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Introducing Om 2.0: The Avatar
A few days ago, commenting on one of my posts, a reader inquired about my health, in particular whether or not I was behaving myself. While on the one hand I found it mildly amusing, as it felt like my mom was asking the question — which she does every Sunday — his comment also made me realize how much our little community cares about my well-being.
I’ve been meaning to write about my progress, but I’ve shied away from it because it always felt like I would be imposing on people’s time. And I’m still not ready to share it all.
But in the meantime, I can show off my new icon/avatar for the site. Gone is the old hat-wearing, cigar-chomping, newshound look. Instead, what you have is a simpler, more understated icon whose sparseness reflects my new mantra — less is really more. And doing more with less is really hard. Let’s call this version of me Om 2.0.
Simple food, simple clothes, a simple home and simple, clear writing. Hopefully I can stick to that plan. I have incorporated physical exercise into my daily life, given up smoking, gone almost completely vegetarian and taken to wearing jeans. Life, as they say, is uncomplicated. More importantly, about six months after my heart attack, I have resumed some of my regular activities — including playing tennis on the Wii!
PS: Check out this awesome little illustration Mivui did using the new icon. This is how I am supposed to look like in 10 years. Worthy goal - both from a fitness and a longevity standpoint.
A Personal Note: Pause & Read
The passing of Tim Russert, a man I greatly admired, came as the result of a massive heart attack, an event that cannot be predicted. Having suffered a heart attack myself earlier this year, I know this firsthand — the heart is no match for the high-stress, multitasking lives that so many of us lead. And before we know it, our poor habits catch up with us. It’s why I urge you to get yourself to the doctor and get your much-delayed physical. You would be doing yourself, your family and even your startup a favor.
As part of my recovery process, my cardiologist Dr. Eduardo Rame of UCSF suggested that I take some time out of my busy life and spend it on projects that are focused on helping others. It is the best and most effective way to de-stress – doing good and breaking your routines. So I decided to get involved with UCSF and help them raise some funds. (If any of you would like to help, please drop me a note.)
Some of the encouragement to help UCSF came from Ron Conway, a well-known angel investor who is as passionate about charity work as he is about startups. He helped build the cardiology ICU facility at UCSF that helped save my life. (He is on the board of the UCSF Medical Foundation.) Today he unveiled another effort that I urge everyone to support.
UCSF along with YouTube have launched a comprehensive Internet video channel dedicated to the improved understanding of incurable neurodegenerative brain diseases. The YouTube channel is part of an overall Internet campaign that will help UCSF’s researchers and clinicians reach out to a global audience.
It was inspired by the “Fight for Mike,” an initiative by Silicon Valley leaders to save the life of former Apple/Netscape marketing ace Mike Homer, who was diagnosed last spring with CJD and is being treated at UCSF. Since June 2007, the Fight for Mike has raised more than $7 million for CJD research at UCSF. Maybe you want to join hands and help support the cause.
A Personal Note: Pause & Read
The passing of Tim Russert, a man I greatly admired, came as the result of a massive heart attack, an event that cannot be predicted. Having suffered a heart attack myself earlier this year, I know this firsthand — the heart is no match for the high-stress, multitasking lives that so many of us lead.
And before we know it, our poor habits catch up with us. It’s why I urge you to get yourself to the doctor and get your much-delayed physical. You would be doing yourself, your family and even your startup a favor. As part of my recovery process, my cardiologist Dr. Eduardo Rame of UCSF suggested that I take some time out of my busy life and spend it on projects that are focused on helping others. It is the best and most effective way to de-stress ??? doing good and breaking your routines. So I decided to get involved with UCSF and help them raise some funds. (If any of you would like to help, please drop me a note.)
Some of the encouragement to help UCSF came from Ron Conway, a well-known angel investor who is as passionate about charity work as he is about startups. He helped build the cardiology ICU facility at UCSF that helped save my life. (He is on the board of the UCSF Medical Foundation.) Today he unveiled another effort that I urge everyone to support.
UCSF along with YouTube have launched a comprehensive Internet video channel dedicated to the improved understanding of incurable neurodegenerative brain diseases. The YouTube channel is part of an overall Internet campaign that will help UCSF???s researchers and clinicians reach out to a global audience.
It was inspired by the “Fight for Mike,” an initiative by Silicon Valley leaders to save the life of former Apple/Netscape marketing ace Mike Homer, who was diagnosed last spring with CJD and is being treated at UCSF. Since June 2007, the Fight for Mike has raised more than $7 million for CJD research at UCSF. Maybe you want to join hands and help support the cause.
Data Deluge and a Startup’s Glassdoor
Yesterday was one of those days when I was dragging my feet, mostly because I stayed up way past my bedtime for the launch of NewTeeVee Station and then woke up at my usual time — before sunrise. The foggy state of my brain reinforced how necessary sleep is for connecting the dots and being productive.
With the sun shining brightly, a walk along the Embarcadero to the office seemed like the perfect antidote. As Celine Roque writes on WebWorkerDaily, “Being exposed to images, sounds, and people that we don’t encounter on our daily routines can give us a fresh perspective we never would’ve gotten otherwise.”
I agree, and my walk got me ready for a spirited discussion with my good friend Pip Coburn, who was previously the technology strategist at UBS but now runs his own research and money management shop. His business is based in New York, but his company is as virtual as any, which in my book makes him a perfect web worker. He hadn’t seen me since before my heart attack, and wanted to catch up. And so did I. Why? Because Pip has the unique ability to look beyond the obvious. Our discussions almost never focus on corporate minutiae; we talk about the philosophy of technology instead.
As we sat and enjoyed the rare San Francisco warmth, we contemplated the issue of data deluge, whether it be from blogs, news outlets, Twitter or FriendFeed. We’re confusing noise with information, and information with useful information, he said (and I paraphrase), and he urged me to focus GigaOM on being not just another information resource but an actionable wisdom resource.
The conclusion of our chat — it’s not data that’s important but what you do with it — carried into my next meeting, with Robert Hohman, co-founder of Glassdoor.com, an online resource for job hunters to get accurate reviews of the companies they want to join
Glassdoor.com, which launched today, is like Epinions for the job market with the rating features of TheFunded added in. Hohman’s co-founders include Rich Barton (founder of Expedia and co-founder and CEO of Zillow) and Tim Besse (also previously of Expedia). The Sausalito-based company is funded to the tune of $3 million by Benchmark Capital, the same firm that backed Zillow (and where one ex-Epinions guy is an EIR).
As it stands, I think Glassdoor has an interesting yet marginal opportunity. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t intrigued by the idea behind Glassdoor, and what it could eventually offer by analyzing its data in a more meaningful way. I asked Robert if we could take the information he has collected and put it to use. For example, to answer the question: What kind of a relation is there between the CEO’s rating by his employees and his company’s market performance? Robert was kind enough to run a little analysis, and indeed, despite the low input data, in the computer hardware sector there is “clearly a correlation between overall company rating, CEO approval rating and the price/earnings” ratio of the stock.
Obviously a lot more data is needed to get a sharper image of the overall trend, but it makes sense: Loyal and happy employees work harder, make a company better and thus increase shareholder value. This was actionable wisdom out of pure data. I also harangued Robert about his co-founder Barton’s other company, Zillow, and how it missed a huge opportunity to use its data to warn people of the mortgage crisis.
I think a lot of companies are failing to use the incredible resources of data that we have at our disposal with the Internet. I blame this on the marginality of ambition. Even Google, the number nerd’s utopia, as reflected by this post seems to be missing the opportunity to put its data to work. Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as some startups are beginning to take notice.
How Can You Not Be Touched?
Earlier this evening, I had something happen to me that made my day. I was sitting down in the Starbucks where GigaOM got going, talking to Liz, who happens to be in New York for Internet Week, while I waited for Tony Jebara, CTO of Sense Networks, a company I wrote about earlier this morning.
While I jawed on the phone, a kind lady by the name of Nina left me a little note on a Starbucks napkin, encouraging me to stay healthy and saying how much she liked reading us. (See photo). Nina, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Your gesture really touched me.
The wishes and prayers of such readers is why I have been able to find to strength to deal with my medical setback. These random acts of kindness remind me of what Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron said on Twitter: “After Sysiphus’ bolder fell down the mountain, during his descent to get it again, his time was free for the beautiful things instead.” This was a beautiful thing!
Let’s Talk About Data Portability/Interoperability:
Weather in San Francisco Bay Area is especially nice and is likely to remain that way for a while. It makes perfect sense to sit outside and talk about the hottest topic to hit the Innerwebs: Data portability/interoperability. Whether it is Facebook, MySpace or Google, each has been coming up with ways to control the user. Somehow the noise has gotten ahead of the fact, and I would like to meet smart people about this over the weekend.
A frank conversation with non-conflicted parties that would help me write smarter and conceptually sound posts going forward. I propose: 2.30 PM at Starbucks on Clay & Battery in San Francisco on Sunday, May 18th, 2008. I will buy coffee and cakes, but please don’t pitch me your company. I want some honesty about this topic.
Looks like there is a lot of debate about this today. Check out Techmeme. I have confirmation from various folks including Marc Canter who has been a lightening rod on this issue for a while.
OStatic Gets oDesked
OStatic, the newest addition to our network, has made friends with oDesk, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup whose marketplace connects businesses to remote workers, including software developers. oDesk has 67,500+ tested and rated professionals on their network. (related post from WebWorkerDaily.)
We are hoping that with this new partnership, developers on the oDesk network are going to use OStatic and help the open-source movement by providing reviews for projects, adding additional resources and information to the wiki-style project pages, and listing projects alternatives. More importantly, we hope they can provide more answers to the questions being posted by the OStatic community. I’m really excited about this new partnership. When you have a minute, please check out OStatic and send me your suggestions and thoughts as to how to improve the site and make it more useful.
Relax, Chill and maybe Blog
The blogosphere’s reaction to the attention-grabbing headline in The New York Times is equally attention-grabbing. Having lived through a health scare, I have a different perspective on not only this whole blog thing but on life, some of which I have shared in the past with the readers of this blog.
Suffice to say the problems in my case were brought on by a combination of factors, including the 24/7 lifestyle, bad health choices and yes, a desire to do everything. My doctors told me that if you are going to spend an inordinate amount of time in front of a computer screen at night, you might have a tough time going to sleep. The screen flicker makes your eyes, and your mind, think it’s daytime, hence you have trouble sleeping.
If you drink too much coffee, you are going to have trouble sleeping. If you don’t sleep your heart works longer hours and has to pump more blood and is under stress. Problems get compounded when you are a smoker, are overweight, lead a sedentary life (phone/computer) and/or are on a plane constantly.
Those were my issues, and I think are some of the same issues experienced by fellow bloggers, startup founders, journalists, corporate lawyers, cab drivers, Wall Street analysts and presidential candidates. They’re also issues many people in Silicon Valley deal with on a day-in, day-out basis but refuse to acknowledge. Do yourself a favor: Get yourself checked out by a doctor.
Having walked away alive from my health problems, I have learned a few lessons, some of them I have shared with friends, who reminded me about why I really started to blog in the first place. One of those truths in the words of my blogging guru, Doc Searls, one is about chilling out. Blogging doesn’t need to be a race. Really.” Sometimes you need to learn these lessons the hard way. I certainly have.
That is why I am in Miami this weekend — little bit for work, but mostly to sit in the Sun. Too bad, the Sun god isn’t cooperating today.
Off Topic: What the Past Three Months Have Taught Me
It’s exactly three months to the day since I had my heart attack. What has followed has been a life-altering experience, forcing me to learn some hard lessons about life, myself and of course being a first-time entrepreneur.
I have had to institute numerous behavioral changes over the past 90 days. But what I found was that some of my worst and most deep-seated habits were among the easiest to overcome — smoking, for example, as well eating a meat-rich diet and avoiding exercise. It’s the little things that have proved to be a challenge.
Simplification Through Elimination
I was reading a review of the Macbook Air over on Macworld when I realized that the machine and post-recovery me have a lot in common. I have to be very careful as to how I use my mental and physical resources, for there is a high risk of relapse. Similarly, the Macbook Air comes with miniscule amount of storage space, so one needs to be careful about how to use it. The machine’s battery power limitations remind me of how much time I have to devote to work on a daily basis.
It has been hard to use the Macbook Air as my primary computer, just as it’s been hard to change all those pesky “little things.” Indeed, the Macbook Air is an acquired taste. It’s also an apt reflection of an effective “simplification through elimination” strategy.
Three months on, I am looking to eliminate a number of things from life: excessive public appearances, too much travel and many, many RSS feeds. I am going to cut down the effort I spend on certain projects and focus on making the most of what we have at hand. Stay tuned for more details.
Empower To Power Up
One of the upsides to my health setback was that I discovered the amazing abilities of my team. When faced with adversity, each one of them picked up whatever they felt comfortable with and ran with it. From editorial to sales to the company and everything in between — the team executed on our strategy. Batteries Om not included.
I think one of the biggest problems I had as a first-time entrepreneur was an inability to let go; I was always second-guessing every decision not made by myself and was obsessed with minutiae. Three months on, having seen the Giga Gang at work, I realized what a mistake that was. You empower people, and in turn they power you to do good things. Now I am finding more time to focus on writing, reporting and spending time on projects like our upcoming conference, Structure 08.
Anyway folks, thanks for reading — and please don’t forget to get your cardiac check-up. Many of us in Silicon Valley refuse to acknowledge that we live a high-stress existence and are prone to all sorts of problems that stem from an 18-hour-a-day, non-stop lifestyle. Cardiac disease is one of the deadliest silent killers of the modern age, and I urge you to learn from my mistakes. (More information on this @ the American Heart Association web site.) Please let me know if you want me to post information about symptoms of heart disease and other heart-related problems. And if you need help, I am just an email away.
Goodbye, Old Friend! Russell Shaw, R.I.P.
In the early days of blogging there were just a few of us who blogged about VoIP and other such telecom topics. Russell Shaw was one of them, and he was very good at it. A good-natured and knowledgeable fellow, Shaw had a Rolodex that was thicker than those of most reporters. His ability to sniff out stories long before everyone else and then offer succinct analysis around the news made Shaw a natural blogger.
This past Thursday night, in town for eComm, Shaw went to sleep in his hotel room in San Jose and never woke up. Shaw wrote a VoIP blog and BlackBerry Blog for ZDNet. He had been suffering from a cold and had been traveling across the country attending several events.
I am going to miss Russell, especially his emails, in which he shared some industry tidbit or another. Shaw had helped me out when we launched IPNetworked, our failed experiment that eventually led to a more focused NewTeeVee. His passing reminds us of the fragility of life, and how quickly it can all be gone. First Marc Orchant passing on and now Russ…it has been a tough and somber weekend.
More @ Andy Abramson, Dan Farber, Ken Camp and Jim Courtney.
Back on the Beat: Introducing OStatic, the Open Source Blog
I have spent the past two months recuperating from my medical setback – reading, rebuilding my physical strength and of course, writing an occasional blog post or two. My doctors have given me permission to work — four hours a day – though travels and excessive appointments everyday are still a no-go. Nevertheless, it does feel good to resume some sort of normalcy. As part of my return, I would like to introduce to you the newest member of the GigaOM network: OStatic. It is a blog devoted to open-source software, notably the business of it (and the name is a play on “Ecstatic about Open Source”).
Why open source? And why now? I think the answer to both questions lies with recent events in the software industry: RedHat Software snapping up JBoss, Sun Microsystems’ billion-dollar buyout of MySQL and Microsoft’s decision to open up. All are part of a larger trend that has transformed open source from little more than a curiosity into a legitimate and viable part of the business ecosystem.
The open-source movement is ready to revolutionize the mobile phone industry; even traditional telecom is starting to see its potential. Asterisk, for instance, has become a source of innovation, and has helped spawn companies like Truphone. And venture dollars have started to flow into open-source startups at an increasingly rapid clip. Open source is slowly but surely touching (and changing) our daily lives.
For this new venture, we have deviated a little bit from our traditional blog model – we are adding a directory that lists about 150,000 software listings. The listings link to either projects, their original home pages, or SourceForge. The new blog also has a “Q&A” section that will allow you to ask questions and get answers from the community. The technology and a lot of the initial content for the site has come via a licensing agreement with Cambridge, Mass.-based VOX Holdings.
I hope you will give the new blog a fair shake and add it to your RSS reader. (You can do that by clicking and subscribing to the OStatic feed.) If you are a subscriber to the GigaOM Network feed then you will see OStatic posts show up in your feed reader automatically.
With this out of the way, and me back on track (partially), it’s time to start working on the next blog. Ah…the stress of deadlines.
Update:
If Only Life Were a Jib-Jab Video!
If only life were a Jib-Jab video! But it is not, and as a result, the break-dancing moves are on hold for now. A little over a month has passed since my health-related hiccup — not a long time, but long enough to allow me to recover some of my strength and bring some semblance of normalcy to my life.
OpenRoad.TV, hosted by Doug McConnell of Bay Area Backroads recently talked to me for their “Life Outside the Box” series, and here we talk about my recovery and changes I have had to make in recent months. I though it would be easier for you to just watch the video rather than me write about it all.
But before I get into the details of some minor changes that are coming, I want to take a moment to thank all of my friends who rallied and contributed to keep the site going while I was away: Alec, Allan, Andy, Brian, Chetan, Cynthia, Dan, Jim, Martin, Sramana and Thomas Howe. Thank you guys for all your support, not to mention the great content you contributed to my little blog.
While resting over the past few days, I have been re-reading one of my favorite writers, Peter Mayle. In his most excellent “Tonjours Provence,” Mayle channels Flaubert, quipping, “Writing is a dog’s life, but the only one worth living.” Mayle calls it:
…solitary, monotonous business…a thousand words a day, or nothing; it makes no difference to anyone else but you…what makes it worth living…is the happy shock of discovery that you have managed to give a few hours of entertainment to people you’ve never met.
I discovered that very thing during my time of trial and tribulation, as thousands of your wrote in and left kind words of encouragement. And that’s all (along with the doctor’s permission) that I need to return to active duty.
The doctors have given me the go-ahead to do some light work, everyday. Essentially what that means is that while I am going to spend a lot of time focusing on health-related issues, starting this Monday, I will return to contributing to the blog on a more regular basis, focusing mostly on the big stories of the day.
The prolific Stacey Higginbotham will be the site’s staff writer, helping us track everything from web startups to the semiconductor business. Ohter significant contributors will be Carleen Hawn and Alistair Croll. Their presence allows me to make an even-paced and unhurried return to full strength.
Since I am checking email only once a day, PR folks looking to get in touch with me shouldn’t send pitch emails directly to me. Email our general submission email address instead (info at giga om dot com), as it will route queries to the appropriate writers. Please also contact the writers for one-on-one meetings, as I won’t be taking any until March.
That said, it feels good to be back!
The MacBook Air Question
Being a sucker for shiny new things, I ended up ordering the Macbook Air, mostly to lighten the load. But after reading the reviews by the big three — Walt Mossberg, Ed Baig and Steven Levy — I am having second thoughts about my decision. (Maybe David Pogue is going to provide a contrary point of view, accompanied by a song-and-dance routine!)
Reading between the lines of the not-so-gushing reviews, it is clear that the ultra-light device leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike the big three, I am not that worried about the lack of a removable battery since this isn’t going to be my primary machine, but will be used for event blogging or on-the-go computing.
Given that I have dot-Mac, I can get access to my main computer over the Net, and basically use that hack to get access to files when I need them. My biggest concern has been the amount of heat generated by this laptop. Levy wrote a tiny bit about this in his review, but didn’t offer much clarity.
…the Air doesn’t run as hot as Apple’s other laptops–it’s actually possible to work for an hour with the device on your lap without the feeling that your fertility is at stake…
I liked what Steve Rubel had to say about it being a cloud computer, and to a large extent that was instrumental to me deciding to order a Macbook Air. But now I am wondering if made the right decision. Should I call Apple and cancel my order? Send me your suggestions.
The Crunchies … & Personal Update
This past Friday, I made my first public appearance since my health problems, at the Crunchies.
I spent nearly two hours at the event (with doctor’s blessings) and it was well worth it. Sure I was tired by the end of it, but it was great to feel the good karma from all the people who were in attendance. Your blessings and prayers have worked their magic. While it is unlikely that I am going to be back working at full steam for near foreseeable future, it is time to start thinking about some lite-work, such as replying to emails, and perhaps an occasional blog post.
On another note, I am grateful that the Crunchies team decided to donate a portion of ticket sales to American Heart Association. If you would like to support the AHA, you can do so by contributing here. You can also support by contributing to the UCSF, the hospital whose doctors worked tirelessly to get me back on my feet.
More importantly, I hope you don’t make the mistakes I made — unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise and vices such as smoking. With few lifestyle changes, heart related problems can be prevented. Do yourself a favor — go to the doctor and get yourself checked.
Photo by Duncan Riley via Flickr.
Checking in With GigaOM Readers: An Update
So due to unforeseen complications, my homecoming was delayed by a day or so. That also means my therapy is going to start a day later, but who’s counting? If you haven’t already read it, Dan Fost’s article in the New York Times outlines some of my vices. Believe me: my Mom has been giving me an earful. Your overwhelming response — thousands of emails, hundreds of voicemails and a bonsai — I cannot thank you enough for your wishes. Let me just say that your prayers are the reason I am going to be able to blog again. For next few months, my focus will be on rebuilding my body and mind and taking it slow. Hopefully you will come back and share in the process.
I also want to thank a service called GotVoice. It is sort of like Yahoo for voicemail — a nifty web-based voicemail management system. I had signed up for it before the holidays to “review” the service. It worked with my iPhone, my AT&T line and my softphone VoIP service. It pulled the voicemails from the various systems and put them in the order received. More importantly, it sent me a transcript of the voicemails in the email inbox. In less that 50 minutes I read your sentiments. Some of the transcriptions were not too good, but I got the feelings loud and clear.
Thank you all, and slowly, I will call you back.
Destination San Francisco
After a long week of hectic travels, it is good to finally be back in mildly chilly San Francisco. The back hurts from a long flight back from Washington D.C., but the cool air managed to put a little smile on my face. I have no plans to work tonight — OpenSocial is making way too much noise — so I will finish my half-written post in the morning. The GigaTeam has done a hell of a job keeping the wheels turning while I was flying all over the country, and my big thanks to all of them. I have to admit, at this point, I don’t want to see an airport anytime soon.
