If you start from successful startups, you find they often behaved like nonprofits. And if you start from ideas for nonprofits, you find they’d often make good startups. –from a Paul Graham classic that’s worth reading in its entirety, repeatedly, and keeping handy in your Instapaper account.
Posts on Effects
The Sun Rises in the East
24 Apr 2010
Etsy’s Treasury is something I’ve long been fascinated by. It’s an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery with some unique constraints. Treasury lists only live for 48 hours. Each list has a limit of 42 comments. You can only create a list if the total number of lists falls below 333 (shorthand for
Finding Yourself Through Your Favorites
03 Apr 2009
Japanese Tumblr users are “addicted to reblogging,” ffffolks on FFFFOUND are defining themselves by the images they find, and Etsians are hearting more items than ever. I’m discovering more about myself as I build up my Etsy Favorites, namely that I’m fond of hand-drawn pattern and complexity: We just need better ways of sharing, organizing, [...]
Search Datamob
31 Jul 2008
Lauren got the search functionality for Datamob up and running, making the site about 1,000 times more useful. Adjustments are in progress but you can subscribe to feeds of search results. Recent additions: NPR API, BBC Backstage, CrunchBase API, CrunchBase Map, TheMiddleClass.org, geophysically scaled economic data, Walk Score, Lee Byron’s San Franscisco Walkability Map, Toby [...]
Summer Remix
28 Jul 2008
A personal announcement: After more than four years immersed in all things web-, blog- and ecommerce-related at the 92nd Street Y (new look/season/brand launching Thursday)—a place I love and have had the privilege of contributing to while working alongside some truly amazing people—I’m moving on to another amazing place: Etsy. Specifically the product team. And [...]
And We’re Back
26 Jun 2008
Back up and running after a sudden barrage of generous linking from Joshua Schachter, Andy Baio, Jack Dorsey, Valleywag, Boing Boing, Daring Fireball, Download Squad, CNET’s Webware, UTNE Reader, Bub.blicio.us and other good folks. Servers don’t hold up as well as paper.
Charticle Theory
06 May 2008
(FFFFOUND) Top interface tags on Datamob usa 26 (52%) government 23 (46%) maps 14 (28%) language 7 (14%) business 7 (14%) Standards-based bar chart via Wilson Miner. Recent blips: interactive Voronoi treemaps, basketball data visualizations, Watchdog.net. Datamob-compliant APIs: MAPLight, GovTracker, AMEE, Project Vote Smart, Civic Footprint. Coffee table: The Alphabet Abecedarium, Mashups, Miscellany.
All Bookish Social Networks Considered
20 Mar 2008
NPR’s Martha Woodroof interviewed me for a piece on bookish social networks last month and the spot aired on All Things Considered today. Check it out here. Since the interview I’ve been all over LibraryThing. And since LibraryThing started bridging the gap between virtual and real bookish social networks with LibraryThing Local, GoodReads has hooked [...]
