Terry Gold – CEO of Gold Systems – has a great post up about his experience with speech recognition on the Palm 700W (and yes – he finds some documentation errors on the Microsoft website.) Terry has been working with the application of speech recognition to computing – both at a business and consumer level – for as long as I’ve known him and – if you are interested in this area – he’s a guy you should know and keep track of.
Not surprisingly, some lawyers have suggested that Jason and I are now 409A experts and that we have been dispensing 409A advice. Nothing could be further from the truth – we are merely expressing our opinions as lay people affected by 409A about what we think is going on. Of course, since lawyers have written us, we feel compelled to clarify. Fortunately, the IRS gives us a way to do this, as follows:
Circular 230 Disclaimer: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.
Of course, since I’m neither a lawyer or an account, this all feels a little silly. However, Jason is a lawyer and – well – he thinks it’s patently absurd. Now, if you want any advice on the best way to watch 24 on Sunday night, feel free to ask.
I’m a huge James Frey fan – I loved both of his books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard. He’s recently been beaten up for embellishing his story as The Man Who Conned Oprah. Richard Bradley also takes him to task on the always “entertaining and stimulating” Huffington Post. James Frey and the story about his story have been on the Technorati Top 10 List for the past few days, once again demonstrating that all press is good publicity (I’m sure there were plenty of other books bought as a result of all the discussion.)
I’ve read through a bunch of this stuff out of a perverse curiosity about the whole situation. The negative rhetoric seems to be “Frey wrote a memoir, stated that it was the truth, but he embellished a bunch of it and, when confronted, he and the publisher (Doubleday) lied (e.g. they denied the embellishment), causing millions of people to shell out money for a book that is a lie.”
The irony of this whole thing is amazing. First, if you read the book, you know that the protagonist of the book (presumably 100% Frey) has a bunch of major issues with truth, trust, confrontation, and his own self image. His climb out of a Hades-depth pit of despair is part of the brilliance of this book. To think that his self-described pit was “precisely accurate”, his journey was “exactly correct” and his actions and emotional responses were “absolutely honest” is ludicrous if you know even a tiny bit about psychology. As a friend said, “the dude is seriously fucked up” and – given this backdrop – you’d assume that there would be “some issues.”
Now – there were probably some tactical mistakes on the part of his editors and handlers at Doubleday for not (a) being proactive about saying “this is a memoir – some names and events might have been modified”, and (b) handling the backlash better (e.g. don’t issue an outright denial and hope the issue goes away.) While there is an expectation that a memoir is “true to significant facts”, I’ve read my share of memoirs (and autobiographies) for people that I know of where I’ve got to believe there has been embellishment – I think it’s always hard to be precisely self-reflective – a person will exaggerate both the good (more good) and the bad (more bad). And – these people aren’t – in the words of my friend – “seriously fucked up.”
Even if you have the backdrop of embellishment in advance, these are still absolutely remarkable books which is the unfortunately point that gets lost in the rhetoric. The noise around this makes me think of the rapidly shifting sentiment around the accuracy of published content. I’ve always taken what I read in the newspaper at face value and it startles me to hear people saying things like “but it was in the New York Times – it must be true.” C’mon – I recognize the value of an editorial process, but do you really believe that everything we see on Fox News is completely true and objective?
I expect this issue will keep ping-ponging around for a while, especially if Frey (or Doubleday) tries to justify his position. I’d recommend he add the appropriate disclaimer, apologize to anyone that feels deceived, and gets on with writing his next book (which I’m very much looking forward to, whatever it is.)
There’s been some chatter – stimulated by Jeff Jarvis – about the generic advice given on many VC blogs (e.g. “Dear World, Here’s My Top 10 Tips For A Better Startup.”) While I hopefully don’t end up in the lame category, I expect that I produce my share of generic, generally uninspiring content.
Yesterday, I received a “Client Alert” from one of the name brand Silicon Valley law firms. I get these all the time from most law firms – they are “marketing activities” from them to show VCs how smart they are and – presumably – to help VCs stay on top of important issues. Ironically, while I expect most of these firms have double checked to make sure they comply with CAN-SPAM, I know that many of them don’t use good UCE hygiene (specifically, I never opted in – they simply put me on the email list since they have my email address in their system somewhere.)
When reading the advisory, titled “Website Tips and Suggestions”, two thoughts came to mind. Thought one was “man, these dudes have way too much time on their hands” and thought two was “aha – this is why many VC blogs (and websites) are so lame.” Here’s the specific section that talks about blogs.
Beware of Blogs
From a legal perspective, there may be little or no difference between a Firm’s “official” website and the business-related blogs maintained by one or more of the Firm’s members. So long as a blog’s content relates to the Firm’s activities, any statements or activities made or conducted through the blog may be attributed to the Firm. As a general matter, the best course is to treat blogs as part of the official website—if material is unsuitable for the official website, it most likely will be unsuitable for a blog as well.
One of the greatest challenges associated with blogs is the informal style adopted by many blog writers. It is important to note that informal style is just that—a style. Whether a blog’s style is formal, informal, or somewhere in-between, its content should adhere to the same standards of care and propriety as any other document published by the Firm.
Similar considerations apply to “podcasts” and other evolving forms of communication.
The way I read this, it says “Don’t Blog – Too Dangerous.” Give me a break. How about a simpler approach.
Oops – I just gave my fellow VCs advice on something – not good – guys – this is not legal advice – just my opinion – please check with your law firm.
Tom Evslin’s fantastic blook hackoff.com: An Historic Murder Mystery set in the Internet Bubble and Rubble – soon to be available in traditional book form – is now available as a podcast. Subscribing to the podcast is easy and Tom’s done a nice job of providing options via RSS (for the blook and the podcast.) Look for some of your friends (me, Fred Wilson, several others) to guest star as some of your favorite characters (yes – Fred and I will play VCs) in upcoming podcasts.
I speak at a lot of conferences – I’m basically happy to give a speech or sit on a panel if I’m in the town when the conference is happening (I don’t want to have to travel to speak since I travel all the time, but if it’s convenient, I do it), have time, and feel I have something to add on the topic in question. I generally do this for the intrinsic satisfaction of participating and whatever intangible second order effects result (e.g. who the hell knows why I really do this, other than I enjoy it.) Yeah – I’m a panel whore.
While I usually get a live thank you in real time, I’ll occasionally get a handwritten thank you note after the fact (very nice – the people who do this should be pleased that their mothers’ trained them well.) Sometimes I get a token of appreciation in the useless gift category (a pen with a sponsors name on it, some little plaque, or some other left over schwag.)
I spoke at Metzger Associates First Annual New Media Summit last night. The intrinsic benefit factor was high (the panel was fun, it was a good audience, it was local, Amy came and cheered me on, and I got to go out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (The Kitchen) with Amy afterwards since we were in Boulder.) This morning, an unexpected surprise showed up in my inbox – an Amazon gift certificate for $50 with a thank you. Of all the things I’ve gotten for being a presenter or panelist, I think this one is the most useful. It caused me to stop, smile, think happy thoughts about Metzger, appreciate that this is actually a functionally useful thank you gift, and then feel inspired to blog about it.
When someone gives you their time for free, it’s easy to thank them, but it’s rare that people think creatively about how to show appreciation. Metzger did a great (and relatively inexpensive) job of that – Seth Godin would be proud of them.
From the guys who brought us Candy Bar Sex (Chris Wand and his dad Martin) comes the best Google search I’ll do today.
Entertainingly, when I do an “I’m Feeling Lucky” on my name, my blog comes up. Maybe I should write a Greasemonkey script that changes the button to “I’m Feeling Ego-Self-Referential.”
Seth Levine has a great post up about the dynamics of exit value in a startup. If you wonder why there are so many relatively quick deals for startups under $50 million but it takes a relatively long time for a deal to reach the point where it can command an exit value of $200 million plus, get a cup of coffee and settle in for a good read.
If you happen to be in Boulder tonight, Metzger Associates is putting on a “New Media Summit” tonight at The City Club (885 Arapahoe) from 4pm to 7pm. It’ll be a panel – moderated by Matt Branaugh (the Boulder Daily Camera Business Editor) and features:
There are still a few seats left – it’s a limited group so if you are around and interested, contact Julie Ludwig at Metzger by email or call her at 303 786 7000 to RSVP. The cost is $25 and you’ll end up being well fed (and probably entertained.)