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You know how you meet someone smart and you don't know what they did? Discover what I learned about this guy: - http://www.flickr.com/photos...

February 4 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Jumpitz, Timo Heuer, Gökmen Karasu and 76 other people liked this

I went home and Google'd him and learned he co-discovered the Ebola virus. Some people, when you meet them, you just know they are smart. They exude smartness. They make you feel humble without even saying a single word. I felt that around Peter Piot, I shot his badge, not to remember his face but so I would remember his name to do some research on later. I was blown away. This is the problem with Davos. You get thrust into a room with 50 interesting people and you have no idea what makes them interesting. I wish I had known more about Peter before I had met him, but there is something interesting about the serendipity of meeting someone new. Some of the most interesting people I've met have been people I've met out of the blue. How about you? - Robert Scoble from Bookmarklet

29 more comments

Interestingly enough I have dozens of experiences like this every week, without going to Davos. Especially in airplanes, because there you're forced to sit next to someone. I still remember the day I was sitting next to the CEO of REI. I've met interesting school teachers and plumbers and IT managers and tons of other people that way. Another day I met Larry Tesler, former Apple exec. Have you ever met someone who surprised you? - Robert Scoble

It's one of my driving wishes, being able to work with and interact with smart people. And I will agree with you that the most interesting people you meet by chance - but perhaps in part it is because we would be less intrigued by the people we set out to meet, having been more prepared for them? I envy you your chance to meet and talk with people like this in Davos, make the most of it else we'll all pounce on you ;) - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Joelle: I try, but the problem is that at Davos (and all conferences, really) you meet people like Peter and you know they did something interesting with their lives but you have no idea what it is. Because you only get fleeting moments with people at conferences by the time you figure it out they usually are gone. Now the hard work begins where we try to get a second chance and an interview! :-) - Robert Scoble

Incidentally that is perhaps one of the reasons I dont have an mp3 player and have the (very swiss/german) tendency to not sit alone at meals even when I am alone - to not isolate myself from meeting people. People are just about the most fascinating thing on earth! Even on the train / tube / plane or while waiting for something. I have learned about everything from preserving the pink... more... - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

But Robert others must say that about you? :) - Tina Clarke

Tina: oh, that's true. - Robert Scoble

I met my future wife in the badly-signposted grounds of Villa Borghese - she had a map, and I needed to know where the heck the villa itself was. I had two words of Italian, she had two words of English, and the gallery was closed for the day, so we went off for a walk instead. - Sean

By the way, I uploaded dozens of photos from Davos of people. All of whom can be found on Google. That too is something very cool that has developed in the past few years: the fact that we can learn a ton about nearly everyone. I didn't find a single person I couldn't find something about on Google. - Robert Scoble

What if you were initially impressed with someone you met in person but couldn't find anything about them via Google? - Mattb4rd

How far away are we from an app that will take the photo input (picture of someone's name badge) and automatically (within a minute) return information on them - bio, sites, etc - Wayne Schulz

Mattb4rd: then I would start wondering. I would probably pull up their business card and call them and say "why can't I find anything about you on Google?" That probably would lead to an interesting conversation. - Robert Scoble

Wow you're up early :) - Mattb4rd

Wayne: not far at all. Evernote already does some of that. Conference presenters could include info in a QR code on the badge that could be used with a cell phone. - Robert Scoble

I got the same feeling when I met the CEO of Parallels last year at WHD'08. There are quite some amazing people out there are ar not showcased enough. Most of them just like their privacy and are not "hungry for PR" - Lorand R. Minyo

I was fortunate enough to have David Soul (Hutch! of the show Starsky & Hutch from the 1970's) sit next to me at an education conference in LA around 1985.... that was an amazing day! He was very friendly and did not mind me gushing over his career (I was only a teen and really loved his work). He was homeschooling his kids! I was new to the process as was he... we shared lots of feedback / ideas...very cool. I was able to share my experience as a student; and he as the parent / teacher - Susan Beebe

If you want to find very interesting people right in your own town, head over to your local nursing home. You'll be amazed at what you'll learn and you'll feel good for doing it. You never know who you might meet and they'll be there next week if you want to go back to interview them. No need to travel around the world to find interesting people. You'll find amazing people in nursing homes who've essentially been written off by society. Seriously, try it! - Scott Maentz

I had breakfast at a conference a couple of years back with Professor Urban Ungerstedt, a Nobel Prize committee member, who I later found out had invented an incredible medical procedure called cerebral microdialysis. Weird thing is he sought me out for some advice on one of my specialist subjects which is surely one mark of a smart person. - Nicola Quinn

I wouldn't know where to begin, I meet interesting people all the time - paul mooney

Really liked what you said Robert... - Didier Lahely

Imagine if his badge had had a mobile barcode on it - the QR you mention, perhaps - which you could have snapped on your mobile device, and got profile info about him right away. No need for Googling for basic info, you would have already had that. That could have influenced what you did there and then, before you got home. Not a common standard yet, though. - Neville Hobson

+1 for Neville's comment - Andrew Terry

When I first started Following you on Twitter...I had NO idea who you were in the SM world..One day I addressed some comment to you...You replied to me..."Please email your comments to me so I can ignore you there just as easily as I ignore you on Twitter." Being new to Twitter, I was taken a back and my feelings were hurt. SO I Googled you. I still Followed you because I felt you had a... more... - SashaKane

The modest few, Robert. - mandyvan

ROTFLMAO as they say: "Please email your comments to me so I can ignore you there just as easily as I ignore you on Twitter." - Nick in Manila

SashaKane: sorry about that. I was having a bad day or something. I just wanted to get you to be public with me instead of private. I'd rather live my life completely in public, as much as possible. I really hate DMs, by the way, even though I've given up that particular fight and now try to answer them. - Robert Scoble

That was the best part of working as a research chemist, the intelligent, motivated people I got to work with. Unfortunatly, the corperate culture and I didn't get along; and government backed research is a mind-numbing waste of time. - Robert Hafer

Being in the music industry most of mine are "rockstars". After getting treated like crap by the band Tool (before they were really famous), me and my camera crew tucked our collective tail between our legs and started home. We stopped by a little gas station to fill up and another long haired guy was filling up too. I just started talking it up with him because I find people interesting. Turned out he was the drummer for Pearl Jam. We did an interview and previewed VS before it was mixed! - MarkCarras

Robert, talking of virus experts, Prof Vincent Rancaniello who has done a lot of work on the polio virus is on FF - he joined the Life Science room FTW http://friendfeed.com/profvrr - Sally Church

Sally: wow. - Robert Scoble

It's funny when he liked an item in there http://friendfeed.com/e... I was thinking, "the name's familiar" and was Googling it then Maureen chipped in and I was like 'wow' too, it's a small world on the internets. - Sally Church

Robert Scoble

On plane I am sitting next to John Bohn. Was an economist for Reagan. What he has to say is more depressing than CNBC.

February 5 - Comment - Like - Share

Iggy Mwangi, Caio, Roney Smith and 77 other people liked this

So tell us more. What did he have to say? - Alexander Falk

68 more comments

Please interview him and post it. Video would be great! - Alain Saffel

Wow, you can't escape. - Shawn Farner

We're all screwed /conversation - Dean Clark

He is California's Public Utilities Commissioner too. Thinks focusing on executive pay is misguided. Says the stimulus bill is just pork and won't create short term jobs. Thinks the financial system is broken and needs an overhaul. Says that capitalism might have been harmed permanently by bankers and wall street. - Robert Scoble

Let me guess, massive government spending ISN'T what we need right now? How about further tax cuts WITH fiscal responsibility? As we learned with the Reagan administration (and as with JFK too) tax cuts are good for the economy. - Kevin

Wait till our troops finally come home too! Hundreds of thousands of our youth will be affected by PTSD. We gotta face the music at some point - unfortunately. - Jerry Gonzalez

I will interview him during flight. Leaving now see you in six hours or so. - Robert Scoble

Ask him what he sees coming inflation wise. - Dean Clark

Interesting that he'd say capitalism might have been harmed permanently by bankers and Wall Street. Now the pendulum is about to swing from one extreme to the other? - Alain Saffel

Where's the "now I'm depressed" button on FF? - Patrick Driscoll from twhirl

Looks like a little regulation is a good thing, like having referees in sports to make sure the game is played fairly. - Alain Saffel

Dean: more inflation coming. - Robert Scoble

Yep. Facing the music alright. 8, make that twelve years of voodoo economics finally coming home to roost. - Jim Is Not Smart

The system indeed needs an overhaul. Our economy thrives on the creation of needs for products and services consumers did not know they wanted or needed - it was unsustainable as it was. - Bill

Although I am interested in what he has to say, and I applaud Robert for getting this interview, and I'm looking forward to reading it, I think we need to take this with a grain of salt here. What's the headline? "Longtime Republican Thinks Obama's Economic Plan Is A Bad Idea." - Mitch Wagner

Mitch: he doesn't come off as very partisian. He has lots of friends in high places. - Robert Scoble

I don't think it's a matter of partisanship, it's more a matter of world view. If you view tax cuts as the only viable stimulus, then everything else looks wrong. Yet these are the same guys who have never seen it coming. - Alex Scoble

Robert you should setup a blog that is simply, "interesting people that sit next to me on planes," it would be a great RSS feed - anna sauce

+1000 anna! - Susan Beebe

Robert, I find that quite believable. And expect he'll have some good points to make. And Obama's stimulus plan is not above reproach. But, still, he's coming at this with a certain ideological bias, and that bias is the opposite of Obama's. Asking him to comment on Obama's fiscal plan is like asking a Windows guy his opinion of the Mac. - Mitch Wagner

Ask him what the impact of the berlin wall was to US finance/economics at that time - anna sauce

I'd love to hear his take on how we get out of this mess, especially since GWB made the tough decisions to right our fiscal house after years of deficit spending, before his successors allowed the creation of huge imbalances by pumping up the money supply. More than the question of how good or bad is the Obama plan, I'd like to know what he'd actually prescribe and what evidence (historical or theoretical) he'd use to support his suggestions. - Cecyl Hobbs

Ask - what CAN be done to salvage the US...strike that...Global... economy? - Susan Beebe

I'd also be curious to see if he believes that increased banking regulations combined with the stimulus package (whether the GOP or Obama version) will result in the flight of "smart" capital out of the U.S. - Cecyl Hobbs

Cecyl, I'm confused by your first sentence. GWB didn't right the fiscal house after deficit spending, he inherited a balanced budget and ran up a record deficit. And he's only had one successor, who's been in office less than a month. IOW, huh? - Mitch Wagner

Love to hear the interview, Robert. And I agree with Anna's idea :) Thanks for sharing. - Arif Widianto

Mitch, sorry - I forgot an initial. GHWB. Originally, I was going to type "Bush I." - Cecyl Hobbs

Ask him to be a regular - love to hear more of what he says. - Chris Rogers

At this time, unfortunately, everyone is trying to outdo everyone else in being negative. - Lyndon

You have to fight back. Negativity breeds negativity. Manias and panics are both an equal part of humanity's globally bipolar nature. - Jed White

We haven't seen anything yet... look at the numbers and study the complete history of how we got here; not just the last eight years and reality will set in... The truth is the last thing you'll hear in the media, even now, although the reality of our situation is becoming more evident everyday. People that can see clearly will see the opportunities presented and will contribute and participate in the new world economy and leadership structure. No pain - No gain... - Mark Harai

If your still with John Bohn, I'm curious if he's the son of a John Bohn who lived in Guam years ago and was a prominent real estate mogul here. - William Ymesei from IM

Jed - I'm with you 100%. Foursquare against negativity! Mark - My motto is, "No pain, no pain." - Mitch Wagner

Seriously, I do think this crisis gives us an opportunity to build a stronger, saner economy. Too much of the economy was built on consumer goods that are, basically luxuries. If your car is five years old and still runs well and comfortably, you just don't need a new one, and won't for many years -- and yet our economy was built on convincing you that you need a new car every 2 yrs. But I fear that getting to that saner point will be horrible. - Mitch Wagner

you meet so many killer people throughout the day - andy brudtkuhl

Looking forward to that interview. - Tom Landini

I think it's short-sighted to say bankers and wall street permanently harmed capitalism. They had a part to play but the greater problem is that the ponzi-scheme of credit (we're only 30 years in to mass credit card usage) and climate of over-consumption. Remember, we recently had a *negative* savings rate. [cont] - AJ Kohn

[cont] Couple this 'live beyond our means' philosophy with the manipulation of economic benchmarks and you're able to put rose tinted glasses on the situation for decades. Nearly every President changed the way we track GDP, Unemployment and Inflation to make it look better than it is. (Try ShadowStats to get the real picture, it will not make you happy.) [cont] - AJ Kohn

[cont] Finally, and I'll take flak for this, the post-Reagan income tax system encourages greed. That is different from encouraging success. So, a system of free credit and splurge culture, meets statistical gerrymandering, meets carpetbagger Gordon Gecko greed and you wind up where we are now. Any stimulus is running into a gale force headwind IMO. - AJ Kohn

I sort of agree w/ Huffington when she suggested we keep a panel of those who DID forsee this meltdown long before it happened as a sort of Minority Report. - Phillip

Huh? You think CNBC is depressing? The talking heads are always happy and cheerful whatever the news is. For real depressing reporting check out http://financialsense.com/ - Aviv

They main concern for me right now is, not being in debt, keeping it that way, plus also protecting what savings I have against any hyperinflation that may be on the horizon. - Dean Clark

@Scobleizer apparently Latitude can't handle Altitude. Still shows you at SFO. ;-) Not too surprising, we're using cell towers, not GPS, right? Oh, and ++AlexScoble, as is so often the case. ;-) - michael silverton

Because Reaganomics were so...successful? Of COURSE he's depressing...his theory didn't work. - Karoli

That reminds me of a time in the recession of 1981 when 364 economists jointly took out a full page ad criticising Mrs Thatcher's economic policies. A reporter asked her "can you name TWO economists who support you?" She said "Yes, xxx and yyy" [her two main economics advisors at the time]. She later said privately: "I'm glad they didn't ask for three!" - Andrew Denny

The vast complexity of the issues we face make the future completely unpredictable. No one really knows what's going to happen - and even worse, what will fix it. Consumer confidence / spending is very difficult to predict, if not impossible when looking a timeframes of more than a few months. There's no such thing as the "perfect" solution, so Obama is doing the right thing by pushing SOMETHING. Action, no matter what the plan, is actually more important than the substance. - Vince DeGeorge

Reagan! That's where the problem started. "Trickle down," until the whole thing collapses from being top-heavy! - Phil Boiarski

The system may be broken right now, as soon as we allow citizens to start spending more of what they earn the system will start to repair itself, that's if government will stop regulating what we can sell and how we sell it. One of the biggest problems is their is no unity in government right now. I think George Washington said it best in his final speech before leaving office the Unity... more... - Russ Jackson

He also said, "Avoid foreign entanglements!" - Phil Boiarski

I guess I'll be depressed after hearing this interview, but I rather have the cold hard truth than live in fantasy land. - darnell from BuddyFeed

People - see http://www.storyofstuff.com - Victor Panlilio

Also see history of American education http://tinyurl.com/kc4n9 - Victor Panlilio

i'm telling you. we're all doomed! doomed i say! - Jason Shultz from twhirl

YouTube lesson on inflation http://tinyurl.com/3zvcgp - Victor Panlilio

JFK said "Together we will save the planet, or together we will perish in its flames." Some students recently spoke by homemade radio with a mission specialist on the ISS, who said she saw one earth, no divisions. Tell that to all of us down here who act so selfishly. The kids at http://www.gen-we.org know what's at stake (watch the video). They want to end the perception that the US is a greedy and arrogant nation. In this hyper-connected world, the only way to do that is to STOP being arrogant and greedy. - Victor Panlilio

@victor one thing I have maintained for years is that anyone that fights over land or false perceptions of race/religion/etc need to be taken up into space and forced to look down upon our home. Then they'll realise just how small we really are and how these petty excuses to be shitty towards each other are entirely pointless. Whenever prompted to enter race I always answer "human". - alphaxion

heavy. - Oldengrey (Jay)

@alphaxion Watch/listen to Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" http://tinyurl.com/23ch37 - Victor Panlilio

@alphaxion Paraphrasing Alan Watts: "One of the most persistent delusions in the West is that we are all isolated egos walking around in bags of skin." - Victor Panlilio

@alphaxion Watch "Stroke of Insight" http://tinyurl.com/3l9h9y - Victor Panlilio

So did u post the interview, Robert??? - Roberto Bonini

Here's a little antidote. Solvesall! http://tinyurl.com/btgfol - Phil Boiarski

Roberto: turned out we didn't do one last night. The plane was too loud and it just wasn't good for an interview. We'll get together back in his office and do one. He is very interested in friendfeed now, too, and read all your questions. Said the one about the Berlin Wall was very astute. - Robert Scoble

Talking to this guy sounds like a waste of time. Might as well talk to Lindsay Graham. - Kathleen Mazzocco

Thanks Robert. Look forward to that. I'll think of a question or two to post in the mean time - Roberto Bonini

So .... what did he say ??? - Tom Parish

Yes - at least a blog post or something to summarize - dying to hear. - James Hull

Anxious to hear more - Chance Garrity

Come on Robert! - Charlie Ramirez

Robert Scoble

Reasons why friendfeed's new search features justify my investment in friendfeed, discuss here:

February 3 - Comment - Like - Share

Michael Lynton, Andrej Kostresevic, Thomas Hawk and 102 other people liked this

I have spent more than 2,000 hours in friendfeed. I have clicked "like" on 15,822 items. I have commented on 8,048 items. That is a HUGE investment in time (I've been blogging a lot less over the past year). These new search features bring HUGE benefits. I will discuss why here. - Robert Scoble

50 more comments

Clearly the main reason is to find things that you posted/liked in the last. - David Wilson

First, the new search features are discussed over on friendfeed blog here: http://blog.friendfeed.com/2009... - Robert Scoble

1. Now you can search based on number of comments an item got. So, I can search for all items that contain the word "Obama," for instance, but I can tell it to only show me items with 10 likes or more. THIS IS HUGE because it shows which items got HUGE engagement. Here is that search: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Wow, I didn't even notice that. Very useful. - David Wilson

Ability to refine searches for comments is a killer app. - Mike Nayyar

Hmm, does it actually let you search for a user's name/handle in the comments/content of an item, without giving you a load of "$PERSON liked this" results, even when their name/handle don't appear in the content or any attached comments? - Tyson Key

How close are we to being able to hide based on the criteria? - Brian Sullivan

Close... so... close. If we could create that search and have it form a real-time feed... that would do it for me. Historical search with the ability to follow the search in real time. - Brian Roy

2. Now you can search based on numbers of "likes" an item got. For instance, now I can say show me all items with "netbooks" in the title that have 10 or more likes. This is HUGE because it removes all noise and shows only items that got a lot of interest from the community. Here's that search: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Awesome! Makes Friendfeed less noisy to me. I agree some search fine-tuning would be nice. Still, this helps a lot. - Pam Baker

2,000 hours jeez they should pay you - andy brudtkuhl

Brian: yeah, I want real-time views into this data. That is a prerequisite to "track." Also, I need RSS feeds from these searches that I can shove into a room. I can't figure out how to do either of those two things. - Robert Scoble

I must be a dummy. I can't find how to do that on the site. However, I did read on the blog that it exists. How do I get to it? - Francine Hardaway

This can really cut down the noise in a search. For example, here's a search for items that mention the Steelers and only contain comments with the word towel. And you could also do the reverse. Cool. http://friendfeed.com/search... - Tom Landini

Andy: I'm pretty sure it is actually a lot more than 2,000 hours. I'm on friendfeed almost every minute I'm awake and not doing something else. - Robert Scoble

I didn't see it anywhere... sadly. I'm also looking to see if these advanced searches are supported by the API... if they are it is a boon for applications that swarm to subjects/topics. - Brian Roy

OK, I'm totally liking the new search features...Now I can finally see who's shouted out to me in posts without getting a lot of "Robert Scoble" noise in the results. - Alex Scoble

Aah, to answer my own question, the intitle: attribute seems to do the trick, cool. - Tyson Key

i still dont like "likes", but its an interesting idea to search what you want.. - Terry O'Fee

3. You can search for times a specific person has written something. For instance, I can now see how many times Bret Taylor has written the word "bacon" in one of his titles: http://friendfeed.com/search... By doing this I learned that Bret wrote the word "sex" twice as often as he wrote "bacon." :-) http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Francine - just hit search with nothing in the box... that takes you to advanced search. - Brian Roy

robert - just don't type "mona" and "bacon" - the search will take days,,, - Terry O'Fee

The other day I was trying to search for your video on how to use ff. I wanted to share it with someone who is new here. But, I couldn't find it. I had to go to your site to find it. When I saw the title of your post, I realized why my search might have missed it. I don't know if these changes would have made a difference, but any improvement is welcomed in my book! I'm going to try it again and see if the changes help. - Michael Fidler

You get to the advanced search here: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Terry: Here's a search for "bacon" but from Mona's feed with two or more likes: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

I love it, you can search just specific services, too. Like JUST TWITTER!! Check this out, these are all my tweets that have 20 or more likes: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

very cool thanks for sharing Robert... Also of note you can grab the RSS feed from the search results (via Firefox addr bar only so far) - this is cool for those of you like me who use search subscriptions for research - andy brudtkuhl

and FF is so well indexed in google. yesterday I talked about backtype in italian and after few hours was already the 5th result searching "backtype" in that language - ezekiel

Terry: likes are metadata that you can use to improve your searches. Now you can see why people who are noisy on "liking" things are only hurting themselves. - Robert Scoble

Michael F makes a good point. I struggle with finding stuff I have liked or commented on before. I hope the new search function helps with that. - Amani

On a search for SEO if this was useful, I would end up with a list of posts similar to the Semmys finalists (though those are still personal preference). However I get http://friendfeed.com/search... which isn't exactly useful unless I wanted every conversation on FF that included the acronym - probably worse results than a potential Scobleizer post about lawnmowers ending up ranking in Google - Andy Beard

Here's a cool search. It shows you ALL items from EVERYONE that has gotten five likes and two comments (or more): http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Robert: to get an RSS feed, append &format=atom to the end of the url after doing a search - Daniel Sims

Andy, to search for a term in only the entry title, use "intitle:", e.g. – http://friendfeed.com/search... - Dan Hsiao

Dan - so that means the API works too... hmmm wonder if that URL is rate limited. - Brian Roy

frienfeed is the next (social) search engine and these new features are a new big step to the right direction... - Simone Lovati

robert - ive noticed that the people who get "likes" are usually the ones who mass spam likes to everyone else... - Terry O'Fee

It worked! I can see what your talking about Robert. You have a lot of content here, but I found the post of yours I was looking for with relative ease:-) http://is.gd/ihXV - Michael Fidler

Terry: if you use a combination of "likes" and "comments" you can dramatically filter out a lot of noise. - Robert Scoble

you have a lot more people though, robert.... - Terry O'Fee

My first comment ever on FriendFeed. I cannot figure this place out yet. I'm sure it is wonderful though. - Hummie

Stick with it Hummie! - andy brudtkuhl

Once you can create a feed from the search results and make an imaginary friend for that feed then search will become useful for me. Of if you could search on a certain criteria and get the results sent to gtalk in realtime (aka track) will it be useful for me. Right now it is helpful but not of great use for me. - J Allen

Wow, I have more comments made than you? Wouldn't have guessed that. Yes, it is indeed an investment and this is very good news, Robert. - Josh Haley

"Also, I need RSS feeds from these searches that I can shove into a room." This would be a huge feature. It would really up the ante in creating useful rooms. - Doug Hudiburg

To get an RSS feed of any FriendFeed search result, just append "&format=atom" (without the quotes) to the end of the URL. Violå! :-) - Josh Bancroft

Thank you, that's what I needed. - Wallace

wow ! @Josh Bancroft, youre the man !!! just what i need !! it works !! - Rocky

@Josh thank you! - Alfredo

This is just so cool. FF rocked before, now it's just plain awesome :) - Nicola Quinn

I thought of you when I read FF blog yesterday: that's what you were asking when we met in Barcelona! - Jordi Soler

Robert Scoble

Zuckerberg: Facebook’s “intense” year - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

January 29 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Nicola Quinn, Bill Romanos, Daniel Krech and 16 other people liked this

Appreciate the 1-1 insight. Had hoped you got the opportunity to do video as well, given that is your forté. - Louis Gray

10 more comments

Nope, no video with him. Someday! - Robert Scoble

Glad he's keeping an eye on Friendfeed - Andrew Smith

Robert, one thing if I may suggest, when I read the previous year post of yours, I find it hard to know what time the piece is posted. There is no date available there except by looking at the URI. There is only time, no date. Could you add that, please? Thanks. - Arif Widianto

And, thanks for posting the piece. Interesting to read. - Arif Widianto

Does he have an advisory team with him? Or is he alone there at the conference? - Cesar Arevalo

I just saw Sheryl Sandberg, facebook's COO, in the hotel lobby. But he is mostly alone. - Robert Scoble

It is 8 a.m. here. I woke up at 5 a.m. to write this piece. - Robert Scoble

It must be difficult to keep up with an audience in America. With the time zone difference how do you cope with it? - Cesar Arevalo

@Robert Scole. The article says they are adding 450,000 new users every day. Really? That seems high but good on them if they are. - Bill

@RobertScoble Great little interview, ties are overrated. - Shawn Hickman

good post Robert! - Davide D'Incau

Robert Scoble

The real problem with Davos: not enough focus on small business - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

January 28 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, Richard pancakhaus Walker, MedicalQuack and 24 other people liked this

If you keep bailing out bad big companies, the good small ones never get to grow up. - Mike Seidle

8 more comments

here's an idea, cap salaries/bonuses at $1 million or else the rich/powerful will keep on pillaging - Bob Sonin

yep, here's where bailing out the banks failed spectacularly, they were supposed to turn around and re-lend that money, rather than putting it in "safe" investments. "Bubbling up" money through small biz through generous lines of credit may be the only other real option. - Warren

We keep hearing of bail outs for large business that are not fit to survive in the modern economic climate but there are a lot of small business who have made preparations to cope with this sort of thing and they are being overlooked. Now would be a good time to start investing in these well run smaller business so that they can pick up the slack when the poorly run larger businesses go bust. - John Cooper

Warren: I just talked with someone who said the bailout was controlled by banks' interests via their lobbies. He thinks we should have dramatically increased regulation in exchange for the cash. He says we have setup a bad precident where bank executives don't care about the consequences for taking on too much risk. - Robert Scoble

Small business are created in countries with a strong middle class and not too many countries have much of a middle class. - paul mooney

Really good post, Robert. More like this please! :) - Ian Betteridge from BuddyFeed

like monarchies, big businesses don''t realize that they are being obsoleted because they are ineffective at providing solutions .... the dying financial "system" should be a good sign of whats changing ... - Iggy Kin

Good for you I'm glad someone is finally talking about this. I travel to Central America a lot and I think they are underdeveloped partly because of there small businesses. They have really small shops and American companies but no medium sized businesses that are so important for the economy. In the US those businesses make up 1/2 of our GDP. Also for every $1 spent in corporate business 13 cents goes to the community compared to 43 cent in a small business. We have to do more to support those businesses! - Nelson de Witt

I agree - although that has never been the point of Davos, which always been a fairly elite project focused at the "big" stuff. But the future out of our current mess goes through small, entrepreneurial, bottom-up inititatives, I think, and at the moment it is small and medium businesses that are hiring, as long as they are given the chance (and not squeezed to help the big guys get their health back together) - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Robert Scoble

Mike’s mood improves when Paulo Coehlo arrives - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

January 28 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Bill Romanos, Susan Beebe, Nicola Quinn and 9 other people liked this

Good video. The alchemist is one of my favorite books - Christian Anderson

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It's so nice to read smart people like Mr. Coelho having an anticipated vision on edition and IP - Jean-Charles VERDIE

He has good books! - Live Crunch Blog from twhirl

Good to know that! The incident was really bad. Once IT was gentlemanly business. Alas! - Anol

Come on, guys! Coehlo is a piece of shit. - Alan Kodzasov

Zee.

How blogging was born (by Hugh Macleod) - http://www.gapingvoid.com/

January 24 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Moses Kpetigo, Glen Group, "Joey" and 102 other people liked this

i think this has been shared on here before...but am sharing it again all the same... - Zee. from Bookmarklet

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true - Roman Zolotarev

I think Hugh could update this cartoon and use Twitter or FriendFeed instead of blogging -- would work just as well. - Brian Sullivan

I am so gonna blog this. - Steven Perez

brilliant! - MicahBear78

It came from Dave Winer's Sripting News. He posted it yesterday. - Jordi Soler

Dave Winer posted this yesterday? I didn't realize. I just got it from the above mentioned site. I would have linked from there if I'd seen it there. - Zee.

Technology News

IBM Finally Admits: Yes, We're Laying People Off (IBM) - http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009...

January 24 from Silicon Alley Insider - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Arif Widianto, Constantine and 5 other people liked this

The news headline sounds like a trend you have to follow to be 'in' again. - Michael Jung

Ryan Kuder

The inauguration at 1,474 megapixels - http://i.gizmodo.com/5137670...

January 23 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Arif Widianto, Prashant, Dennis Homann and 19 other people liked this

"Containing over 2GB of photo data and comprised of over 220 images shot from a Canon G10 Bridge camera on a Gigapan robotic camera mount, David Bergman's incredibly detailed panorama is filled with pieces of information that you previously weren't able or bothered to see. Some are just obviously cool—nearly being able to read the sheet music on performers stands, seeing the comically varied expressions in the VIP area behind the President as he speaks—but others are more subtly awesome." -via Gizmodo - Ryan Kuder from Bookmarklet

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wow. - Micah Wittman

I'll love to see Microsoft's deep-zoom on that!! - Nestor

That's amazing. Clarence Thomas looks like he's asleep. - Give 'Em DBizness

Bush looks like he's in the middle of half-heartedly clapping at something Obama just said while Chaney looks like "I REFUSE TO CLAP! You've got me out here in the cold, in a wheel chair no less, for THIS?" - Give 'Em DBizness