I gave a presentation about TrustFabric at the 27 Dinner tonight at One&Only.
The idea was to focus not so much on _how_we_ are solving the problem but to articulate the problem and let people think about how we might solve the problem.
Nice response.
Slides are here:
2010-04-27-tf-27dinner-small (1.2MB PDF)
Went to bed after 2am every night this week..
“I’m more like a Delta male” — Paul V
“Energy goes where energy flows.” — seen of Facebook
“Wow, look at you. I know what you’re thinking: first day in prison, you want to take down the toughest guy in the yard? Well, I’d like to see you try.” — The Missing Link
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go. Oh the Places You’ll Go!” — Dr Seuss
Have a fun week crazy kids.
Seven days of dad-mode.. week of: 5-11Apr
“There is a good reason they call it nit picking mate.” — Andy.
It’s time this blog got a new look. The old look was about the old Joe.
I’ll probably be playing with the new look for the next week or so.. so, just stick to reading the atom feed for a while and ignore the blog theme.
Yesterday I was somebody else (-:
I figured I’d share my song of the day..
“And I wish you all the love in the world,
but most of all, I wish it from myself” — Fleetwood Mac.
Been listening to Three Little Birds. Mia likes it. Bob Marley died at 36. How do you become a legend at 36?
Music, like ideas and religion and software is about reach. How many people can you touch?
We forget just how cool software can be. With a bit of luck software can have the same impact as music. It can spread almost as easily.
Okay, I don’t think you’ll end up on the cover of Rolling Stone with software, but maybe.
I think the better the music, the software or the idea, the less you own it, the more it wants to be free.
I hear this often these days: ideas are easy, they are nothing without execution. People also like to say that innovation is an idea+execution in a new and interesting way.. and not just an idea.
“8. Ideas are like Carbon Monoxide:
They are increasingly abundant and of little use. Don’t be married to your idea and don’t think your idea is worth money. Ideas are worth nothing without execution. Ensure you spend time unpacking your idea and formulating a business plan. The devil is always in the details. Most great businesses started off with an idea that was, at best, only loosely-related to what made them successful. Such is the evolutionary nature of business.” — 10 lessons for tech startups
Sure. I can’t disagree, but ponder this: in my experience you can execute the hell out of a pretty good idea.. but still achieve very little or have a very small impact. Very good ideas have their own momentum. They just have.. no need to keep pushing. They glide.
So, before people convince you it’s all about execution, go have a very good, very big, idea.
Started hacking the social fabric..
“Violence can be used for good…. A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world.” — V for Vendetta
Have a fun week kids. This is a holiday week for me.
This post is very late, well one week late. I was busy.
“Don’t want one. I can’t read.” — Mia, to the waiter at Knead offering her a menu.
Next week to follow soon… that will be week 100.
The muppet of the week is, wait for it…
me!
After some honest reflection, I feel like I got my ass whipped this week.
Why do I think I was a muppet? My Silicon Cape pitch sucked. I pretty much made a fool of myself in front of about 450 people. Sure, it reads ok, but it’s not going to convince anybody to use it or invest in it and I got the format totally wrong.
What can you tell 450 people, who have all had a drink or two, in only 60 seconds that is going to stick with them?
Obviously, what’s going on in my head (I think about this stuff most of the day), is a whole orchestra of ideas. How do I get a single instrument to play a note in the heads of people who are new to these ideas?
Well, it’s not by explaining how it works. It’s by asking the right question. Let me try that pitch again (I’ll just image the 450 people for now).
Hi, I’m Joe and I’m here to tell you about TrustFabric.
How might we, allow you, to take back control of your personal information and allow you to selectively share that information in a way you will trust?
This is our challenge. Let me say that again.. (a bit slower this time)
How might we, allow you, to take back control of your personal information and allow you to selectively share that information in a way you will trust?
We have solved this problem. We are currently running an invite-only alpha service. Come ask me for a business card if you would like to check it out.
Thanks.
This is all you can do in 60 seconds. Now I know (-;
I figure it’s good to get your ass kicked every now and again. Somebody told me it’s the best time to learn about yourself.
I’m happy this happened now, 3 month in.
There is a slightly deeper reason why I think I felt like a muppet and I only realised it now. In the life of a tech start-up there is an interesting mode-change when you start making your idea public. It’s cool to be working away and having a small number of people ask about your little brainchild.. they want to know. It’s a whole different sport to try and get a big number of people interested.
I figure an idea like ours is not something people just jump on when they hear it for the first time. They have to realise the problem first and the problem may be hidden to them for a while. It’s a process of discovery and triangulating the hints that there is something very wrong with the world as it works today.
I’m taking a week off to spend time with Mia.. and then the next 3 month phase begins.
Two Cape Town Entrepreneurs today launched a Cognitive Comment Processing System for blogs & online publications.
Cape Town based Henk Kleynhans (of Skyrove) and Joe Botha (of TrustFabric) today announced that they have launched a new service they’ve been working on for the last year.
This new service is called iQAPTCHA, and, similar to a CAPTCHA which allows blogs and websites to see if a commenter is human, iQAPTCHA will make it easy to verify that a commenter is intelligent, or can make intelligent comments.
“Kleynhans and Botha invented this product after becoming jaded with the low quality of comments by readers on MoneyWeb, news24.com and timeslive.co.za, 3 of their favorite online publicattions.
iQAPTCHA understands online reputation, but for new users it will do basic language checks to start and may ask a short & simple (to smart people) question or two.
Says Kleynhans: “If you answer it wrong, you will be given another chance to answer a second, but slightly more difficult question. In this way, the only way for unintelligent comments to appear would be if an unwanted reader works all night trying to find out the answers to the questions. We hope they will eventually give up or smarten up enough to leave a constructive comment.”
In addition to integrating traditional IQ test-like question, the system will also combine smart Heuristics. Says Botha: “Gone are the days of having to manually remove comments left by ‘muppets’. Comments that are racist, bigoted or simply not well thought out will no longer be a problem. By letting the community vote Up or Down comments, iQAPTCHA learns what qualifies as good comments and can pattern recognize inappropriate ones without having to make the user fill out the iQAPTCHA questions.”
iQAPTCHA will be available as a free service for non-commercial blogs but at a price per comment iQAPTCHA’d for commercial websites. iQAPTCHA is easy to integrate into any existing online publication or content management system. It is currently in Beta.
For more information, please visit: www.iQAPTCHA.com