In our new series about product innovation, we're exploring how cutting edge Internet products are created. Yesterday we wrote about the design philosophy of John Borthwick, the CEO and co-founder of Betaworks. His company operates some of the leading real-time web products: Bit.ly (link shortener), TweetDeck (desktop Twitter client), SocialFlow (a social messaging service) and Chartbeat (real-time analytics service).
In part 2 of the Borthwick interview, we look closely at the evolution of one of Betaworks' products: Chartbeat. And you don't necessarily need to be an entrepreneur to read this. Anyone who is interested in understanding - and utilizing - social media trends will glean a lot from John Borthwick's insights below.
Continuing our series on product innovation and the people driving it, this week I spoke with the CEO and co-founder of Betaworks: John Borthwick. If you're unfamiliar with the name Betaworks, you will recognize the products under its umbrella: Bit.ly (the leading link shortener), TweetDeck (desktop Twitter client), Chartbeat (real-time analytics service) and SocialFlow (a social messaging service). As well as growing companies, Betaworks is a seed-stage investor in a range of real-time web companies - such as Tumblr, Twitterfeed, Superfeedr and Songkick.
In this two-part post, we give an overview of John Borthwick's product development philosophy. Then in part 2, to be published tomorrow, we will outline the evolution of one of Betaworks' products: Chartbeat.
In our new series about product innovation, I'll be speaking to a variety of entrepreneurs about the products they're building and how they're going about it. One of the more unique people in this series is Buster Benson, a 34-year old Seattle resident whose experience includes working for Amazon.com, writing a novel, and co-founding a startup called The Robot Co-op. He's now busy building up a one-man band company called Enjoymentland.
Buster Benson used to be called Erik Benson and I've known him, mostly in an online capacity, since before I started ReadWriteWeb in 2003. I decided to interview Buster because he has a nose for innovation and a fun outlook on product development. His current projects include an iPhone app called Locavore and a soon to be launched web service called Health Month.
Yesterday we started a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on web product innovation. We began with a product that aims to change the way people consume news on mobile devices: Newsy. In part 2 of this interview with founder and CEO Jim Spencer, we delve into Newsy's audience and how that's evolving, what's next for the product, and its plan for an important emerging platform: Internet TV.
Newsy produces 2-5 minute video summaries of news, piecing together content from multiple sources. It's proven to be a hit on smart phones and more recently on the iPad. Imagine then the possibilities for Newsy on Apple TV, Google TV and other Internet TV devices coming onto the market.
Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, all of whom have created ground-breaking Internet businesses. I hope that this series will give insight into both product innovation and what drives the people behind the product.
We're starting with a web service that aims to change the way people consume news on mobile devices: Newsy. Jim Spencer is the founder and CEO, based in Columbia, Missouri. Newsy produces 2-5 minute video summaries of news stories, piecing together content from multiple sources. It's proven to be a hit on smart phones and more recently on the iPad, where short video chunks are a great way to consume news. I spoke to Jim Spencer to find out how he came up with the idea for Newsy, the usage patterns that have emerged, and the company's plans for the future.
This week, leading tech news aggregator Techmeme turned 5 years old. The service launched in September 2005, under the name tech.memeorandum, and ReadWriteWeb was one of the first media publications to review it.
In 2005, tech.memeorandum mostly tracked blogs. In 2010, Techmeme tracks all types of media web sites. Everything from news wires, newspapers, professional blogs, corporate blogs and personal blogs. That's been a natural evolution, as blogs have become more like newspapers and magazines - and vice versa. What's been more surprising is Techmeme's shift from full automation to a mix of algorithms and human curation. In this interview with Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera, we talk about these and other changes over the past 5 years.
This Spring, Tim O'Reilly was surprised to find himself defending Facebook's changes to its privacy policy. "There's enormous advantage for users in giving up some privacy online and [so] we need to be exploring the boundary conditions," the founder of O'Reilly Media and international technology thought leader wrote. "It's easy to say that this should always be the user's choice, but entrepreneurs from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg are in the business of discovering things that users don't already know that they will want, and sometimes we only find the right balance by pushing too far, and then recovering."
That's an interesting argument when it comes to consumer products and innovation, but I got to sit down with O'Reilly on the first day of his big OSCON conference yesterday and talk about privacy in a different context: health care, government, global cultural change and a crisis of crises.
Digital activism is defined by the newly launched Meta-Activism Project as "the practice of using digital technology for political and social change." One of the leaders in the field of digital activism is Mary Joyce, the founder and executive director of the Meta-Activism Project. Joyce is among the most knowledgeable and experienced digital activists in the world.
As a lead-up to the upcoming event in New York City with Chinese digital activist Ai Weiwei, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and yours truly, I interviewed Mary Joyce about the strategies and success stories of digital activism.
Is 'checking in' at places using location-based mobile apps like Foursquare and Brightkite resulting in us enjoying life a little less? Is there such a thing as too much data for a fun activity such as running? We address these and other questions in the final installment of our interview with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.
Modern web applications are packed with features that ostensibly connect us more to the real world and our activities in it. Foursquare uses location data to connect us with places and people. Nike+ shoes deliver data from your feet to your iPod. All of this new data from the real world is good progress, right? Yes, the more data the better! On the other hand, is our focus on data distracting us from actually enjoying life?
In part 1 of our interview with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, we discussed the impact of the iPhone and other smartphones on the Internet of Things.
In Part 2, we explore how the Apple iPad may also become a key device. Adam Greenfield thinks it may become the missing link between Internet-connected items in your home, for example the Internet fridge, and the Web.
