Midas Oracle .ORG » Jason Calacanis

Is Apple becoming evil? — Jason Calacanis vs Guy Kawasaki

Chris F. Masse — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:04:47 +0000

External Links: Paul Graham’s criticism of Apple + Phil Schiller Grants Interview About Appleâ€™s App Store, Claims Devs Actually Like Approval Process. + The BusinessWeek interview + iPhone developers are stupid.

User revolt against the de facto monopolies in prediction markets?

Chris F. Masse — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:13:23 +0000

InTrade (in the U.S.) and BetFair (in the U.K.) are de facto monopolistic, real-money prediction exchanges. Will those monopolies spur users to revolt? Will we see an open-source movement in prediction markets? That’s the question I asked privately to some of our good friends. The guys admit they don’t have the first clue, but are interested in the question being asked. Are you?

That revolt against Apple was the seed for this present post. Enjoy —it is an excellent reading. Disclosure: I am now a Mac (since the beginning of 2009). I have no iPhone. I don’t use iTunes. I use open-source browsers. And I like the concept behind Google Voice.

Michael Weiss of Gawker is misinformed about the wisdom of crowds.

Chris F. Masse — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:06:14 +0000

His Jason Calacanis-inspired critique of The Wisdom Of Crowds is an abyssal nullity.

James Surowiecki is a great thinker, and the principles behind the wisdom of crowds are effective. (see point #3.)

The Most Important Discussion On Marketing I Followed This Early Morning

Chris F. Masse — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:05:04 +0000

Michael Giberson and Robin Hanson are fond of Inkling Markets’ Godfather, Paul Graham. I am not. I am more interested in Robert Scoble, Loic Le Meur, and Jason Calacanis. With other bloggers, they started a discussion on modern-days public relations.

Here are the good points they made, along with my associated thoughts:

Loic Le Meur:

A very good product, by itself, will get you users and traction. TradeSports, BetFair, HubDub and NewsFutures attained success because early users like those services.
The CEO (e.g., Emile Servan-Schreiber, Adam Siegel, Nigel Eccles, and John Delaney) should be the spokesperson of the company. [As a counter-point, see the point #9, there.]
You should build your community without marketing and promoting in mind —more like entertaining and helping friends of yours, than pitching prospects.

Jason Calacanis:

“Evolution is the rÃ©volution.” Everything is iteration. Look at the fantastic R&D that BetFair is building into its products.
Don’t be a smart ass. Be a smart entrepreneur. Start something (a company, a group blog, whatever). That way you will be able to “iterate”. (Remember point #1? ) The best decision that David Perry made in his life was to start off Consensus Point with Ken Kittlitz.

Robert Scoble:

You should create visually rich experiences. Prediction exchanges (like InTrade and BetFair) should focus on developing dynamic, compound chart widgets with customizable news markers.
Have luck. Luck is part of the success. Go reading Robert Scoble’s point #3 on Qik.com.

Whose side are you on?

Chris F. Masse — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:58:22 +0000

Michael Arrington refers to this blog post, which I have already linked to.

I’m rather in the Mike Arrington camp, but I’m not necessarily proud of it. (Ducan Riley would tell me to “get fu****“. )

I would be interested to have Adam Siegel or David Perry’s opinion on all that. Or Mat Fogarty… Or Emile Servan-Schreiber. Or John Delaney. Or else.

Digital Wrist Slapping

Chris F. Masse — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:55:14 +0000

Explainer: Michael Arrington is Ducan Riley’s boss —and Michael Arrington’s post (which prompted the 2 comments you see above) happened to contradict Ducan Riley’s previous take on the issue. (See Robert Scoble’s take, for more info on the general issue, if you need. More by the same Scobble. See also Fred Wilson. And Ducan Riley. Mark Cuban. Mike Arrington.)