Grand Canyon Skywalk

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Wow, the Grand Canyon Skywalk , a joint project of a Chinese businessman and the Hualapi Tribe, looks like it will offer an amazing view of the Grand Canyon. It appears the Skywalk will open very soon and no later than March 2007. I have mixed feelings about this type of attraction because in one way it ‘mars’ the pristine landscape you are there to see, but in another way it allows you to experience that landscape more dramatically and intimately. For me the increased focus and economic development aspects of these projects make them worthwhile, and it’s certainly a more wholesome approach to funding tribal needs than a casino.

CNN story about the Grand Canyon Skywalk

Technology failing? Hey, it’s time to SUE!

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I simply don’t know if this lawsuit against Google, SONY, and other big players suggesting a previous right to digital distrubition has merit or not because I don’t understand the legal issues well.

However it’s another good example of a tactic increasingly used by tech firms that are not doing very well with their technologies – work the legal angles hoping to hit a big payday via settlement with a deep pocket like Google or even hit a home run with a court decision in their favor.

I’m not objecting to these lawsuits though – I think the big players have tended to give great liberties with content distribution and have taken great liberties as well. Youtube’s empire was built largely via illegal content distribution. These complex deals with gigantic stakes probably should be settled by objective legal means.

When you are raking in billions it’s easy to be generous and I predict that the real “tipping point” for Google’s fall from grace will be the shift from them getting sued to them suing other firms, especially small ones. Maybe they won’t have to sue which would bode very well for Google’s long term prospects and claim to the high ground.

Laptops!, Step right up and get your laptops! Only $100!

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$100 Laptop Website
News for the Community
Wiki

I love the $100 laptop project. It is hard to know this early on how the developing world children – and adults – are going to make use of these gadgets but if we let recent history be our guide it’s sure to shake things up a bit when you put a browser and a word processor in the hands of many more millions. Governments are stepping up to the plate and starting to buy these for their schools and children. Most importantly this device will accelerate the development of key skills and will pull the 1st and 3rd world together in ways that we can’t predict.

I’m confident we are now starting to dig into the meaty part of the most profound change in human communication since the invention of … language. Let’s hope we make mostly good use of this amazing global social connectivity.

More: www.cnn.com

2007! Where did 2006 go?

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It sure is frustrating how fast time flies when you get older. As a kid you can’t wait to grow up and hit the road, yet as an adult you long for the carefree days of childhood.

Luckily the freewheeling internet business lifestyle doesn’t trap me in a 9 to 5 purgatory though, and I get to meet a lot of interesting folks and travel more than in the past.

2006 was a fun year for USA travel as I got to California’s Silicon Valley several times, Boston, Virginia, Las Vegas twice and Minnesota for Thanksgiving with my great in-laws.   I am due for a big international trip and I’m hoping I’ll make China happen this year.

There’s still time to give to a charity for 2006!

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The Kim Family Search Discussion continues here and approaches 4000 comments!

I just learned that one of the charity causes I support has matching funds that might expire unused. It’s called Blessing Hands and helps fund school for poor kids in China. Here’s the form to donate this year and get your donation effectively doubled, adding to the already great charity ROI projects like this attain by helping those in really poor countries.

Another great charity is KIVA at Kiva.org these are actual *loans* rather than money you simply give. I’d heard of KIVA but only decided to get involved when Adam Lasnik showcased a project on his blog that looked great. Thanks Adam!

Lastly consider NetAid.org which works to alleviate extreme poverty in 3rd world, mostly through water, health, and education projects. Here also you get to pick the type of project to support and learn a lot about the situation.

Why am I not listing US Charities here? I do believe in supporting your local neighborhood, schools, city, and local charities for the obvious reasons. However as a business guy I really believe that you should also look to the places where you get a very high return on investment whether it’s running your business or helping out other people.

Here in the great USA we have a lot more disposable income and affluence than in most other areas, so it’s easy and painless to have a huge impact on the lives of those in the third world by making even modest donations. It’s neat to know that your money has maximum impact in places where even a hundred dollars can wind up saving a child’s life.

Elfyourself – have yourself a virally marketed Christmas

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Know any coffee and art lovers?   Give them The Coffee Calendar 
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Viral marketing approaches (not to be confused with computer viruses) take clever little online ideas and try to make them spread by online “word of mouth” which usually means friends emailing other friends.

This year’s big viral winner may be ElfYourself, which is showing nothing less than stunning traffic over the past few weeks – looks like it’s beating out many major sites and might even approach the top 100 sites this week as it spreads. [nope – looks like it peaked near Christmas at about site 250 per Alexa measures].

My friend and neighbor Ilana sent me an Elfyourself and within 30 minutes I’d sent out one myself even though I usually avoid sending people anything “fun” online to avoid cluttering up their boxes.

Expedia vs Elfyourself traffic per Alexa. Alexa is not very reliable but it’s good for generic approaches like this. Note that it’s “today’s” measure rather than the three month average that is of interest here since the site just startup up a few weeks ago: Alexa traffic comparison

Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network

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Kim Search Comments and discussion – click here

This effort is very interesting. I’m highlighting notes from a Jeff Barnard A.P. article:

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants the state to explore ways of helping local agencies better communicate and coordinate during rescue efforts.

The governor also is concerned that county sheriff’s departments, which are responsible for conducting search and rescue operations in Oregon, may not be funded adequately, spokeswoman Anna Richter-Taylor said.

“Maybe what we need to do is to look a little bit broader and to see if there’s a different relationship, a partnership between the state and the counties, so that we can help the counties in some of these operations,” Kulongoski told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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Kulongoski’s spokeswoman said the governor wanted to review after-incident reports to figure out where the state can better support efforts on the ground by the local communities.

“Whether it is communications, helping establish a system of centralized communications, or around equipment, the state wants to do everything it can to be supportive,” she said from Salem.

Kulongoski’s budget for 2007 includes $561 million to establish the Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network, Richter-Taylor said.The money would go toward building 54 communications towers around the state to allow first-responders from state, local and federal agencies involved in emergency operations to talk to each other.

Related:   http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,69234-0.html

See comments for more

Merry Christmas to all!

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 James Kim Search Discussion – Click here | Mount Hood Climber Search

Wishing a very merry Christmas to all my friends young and old, old and new! Here is hoping that 2007 brings this world more joy, less sadness, and much greater prosperity to those who struggle every day just to feed their families. As for the rest of us I hope we work harder to make this world the wonderful place it could be, and should be, and will be.

GoogleGuy and upcoming Google Rival WikiaSari

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A couple interesting TechMemes for today:

Matt’s got a great post noting how page view metrics are breaking down with AJAX implementations. Notable from his mini-rant is this:

* If you’re doing a start-up and want impressive page view metrics, stay the hell away from AJAX.
*If you would even *for one second* consider staying away from AJAX for the sake of impressive metrics, you’re running your start-up ass-backwards.

Next, in the “Could be Good as Google” department we have Jimmy Wales of Wikimedia and founder of the superbly excellent Wikipedia project announcing today that WikiaSaria WikiSaria Article from UK  will be a community based search engine to rival Google’s search. This is really provocative news as Google appears comitted to the mechanistic, machine driven approach to search, believing it’s the best and most scalable way to deal with spam and the growing complexity of organizing the world’s info. An alternative vision is Yahoo’s approach which includes more human interaction and editing than Yahoo but still relies heavily on the algorithm. It appears the new search will focus mostly on human input from the exploding community of onliners.

Wales: “Google is very good at many types of search, but in many instances it produces nothing but spam and useless crap. Try searching for the term ‘Tampa hotels’, for example, and you will not get any useful results,” he said.

Spammers and commercial ventures are also learning how to manipulate Google’s computer-based search, he added.

Mr Wales believes that Google’s computer-based algorithmic search program is no match for the editorial judgment of humans.

Also note the many misquotes about Amazon as a participant.

Wales: Reporters and bloggers note: Amazon has nothing to do with this project. They are a valued investor in Wikia, but people are realllllly speculating beyond the facts. This has nothing to do with A9, Amazon, etc. Help me out, spread the word. I am looking for a community of people to continue the development of wikiasari and so on. Discuss here. Join the mailing list. —-Jimbo Wales 23:24, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

More on this huge story from these blogs:

Niall Kennedy: Wikiasari: Wikipedia success applied to social search?
Michael Arrington: Wikipedia to Launch Search Engine: Exclusive Screenshot

Adam Turner : Wikipedia founder plans search engine to rival Google

 

 

Pete Cashmore: Wikiasari – Wikipedia Founder Launching a Google Rival