DISQUS

The stories of both the author of this article and the one written about are just fascinating. May Allah(SubhanahuWaTa'la) elevate the ranks of both of them in his presence. Amazing to read the sacrifices these scholars made leaving the comforts of California for the deserts of Sahara.

I think Terry Semel should take a bow. These results are partly due to his excellent 'leadership'.

Although Semel did not receive a severance package when he left, I suspect the $450 million he did receive during his 6 year tenure from stock options helped blunt the pain of his departure.

Wouldn't it be deliciously ironic if Hasbro/Mattel got Facebook to remove the application and then tried to create their own and got sued by the developers of Scrabulous? What a sad situation.

Having set up trade shows and booths in a previous life, I don't find this funny. Immature more than anything like you said Mat.

Cutting off a person in the middle of a presentation (by blanking screens) can completely throw a presenter off. That's just not cool. And I don't buy the 'they got lots of publicity' from this gag argument so it's kosher.

Shutting off tv's in the main hall may not be that big of an issue but I also know how support staff are running around frantic at these things. Dealing with non-existent issues when they could be dealing with more pertinent stuff.

Let's call a spade a spade. If it's not happening to you, you can say it's funny and much ado about nothing. If something like this happened to Gizmodo, what would their response be? Gee, I wonder...

I view Linkedin and Facebook as being separate. Linkedin is for work and Facebook is for play. I don't connect to the same people on Facebook as I do on Linkedin. I like to call it separation of Church and State.

I also think that Linkedin only becomes useful once you get critical mass of connections. But like anything it's what you put in that translates what you get out.

I'd be asking when an invasion or sanctions would happen but Burma doesn't have any oil...errr...I mean weapons of mass of destruction. Sorry if I'm cynical but that is the double-standard of the world we live in. Nonetheless, this 'event' and what is happening to the Burmese people is an outrage.

I think if all 1 billion Muslims in the globe truly behaved such as Rage Boy then we all would have much more problems on our hands.

You take some poor person who doesn't have more than a basic elementary education (if that) and they ecome the poster child for all global muslim protest. Go figure.

I think your point on laziness by the press is a valid one Mathew.

Wasn't there some conference last year call Mesh that was totally sold out via word of mouth (blogs) with no other advertising?

Quite the negative thing for business indeeed.

Six on one side, half a dozen on the other.

LinkedIn has flaws. My biggest beef is that people can see your contacts but you can't see theirs. No reciprocity. And if you try to block them - you block all your contacts from visibility. Not good.

Having said that, like offline networking you are only going to get out what you put in. Judging by the aforementioned comments, those who use it heavily get a lot from it. Recreational users (sounds like a narcotic) get less out of it.

Great tool. No question it can be better. Will I continue to use it? Absolutely.

Matthew,

As I have a young daughter as well, I want to wipe out child porn as much as the next person. While the intention of Cybertip is noble, I do have concerns.

There is another 'list' used to screen potential terrorists from flying commercial airlines in North America. The Dept. of Homeland Security has admitted tens of thousands of people have requested their names be removed as they are listed unfairly.

If it can happen in the airspace, it can easily happen cyberspace as well. The ends do not always justify the means.

Matthew,

Love reading your work.

One little thing. The link at the end of your article from Reuters states that Craiglist actually has 22 employees versus the 14 you note in your posting. (Not that 8 or another 80 will make a difference to their P&L given the projected revenues...)