à la demande financé par la pub fait partie de l’avenir des médias. Un point de vue pas totalement partagé par les journalistes américains, qui ne peuvent que constater le phénomène. “Ce nouveau modèle va sans aucun doute affecter le métier, affirme la directrice de l’école de journalisme de l’université de Sud Californie, mais nous ne pouvons pas protéger le journalisme de telles innovations.”
CAROLINE BOUDET, Les Echos.

Morgen ist ja hier bekanntlich Thanksgiving aka “Turkey Day”. Fuer alle Amerikaner ein ziemlich grosses Fest, fuer uns nicht unbedingt. Aber da wir uns ja zumindest ein bisschen assimilieren wollen werden wir natuerlich auch ein bisschen “feiern”. In den letzten beiden Jahren haben wir jeweils mit Freunden gefeiert, aber da es ja in erster Linie ein Familienfest ist (und unsere Familien ca. 12000 Kilometer entfernt sind) werden wir diesmal nur zu Zweit feiern. Irgendwann muss man ja selber mal anfangen, diese Familientradition zu starten. Und dieses Jahr haben wir wohl eine bessere Moeglichkeit dazu als naechstes Jahr. Wir werden also eine Truthahnbrust machen, dazu Kartoffeln (bzw. Suesskartoffeln) und irgendein Gemuese und Preiselbeersosse.

OK, soviel zu dem Thema. Da ich schon lange kein Update mehr geschrieben habe, kommt der naechste Teil direkt hinterher: Eine ungefaehre Uebersicht ueber die Lebenshaltungskosten, die man hier so braucht. Ich lese oft Fragen, wieviel Geld man denn mindestens braucht, um in der Gegend hier ueber die Runden zu kommen. Das soll also eine ungefaehre Uebersicht sein.

Saemtliche Ausgaben gelten pro Monat fuer 2 Personen im Silicon Valley und in Dollar natuerlich:

- Miete: Ab 1500$ aufwaerts, bis 2000$ (man kann natuerlich auch noch hoeher gehen).
- Telefon, Internet: 50$ zusammen.
- Strom: 20$
- Wasser, Muell, etc.: 50$
- Lebensmittel: ca. 30$ pro Tag, also 900$ im Monat.
- Autoversicherung / Steuern: 100$
- Benzin: Wir tanken ca. 1 Mal pro Woche fuer ungefaehr 30$, also 120$ pro Monat.

Alleine an Fixkosten ist man also je nach Mietpreis bei ca. 2700$ – 3200$ im Monat. Dazu kommen dann noch saemtliche Zusatzkosten fuer Essen gehen, Kleidung, Freizeit, Autoreparaturen, etc. Ganz grob gerechnet kommt man also mit 4000$ im Monat ganz gut ueber die Runden. Da man in etwa damit rechnen kann, 25% des Gehalts an Steuern, Abgaben und Versicherungen zu zahlen, sollte man also ein Mindesteinkommen von ca. 65000$ im Jahr haben, das waeren netto dann ca. 48000$.

Ja, die Gegend hier ist teuer. Aber die Gehaelter sind auch den Kosten angepasst. Natuerlich geht es auch, mit deutlich weniger Geld zurecht zu kommen (einfachste Loesung: etwas ausserhalb wohnen, beispielsweise in Pleasanton oder Livermore). Aber dann hat man natuerlich den deutlich laengeren Commute (Fahrtzeit zur Arbeit).

Wer sich weiter ueber die Mietpreise informieren will, hier der Link zu Craigslist:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/apa/

Thank you for visiting our blog. Laura and Lajos are welcoming you to this site. You will learn about the real estate market in the Silicon Valley area as well as finding great sources on business, vendors, entertainment and many other relevant areas. We look forward serving you with all your real estate needs.

My husband’s a cushy salary man who’s in a not-as-busy time at work, while I’m a lowly contractor who supports retail stores. Ergo, he’s allowed to take time off this week and I’m not. So he’s on vacation in the mid-west visiting his parents, siblings, and various high school and college friends. And stuffing his face with turkey. I mean, it’s Tuesday and he’s already had four, yes I said FOUR, meals of turkey. Am I bitter? Not really. Except for the bit about the turkey. I love Thanksgiving feast turkey. With the cheapest can of cranberries possible. If you can’t see the aluminum can rings, I don’t want ‘em.

Anyway, I’ll be home alone on Thursday, and I’m ok with that. You know why? It’s directly related to what I’m thankful for. And that’s the right to NOT WEAR PANTS. See, this Thanksgiving I’m declaring it to be pants-free Thursday. While all you suckers are having to deal with family and stuffing yourself and being all jolly and polite, I’ll be at home, un-showered, sleeping, and generally not wearing pants. And eating things like white cheddar popcorn. And drinking things like homemade sangria.

Jealous?

Happy Thanksgiving all!

• Money for big solar projects, frozen since January 2009, has begun to slowly flow again since late summer.
• Talented job-seekers going crazy from the silence of 2009 are starting to hear their phones ring with calls from recruiters who have heard of them through their networks, not job boards or applications.  There is an expectation that hiring will really open up in January 2010.  Recruiters are fattening their candidate pipes and trying to get interviews for January seats conducted by their clients now, if possible.
• In addition to new seats opening in January 2010, there is a prediction that a game of musical chairs will also be underfoot.  Many employees have played it safe with their jobs this past year, or have taken available positions with too long a commute, or not their aspirational fit:  These folks will likely be on the move.

-Valerie Fahs-Thatcher

By Cutter Mitchell

First it was an insurance company, then it was the banks, and now it (in a very short time frame) may very well be a State. When are we, or everyone else for that matter, going to realize that there is no such thing as “too big to fail”.

California has become one of the first states in history to actually have a poor credit rating. In fact it has gotten so bad that the state has begun to make payments in the form of IOU’s.

Now what can be learned from this. Well, as the Romans found, some things are just too big to manage. At some point a geographical area becomes to big to be managed by one bureaucratic body. Perhaps this is why almost, if not every country in the world has a federal government that consists of a series of provincial governments.

A possible way to draw the new state lines.

So why pry tell are we married to the idea that the United States can only consist of 50 states. Is there some magic there. Am I missing something or is 50 just a number. But the one fact that that is not disputed is that the economic stability of the country as a whole depends on the stability of each economic region.

Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chairs the state’s Democratic congressional delegation told The Washington Post. “I can’t speak for the President, but when you’ve got the eighth biggest economy in the world sitting as one of your 50 states, it’s hard to see how the country recovers if that state does not.”

If we take an in-depth look at California it is not hard to see that the state has three regional economies, at least. However, these economic regions are governed by one bureaucracy, and there perhaps is the problem or maybe the solution.

Napa Valley and others in the northern part of the state have a foothold in agriculture. Silicon Valley on the other hand is world famous for technology, mainly computes. And do not think for a second that the like of Southern California is lost in the mix, Hollywood anyone. Given this fact it is hard to deny that each region must have a different approach to what works best for their individual economy, as well as other governmental operations. In short, they know what is best for them.

However they cannot make the decision on solely what works for them; in the north, in the south, in the middle. They make collective decisions. So, perhaps to avoid the prediction made by Congressman Lofgren, we should let these regions make the decisions and choices that are best for them. All of which leads to a speedier recovery.

Why? Because each region is no longer additionally responsible for the burdens of another. Each region can make the decisions that will best stimulate its own economy. It will also separate the economic burdens. Plus, with little to no assistance being offered by the federal government the are little, if any, alternatives.

After all thats what companies who file for bankruptcy do. They file, they dissolve the corporation, and a new (or three) rise from the ashes like the pheonix. And legally speaking, state governments are pretty close to that of corporations. With some obvious differences.

So to reiterate, California should, at least look at, the possibility of breaking into three states. Which by my count would bring US to 52 states.

Michael Graetzel, professeur au laboratoire de la photonique et des interfaces de l’EPFL et inventeur d’une nouvelle cellule solaire portant son nom a enfin été honoré à sa juste valeur pour les perspectives d’avenir de notre pays. Le 21 novembre 2009, la ministre de l’économie suisse, Doris Leuthard, lui a remis le Prix Balzan à hauteur d’un million de Francs suisses. Cette distinction est certes moins connue et moins prestigieuse que le Prix Nobel. Or, depuis 1956 elle a toute sa valeur et est bien appréciée dans le monde scientifique.

Au départ, l’invention a été négligée. Depuis quelques années, la cellule Graetzel éveille l’intérêt des industriels et intégrateurs, notamment en raison de son incorporation facile dans les éléments de construction immobilière et les matériaux de base peu onéreux.

En ce moment, la production à grande échelle commence. Des groupes industriels au Japon, en Corée du Sud et probablement en Chine et au Taiwan ont saisi l’enjeu. La start-up à Aubonne, Solaronix, est pour l’instant le seul fabricant en Suisse. Elle démontre par l’exemple que même la production complexe et onéreuse est prometteuse et rentable en Suisse malgré les salaires et coûts élevés. Son site ne cache pas la fierté d’enrichir le tissu industriel national.

Les tentatives de faire bénéficier le monde et l’industrie suisse de cette invention sont vieilles. Au début des années 90, des contacts avec ABB et Sandoz devenue Clariant, n’aboutissent nulle part. Il est de même avec des échanges avec des entrprises Allemandes. La Confédération, quant à elle, ne lance aucune mesure d’incitation voire d’encadrement.

Une fois de plus, un chercheur et son institut sont à l’avant-garde du progrès. Les décideurs, quant à eux, s’avèrent incapables d’exploiter la chance unique que cela leur offre.

En effet, les exemples de chances gâchées pour l’industrie suisse sont nombreux. Les montres digitales, les cassettes vidéo, le jet d’affaires… et bien d’autres industrialisés ailleurs l’illustrent.

Peut-être la crise actuelle incitera d’autres start-up à se joindre à Solaronix et à l’EPFL. Quel meilleur programme conjoncturel que de donner un coup de pouce politique aux industries susceptibles de transformer le monde? Des innovateurs comme Michael Graetzel ou Andreas et Tobias Meyer, les fondateurs de Solaronix, ne sont-ils pas les meilleurs travailleurs sociaux susceptibles d’ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives?

Or, les programmes volontaristes de la Confédération et même des Cantons de l’Arc Lémanique, cette Silicon Valley européenne potentielle, se font attendre. Suisse – réveille-toi!

Daniel Stanislaus Martel

Piratas de Sillicon Valley es una película de 1999 imperdible para aquellos que busca saber más respecto al origen de Microsoft y Apple.

The company that made electric vehicles cool again and dispelled the ugly golf cart stereotypes is rumored to file for an IPO very soon according to a recent Reuters report. What makes this CleanTech startup unique from say the recent A123 Systems IPO? Tesla is currently profitable! Profitability is one way to counter the IPO risks noted in this well blogged article about Goldman Sachs and their IPO business.

Tesla is on a mission to prove that Silicon Valley can do what Detroit, Tokyo and Frankfurt cannot. While some may think their Tesla Roadster (costs approx. $109k), which has a range of approximately 220 miles and Ferrari like performance, is a toy for the rich- a new Tesla Model S is in the works to dispel this theory and open the company to those with a smaller budget. The Model S will cost around $50,000, have 4 doors and appear similar to a nice Lexus, but more beautiful in my opinion. It also will not have any tailpipe emissions and will cost about $2 to power for 300 miles.

While Tesla’s automobiles are an evolutionary step as far as design, production and backing- they will nonetheless need to compete with companies like Nissan, GM, Fisker  and Ford who all have both government backing, and either an EV or Plug-in EV in the works. Along with several battery makers including A123 Systems, Ener1 and Johnson Controls, Tesla received $465MM in low cost loans from the US government to help spur development. It is interesting to ponder whether or not the market for efficient automobiles will prefer plug in electrics, pure electrics or if it is large and wealthy enough for both. Signs point to the latter as several of these planned or existing cars, including Tesla’s, have a lengthy customer waiting list.

Tesla’s investors include Google, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Daimler AG, Aabar Investments, Valor Equity Partners, Technology Partners, The Westly Group, Compass Venture Partners. Tesla has also received an ‘opportunistic’ US$82.5m equity investment from a group led by Fjord Capital Management, a private equity firm which focuses exclusively on clean energy. “Daimler, which invested US$50m in Tesla earlier in 2009, along with Aabar Investments, which is also Daimler’s largest shareholder, contributed to the offering to keep its stake at just under 10%. The new money was earmarked for Tesla’s expansion of its retail store network globally.”

The IPO would be the first from a US Automaker since Ford in 1956.

Lorenzo Thione

Di cognome fa Thione e anche sentirlo parlare non si direbbe che è nato a Mariano Comense, in provincia di Como. Infatti l’intervista la facciamo metà in inglese perché  l’italiano sembra averlo dimenticato, o quasi. Lui è Lorenzo Thione, alias Mister Bing, l’uomo a capo del  dell’omonimo progetto di Microsoft , ovvero il motore di ricerca che sta cercando di soffiare il posto a Google. Thione ha 30 anni, dei quali gli ultimi sette trascorsi negli Stati Uniti, dopo aver abbandonato il Politecnico di Milano per una borsa di studio all’Università del Texas. Cresciuto a Milano, a 23 anni Thione fonda  Powerset, azienda acquistata nel luglio 2008 da Microsoft per una cifra che si aggira intorno ai 100 milioni di dollari.

Lorenzo, cosa consiglieresti ai giovani italiani con il pallino della tecnologia?

Di fare come me. Ogni progetto realizzato qui, specialmente in California, riceve una visibilità  impensabile in altre parti del mondo. Oltre che a a darti la possibilità di realizzare qualcosa di ambizioso e innovativo, l’America ti permette di farlo conoscere e apprezzare. La Silicon Valley è il posto dove stare se si vuole fare questo mestiere.

Che legami hai mantenuto con l’Italia?

La mia famiglia abita in Italia, così come molti dei miei amici d’infanzia e dell’università. Torno un paio di volte all’anno, quando posso. C’è anche la possibilità, chissà, che si aprano opportunità di lavoro in Europa e in Italia e che quindi io torni definitivamente, ma al momento penso di restare negli Stati Uniti.

Cos’era Powerset e come sei entrato a far parte di Bing?

Innanzitutto, Powerset non è Bing. E’ la tecnologia che ho cominciato a sviluppare con alcuni soci e si tratta  di un sistema creato per indicizzare i documenti in maniera semanticamente più corretta rispetto a Google e ad altri motori di ricerca, che, al contrario si basano sulla popolarità dei documenti, sulla frequenza e posizione statistica delle parole contenute in una ricerca. Bing era un progetto molto più grande che Microsoft stava già sviluppando da tempo. Si sono interessati a noi e hanno acquisito Powerset perché hanno visto nel nostro sistema di indicizzazione un mezzo utilissimo allo sviluppo di un nuovo motore di ricerca.

Cos’ha in più Bing rispetto a Google?

Direi la capacità di comprendere, in modo simile a quello della mente umana, il linguaggio in cui è stato scritto il documento che si vuole ricercare. La tecnologia Powerset, impiegata e perfezionata da Bing, è in grado di individuare quali sono le frasi di senso compiuto in un testo e quindi di effettuare una ricerca più completa a livello semantico.

Vi aspettavate un successo tale da suscitare l’interesse di un colosso come Microsoft?

Io e i miei soci abbiamo cominciato a creare Powerset con l’idea di competere direttamente con gli altri motori di ricerca, Google, Microsoft e Yahoo. Era il 2005 e l’idea era piuttosto ambiziosa, tanto che la stampa americana ne aveva parlato come della “battaglia tra Davide e Golia”. Ma i nostri investitori, che per questo motivo hanno deciso di finanziare il progetto, sapevano che c’erano grandi società interessate allo sviluppo di un’idea come la nostra. La battaglia era in realtà tra i giganti della tecnologia, e si stava facendo ogni giorno più agguerrita.

Cosa sta succedendo di interessante oggi nel mondo della tecnologia?

Il fenomeno dei social networks come Facebook o Twitter, che creano un continuo flusso di informazioni. I motori di ricerca stanno puntando sull’uso di questi potenti mezzi tecnologici per fare in modo che le persone riescano a trovare quello di cui hanno bisogno esattamente nel momento in cui ne hanno bisogno, senza neanche più doverlo cercare. Questo secondo me, sarà il futuro.

Maria Caspani

I was working on a piece on innovation that I was going to entitle “The Day America Ran out of Big Ideas” but I saw this piece from TechCrunch European startups need to work as hard as Valley ones – or forget it and I think it acts as an excellent counter point to the position I was going to take so I have decided to use it as the foundation of this article.

In the anonymous article there are one or two fundamental logical flaws that have now become urban myths about Silicon Valley and its impact on world innovation.

These urban myths are best expressed in this statement from the article.

Something I’ve realised and have to admit is that while obviously the absolute pool of talent is smaller here in the UK/Europe than it is in the U.S. (and that cannot be disputed nor is it anything more than a function of population) another factor. It is one which I keep hoping will change, because if it doesn’t it threatens to make a small pool even smaller. And that is a cultural and behavioural issue: work ethic.

As anyone who’s ever been there or visited will attest, in Silicon Valley everyone is working *all of the time*.

The first problem is simply there is no correlation between the size of the talent pool and the level of innovation within that pool. A couple of quick examples to prove that point.

One from Silicon Valley. If size was the only thing that determined success then Microsoft would have won the Search Engine Wars and Google would have been consigned to the scrap heap a decade ago.

Now to Europe. Where does the global Market Leader in Mobile Phones come from? Finland. The other market leading players? South Korea and Japan. Apple as we all know has just 2.5% market share.

The same can be seen in the Automotive and Pharmaceuticals industries. The prestigious innovation leaders in the auto market aren’t Americans they’re Italians. What would you rather be driving today? A GM, Chrysler or Ford, or a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati or Bugatti (admittedly French/German but the inventor was an Italian)?

In the Pharmaceuticals industry, the market leader (Pfizer) is from the US but the rest of the top 5 are European. While 2 of the top 7 are from Switzerland. And talking of Swiss, what about Chocolate? 

If you’re into the history of ideas then you’ll also know that Ancient Athens, Renaissance Florence and Elizabethan London were very innovative places with very small populations by today’s standards.

No, the size of the talent pool is not a function of innovation or a prerequisite for Market Leadership. If anything, as I said in previous posts, The ability to generate new and innovative products is inversely proportional to the size and success an organization.

The correlation between innovation and market leadership is all about the quality of the talent pool and equally importantly the quality of the champions within that talent pool.

Put simply ideas are a dime a dozen. What is rare is the ability to discover the true future value of the idea and then champion that idea in the marketplace. And this is just as much a function of the entrepeneur as it is a function of the investor.

What Silicon Valley does have is a pool of experienced and proven champions like Sequoia Capital. Champions who can recognise an idea and fund it but more importantly set the up the market expectation down stream to ensure there is a “an earn” for everyone at the end of it.

If Silicon Valley has one thing going for it over other parts of the world as an innovation centre it simply this: It isn’t afraid to fail fast, fail often and fail big time (e.g the dotcom boom/bust). It isn’t afraid to dream and it isn’t to get very excited while it dreams. How efficeint it is at learning from its mistakes is a discussion for another post.

The second part of the myth is Silicon Valley works harder.

Again there is no correlation between hard work and innovation. I’m not even sure there is a correlation between hard work and the ability to execute. However a correlation does exist between a high degree of technical skills and the ability to execute.

As I have said in previous post. To be a market leader you need to be more than clever. You need to be able to consistently deliver on both your promise and your potential. You can have the best ideas in the world but they are just that unless you have the skills and ability to deliver on the promise (on time and in full).

Innovation is more than brilliant ideas. It is also about your ability to execute brilliantly.

What Europe may need to accept is that it has a very different innovation culture to Silicon Valley. As I pointed out in my recent post on the The Discipline of Innovation Teams: Different organisations have different value cultures and it is these value cultures that should determine how they choose to innovate and deliver new products to market.

As an aside… Perhaps this idea can be extended further and is an expression fo national cultures? e.g. Perhaps the US as a hero driven culture are naturally incline towards the Product Leadership innovation model? Maybe Europe, being more of a more family and socially orientated society, is better suited to the collaborative innovation model? More likely however is the idea that the various nation and cities states within Europe are unique entities who can embrace multiple innovation models and that in itself will deliver it a significant competitive edge over the one size fits all US innovation model.

Which now brings me to the core of the idea for my original post “The Day America Ran out of Big Ideas”.

The day I decided it was time to start blogging was the day I found out that RedBeacon had won this years TechCrunch50.

The elevator pitch for this revolutionary, and ultimately prize-winning web site, went something like this.

“Simply type whatever service you’re looking for (be it plumber, gardener, or hair stylist), and the site will present a list of recommended service providers in your area.”

My position is simply this. 40 Years ago the world was excited by an American landing on the moon. Look back at that time and you’ll remember an America full of BIG IDEAS. An America whose business it was to change the world. To make the world a better place. Today, while China builds eMetropoli and Detroit crumbles, Silicon Valley gets excited about a new way of finding “Bob the Builder“?

If Europe is looking to reinvent itself as an innovation center it should not be looking to Silicon Valley for ideas and methods. It should be looking to where the action is. Get on a plane and go and visit Japan, Korea, China, India… Go and see the future today.

And if you have kids, call in via California. They have some great theme parks.

I guess what I am trying to say is simply this. What made America great in the 20th Century was BIG IDEAS. America will not be great in the 21st Century if its innovators and investors dream of a future based on aggregating ”mom and pop” eBusinesses. 

Oops! I almost forgot… The Question the Europeans should be asking themselves is what made Athens, Florence, London, Paris, Rome and Hollywood great. The Artists or the Patrons?

This is no Chicken and Egg problem. The answer is simple. It was the patrons. It was the Medicis and the Disneys of the world.  The relationship may be symbiotic but the reality is the champions don’t go in search of talent. Creative talent is drawn towards the innovation champions like moths to a light bulb.

The secret to success for our anonymous European author? Be an innovation champion and the brightest and the best will follow you in your quest for market leadership.

The credit crisis sucks, especially because it minimized the probability that you can get away with getting investment banks and venture capital to underwrite essential purchases like the new Guitar Hero and kegs from Gordon Biersch. Luckily that might all be ending soon. Recently, movements in private equity and venture capital have started to show some indications that the most glamorous of Silicon Valley capital fountains has started to thaw. The cracks in the ice are undoubtedly motivated by the increasing demand for cleantech, technology designed to provide equal parts personal utility and environmental utility. But even if the opening shots are in the name of the environment, any sort of momentum to turn on the funding-hose will undoubtedly lead to watering the gardens of Silicon Valley with much-needed capital to thirsty startups and major enterprises looking to buy slick and undervalued intellectual property through M&A.

So yeah, there probably is another boom coming. But things feel a little different this time around. I moved to California in 1999, right as the major dot-com boom went from a quaint idea to a startling reality. My dad and stepmom ran a dot-com called Timesharevalues.com, a surprisingly resilient vacation real estate company that teamed up with eBay in their early years to sell vacation properties over the internet. Right before the boom took off (when both of them were transitioning from their jobs at other tech companies) it felt, well, crazy. Money for firms that had a relatively good idea was in such abundance after Excite and Yahoo! took off that it was literally impossible not to get funding if your idea wasn’t completely absurd and you knew how to use Powerpoint. Even then, the VC’s would sometimes come after you. My parents smartly decided not to take VC funding, but that didn’t stop the phone calls. Eventually we had to get another line and a secretary to deal with them and all of the other communication stuff (which was weird as hell by the way – coming out of my room half-dressed for breakfast during winter break and pretending to ignore some lady who’s working in your living room is always a surreal experience).  It was downright simple to start a startup, and clearly nothing could go wrong.

Nowadays, VC money is still hard as hell to get. Getting an appointment to pitch at Kleiner-Perkins probably requires a blood sacrifice. The credit crunch hasn’t just strained the budgets of the Sand Hill investors, it’s also taught them temperance. Recent history is filled with good ideas that go bad because of poor planning. And there’s cultural changes in the Valley too. The Millennials are starting to flood into technology, changing not just how we party but also how we compete and do business. The next boom, while a familiar thing to Silicon Valley, feels very, very different.

Here’s three of the big differences I see:

• It’s not about IPO: When you were a startup back in the day the IPO was the glorious “fuck-yeah” moment for everyone that got in before the cut. The glamorous millionaire lifestyle of Silicon Valley startups was predicated on the cash you’d get with your Initial Public Offering, and the young Gen-Xers that ruled the smallest and most disruptive startups were looking to IPO. That’s a lot different now.

  It’s unlikely that the posterchilds of the new boom will IPO anytime soon. Neither Facebook or Twitter seem jazzed to IPO anytime soon, and I don’t think it’s just because the stock market sucks. Call me crazy, but I think a lot of it is based around generational psychology and sociology. To IPO is to yield control of your company to investors. We Millennials are a surprisingly difficult bunch to manage because we’re fiercely down with doing it our way. Having to listen to VC’s is bad enough; having a board of directors who “don’t get it” about tech and order you around seems extremely non-ideal. To sell out in an IPO has the potential to ruin all of the hard work you’ve done by leaving it all to someone else.

• You need a college degree: Being a sysadmin (system administrator) was a pretty glamorous job back in the day. Being on near-constant beeper-duty and having the potential of working like an investment banker if stuff broke sucked, but so long as you knew what you were doing you could be paid a lot of money without having to spend four years of your life whining about how your GE courses are taking time away from your major classes. With a bunch of certifications in your hand and some skill in technical interviewing you could talk your way into Yahoo! pretty well.

  This is not the case anymore. While the bachelors-less savants are still around, it’s a hell of a lot harder to sneak into these high paying administration jobs (when they even exist). Globalization and gains from specialization are partly to blame here. Paying a sysadmin in the United States, much less in California, is an extremely expensive endeavor. Outsourcing such duties to other states or other countries with less employment competition (which will raise wages ceteris paribus) and more lenient employment laws is more ideal. Coincidentally, in the US many of these states are also places where it’s cheap to build the data centers where admins are needed. Being in IT in the Valley now is becoming less about being a Reel Big Fish-loving data center junkie and more about being an extremely flexible strategic consultant. With the heavy lifting being outsourced, these new positions require all of the expertise and rigorous training that a Bachelors+ degree signifies.

  A college degree is important in another way too: prestige.  Silicon Valley is well-known for being a meritocracy, and where you’re from has largely not been an issue until the rise of Google. Google’s is very Ivy-minded, and there are more than a few urban legends out there about Sergei writing off capable employees because they studied at less prestigious state schools rather than the Ivies or Public Ivies. With the large amount of HR poaching,  many ex-Google HR staffers trained in this sort of prestige-minded filtering have spread throughout the ‘Valley and taken their prestige-minded ways of thinking and hiring with them.

• It’s not just about technology: Excite is a great case study on how being overly focused on “legit tech” may not be a good idea. When the internet portal first came out they were flooded with Venture funding. As one of the big incumbents in the Internet Portal business, Excite wielded stupid amounts of market power and could pretty much do what they wanted. But as the boom faaded and the bubble burst, it was clear that Excite was not making great business decisions. They invested heavily into something called Excite@Home, an early broadband ISP that they got in acquiring a cable modem company called @Home. This decision seemed to make sense at first: vertically integrate internet activity to ensure that you don’t stray far from the Excite brand when you’re online. It was also an opportunity to rapidly invest in new broadband opportunities – a factor that seemed more salient given the background of Excite’s board of directors.

  This turned out to be a very bad idea. First, Excite@Home posted a $61.6 million loss in its first quarter. Then the company, which existed as a subordinate entity of Excite proper, re-neged on a deal for auditing and ditched their accounting deal for a new relationship with PriceWaterhouseCooper. As a result, they incurred serious breech of contract legal wrath and were forced to hemmorage more money. All of these struggles hit home at Excite, and the company later joined some other great names in taking the long walk towards chapter 11 and obscurity.

  The valley seems to be learning its lesson with  this one. The death of the Wi-Max market is a great recent example of how cool technology can suffer without good business planning. Lots of big firms such as Time Warner and eBay have recently divested major purchases predicated on cool technology that didn’t fit well into their business plans, AOL and Skype respectively.  This also fits into a lot of the temperance you see with VC’s and gun-shy investment banking firms, both who seem to demand a higher amount of business planning and strategy from their prospects before investment. Basically, nobody wants to be like Excite or a Wi-Max firm.

How attractive is San Diego as a place to start a company compared with the Silicon Valley? Santa Barbara? Los Angeles?

On Thursday evening the “Sweat Equity” series of seminars sponsored by San Diego’s Software Industry Council (SDSIC) brought together a distinguished panel with a venture capitalist and successful entrepreneurs answering questions, drilling into their experiences, as well as exploring perceptions they’ve developed over several years doing business in San Diego. More than 50 interested attendees with the hope and aspiration of either starting their own company, or breaking away from the corporate world with a startup, provided an enthusiastic audience to support the discussion and Q&A.

Panel members included:

• James Adams, Moderator, Fortress Secure Payments
• Russ Mann, Entrepreneur, Covario
• Ted Alexander, Venture Capital, Mission Ventures
• Allen Drennan, Entrepreneur, WiredRed

The panel tried to answer the question, through their experience, of whether or not San Diego is a good place to start a business. Starting with the question “How start up friendly is San Diego?” the panel thought the city rates a “good.” The universities around San Diego are graduating high quality workers, with a small community spirit nurturing fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

However the panel agreed that San Diego has shortfalls in the amount of investment money available less than in the Silicon Valley. Ted (the VC) cited that “last year there was around $7~10 billion in venture capital committed in the Silicon Valley vs. $1~2 billion in Southern California.” However he also added that “if you are a talented individual you can overcome the challenges.”

On the question “Do San Diego-based legal firms provide adequate support for small companies?” the panelists were all generally positive. Russ Mann gives the San Diego legal community “two thumbs up,” but Allen Drennan cautioned that his only bad experiences with San Diego law offices were when he tried to save money with cheaper representation that his company ultimately suffered.

Ted reinforced the need for good legal representation, and closed the topic by adding “San Diego legal firms are busy, but if you are willing to pay they are as good as any in the country.”

Attracting Outside Talent to San Diego

The panel tackled the question “What is the quality of CTO-level game-changers in the San Diego area?” The general consensus of the panel and attendees was that San Diego lacks high powered CTOs, and start up companies generally must go out of the area to attract the talent they need to provide the vision and technical leadership need to get a tech-sector start up off the ground.

“I am much more bullish on CEOs than on CTOs (in the San Diego area)” pointed out Russ. “Risk-taking CTOs do not like Southern California and San Diego, preferring the east coast and Silicon Valley.”

The panel discussed the idea of industry clusters. Those grouping of similar companies that normally follow one successful company in a location, and highly qualified engineers and leaders “gravitate” towards the clusters. Unfortunately San Diego does not have any strong industry clusters at the level of an El Segundo (military/industrial), Silicon Valley, Boston, or similar clusters. This makes some highly qualified people somewhat reluctant to take the risk of moving to San Diego.

Those who do find San Diego a good area to work are at a point in their life where they are interested in a better lifestyle, and the potential of a higher quality of life (as possible in Southern California).

The same opinion passed through into the question of availability skilled technical developers, where the opinion of the panel was low, concerned with both local talent, as well as difficulty attracting high quality developers to the area.

Funding SD Startups

San Diego does not appear to be friendly for funding startup companies. Ted’s company, Mission Ventures, may be the only company that is located in, and focused on the San Diego market. Ted stated “it is very difficult to build a large company in San Diego.” He continued “the reality is not every startup should get VC funding, and angels may give you a better deal or solution.”

The low confidence in getting funding in San Diego continued into 2010, with Allen quoting a San Diego Business Journal article which indicated “there is very little investment money expected in San Diego” over the next year. All members of the panel added stories about VCs and companies they know who are aggressively going after potential investments in other parts of the country, with an emphasis on Silicon Valley – but not in San Diego.

Ted tried to lift the spirit of the panel by ending the topic with “of course the right idea will always find a way to get funded.”

Comparing San Diego with other California Cities

Having visited several areas in California over the past couple of years, including San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and the Silicon Valley, the differences are very clear. Enthusiasm and aggressive threshold for innovation is most visible in Northern California. Returning to the idea of clustering, it is easy to meet clusters of innovators and visionaries by simply going to a “cluster watering hole” (bar) near the tech community, such as the “Fault Line” in Santa Clara. The people you meet are fearless, unconcerned with the economy or other external factors, and just want to talk about their ideas.

Santa Barbara has a very enthusiastic community, but tend to be more interested in the business side of their future rather than working out strategies on how their ideas could be realized, and find a way to change the world.

As a great place to live, it is impossible to beat Southern California. As a place to build a company, the Silicon Valley offers a pool of talent, better access to funding, well-defined technology clusters, and a buzz of excitement that is not easily located in other locations. On a personal note, I have been searching for the buzz in the OC, San Diego, Long Beach, and other areas of LA, but have to finally admit the buzz is much stronger in Northern California.

We can change that, but the process requires a major shift in the local city governments, financial community, and aging business leadership to re-engineer Southern California as a valid competitor to the Silicon Valley. With notable exceptions such as Qualcomm, Boeing, Northrup, and some bio-tech leaders, it is hard to argue the percentages.

Los Angeles and Southern California provide a great environment for manufacturing, logistics, entertainment, and other operations-oriented industries. But for today, the burden is on the south to provide an environment that will spawn the next Google, Cisco, HP, National Semiconductor, or Apple.

John Savageau, Long Beach

The internet buzz this week presented two stories regarding sexual abuse and LDS bishops.  One Bishop has admitted failure in pursuing legal action of one of his patrons, the other is accussed of sexual abuse himself on three brothers.

Burrell Mohler Jr.

Mohler has been charged with 42 charges which occurred over a decade.    Many initially thought the incidents had occurred while Mohler was a member of the Community of Christ.  The church has been quick to seperate themselves for the incident. 

Mohler’s LDS bishop at the time, Paul Tonga, has admitted to Fox 4 news that the mother had come to him multiple times complaining of the sexual abuse directed at her children.  Tonga failed to pursue an investigation because no admission was made on the part of Burrell Mohler or the children.

Bill Knox

The Associated Press reports, three brothers in California are pursuing a civil suit against the Silicon Valley Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for molestation which occured in the 70s and 80s.  The men’s accusations claim the church was “allowing Bill Knox to molest them while serving as a church bishop.”  It is claimed that Knox also molested the boys when he became their step father.

This is a Stereo MP3 audio transcription of the excellent presentation that was given this morning by Ronald Croen, Founder, former CEO and Chairman of Nuance Communications, who is now Tufts University’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence for 2009-2010. The talk was given at IBM’s Waltham Innovation Center, in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Ronald Croen, a co-founder of Nuance, has served as Chairman of the Board of Nuance Communications. Croen held the positions of President and CEO of Nuance from July 1994 – March 2003. Previously, he served as a consultant to SRI International, an independent research, technology development and consulting organization, for the commercialization of its speech recognition capability. From 1987 to 1989, Croen served as Managing Director of European Operations, and from 1983 to 1987 as Vice President and General Counsel of The Ultimate Corp. Croen holds a J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Tufts University.

The topic of the presentation was:

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in 2009 and Beyond: Massachusetts vs. Silicon Valley

091120_004 [mp3 raw file - click to listen on most computers]

091120_004 – Ronald A. Croen [Imeem Hosted Stream]

(This mp3 Stereo Audio Recording is a large file, and you may want to save it directly to your computer’s hard disk drive for listening – you can do so by right-clicking on the filename, above, and using the ’save link as…’ option)

I had a wonderful opportunity to meet and speak with Bobby Carlton, the founder of Massachusetts Innovation Nights at the Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham, and I want to take the opportunity here to thank her for her efforts in arranging this new breakfast Massachusetts Innovation gathering. I think some thanks also go to the gracious corporate host, IBM, whose Waltham Innovation Center is truly an impressive facility; I enjoyed their tour of the facility after Mr. Croen’s presentation.

There was a terrific question-and-answer session with the attendees at the conclusion of the presentation which featured a lively debate and brought up some fascinating points; I recommend you listen to this towards the end of the mp3 audio transcription.

We hear about it in the news every so often out here in Silicon Valley: a big player at Google has left for Facebook.  Or a Yahoo executive has been seduced by Microsoft.  Or some perky young startup has snatched a head developer from a venerable software giant.

Silicon Valley’s human resources arena, ripe with star engineers and executives, is  like a day time soap opera, full of unexpected surprises and shocking betrayals.  Every time a transfer of talent occurs, juicy questions immediately begin to pop up surrounding the jump.  Were they abused at the first company?  Were they offered a huge salary?  Who got screwed?

I’d like to take an overview of several high profile transfers of talent that have occurred in Silicon Valley over the past decade.  Each one is a soap opera in its own right and has in some way affected the fertility of the Valley’s technological breeding grounds.  If I leave any big ones out, be sure to contribute your own top Silicon Valley talent transfers.

Tim Armstrong, Google to AOL:  This shocking transfer occurred in March, 2009, when AOL abruptly fired two head executives and hired Google’s sales boss, Tim Armstrong.  Armstrong had joined Google back in 2000, when the company’s ad sales were minimal and it was still in stiff competition with competitors like Yahoo and MSN. Flash forward eight years and Google is bringing in nearly $21 billion in Ad revenue per year and dominates a majority percentage of the internet search market.

The acquisition of Armstrong signifies a change in branding and corporate goals for AOL, as it continues to move away from its past as a ISP towards a future in digital media and advertising.

Sheryl Sandberg, Google to Facebook:  Sheryl Sandberg served as Google’s VP of Global Online Sales before being snatched away by a hungry startup called Facebook in March of 2008.  Sandberg’s departure marked the end of Google’s ’super growth spurt’, which was capped with a $747 share price a few months prior.

It was rumored that Facebook’s young CEO Mark Zuckerburg first met Sandberg at a Christmas party, and was impressed.  Soon after she left to become Facebook’s COO, which at the time was still a refreshingly new start up (and had a $15 billion dollar valuation).

Josh Elman, Facebook to Twitter:  Although Facebook’s former platform manager isn’t as a huge name, his new home at Twitter speaks volumes to the current ‘Twitter-mania’ that Silicon Valley is going through.  Facebook and Twitter are currently in a war (with Twitter having the upper hand) for the ‘real-time’ web.  Elman’s savvy on how people connect and communicate in real time is surely a gain for Twitter’s growing empire.

Vic Gundotra, Microsoft to Google: Microsoft’s 15 year platform evangelist, Vic Gundotra, broke the breach and went to Google in June, 2006.  This was at the height of Microsoft’s Silicon Valley envy, particularly the Redmond giant’s jealousy of Google’s growing search engine dominance.  Ever since, Microsoft has been hot on Google’s tail – most recently launching it’s ‘Bing’ search engine, which surprisingly has the beginnings to usurp Google’s hot streak.

So what does the future hold for Silicon Valley?  While some big players in talent acquisition have emerged, there is always a hotbed of hungry start ups that have proved time and again that they compete with the big boys.  Although many of these start ups don’t yet have the hiring resources and clout of the Googles and Facebooks, they are fast moving, ambitious, and have products that are set to change the world.   Armed with the right tools, such as cost effective Applicant Tracking software, many of these small companies may soon make an apperance on the soap opera that is, Silicon Valley Hiring.

Though there’s no lack of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, you can count one more. Maveron this week announced it is opening a San Francisco office, headed by partner Amy Errett, the former CEO of Olivia.com who joined Maveron as an entrepreneur in residence two years ago.

Errett (a fly-fishing enthusiast, as pictured) told us that Maveron differentiates itself because it will only fund consumer-focused businesses, and it spans the range of seed to late-stage investments. With portfolio companies such as kids’ browser KidZui, language education site Livemocha and online college enabler Altius Education, Errett said her two main areas of focus are “web-enabled consumer services — classically things consumers did offline — and online education.”

Some areas she’d like to invest in: social shopping (where Maveron is already incubating a company), virtual goods and currency, disintermediation of markets (Errett was formerly an executive at Etrade), real estate, autos, classifieds — basically, any business usually conducted offline that can become more efficient online. How does that thesis apply to the venture business? Errett said she expects venture to become more efficient, too, but that Maveron’s close relationships with its companies through all the stages of their business will pull it through.

Social Media – A force for good?

So, this is the first of my Happening posts, and I’m deviating already. This event tomorrow isn’t actually ‘happening’ in Manchester – at least it isn’t at time of writing!

This event happens in London with a small, and probably quite select, audience. I only got the email from NESTA today, but with a bit more notice maybe we could have called some friends, carved out an hour, found a place with a macbook wired up to a plasma, and gathered round with our pack-up lunches. Maybe we still will?

Tomorrow, Stephen Fry (you know who he is) ; Biz Stone, Founder and Chief Executive of Twitter; and Reid Hoffman, Founder and Chief Executive of LinkedIn will discuss the phenomenon of social media and its future impact.

Frankly, I’m getting rather bored of Stephen Fry and his love/hate thing with Twitter – sometimes I worry he will tweet himself (like pop).  That said, when I first opened my account I did follow him and @wossy for a while, until I found my own friends and interests online. So, with others I’m sure, I thank @StephenFry for my introduction to the Twitterverse.  Yes, sorry Stephen, I used you up and spat you out – or unfollowed you to be more precise.

So, in isolation, sat at ones desk with headphones on – this event might class as a ‘learning lunch’ but it’s not much of a cultural experience.  But if you guys want to gather together round a screen and discuss what’s said (with or without me!)  I think it classes as a Happening - so yes, it’s in!

IMPORTANT BIT: You can watch the discussion here on the NESTA website.

Join the conversation by posting a question for any of the speakers – all you need to do is add #svuk to your question on Twitter.

This event forms part of NESTA’s  Silicon Valley comes to the UK event programme.

The book that made Bear finally spill the beans about his past.

The jig is up for Bear. He realized that his cover as an average (well, maybe not so average) American dog was blown. As soon as Bear saw me reading the excerpt from Dan Senor and Saul Singer’s new book, Start-Up Nation, in the latest issue of Newsweek, he knew he had to come clean.

For the past year or so, we thought that all there was to know about Bear’s life prior to his joining our family was that he had been in and out of different living situations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not the most stable of existences, his involved a couple of homes, a stint or two in a shelter, and the generosity and good will of a rescue organization.

And, of course, we also figured out he was Jewish (his facility with Yiddish gave it away). What we did not know, and what he failed to divulge to us until just now, is that he is not only Jewish, but also Israeli. Bear had a feeling that I, having spent a lot of time in Israel over the years, would start picking up on some of the signs, but he was sure that once I read Senor and Singer’s explanation for how and why “the Israeli  Army has become the most prolific innovation engine on earth,” I would put two and two together. The proverbial lightbulb did, indeed, go on, and it became instantly clear that Bear must have had a former career (aside from the Mitzvah teacher one) as an IDF K-9 in the elite Oketz unit.

Bear had not shown off his insignia upon arrival to our home.

Bear had apparently been afraid that we wouldn’t have liked him as much had we known that he had served in the army. He figured an American family, one with somewhat liberal tendencies, would want a cute and cuddly pet, not a tough, battle-tested military veteran. We are sorry that Bear was under this mistaken assumption, because it his special life experience – apparently some of which has taken place in Israel – that makes him unique and us love him so much. Besides, we are not proponents of a “don’t ask, don’t tell policy, ” whether it be in the military or in regard to canine back-stories. Inquiring pet owners want to know.

I wonder if the IDF is aware that its military training constitutes a boot camp for not only new tech entrepreneurs, but also dogs such as Bear who are innovative in finding ways to achieve their goals. Just like those human guys who come out of the army after their required service period, Bear has emerged a real problem solver. He, too, has been able to put the benefits of the unique structure and operation of the IDF – informality and an anti-hierarchy ethos, a mixing of people from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, and the thrusting of responsibility onto and development of leadership among men and women in their late teens and early 20’s – to work to his advantage.

One of Bear's army buddies who served with the Paratroopers. Note the special crimson boots and beret (on the human).

Like the IDF soldier he once was, Bear follows commands when necessary. At the same time, he has done his utmost to cultivate as much of a flat organization as possible in our household. “Hey, we’re all animals of one sort or another here,” he says. “No need for any hierarchies. Except for where Fudgie is concerned.” It seems that when it comes to our pet guinea pig, Bear is more than willing to pull rank.

Bear has shown no compunction in letting us know if he doesn’t like how we are doing things, or if he has suggestions for how to do them better. For instance, just today, Bear decided that his regular meal/snack schedule and menu were no longer satisfactory. He did not hesitate for a moment in letting me know this, being very vocal (and jumpy) about wanting to be fed more kibble more often. His strategy for effecting change also included tactics such as stealing my son’s Cheetos, hiding them under his pillow, and chowing down on the whole bag while no one was looking. You can tell he’s had training for stealth operations.

To our dog, age, rank or status mean very little, if anything. Bear is the star of the dog park where my husband takes him every morning for canine socialization. Everyone wants to play with him, and he seems to get along well with all breeds and sizes. If his mission is to run, play, fetch the ball and mooch treats off other pet owners, then he is prepared to cooperate with anyone and everyone in that enclosed field of dirt in order to accomplish it. “We’re all in this together,” he encourages his puppy pals. “Come on guys, be all that you can be.” Hey, any Israeli has watched enough American TV via cable or satellite to be able to quote a song from a Disney blockbuster or a slogan from a US Army commercial. The special US-Israel relationship plays itself out in may ways.

Bear's military training has prepared him for handling these kind of dog park scuffles and refocusing his fellow canines on the mission at hand (ie. getting nearby pet owners to offer treats).

You can tell from the way that Bear motivates his dog park buddies that he is a real leader. Owing to his K-9 experience at a young age, he is now comfortable with making quick, yet effective, decisions. He is able to size up a situation and decide which course of action to follow. The Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan has told us (on his own and by way of the chapter on him in Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, What The Dog Saw) that dogs are very astute observers and interpreters of human expression, stance and movement. So, when Bear sees one of our boys come home all shlumpy looking because he had a rough day, he immediately comes up to give him a big, consoling cuddle. And when he sees that my husband or I look like we might have gained a pound or two (say, from one of those many delicious Shabbat and holiday dinners), he stands at the door indicating that he is ready and willing to go for a long exercise walk with us to work off those extra calories.

This is monument and the grave marking of Oscar, a K-9 buried in the Oketz cemetary for dogs who die in the line of duty.

The most important thing Bear has taken from his IDF days and made part of his life with us is the concept of “Acharai!,” (After me!), which is what characterizes the attitude and actions of an IDF commanding officer. You can just tell that Bear must have distinguished himself among his fellow canine recruits and achieved high rank. Since Bear now resides in California he does not go to miluim (reserve duty) with his unit. Bear is glad to have a break from being called up every year, but he sure misses his army buddies – both human and canine. As things stand, he is not in a position at this time to lead his soldiers into battle (or even into simulated battle in a training exercise).

But once an IDF soldier, always an IDF soldier. His beret retired and army days behind him, Bear is now in entrepreneurial mode and working on his new Silicon Valley start-up (He’s thinking of calling it mitzvahdog.com.). His civilian mission is to show us, his new chevreh, how wonderful it is to have a dog. Keep an eye out for an IPO, because Bear has already established a hugely successful track record in improving our family’s life on many fronts.

© 2009 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

It’s Raining Blogs…I Mean Meteors…Catch God’s Big Show at 1:00 am Nov. 17 & 18

 Tonight and tomorrow night, God and nature are putting on a free show, the Leonid meteor shower. Like me, try to take a nap during the day so you can stay up to see the fun.

 Created by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, the Leonids are an annual event, usually seen in late fall. (Note: Some earlier Internet postings incorrectly attributed it to the Comet Swift-Tuttle.) Each time the Leonid meteor shower passes through the inner solar system it sprinkles debris, (mostly ice and rock), varying in size from as large as a standard marble to as small as a grain of sand.

 ”We’re predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office.

 According to experts like Cooke, the best time to watch will be from 1:00 am PST through dawn each day. The good news is this year it occurs close to the New Moon phase, enhancing visibility.

Meteor showers are named by the constellation from which meteors appear to fall, a spot in the sky astronomers call the radiant; for example, the Perseid meteor shower’s origin appears to be located near the Perseus constellation, the Leonid’s near Leo (aka the Lion).

This year’s Leonids are reputed to be especially interesting due to its various colored hues, ranging from the usual white or silver to aquamarine or blue.

Tips for viewing:

1)       Take at least a 1 hour nap during the day.

2)       Go to the bathroom before you leave for your stargazing destination.

3)       Find a safe, dark place to watch, one not subject to an onslaught of headlights.

4)       Dress warmly with several layers, as well as gloves, hat and overcoat.

5)       Bring a bottle of water, and a thermos of hot chocolate, coffee, tea or soup, plus a small snack.

6)       Bring a blanket (preferably with a waterproof layer on one side to put on the ground) or a comfy reclining camp chair, PLUS a blanket to snuggle under.

7)       Sit or lay back and relax your eyes to maximize your peripheral vision.

8)       ENJOY!

For maximum enjoyment, allow at least one hours for viewing; the first 15 minutes will be spent acclimating your eyes to the darkness, then give yourself at least 30 minutes to view. If meteors are falling at 20 per hour, that’s about 1 every 3 minutes; at 30 per hour, that’s 1 every 2 minutes. Assuming you may miss about 20 percent due to looking in the wrong direction or closing your eyes, that means you may see as few as 8 or as many as 15 in 30 minutes.

It’s Raining Blogs: How to be an ActiveRain RainMaker…Join Me at VREBAR Tu., 11/17 @ 2:30

By Michelle Carr-Crowe

Have you always wanted to be an ActiveRain RainMaker? Curious about how long it might take? Why you should bother?

If you want to take your brand, business and Internet presence and inject it with Google Juice, you need to get on ActiveRain, and become an ActiveRain RainMaker. J

oin me and 26 other social media and real estate professionals at the First-Ever Virtual Real Estate BarCamp, Produced by Jim Cronin & Real Estate Tomato

In “It’s Raining Blogs: How to Become an ActiveRain RainMaker” I’ll cover the following:

· Intro to Blogging

· Definition of Blogging

· Why Blog? Business: Free exposure, free listing ads & crossover possibilities

· Why Blog? Personal: Integrating personality, hobbies & real-life

· Getting Started on ActiveRain ·

 Choosing a Target Market & Strategy

· Writing Your First Blog

· 5 Do’s of Blogging

· 5 Don’ts of Blogging

· Examples of a Perfect Blog

· Extra Bonus Blogs: Upping Your Points and Ranking

· Expanding Your Blog’s Reach Be part of history!

Over 1,500 professionals are already signed up. You can still register for FREE here: http://rebarcamp.com/virtual/free-registration/

See you in the Rain!

P.S. To request a copy of the written presentation, It’s Raining Blogs: How to be an ActiveRain RainMaker, send an email request to me at getresultsteam@gmail.com.

Dave McClure, our Evening Keynote speaker at the 2009 National Angel Summit in Toronto, was brought to us thanks to our sponsor, Angelsoft.  Speaking on the topic Startup 2.0: A Silicon Valley Story, he provided important insights regarding the current process of company formation and development in the Web 2.0 space, as well as investment processes and criteria for same.  This slidecast will be a vital resource for anyone interested in reporting on, or participating in, the future of Web 2.0 as an investor, innovator, journalist or stakeholder.