Stowe Boyd

No, We Should Not Protest The Yahoo Tumblr Acquisition

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:22:00 -0400

Paul Higgins wonders if we should oppose the Tumblr acquisition by Yahoo:

Paul Higgins, The Community, Tumblr and Yahoo - Do we Protest?

There are a couple of services that are really important to my life and my business. One of them is Tumblr and the other is Evernote. In promoting Evernote for example I often tell people that if Microsoft buys it I will retire. That is because it has become so important to my work flow and because of my view that large corporations hardly ever get these sort of services right.

Tumblr is equally important to me in a different way and I am part of the community and honoured to be one of the Tech editors, and have almost 200,000 followers.

There are rumours going around that Yahoo is in negotiations to buy Tumblr which worries me a hell of a lot. Let me be clear that I have no problems with the founders and investors making money off the contributions of the community but I worry what would happen to Tumblr in the hands of a large entity.

In a world where business models like these require both the founders and investors to contribute and create but the community to contribute and create as well, valuations and business strategies have a different flavour. No community and there is no business valuation. If you have similar concerns then please reblog or like this post. I intend such support to be a signal to both Tumblr and Yahoo (if the rumours are true) that the community is concerned and should be involved in the decision making process. Maybe that is thinking with delusions of grandeur or maybe it isn’t - over to you the community to decide.

I like Paul, and I can understand his concerns, but I don’t think we should protest this acquisition, but instead welcome it.

Tumblr is confronted with the growing attention of its most direct competitors — Facebook and Twitter — both of which have large and well-established management teams. Also, it’s not so obvious competitors — Google and Microsoft — are waiting in the wings to buy or copy Tumblr. In a way reminiscent of Zuckerberg, David Karp is a young man under intense pressure to grow what he stated in high school into a company that will pay back today’s investors 10X or more on an $800M valuation. Oh, and keep a growing, fickle, and international community of users coming back for more. His genius has certainly been focused toward building the Tumblr architecture and staying close to his vision. But he doesn’t necessarily have the skill set, the team, or the inclination to do all the things needed for the next 10X growth. He may turn out to be Steve Jobs, but that remains to be seen.

My worry is that he could wind up bringing in someone promising as COO, to help push forward, Karp may wind up being Mitch Kapor at Lotus, who hired Jim Manzi, and wound up losing the battle for the office suite to a late-to-the-game Microsoft. Or creating something like the Sculley mess a Apple.

Despite my concerns about Marissa Mayer’s ‘no remote work’ edict — which can be read most generously as an effort to reanimate a dispirited organizational culture, and less generously as an effort to indoctrinate the Yahoos with a top-down, Googlish entrepreneurial fervor — she has been making good acquisitions in the past months, and I believe that she has the chops to help Tumblr crack the code of advertising.

Mayer’s tenure at Google would translate into the skills needed to support Tumblr in growth on the operational side — keeping the service up and humming — and working to make revenue flow. Also, by selling at the price that Yahoo is willing to pay, today, to suit Yahoo’s needs, Karp, his investors, and his team will be able to decrease or obviate the possibility of bad technical or strategic decisions later, forced by the need to grow revenue or execute a dubious liquidity path. That turn of events is the one I worry about most, not becoming another Flickr in Yahoo’s bullpen.

So, for whatever negligible influence I might have on events, I cast my hypomythical ballot in favor of this deal, because chance are it could turn out great, and a purchase by Microsoft, or the possibility of a Lotus turn of events two years from now, for example, worries me much more.

studio630: Infographic: The Intricate Anatomy Of UX...

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:08:46 -0400

studio630:

Infographic: The Intricate Anatomy Of UX Design

THIS MEGA GRAPHIC ATTEMPTS TO TACKLE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UX AND ALL OTHER ASPECTS OF DESIGN.

Via FastCoDesign

Yahoo rumored to be in negotiations to buy Tumblr — Stowe Boyd via GigaOM Research

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:59:14 -0400

Yahoo rumored to be in negotiations to buy Tumblr — Stowe Boyd via GigaOM Research:

The AllThingsD team was in attendance at JP Morgan’s Global Technology conference and heard the Yahoo CFO, Ken Goldman, admit that Yahoo needs to regain its “cool” image again. (Did it every have that?) And either Goldman or some other credible sources spilled to the AllThingsDers that Marissa Mayer thinks Tumblr could be the answer, or part of it.

Bill Russell on Playing In The Zone

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:49:31 -0400

Playing ‘in the zone’ is what many athletes call their experience of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s flow state, the complete absorption in what you are doing.

Bill Russell, Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man

Every so often a Celtics game would heat up so that it became more than a physical or even mental game, and would be magical. That feeling is difﬁcult to describe, and I certainly never talked about it when I was playing. When it happened, I could feel my play rise to a new level. It came rarely, and would last anywhere from ﬁve minutes to a whole quarter, or more. Three or four plays were not enough to get it going. It would surround not only me and the other team, and even the referees. At that special level, all sorts of odd things happened: The game would be in the white heat of competition, and yet somehow I wouldn’t feel competitive, which is a miracle in itself. I’d be putting out the maximum effort, straining, coughing up parts of my lungs as we ran, and yet I never felt the pain. The game would move so quickly that every fake, cut, and pass would be surprising, and yet nothing could surprise me. It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells, I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken. Even before the other team brought the ball inbounds, I could feel it so keenly that I’d want to shout to my teammates, ‘it’s coming there!’—except that I knew everything would change if I did. My premonitions would be consistently correct, and I always felt then that I not only knew all the Celtics by heart, but also all the opposing players, and that they all knew me. There have been many times in my career when I felt moved or joyful, but these were the moments when I had chills pulsing up and down my spine.

[…]

On the ﬁve or ten occasions when the game ended at that special level, I literally did not care who had won. If we lost, I’d still be as free and high as a sky hawk.

Moving so fast that everything is a surprise and yet nothing surprises.

Emergent business has to play at the edge, in the flow, dancing just before the point where it trips.

"Gretel Ehrlich said of those yawning Wyoming spaces that she loves, “Its absolute indifference..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 04:27:11 -0400

“Gretel Ehrlich said of those yawning Wyoming spaces that she loves, “Its absolute indifference steadied me.” I know what she meant. We spend our days trying to be big. In the middle of nowhere, though, we can surrender to smallness again and instead find where we fit in the landscape. Out there, where there’s nothing, is where there’s the most to learn.”

- Christopher Solomon, A Case for Getting Far, Far Away

z-x-y: Settlements and City Strategies by olalekan...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:47:38 -0400

z-x-y:

Settlements and City Strategies by olalekan jeyifous

This series contains abstracted planimetric drawings and eerily-serene cityscapes that suggest the changing contours of urban settlements. They represent an idea of a degenerate futurism, yet one might find similar typologies and scenes in places such as the favelas of Brazil and North Africa, and in overpopulated cities such as Lagos, Mexico City, and Mumbai. Though outputted digitally, the drawings possess a textured and painterly quality as a result of combining hand-drawn sketches, industrial textures, surfaces of deteriorated paper, and digital architectural models.
A constant interplay between digital and analog processes is important in my work, resulting in a highly layered set of documents. The drawings presented here started out as digital images that were outputted, sketched and drawn over, and scanned back into the computer in order to be retraced, textured, and layered

"There’s nothing stupid about seeing Google being pitted “versus” other companies. They want..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:45:12 -0400

“There’s nothing stupid about seeing Google being pitted “versus” other companies. They want everything; their ambition is boundless.”

- John Gruber, ‘Google Versus’

KC Hong, The Manong Pusher Manila’s squatters have devised...

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:42:53 -0400

KC Hong, The Manong Pusher

Manila’s squatters have devised their own mode of transportation, themanong. The manong is a 4 foot by 8 foot wooden box cart with custom-made wheels powered by a single person. These rickety push carts provide a cheaper alternative to traveling between major spots in the city, such as the Polytechnic University of Philippines and between the various squats. Using existing train tracks, manong pushers have created their own intra-city network that saves commuters at least half an hour of transit. The carts are placed on railways and the pusher runs along the track pushing the cart, jumping on and off again to keep it in constant motion. In areas with heavier traffic, where trains run every 15 minutes from both directions, pushers have to immediately evacuate their carts and pull them aside to prevent a collision.

"It’s time to stop thinking of computer programming as a specialty subject. Schools should respect it..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:25:11 -0400

“It’s time to stop thinking of computer programming as a specialty subject. Schools should respect it as a fundamental skill.”

- Why High Schools Should Treat Computer Programming Like Algebra - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic (via infoneer-pulse)

Wow.

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:12:24 -0400

Wow.

Taking Down Disqus Comments

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:42:34 -0400

I am finding that Disqus style comments are increasingly out of step on Tumblr. The overwhelming majority of interaction here is native Tumblr reposting, likes, and replies.

If you are a Tumblr non-user, I suggest you get an account and try it. Here’s a post where I describe how rich the ‘inside view’ is at Tumblr.

If you’d like to chat with me about something posted here you can try @stoweboyd on Twitter, click on the ‘contact me’ or ‘ask me anything’ in the right hand margin.

"People tend to sit most where there are more places to sit."

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:04:10 -0400

“People tend to sit most where there are more places to sit.”

- William H White, The Social Life of Small Places

And, in cities, what other characteristic jumps out about where people sit: there are many people sitting there, too, so — at peak times — it turns out to be a place where it is difficult to find a place to sit.

"All new ideas comes from dreams."

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:19:22 -0400

“All new ideas comes from dreams.”

- Tomonori Kagaya (via Springwise)

Facebook Phone Flops

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:50:05 -0400

Wow, it’s even worse of an idea than I thought.

Zach Epstein, HTC First discontinued by AT&T: First ‘Facebook phone’ a flop

The HTC First, or “Facebook phone” as many prefer to call it, is officially a flop. It certainly wasn’t a good sign when AT&T dropped the price of HTC’s First to $0.99 just one month after its debut, and now BGR has confirmed that HTC and Facebook’s little experiment is nearing its end. BGR has learned from a trusted source that sales of the HTC First have been shockingly bad. So bad, in fact, that AT&T has already decided to discontinue the phone.

Our source at AT&T has confirmed that the HTC First, which is the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home pre-installed, will soon be discontinued and unsold inventory will be returned to HTC. How much unsold inventory is there? We don’t have an exact figure, but things aren’t looking good. According to our source, AT&T sold fewer than 15,000 units nationwide through last week when the phone’s price was slashed to $0.99.

I wonder if that’s the end of Facebook Home, or just this variant?

(via INCIDENTAL COMICS: Rules for Freelancers)

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:28:31 -0400

(via INCIDENTAL COMICS: Rules for Freelancers)

"Families who are living in poverty did not spend this nation into debt, and we should not be trying..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:11:00 -0400

“Families who are living in poverty did not spend this nation into debt, and we should not be trying to balance the budget on their backs.”

- Kirsten Gillibrand

"It’s about moments in life that are great but don’t last. They don’t go on, but you always have the..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:36:00 -0400

“It’s about moments in life that are great but don’t last. They don’t go on, but you always have the memory and they have an effect on you. That’s what I was thinking about.”

- Sofia Coppola on Lost In Translation

springwise: Roving agency ‘pops up’ for 48-hour projects at...

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:34:47 -0400

springwise:

Roving agency ‘pops up’ for 48-hour projects at client sites

We’ve seen virtually innumerable variations on the “pop-up” theme over the years, but recently we came across one we hadn’t seen before. Enter the Pop Up Agency, a group of six creative students who take residency at clients’ sites for 48 hours, deliver a concept or strategy, and then move on to their next destination. READ MORE…

inthedarkarcade: Following on from my previous post, I also did...

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:33:44 -0400

inthedarkarcade:

Following on from my previous post, I also did the TV programme’s cover.

It was more than a little daunting drawing Crumb as his self portraits are such impressive things in the first place.

Here are the festival details, from my previous post:

I did this illustration for All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, curated by TV on the Radio, this weekend. A music festival that invites a different band each time to select the other artists that perform. More information here: http://www.atpfestival.com/

There are TVs in all the chalets and the festival+band pick what you watch.

I’m going to be doing some comics/illustration related thing at the next festival in June - http://www.atpfestival.com/events/deerhunter.php

If you’re going let me know and we can arrange to become drunken together.

A great premise for a conference too. Pick a conference chair who picks all the speakers. (That’s what I did for the Social Business Edge conference in 2010.)

"I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:23:26 -0400

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”

- John Cage