DISQUS

this is killer. have you guys thought about making an add-on for vbulletin? i'm a big believer in forums and think they will continue evolving to be a place where passionate online communities are created around content. as vbulletin is the leading visible source forum content management system, i think creating an app for the vbulletin ecosystem would be a great way for you guys to get into the forum space.

i use vbulletin so if you ever wanted to pursue this project and had any questions about vbulletin or anything i can help you out with on that front feel free to contact me at any time.

keep up the great work.

just to be clear, here is my thesis:

1. "doing the math" for me means MZM. MZM is rising, hence my view is inflationary. MZM was briefly deflationary in 2008. if that returns, i'll have to revise my views. not expecting it to return soon.
2. the dollar is not getting stronger against precious metals, nor has it been able to break past recent highs against othe fiat currencies. but looking forward, i expect long gold/short 20+ year treasuries to be the trade of the year. it already has been the trade of the year thus far. it is an inflation trade, deflationists would not short bonds.

that is a classic inflationist view. very easy to measure. very direct, no contortions. if it's wrong, we'll all know, and it will be very easy to prove whether it's right or wrong.

stallman's analysis is incomplete IMO. data portability solves a part of it. the more interesting part IMO is that a governance system to manage what the cloud can and cannot do, as well as the technical standards of data portability, is needed. it will be revolutionary when this happens, but i don't think we'll get there until the global economy gets its revolution (which is gearing up now), as right now funding models are designed too much to try to own the cloud rather than small businesses working together to share the profits it can generate and create value for users.

My business colleague and I revisit a discussion similar to this one every few months. our conversations center around how this reversal of innovation will affect how firms are financed. Our key conclusions:

1. microfinance is the first, simplest, and most obvious step. techstars, ycombinator get props.
2. social capital, rather than a rapidly devaluing US dollar, is what is primarily being invested. we can define social capital as knowledge, trust, experience, one's social network, and other such intangibles that are NOT of a monetary nature. put another way, stuff that cannot be traded.
3. amortization of social capital is critical. in other words, what are your social assets, and how can you spread them across the widest number of investments?
4. lots of small bets. consistent with this is making the small bets simple ("just fill out a form to get started!") and liquid, so that people can get out quickly. in other words, private market investing is about to become a lot more like public market investing.
5. what's needed? private markets that enable liquidity in these transactions. a new stock market, so to speak, so that these small bets can be traded and easily liquidated.
6. the real issue: creating the governance system that will enable this.

in sum, my colleague and I view the reversal in the flow of innovation as being deeply connected to the pending disruption of the venture capital industry. however, the pending disruption of the venture capital industry is related to the monetary crisis we now have in the united states (and by extension, the rest of the world). greenspan's inflation of the money supply led to the nasdaq bubble; every bubble has malinvestments, which we saw. greenspan's fed then overexpanded the money supply again to create the housing bubble -- but this also gave VCs too much cash, which is resulting in a new round of malinvestments (though as housing was the primary culprit this time around the VC malinvestment is not nearly as bad....though we will look back upon stuff like electronic hamburgers on facebook and the facebook app craze in general as stuff that should've been created by some kid in a basement, not venture backed firms).

the ashes need to settle on the collapse of the old system -- the military industrial complex/nasa source of innovation. once that's done, that's when the real reversal of innovation will occur (the game hasn't even begun yet, this is just batting practice). it will not take as long as many suspect; i say 4 years. but oh boy, the collapse that will occur over the next four years is going to be one for the books, no doubt about that one. it's going to wipe out silicon valley and most VC firms as we know it (as silicon valley is a child of the military industrial complex, and that whole tree is getting chopped). the good news is that what arises after the ashes settle will be something unlike anything we've ever seen before. pursuing this disruption to its fullest is, in my opinion, the road to creating "the next google."

the government issue is the big obstacle. in the united states, anyone who is honest with themselves and aware of the basic facts should be able to agree that government is owned by major corporations (aka military industrial complex), and these corporations control monetary policy and corporate finance -- aka wall street. they are not going to sit by and watch their industry get disrupted by the creation of new private market governance systems. but that old system is in the process of self-destruction, and out of this darkness comes a very bright light.

it's great that USV understands the open and democratic nature of the web and is positioning itself accordingly. to me this seems to be a strategy that creates real value for users and profits for you.

i wonder to what extent you are concerned about the encroachment of government, and the risk this poses to the open web. lawrence lessig commented that he was warned there would be an "i-9/11" followed by an "i-Patriot Act." http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/05/lawrence-l...

moreover, senator joe lieberman called for youtube to censor content in accordance with anti-terrorism guidelines. youtube complied by revising its guidelines. http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_YouTube_Makes_Se...

i would consider it viable business risk for this trend to continue. for instance, what if censorship is demanded on meetup? outside.in? those web services, like much of your portfolio, benefits from openness, diversity, and the ability to create niche communities. government centralization is largely about standardization, and it could be argued that such centralization ultimately wages war on cultural diversity. this hinders the ability of niche communities to proliferate. i would view this as detrimental to your portfolio.

i hope you and your firm will contemplate these issues, as i view them to be of great concern both to our society and to your portfolio. i hope you will discuss them with your the executives in your portfolio as well. as a user of meetup and outside.in, i am hoping that these companies will choose to be committed to what is morally and economically correct, even when it is controversial to do so.

"Although it’s probably the worst mistake you can make as a journalist,"

no, the worst mistake you can make as a journalist is to say that someone made death threats when they didn't. and then to refuse to own up to this. be sure to tell this to mark "rizzn" hopkins and the mashable editors who have yet to apologize or retract their completely false, poorly researched story on the DNC and the death threats to michelle malkin. malkin went on national radio yesterday and admitted that jones did not issue the death threats.

don't forget to take the stake out of your own eye before criticizing the journalism of others.

what a remarkably uninformed article. this is a disgrace to mashable.

here are the facts:

1. alex did not threaten to kill anyone
2. alex is not "left" or "right." informed people like alex, meaning folks who tune into real news and know more about what is going on in the world than they do about american idol, transcend the false left-right paradigm. as previous commenters noted, alex is a constitutionalist. mark may be an expert on things like metallica, though it is obvious he is grossly uninformed about the state of the world, and clueless about american history as well.

mark, do your homework before spreading disinformation. you're an irresponsible journalist.

mashable should issue an apology for this shameful, poorly researched article.

agreed with you re: ad supported music. but we can't get that revolution, as well as the larger revolution of music being used as a tool to develop niche brands, until we get the open licensing revolution.

markets only work when market participants have the truth. the further you stray from the truth, the more inaccurate the pricing mechanism becomes.

c'mon now, fred's a blog star, he can't be rollin' up to the game with a template design and somebody else's domain name. that'd be like showing up to the oscars in your pajamas.

hahahahaha......anti-israel is NOT anti-semitism, and the banking conspiracy, which is true, is NOT a jewish conspiracy. that is disinfo designed to get you to discredit real conspiracy info.

israel is the only democracy in the area? LOL. a war state and a democracy cannot co-exist. israel, like the US, has a fascist type of government masquerading as a democracy.

as always, all modern truths begin with 9/11, and so people should look into mossad involvement in 9/11 (note i said mossad....i did not say jewish....two completely different things and the real racism is to equate anything related to israel, a rather wicked country, with judaism [which is not wicked])

the web is the best way to change the world. there are only two problems in the world: information suppression (i.e. political truths, technology suppression, suppression of historical facts, etc) and monetary policy (i.e. the inflation we are seeing in the US and many parts of the world, inflation that is only going to get worse). the web has the potential to solve both of those problems; in fact, we are already seeing how the web enables greater spread of accurate information while also enabling the rise of virtual currencies that can have a more sound monetary policy.

you solve those two problems and you solve everything else.

inspiration comes from truth. the more you block truth, the more you block inspiration. find honest stuff and you'll always be inspired, in fact you'll have so much inspiration you won't know what to do with yourself.

of course we live in a world of lies that goes to great lengths to block the truth, and so the world can seem very uninspiring.

more like cal ripken jr, IMO

lol, i know, i'm just joking around. besides i never thought your comments were particularly inflammatory, which is why i got such a kick out of mikey going into crybaby mode over your post a few months back. adding to the humor is of course mikey's hypocrisy, as he doesn't have the spirit of a real journalist.

crunchbase is very nice, i agree. but you know what's going to be really sweet? when adaptiveblue (or someone like them) automates the whole thing and makes it into a slick widget you can take with you anywhere you want.

and while there is no battle, i still declare you the victor. so congratulations!

mikey may be building an interesting set of assets, but it's quite a shame journalistic integrity isn't one of them. and he doesnt have much of a community either. frankly i'd go long AVC before TC any day of the week and twice on sunday. you just need the web service that turns your community into a money machine (i haven't seen a web service out there that i think can do it, though i do think my friend and fellow Truther marc andreessen's service ning, or something like it, will be the ticket). then, justice will be served, as you will be proven the victor in the epic blog battle of fred vs mikey!

i tend to agree with the analysis that speculators are driving up prices. greenspan's fed overinflated the money supply, this created the nasdaq bubble; the money supply was then slightly contracted, creating a slight bust (but not a full correction, which we have yet to experience); the money supply was then expanded again and housing loans were made easier, thus creating the housing bubble; now, as that illusion is popping, the excess money supply is going into the commodities market -- which is part of the reason why food and oil are rising.

there are various ways of phrasing the problem, but the core idea is that the fed overinflated the money supply, that is the primary cause of inflation. this is an inevitable result of combining a war state, central banking, and a fiat currency. shame people are brainwashed by television and too afraid to tell the truth -- if that weren't the case we could've gotten real change by electing ron paul, instead of the phony "change" (meaning a continuance of big government and a monetary policy established by criminals) we'll get with obama (or, god help us, mccain).

IMO it's all about the hybrid. the expertise of a human editor (i.e. blogger) coupled with the automated news finder that techmeme is. i feel like that's a best of both worlds, and will combine the attention allocation value of techmeme with the community value of a blog.

my thoughts exactly.

for those who dont know about vincent foster, here's a link. if you're a slave to the mainstream media you will, of course, find this to be unacceptable to your psyche. that doesn't, unfortunately, change its truthfulness. also, do a search for the term, arkancide.

also, jasperjed's comment above is worth reading, it's spot on.

you're 100% right dave. amongst more delusional people your statements may sound extreme but the facts are the facts, the guy is a criminal and the list of crimes is shockingly long. what i find even more disgusting, though, is the general apathy and ignorance towards this matter. once it hits people financially (and we're gearing up for that) then you'll see people start to care. of course, by then it's too late.

"I think the news feed has emerged as the second most powerful attention aggregator after the search result page"

so true.

i wonder though about monetization. not sure how it will work. lately, i've been leaning more to thinking about feed aggregators/remixers (i.e. tumblr, facebook) as ecommerce destinations, thus possibly heralding the much fabled "death of advertising." not sure though.

hillary supporters should do research into the death of vincent foster. it will change your opinion of hillary.

the elections are rigged, so most political conversations are irrelevant until people understand that. although anyone looking for a real candidate who is actually going to work for the people (shocking idea, i know) should look no further than ron paul. he's the only candidate that really gets what's going on.

can't believe you sold flynch $399 worth of tyranny, fred. what's next on avc, drm-ridden mp3s? maybe some encrypted software that only runs on macs?

j/k

great post. i been using the term macroblogging, because i think it is about turning the blog into a community of some type. microblogging seems to emphasize the ease of use, i think it is more important to emphasize the value of the community.