Open Startup: Askablogr’s First Week

NOTE: If this is the first time you’ve read about Askablogr and want a little context, go here. NOTE 2: If you have a Blogger or TypePad blog and want to play along with my little Open Startup project, you can see the product and get the widget here. Now, on to the readout. My continue…

Go Obama II

As I noted in a previous post, I’ve been a supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign since last summer, so I’m understandably excited to see his popularity accelerating as we approach nomination time. This past weekend I finally had a chance to sit down and read his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story continue…

Digital Media: Pockets of Resistance

One of the best things about my involvement in Colligent (f/k/a IndieMarketer) is the ringside seat it offers me on the digital music business, and on digital media in general. From a macro trends perspective, anyone hoping to make money selling access to digital media, whether it’s music, film, still images or text, had better continue…

Private Obsessions: The Model

I think this one actually goes under the heading “Slightly Embarassing Private Obsessions”, but here goes anyway. For as long as I can remember I’ve been fixated on money. But not for the usual reasons. My obsession isn’t about stuff. Instead, it’s a strange cocktail of two very different ideas I inherited from my parents. continue…

Open Startup: Introducing Askablogr

Earlier this week I promised to introduce the prototype of a new product I’ve been working on. This is the first in an ongoing series of posts on the startup process, with a goal of opening up the experience for you to read, comment on and even participate in (more on that part later). But continue…

An Experiment in Open Startups

Last November I wrote a post titled Background Processing, describing how an idea for a new product sneaked up on me as I was thinking about something else. I didn’t describe the idea at the time, partly because it wasn’t what the post was about, and partly because I thought I might actually do something continue…

Quick Follow-Up On Public Utility Data Portability

Just saw this article in today’s New York Times. A pilot project in Washington State gave ratepayers live data on their energy consumption and let them make consumption changes (e.g., furnace and water heater thermostat adjustments) remotely in response to market conditions, resulting in an average 10% reduction in consumption across the sample. This is continue…