About Me 0014: January 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

About Making Money

Deadline confirms the deal with Universal but isn’t able to say whether Julian Assange will participate in the film. Regardless, the movie could be a firebrand that surpasses the interest generated by Mr. Gibney’s last few films.

Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks and therefore responsible for the release of thousands of confidential government documents, is a figure that people tend to either love or hate. To some he’s a hero and a champion of free speech and democracy; others see him as an enemy and someone who endangers our freedom by compromising the inner workings of government. (And there are probably many who see him as a troublesome, egocentric kid.)

All that being the case I’d say that Alex Gibney is the perfect man for this job, and I’m eagerly awaiting the results of his work.

In addition, producers at Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Prods have optioned Andrew Fowler‘s forthoming biography of Mr. Assange, called The Most Dangerous Man in the World. They plan a ‘suspenceful drama thriller’ based on the bio. The book follows the WikiLeaks founder from childhood to the present day. Producers compare the story they want to tell to All the President’s Men.

No word on a screenwriter, director or cast for the biopic at this point. Too bad Steven Soderbergh likely won’t have any interest in this; he’d be great for it. [Variety]

We cannot know how many little advertisers are doing the same thing as Make-My-Baby.com, only on a more discreet scale. If Facebook could not spot a company which was its third largest advertiser, it must have been rather more difficult to spot smaller ones. Obviously, there are legal ramifications to changing people's browser settings without permission, and there may be lawsuits. Facebook may have to restate its earnings, after everything comes out in the wash. The last time around, there were cases of people who were supposedly making large profits, and eventually turned out to be running losses, burning through the investors' money.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110118/02531712708/facebooks-3rd-biggest-advertiser-acc used-being-affiliate-toolbar-scam-facebook-says-its-never-heard-company.shtml

My experience with blogs, and before that, with bulletin board sites, back in the 1980's, is that huge numbers of nominal registered members are people who signed up, decided it wasn't for them, and moved on, leaving derelict accounts behind. Obviously, you can't make any advertising revenue from someone who hasn't accessed his account for years, and has in fact forgotten the password. Likewise, the user might have bought a new computer, effectively discarding installed software. Someone might have moved his bookmark file, his e-mails, and his address book for him, but all the other stuff might not have gotten transferred.

The third point is that there simply aren't that many people with first-world incomes, only a billion or so. If five hundred million people have, in effect, taken the introductory offer, and either stayed or moved on, one is beginning to get to the upper side of the S-curve. Growth will become increasingly problematic. Facebook will be increasingly trying to sell to people who do not behave like teenagers, and do not want to be treated like teenagers. All this "friending" stuff, for example.

The historian A. J. P. Taylor once observed that a generation of college students is only four years, and this would presumably apply to Facebook, which is nothing if not collegiate. That said, buying Facebook on the basis of "twenty year's purchase" is highly unrealistic. A new "generation" may start doing something different, while the current generation "outgrows" Facebook.

recently leaked figures of Facebook's income appear to be in the neighborhood of five hundred million per year. On that basis, Facebook might be worth two billions, not fifty billions.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/07/1648251/Facebooks-Revenues-Leaked?from=rss

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

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4 Detroit Police Officers Shot; Gunman Dead - Detroit Local News ...

DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

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DETROIT -- Four Detroit police officers, including a commander, were shot Sunday afternoon inside a station in the department's Northwest District. Monday, January 24, 2011.

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A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money Scams

You've heard of "flipping" houses, well now there's "flopping." While the first was speculative, this one is outright fraud.

"Flipping" refers to when home values were rising so fast and the market was so hot that you could buy a house, slap on some new paint and fix up the yard and throw down some marble countertops and turn it around and sell it for a tidy profit.

Now that the bubble has burst and people are trying to offload all these houses, one of the ways they are doing it is in a "short sale" where the bank agrees to allow the house to be sold for less than the value of the mortgage. Doing so lets them avoid the costly foreclosure process and gets the bad loan off their books.

But what "floppers" are doing is pay a crooked appraiser to say that the house is worth even less than its real current market value. They then have a "straw purchaser" buy it, and then they turn around and sell it for what it's really worth.

The Federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently released a report indicating that mortgage fraud suspicious activity reports rose 7% in the first half of 2010, the terms "short sale" and "broker price opinion" showing up 827 times and 41 times, respectively.

THE TAKEAWAY: What this means for homeowners is that banks are making it harder to do short sales, preferring to instead go for foreclosure, even when it costs them more money. Several cases have come out where the bank has insisted that the short sale price was too low to allow the sale to go through, only to turn around and try sell the house at auction for less than what the short sale price was.

What you can do if your short sale is initially declined is try to convince the bank that the "auctionable cash-price," the price they can sell the house for at auction, is lower than what they think. Submit in one big packet at once any interior deficiencies, renovation costs, or engineering reports that you think will make the case. Include several different contractor estimates and bids and broker price opinions to help make your case.

For more information on preventing foreclosure, check out this Consumer Reports article.

Mortgage Fraud Suspicious Activity Reports Rise 7 Percent Increase in the First Half of 2010 [FINCEN.gov]Wary lenders denying short sales [Boston] (Thanks to chiieddy!)

SIGTARP Quarterly Report to Congress April 20, 2010 (PDF) [SIGTARP.gov]

Short Sale Denied; Advice to make Bank Reconsider? [ths.gardenweb]

In an interview, a former credit card thief talks about some of the scams he used to run on unwary consumers. It's got some good takeaways for protecting yourself, like the one where you make up fake answers to security questions. With all the info that can be found online now some of these security questions aren't that hard to figure out. So instead of putting down the real answer to "What's your mother's maiden name?" put down "unicorn princess."

Secrets of a Former Credit Card Thief [Yahoo] (Thanks to Newdreams!)

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

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Friday, January 14, 2011

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How do you usually start your morning? Lunatic rush, eternal lack of time, work, where we come sleepy, irritated and seedy? Delaying the time for getting up to the critical moment and again being late, we convulsively invent excuses about a stuck lift or traffic jams.

Getting up earlier you can clear up your head and thoughts. Morning hours carry silence and peace, which we are usually lack of during the noisy day. This is the time of solitude, when we can read, reflect, and just take a breath.

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Talk with your local branch banks. Credit unions are another great route to take and you should explore membership with a credit union to have more options open to you. The small, local branches are often more inclined to work with someone who has credit challenges. There is something special about the small-town effect when it comes to your relationship with the bankers.

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Did you watch the memorial service in Tucson last night? It sure seemed to me to be a cavalcade of statemanship -- presidents of nations and universities and student bodies, governors new and old, political figures on the left and right ...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Making Internet Money

Bump Technologies makes an app that lets people bump their phones together to exchange things like business cards, photos and even money.

On Tuesday, Bump will announce that it has raised $16.5 million in venture capital. The firm Andreessen Horowitz is Bump’s newest investor, and its previous investors, including Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway, also contributed.

Bump started in 2008 as a way for people to exchange contact information without trading old-fashioned paper business cards. But in its newest incarnation, the start-up wants to become a mobile social network for exchanging photos and messages with family and friends.

Now, in addition to contact information, people with iPhones or Android phones can share photos, music, calendar appointments and location, and can also become friends on social networks and send messages to one another. Other apps also use the technology. PayPal, for instance, lets people exchange money by bumping their phones, and two apps trade sexual compatibility information.

The company is changing direction because people started using Bump more for social interactions than business ones, said two of its founders, David Lieb and Jake Mintz. For example, each day people now share about 40,000 contacts but almost a million photos.

“Bump just opens up a whole new landscape of social interactions and interpersonal functions and uses and photo-sharing and transactions, all based on physical proximity,” said Marc Andreessen, the Andreessen Horowitz partner who will join Bump’s board.

There are many other social networks that people already use on their phones to share photos, location and status updates, like Facebook, Foursquare and Instagram.

Bump is different, the founders said, because it enables private exchanges between two people, unlike others that are for publishing messages or photos to wider groups or the public.

“It’s a proximity-based social network, for people and things you’re actually physically interacting with,” Mr. Lieb said.

Bump is one of a group of mobile apps that give people a way to use Internet-connected cellphones to bridge the virtual and physical worlds.

That could become a way to make money, the founders said. For example, people could someday bump their phones to get information or coupons from businesses or brands. “That could be valuable to merchants,” Mr. Mintz said.

Other apps, like Shopkick, offer similar ways for businesses to reach customers. Bump is not making money yet, beyond a bit from other companies that license its technology.

Bump works by gathering several signals from phones, including location and motion detection. Those signals are sent to Bump’s servers, where Bump figures out if another phone in the same place just experienced a bump, then matches the two phones. It all takes place immediately.

Andreessen Horowitz has been busy. On Monday, the firm also announced that it invested in Groupon’s $950 million round of fund-raising. The firm invests in very small Web companies and very big ones, and the Bump and Groupon investments exemplify both ends of the spectrum.

Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative

Oh how timing sometimes works out to be funny. I was driving home tonight and started thinking about the value of products, the valuation of companies and how the values that a company portrays can change the rest. No sooner had I sat down to write this piece than the news of Goldman Sachs investing $500 million into Facebook broke and refreshed the entire thing in my mind. So let’s look at these three things, and try to see if one manages to sway the rest.

Values

Do you, like me, find yourself more inclined to use or purchase something that comes from a company that you can believe in? The ethos of a company can — for me at least — completely break me away from the product. That very fact, because I feel that I’m likely not alone in my actions (or lack thereof) can have a serious impact on the bottom line of a company.

Look at Facebook, for instance. When the Social Graph was announced and the new privacy changes went into effect, many people threw up their hands in disgust. But many others continued with life as usual, even if a bit annoyed. Why? Because Facebook has this outward appearance of a company that’s simply trying to do cool things, and it needs information in order to do them. The company’s values seem, for the most part, to be in line with the things that we Internet users want. As such, there was a lot more wagging and a lot less barking from the angry dogs crowd.

You’re starting a company? There’s likely something to be said for developing an ethos ahead of time, making it known and then sticking to it. Would Google be where it is today if not for the “don’t be evil” tag line? Even if you don’t fully believe that the company runs that way, you still remember it. Point made.

Value

When value exceeds cost, even by a single cent, the purchase will be made – Grant Cardone

That quote is one that has stuck with me for some time now. A few years ago I was making my living selling cars and it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to overcome the objection of price. In the technology world, we’re constantly being offered products for “free”. The only cost? A bit of information, a slice of our privacy or somethings similar. But then, after using those “free” products, we start to build our own value for them.

Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the things that you likely use every day. Gmail? You’d pay for that. Twitter? You don’t want to admit it, but it’s likely become a valuable asset to your daily Internet life. The same can be said for so many things and yet we get them for “free”. But there’s a down side to this issue as well — it becomes very difficult for a maker to charge for a product when there are free alternatives. Don’t believe that? When was the last time that a box office movie didn’t get a torrent version?

And yet, even as companies try to build value in their products, still others think that the economy allows for them to set their own values and tell us what something is worth. TV networks are probably the most well-known perpetrators of this heresy. Apple TV launched, ABC and Fox decided to jump on board and see what would happen. Some of the rest? They decided that $.99 was devaluing the product and yet as the provider of the product, there is no one entity that is more unqualified to name the value.

Consider it a lesson in business, I suppose. The potential buyer will determine the value of your product. Always.

Valuation

Now here’s a sticky one. Valuation is one of those strange things because it means so many different things to different people. To the potential investors, it’s a measure of how much money can be made. To the business owner it’s a gauge of how well the business has done. To the end user? It’s…honestly not much.

As a case in point, around TNW we love Twitter. We want to see it succeed and we are sure that it will. The valuation continues to climb prior to any IPO and yet, as users of the service, it really doesn’t matter much to us. Sure, it would matter if the site closed its doors, but beyond that there simply isn’t anything about the valuation number that matters.

And so, as an entrepreneur you have to ask yourself where the balance lies. Do your company values allow you to build value in your product? If so, then the chances are that your valuation will end up right where it needs to be. There’s a fair amount of truth in the thought that, if you handle the small stuff, the big stuff will fall into place.

So with that, I offer you a thought going into the new year — start with your values. The rest will fall into place.

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Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

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This news is devastating to the Southern Coal Fields and our entire state. The Spruce Number One permit was issued years ago after undergoing a comprehensive permitting process. It is hard to understand how the EPA at this late hour ...

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Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

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Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Bruno Mars Continues Hot 100 No. 1 Rotation with 'Grenade ...

Bruno Mars circles back to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as Grenade once again replaces Katy Perry's Firework at No. 1 (1-2).

News Story Details

Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit « Coal Tattoo

Monday, January 10, 2011

Kids Making Money

Andrew Luck is returning to Stanford for 2011

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

ESPN.com has just released an article saying that Stanford star QB Andrew Luck will go back to school for his senior season. Luck was ranked as the No. 1 QB on almost everyone's draft board if he was to come out of school early.

For most teams, he was probably No. 1 on their draft boards. Carolina was suspected to take Luck with the first pick in this year's draft. Carolina said they were interested in the Junior from Houston, Texas.

"'I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012," Luck said in a statement.

Good for Luck. Luck could have entered the draft this year and would have been the hands down No. 1 pick. He could have gotten a contract at least the size of what Sam Bradford got, which was $78 million. He could have started right away on a team that is desperate for a piece to build a team around.

However, Luck made the decision that most would call the wrong one. Why risk your No. 1 draft status to play another year of meaningless college football? Why not go to the NFL and get $40 million in guaranteed money?

I see it differently. Andrew Luck is "true old school," as his dad said. He wants to finish out his college experience and get his degree in architectural design. Props to a man who wants to go back to school and is not interested in the money and the fame and fortune that goes with the NFL life.

The National Enquirer’s cover story this week is yet another epic John Edwards piece. You will remember that the Enquirer was the outlet to break the Edwards affair story, getting the first published photo of John with his love child by Rielle Hunter. The Enquirer has spent a lot of time and money covering the Edwards saga - they have sources deep within the Edwards camp, I believe, and they have consistently broken news about the Edwards family, and all of the legal stuff that surrounds this mess.

Okay, so let’s get into it. First, a piece of information that was widely reported and verified, but that the Enquirer reported first: Elizabeth left John out of her will. Just a week before her death, Elizabeth had a new will filed with her lawyers, and she left all of her money and possessions to her three children. People Mag points out that John is currently living in the home they shared in North Carolina. Now, since the Enquirer story is epic, I’m just going to do bullet points:

*John Edwards proposed to Rielle Hunter just three weeks after burying Elizabeth, while on holiday with Rielle and his kids. He pledged his love to Rielle and promised that eventually they would all “become one big happy family,” says a source.

*During the holidays, John introduced his children to Rielle. Rielle told the children to “call me Mommy.”

*All of this is in direct violation of Elizabeth’s dying wishes. A source says: “This is the absolute last thing in the world Elizabeth wanted… Rielle is the woman she once labeled ‘pathetic’ and ‘a home wrecker’ and a ‘blackmailing golddigger.’ She did not want John to introduce their kids to his love child - let alone Rielle. She never wanted her kids anywhere near that woman!”

*Elizabeth’s estate is worth an estimated $53 million, all of which is left to her children. Elizabeth also tried to revise her will to ban John from letting their kids meet Rielle and daughter Quinn. Elizabeth and John’s daughter Cate is charged with making sure Elizabeth’s wishes are honored.

*While John did spent Christmas day in Chapel Hill with Elizabeth’s family and his three oldest children, just a few days later, he packed up Cate, Jack and Emma and drove them to Charlotte, NC to meet Rielle. He invited Rielle and Quinn to dinner with the other kids, and introduced them.

*A source says: “John had convinced Cate that the meeting was inevitable - and better they get past it now than wait… Rielle cried with joy when she saw all the children together for the very first time. She had been waiting for this meeting for a very long time - but knew it wouldn’t come until after Elizabeth’s death.”

*The reactions? “It all went off without a hitch. Before you knew it, Jack and Emma were playing with Quinn, and Cate was civil toward Rielle.”

*To cap off the occasion, John proposed. “John pledged his undying love… but nothing is official yet.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition]

Ugh, what is there to say, really? John Edwards is a piece of crap, a moron, a jagoff, and whatever other slur you want to throw at him. But I have to say one little teeny tiny thing… while I understand why Elizabeth was so adamant that her children never meet Rielle or Quinn, I have to admit, it’s not a completely rotten idea for Jack and Emma to meet their half-sibling. Better to be honest about that kind of stuff, especially since Quinn is just an innocent little girl. However, all of the Rielle junk… Gawd, this bitch. And John is still so… dumb. Rielle is psychotic, really and truly. And she doesn’t deserve to have those kids in her life.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Rielle Hunter photos courtesy of GQ.

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Friday, January 7, 2011

Making Money Marketing

Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.

When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.

Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.

While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.

1. There Will Be a Tipping Point

While campaigning and marketing share many similarities, the differences mean everything when you’re talking about democracy’s big picture. Brands can sell by hitting a tech savvy demographic of influencers. Elections involve everyone, whether they’re online or not.

If a large bloc of your constituency is made up of 65+ year-old retirees, chances are a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook strategy won’t be time well spent. Despite the enthusiasm of the tech crowd and blogosphere, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter is exceedingly far from the mainstream, with only 6% of Americans using the service. And while the world consumes YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos at a mind-bending rate, viral success is still transient and elusive.

While these tools have certainly proven to be effective in rallying support and contributions, we don’t yet live in a world where social media can make or break a political candidate by itself.

That will change, perhaps even by the next major election cycle.

The future of the social media politician is not about wild speculation and technological uncertainties. It has everything to do with when and how deeply social media can be absorbed into mainstream culture. We are on track for a tipping point — a JFK/Nixon TV debate moment — when everyone on the political scene will acknowledge that we can never go back to campaigns without social.

2. New Media Strategists Will Just Be Strategists

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with the new media strategists for a number of senators, congresspeople and political causes. Despite their differences, they all agree that their own jobs will soon be folded into the larger campaign strategy. As many have already foreseen, social media will not require experts for much longer. As we head toward true mainstream adoption, social will be a default and well-understood tool in the belt of any public-facing professional.

We’ve already seen this happening in the private sector with marketing and PR professionals. As many corporate entities lumber to catch up with those on the cutting edge, so too will government officials and the campaigners who seek their offices.

3. We’ll See the Devaluation of Old Media in Politics/>

Print and radio ads are not as valuable as TV. TV will no longer be as valuable as interactive media. For politics, this is especially so, as the arena (at its best, anyway) warrants engagement and discussion.

As media appetites shift, this is an inevitability. In the U.S., we’re already seeing web use catch up with television in terms of weekly hours spent. Political money will simply go where the eyeballs are, and we’re likely to see a big payoff on social creativity when it comes to future campaigns.

4. Whistle Blowing Gets More Efficient, But That’s It

The WikiLeaksclass="blippr-nobr">Wikileaks saga has ignited plenty of discussion about journalism and whistle blowing in the Internet age. But at the end of the day, the mechanics of an information leak are about the same as they’ve always been: Someone from within an organization leaks damaging information, and the media (in whatever form) disseminates it to the public. Generally speaking, WikiLeaks has only acted as a “middle man” for raw information. It’s journalists who are making sense of it and transmitting it to the public with context.

The web only speeds up this process through digitization and universal access. Governments and politicians will feel the impact of leaks sooner, but it’s unlikely the methods of protecting sensitive information will be much changed.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think will be social media’s biggest impact on the political process? How long until we see a winning campaign strategy that is purely social? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More Political Resources from Mashable

- How WikiLeaks Became the Story of the Year in 2010 [VIDEO]/> - The Future of Social Media and Politics/> - How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results/> - How the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” Nailed Social Media/> - 17 Web Resources to Help You Decide on Election Day

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

Now that it’s 2011 and we’re back in the swing of things, a lot of startups are already undoubtedly laying out their launch plans for the year. And while anytime seems like a good time around these parts, a lot of startups pencil in the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas as a good potential launching point. Why? Because it’s early in the year (early March), with a ton of people and hype, and a few of the most successful launches in recent years took place there.

You can always tell the most successful launches because the press the following year will say, “who is going to be this year’s ______ of SXSW?” The two most obvious companies that fit that bill are Twitter and Foursquare. (Well technically Twitter didn’t launch at SXSW, but that was definitely their coming out party in 2007.) And coincidentally, two founders of those two companies have taken to Quora today to both answer the question: What is the process involved in launching a startup at SXSW?

Yes, I get to write about Twitter, Foursquare, and Quora in the same post.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams notes that Twitter launched prior to SXSW “to a whimper”. He says that the company made a decision to target SXSW for some publicity in 2007 simply because it seemed like a lot of the then “thousands” of Twitter early-adopters were heading there. He specifically credits two things they did there with helping the explosion of interest.

First, they set up a tweet visualization screens and negotiated with the conference to put them in the main hallways in the Austin Convention Center. “This is something they’d never done before, but we didn’t want a booth on the trade show floor, because we knew hallways is where the action was. We paid $11K for this and set up the TVs ourselves. (This was about the only money Twitter’s *ever* spent on marketing.),” Williams notes.

The second thing they did was to create a SXSW-specific feature that allowed people to join Twitter simply by texting “join sxsw” to their 40404 SMS shortcode. When people did that, they would show up on the screens around the conference. And you’d be following the half-dozen Twitter “ambassadors” that were other users at the conference (consider that the first SUL).

Williams notes, however, that it didn’t seem like a ton of people signed up for the service that way.

“I don’t know what was the most important factor, but networks are all about critical mass, so doubling down on the momentum seemed like a good idea. And something clicked,” he concludes.

Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley offers a different take. His big launch was two years later, at SXSW 2009, and the conference was already much larger at that point. His two main keys to a big SXSW launch are to “hustle” and to do everything in your power to get viral word-of-mouth buzz just before the conference. “Start telling friends and stranger to try out your app,” Crowley writes, saying that they spent $0 on marketing that year.

As for hustling, Crowley says that “we started in January and flipped the switch on 4SQ the Thursday before SXSW. Me & Naveen [his co-founder] were both coding in the airport, on the tarmac, on the runway.”

Crowley also says that you should take advantage of Twitter early on for both feedback and support. “Try to answer as many support + feature requests tweets you can. Get people to spread the love,” he writes.

He also suggests using a service like GetSatisfaction to gather a collection of “superusers” to help out with troubleshooting and bugs.

Finally, he says that it’s probably wise to have someone not at SXSW watching the ship during the actual conference. “It’ll help while you’re doing your thing in Austin,” he says.

But Crowley’s most interesting tidbit comes in a comment below his answer:

don’t focus on the press / media / bloggers.

Focus on making something you think is awesome. Focus on making something you think other people will also think is awesome. The rest will prob just happen.

In an answer below that, Kevin Marks leaves another crucial point:

FIrst of all, be sure that your startup makes sense for SXSW – both Twitter and Foursquare (and indeed Dodgeball) were highly suitable for thousands of geeks crammed into a smallish downtown with intermittent net connectivity and a desire to co-ordinate with each other.

If your startup is an Enterprise Sales tool, you might be better off launching somewhere else.

Consider this the official countdown kickoff to the “who will be this year’s ______ at SXSW” stories.

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

foreclosure victims

Fox News personality and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) recently began appearing in television commercials calling for viewers to dial a 1-800 number to sign a repeal petition against health reform called “Repeal It Now.” The ad, a “project of Restore America’s Voice” (RAV), a political action committee run by Huckabee’s friend Ken Hoagland, also directs viewers to a website that solicits donations [...]

According to disclosures filed with the FEC, RAV’s campaign is managed by a firm called the 949 Media Group. 949 has been paid tens of thousands of dollars to set up RAV’s website and Google search optimization, and receives a regular commission of $10,000 for related media work from RAV. ThinkProgress spoke to a representative from RAV, who told us that 949 is run by an individual named Derek Oberholtzer. According to the representative, Oberholtzer has worked with RAV since the PAC formed in October.

Oberholtzer is well known as scam artist who has used a myriad of tricks to defraud people out of their money. In addition to 949 Media Group, he started a number of companies, including “Apply 2 Save” (A2S) and Giant Media Works. Consumer report websites are rife with complaints about Oberholtzer’s odious business practices. In one scheme, Oberholtzer paid for radio and other advertisements telling distressed homeowners to contact his company A2S to pay a flat $595 fee to receive assistance in renegotiating their loans or to block a bank foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission has prosecuted Oberholtzer for deceptive practices. In numerous cases, Oberholtzer took the $595 payment, and never did anything to stop a foreclosure or even contact the mortgage company in question. In many instances he continued billing his customers further fees totaling nearly $1,000 without lifting a finger to actually renegotiate their mortgage or halt a foreclosure, as his “Apply 2 Save” company promised.

Responding To TP Report, Huckabee Group Fires Scam Artist Who Defrauded Foreclosure Victims

On Tuesday, ThinkProgress reported that former Governor and current Fox News personality Mike Huckabee has been starring in a new health reform ad campaign run by a political consulting firm owned by a notorious scam artist. The firm Huckabee’s group had hired is 949 Media Group, a company run by Derek Oberholtzer — a notorious scam artist who ripped off foreclosure victims. Before going into political work, Oberholtzer ran a company that promised aid to people facing foreclosure. But prosecutors from Idaho and the federal government found that Oberholtzer had systematically robbed his customers by charging them with fees ranging from $595 – $1,500 without doing a thing to help them with their mortgages. Responding to ThinkProgress’s report, Huckabee colleague Ken Hoagland sent Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times a statement indicating that they will fire Oberholtzer:

Ken Hoagland, chairman of Restore America’s Voice said, “We have terminated the services of 949 Media after we saw a web report last night detailing prior complaints involving its participation in certain mortgage relief marketing activities.” Hoagland said that 949 Media was a subcontracting vendor “responsible for web consulting but was never tasked with any management or leadership role” within the growing national campaign, as originally reported. “We were unaware of the seriousness of the past issues with this vendor and we have taken immediate action to terminate the relationship. No public official working with us to repeal the healthcare act had any knowledge of nor relationship with any vendor or subcontractor,” said Hoagland.

Over the years, Huckabee has been accused of using non-profits to enrich himself and his family. Although it is unclear if Huckabee receives any monetary gains from his latest venture, it is laudable he has at least distanced himself from a scam artist like Oberholtzer.

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