Since her unplanned departure from an L.A.-based startup in 2008, Berrent has traveled through eight countries, documenting and publicizing the struggles of those in developing areas through her blog posts, tweets, images, videos, and her own presence at events at home and abroad. From post-Katrina New Orleans to a trash dump in Manila to a monastery in Burma, read on for her story of trying to achieve social good through social media.

I am a strong believer in the idea that the things you do online are meant to facilitate your offline interactions. People are so fast to click a button, and that can be great. Retweeting, forwarding, and Facebook walls are great engagements. But what's more difficult is the donate button. That's the big hurdle and disconnect. I'm trying to provide these inspirational opportunities in timeboxed campaigns. Social media is slowly catching on, but there's a lot of noise. Standing out is hard; it's important to have an offline component.

Berrent was visibly disturbed by what she witnessed at this Manila trash dump, where she saw shoeless children running through piles of debris.

RWW: Tell me about your experiences with Kiva borrowers. What kinds of people and enterprises have you seen? In your opinion, does microlending have a measurable impact on struggling local economies?

Kiva is really unique. It has a lot of power users - more than any nonprofit I've ever seen. One man has made a thousand loans. It's individual stories, and people really connect. You get updates on that person, and people say it's their favorite email of the month. As a microlending company, Kiva is one spoke in the larger wheel of microfinance. On a global scale, it has a very big impact.

Typically, when you go to a village or province, certain industries are prevalent. In a fishing community, maybe the borrower bought a fishnet or a fishing boat. In an area with a lot of bamboo, it's going to be crafts. I worked in eleven branch offices. I met over 40 different female borrowers individually and over 250 in my time there.

I can see that the money Kiva provides makes a difference. Microfinance is a very slow process, and there are gems and sparks of people who break through the poverty cycle. When you see villages changing, it's really something. It's like watching grass grow, but it's really beautiful grass.

This woman is a pig farmer and a recipient of funds from a Kiva-affiliated organization.

RWW: Now you're working on a seven-day, seven-city tour to raise awareness and funds for malaria prevention through bed nets. Where did this idea come from?

It's a city-by-city competition on who can raise the most money for malaria nets, but also an opportunity for anyone to donate who wants to get involved. The tour starts this Saturday night in New York City and continues for the next seven days in Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and ends in Los Angeles on Friday...

I'd just finished Kiva training, and I was going to the Philippines for three months. And all I could think was, "When I come back, I'm going to be thirty." I've honed in a lot on my direction - using the Internet to help people. And what if I could use this opportunity to give back, involving people in different parts of the country - something really ambitious?

I wanted it to be about saving lives. I wanted to say, "I saved this many lives on my birthday." I've done a lot of work in HIV and AIDS; I looked into that and polio and malaria, and that's what stuck with me. The campaign has no administrative fees. One hundred percent of the funds go to malaria... in rural northern Ghana. Providing malaria nets will really be a part of saving lives there.

Berrent met this monk in Burma and spent the afternoon pagoda-hopping with him.

RWW: What needs or gaps do you see in philanthropic efforts online?

I think it's not having a strategy to begin with, not knowing the tools in your toolbox before you start. There's a lot to be said for jumping in and having fun, but nonprofits don't have the resources to play around online. They think it's about getting interns and getting followers and fans without figuring out why a medium is important and how to make it successful for them.

RWW: What's one surprise - good or bad - that you've come across since you started working with Kiva? What did you not expect from this experience, and what did you learn?

I learned that it's much more complicated than the website makes it seem. There's an entire division devoted to foreign exchange currency. The operational cost analysis, the challenges of technology in the developing world, the processes of remittance - it's incredibly complex. There are regional specialists. On the site, you can make a loan in five clicks, but a lot of machinery comes together to make it that way.

RWW: What's next for you? Is there more globe-trotting in your immediate future? How do you think the web will continue to be part of your life and career?

One of the best parts of this past year has been that I've gone through long periods where I didn't have Internet access. That's brought me a heightened and renewed sense of my purpose in the world and my authentic desire to make the world a better place. I'd like to be able to continue to support campaigns - even for-profit ventures - that I believe in, and I think social business is a wonderful intersection of the two.

I want to explore avenues with online and offline components, while continuing to blog and tell stories I'm passionate about.

Follow Berrent's next adventures on Twitter or at her blog.

And all this is just the tip of the iceburg that is Sloane Berrent's fascinating story. For a fuller look at her travels and timeline, check out this list of her nine favorite posts on her blog, The Causemopolitan, covering humanitarianism, her work in New Orleans, the phenomenon of serendipity in international travel, and much more.

Many thanks to Sloane Berrent for the use of her videos and images as well as for sharing her story with us and our readers.

After years of work and more than $20 million dollars invested, the company is finally looking at the light of the end of the tunnel: Turning a profit. In this exclusive interview with founder Tim Westergren after a town hall meetup in Richmond, Virginia, we discuss the company's close call with bankruptcy in 2007, their ad-based revenue model, their roadmap for adding new features and an open API, and their incorporation into a variety of hardware devices.

Now, however, the "unwitting nonprofit" is closer than ever to growing revenues larger than their expenses, news the investors will surely be ecstatic to hear.

In addition to recording this one-on-one talk with Westergren, we also captured about 20 uncut minutes of his talk to Richmond fans and users. Watch for the fuller story of Pandora's trials, triumphs, and evolution, including an extended discussion of the utterly unscalable but nevertheless fascinating Music Genome Project.

One such expert, Howard Greenstein, has a mile-long rap sheet in social media and web work that reaches back into the mid-nineties. He is known for his unique blend of experience and enthusiam, both of which he brings to this video conversation about how businesses and brands can use social media.

Howard Greenstein on Social Media for Brands and Businesses from ReadWriteWeb on Vimeo.

"Companies in general don't value social media marketing as much as they should," said Noff. "They're afraid of it; they don't understand it; and therefore, they just don't do it. Yet it's the most cost-efficient way of marketing there is."

We also talked to Noff about the infinite measurement possibilities inherent in social media and the kinds of tools marketers should be using to optimize their online campaigns. She also spoke about the occasional difficulty of measuring specific conversion metrics for social media marketing campaigns, and she gave a good word to consultants in the social space.

In light of recent comments on video posts and out of respect for Ms. Noff, commenters are particularly requested to omit the words "hot" and "chick" and other terms of that general timbre from their musings below. Thanks for doing your part to keep ReadWriteWeb classy.

Here, we caught up with John C. Havens of BlogTalkRadio, and he shared insights from his recently released book, Tactical Transparency. Sometimes, a filter on honest sharing in social media can benefit everyone involved, particularly where brands are concerned.

The book, a collaboration with PR oldtimer Shel Holtz, involved years of work and dozens of interviews with social media leaders. All the interviews are available as audio downloads on this BlogTalkRadio page, as well.

For more real-world insights that work, check out the Internet Oldtimers Foundation site. Also, we've uploaded a few pics from the delightful event on Flickr.

Thurston started getting into this whole "Internet" thing in simpler times when the social web was called Usenet. He now carves out his niche at the overlap of the Venn diagram of comedy, politics, and tech. As an official Internet old-timer who makes it his business to stay relevant, Thurston has particularly useful insights on the business of curating applicable content with great efficiency and timeliness.

"I remember," Thurston said, "back in 1996 or 1997, when you could finish the Internet... You could stay up until two or three in the morning and go to sleep and know, 'I read the Internet today.'" Simpler times, indeed.

So, with the mind-boggling multiplicity of blogs, news sites, and social networks, how does a professional netizen maintain cultural and technological relevance? And what tools does the modern, socially cognizant webmaster use to track and optimize traffic in real time? Call us cruel, but we prefer you watch the video and hear it all firsthand.

However we have heard very few stories about Zuckerberg and the inspiration behind Facebook during the period prior to February 4th, 2004, the day he launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room. In this post we tell that story.

The reason we hear so little about Zuckerberg's pre-launch vision for Facebook (which was originally called thefacebook.com) is likely because he has been a controversial target over the true origins of his business. In 2007, several of Zuckerberg's classmates came forward and claimed rights to the Facebook idea after reports surfaced that Yahoo had offered $900 million to purchase Facebook just two years after the founding of the company. Even though the suit against Zuckerberg was settled last year, given the nature of the proceedings, we'll likely never get an official answer from Zuckerberg himself about the true origins of his inspiration. But maybe we don't need one after all?

It turns out that Zuckerberg's academic history offers a great deal of insight into the inspiration for Facebook and why it was so wildly successful when it first launched. February 4th, 2004 may mark a major milestone in Facebook's history, but the story of Mark Zuckerberg's rise to fame in fact starts years before he stepped foot on the Harvard campus, and is much more complex and interesting than is usually portrayed.

Pre-Zuckerberg: Tracing the Roots of Facebook Culture

You may be surprised to hear that while Harvard was fertile ground for the launch of Facebook, the seed of the concept was likely planted in Zuckerberg in high school. You never hear about Zuckerberg's alma mater Phillips Exeter Academy in stories because Harvard was where the action really started (and the Harvard name, to some extent, validates Zuckerberg's smarts and makes for a more sensational story). But in fact, the time that Zuckerberg spent at the academy from 2000 to 2002 likely had more influence on the name and initial concept of Facebook than any of his classmates at Harvard.

Phillips Exeter Academy (or "Exeter") is a private boarding school for grades 9 to 12, located in Exeter, New Hampshire. The prestigious prep school is a member of the Ten Schools Admission Organization, which includes such famous boarding schools as Phillips Andover, Deerfield Academy, St. Paul's, and Choate Rosemary Hall. Like the other "Big Tens," Exeter has a tight-knit boarding community that lives on campus full time. Students refer to themselves as "Exonians" and have a strong group identity rooted in a rich culture of customs and tradition.

An Exonian for two years, Zuckerberg had plenty of time to observe and participate in the social culture and rhythms ingrained in Exeter's boarding lifestyle. Every year, the school says goodbye to a few hundred students and welcomes a few hundred more. Zuckerberg enrolled in the fall of his junior year and, like every new and returning student, received his own copy of Exeter's student directory, "The Photo Address Book," which students affectionately referred to as (you guessed it!) "The Facebook."

We interviewed several of Zuckerberg's peers this week, and they all confirmed what David W. Farrant (class of 2000) had to say:

"The front cover says "The Photo Address Book," but we all called it "The Facebook" all the time because "The Photo Address Book" was such a mouthful. Everybody called it that."

"Facebook" photo directories were (and still are) a huge part of the students' social experience and culture at prep schools such as Exeter. Every school in the Big Ten prints and distributes one for its students annually. When students arrive on campus each fall, the rhythm of their social lives is predominantly set by their dormitories, their class year (i.e. seniority), and their proximity to friends in other houses. Because students aren't allowed cell phones on campus and living accommodations are in such flux from year to year (they change houses and phone numbers annually), these "Facebooks" are a valuable resource for students.

Of course, not only do students need the directory to find and contact their peers, but the books become part of the culture of bonding between classmates and friends, as students use it to see where their peers live, who's hot and who's not, who lives with who, and who the new kids are. Sounds an awful lot like how people use Facebook online now, right? Of course, it also describes an early pre-Internet social culture, facilitated by photo directories, that students enjoyed long before Zuckerberg even made it to high school, a culture he happened upon and got to participate in by a stroke of pure luck and glorious opportunity.

But the story doesn't end there. In Zuckerberg's senior year, the student council, headed by student body president Kris Tillery, successfully lobbied the administration to have the school's IT department put the full contents of Exeter's Photo Address Book online. By the time Zuckerberg graduated, the website was put up at http://student.exeter.edu/facebook, with the URL directory (i.e. "facebook") named after the students' pet name for the physical book and effectively shortened to something useful. Tillery was unavailable for comment.

In our interviews, some of Zuckerberg's peers pointed us to this screenshot of the original website hosted on the school's .edu domain. The screenshot was posted in the public Facebook group "Exonians" in 2006 and is still there. Some of the comments about the screenshot (which date back to 2007) refer to it as "the original Facebook" and refer to the Photo Address Book as "the physical Facebook."

Of course, the school's student.exeter.edu/facebook website is no longer online, and none of our sources were able to confirm whether Zuckerberg himself was involved in, or responsible for, the student council initiative that got the directory online in the first place. All we know is that students were enthusiastic enough about an online version of the physical directory that the student council made an effort to lobby the administration, that the online directory was created during Zuckerberg's senior year, and that he was likely aware of its existence.

A More Complete Picture of the Facebook Success Story

Now that Facebook has graduated from its academic roots and been released to the world for free, its continued growth has many experts saying it will likely be the dominant social platform for the foreseeable future. At 200 million users (and counting), Facebook makes it hard to doubt that it will have considerable influence in the way we all connect and communicate in the future, both locally and across borders. While we may never know the true origins of Mark Zuckerberg's inspiration for Facebook, looking at the social culture of the prep school he attended and his experiences as a boarding student there offer us insight into where the explosion of global Facebook culture may have begun, why it was so successful when it launched at Harvard, and how luck and opportunity may have led one of the world's youngest visionaries to start coding in his college dorm room.

Steffan Antonas is a technology anthropologist, writer, and blogger who currently lives in San Diego, CA. He began studying human behavior in virtual communities as a graduate student in Georgetown University's Communication Culture and Technology (CCT) Program in 2003. He has worked in Southern California as an IT Professional for the past three years. You can contact Steffan at steffanantonas@gmail.com and on Twitter @steffanantonas.

Image credits: Phillips Exeter Academy by etnobofin. Book cover and Mark Zuckerberg photos by Alex Demas and Mark Flores.

Two themes stood out: sensors will surpass humans in front of their keyboards as the primary data source on the web and Moore's Law will need to be applied to humanity's greatest problems.

1. Google Voice Search on the iPhone

Google launched an iPhone app in November that lets you search by voice. It uses the iPhone's built in sensors in ways that other voice searches can't. It's not just voice recognition, it's also gesture recognition - the application starts listening when you put the phone to your face. O'Reilly asked, rhetorically, if the service was "a tipping point for the web" when it launched and it's still on his short list of key technologies today.

2. Gracenote's CDDB

The CDDB, or Compact Disk Database. This technology isn't new but it represents the kind of thing that O'Reilly expects to become much more common in the near term future. Their time has come, these tools for pulling patterns out of large and seemingly random sets of data. As he explained on stage tonight, the CDDB service identifies CDs by looking at the unique fingerprint created by the duration of songs in any collection on a commercial music CD. It doesn't identify individual songs but rather analyzes the aggregate data on albums in order to identify the collection. That's pretty cool.

See also the non-profit MusicBrainz.

3. AMEE Smart Grid

The AMEE smart electrical grid company tracks energy use in customers' homes and offers all kinds of valuable information based on what they see. TechCrunch UK called it "like an OpenID for your carbon footprint" in its coverage of O'Reilly's investment in the company.

O'Reilly said tonight that much like CDs in the CDDB, AMEE has discovered that the energy fluctuations of home appliances are so unique that they can tell what make and model of refrigerator you have by the way it acts when the motor turns on. Then it can suggest a more energy efficient appliance.

4. The NASA/CISCO Planetary Skin

NASA and CISCO unveiled plans last month to build what they call a Planetary Skin of sensors to monitor global climate change. The ability to process all the information that will come in through such a network of sensors is a good example of what O'Reilly called "applying Moore's Law to the world's biggest problems."

5. IBM Smarter Planet

O'Reilly highlighted the IBM Smarter Planet project in his talk about the future tonight. Smarter Planet is a broad body of initiatives by IBM to integrate efficient technology into a wide variety of systems around the world. Much of it is public infrastructure work.

Last week IBM announced that it would make bringing its channel partners into the Smarter Planet project a major priority and that it will be sharing the huge amounts of data it collects through the initiatives with channel partners as well.

Those are Tim O'Reilly's favorite examples of technologies that point beyond the last five years of the Web 2.0 era. Have you got other examples in the same vein? Perhaps you've got a different big picture vision of the next stage of the web. This fifth anniversary of the first Web 2.0 Conference is a great time to reflect on where we are as a web connected world and where we're going.

We've embedded the video at the end of this post, but these are a few of the highlights.

Great customer service is not something offered by the majority of companies and Hsieh suspects a lot of people are frustrated by this. "In the long run, customer service is just good business," he says. "The problem, however, is that the payoff is usually two or three years down the line."

Given the company made over a billion dollars in gross merchandise sales in 2008 after starting with almost nothing in 1999, and that repeat customers and word of mouth were the main drivers of that growth, we can see how many businesses are trying to model themselves on the force that is Zappos.

So what is different about Zappos?

• The company provides free shipping both ways
• Zappos has a 365 day return policy
• Only products available in the warehouse are placed on the site
• The warehouse is open 24 hours a day
• The company is contactable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• The 1800 contact number is prominently placed on every page of the site
• The company trusts in its reps; sales staff don't have scripts
• If products are unavailable, sales staff direct customers to competitors

While some of these ideas are extraordinary, like the 365 day return policy, others are quite easy to implement - putting your telephone number on every page of your Website. Clearly this is only a sampling of the alternative methods implemented by the company and some of them are certainly not efficient to the company's bottom line, but Hsieh firmly believes creating a 'wow' experience for the customer and investing in a corporate culture that allows employees freedom and space is the essence of what makes Zappos so successful.

"If you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like great customer service or building a brand will just happen naturally." Hsieh says.

While the company has formalized the definition of its culture into ten core values and people are hired and fired based on those values, Hsieh believes the company culture is different because it is not driven by him, but the employees who themselves determine how they want the culture to evolve.

"We've actually passed on a lot of really talented people that we know would make an impact to our top or bottom line," says Hsieh, "but if you know they're not a culture fit we won't hire them. Similarly, he explains the company will fire people even if they're doing their job perfectly if they're bad for the culture.

The Culture Book, a book Zappos puts out every year, consists of thoughts from all Zappos employees about what the Zappos culture means to them. But for typos, it's unedited. Hsieh offers the book freely to anyone who wants a copy.

Ultimately, Hsieh believes that every company needs to determine its core values, and rather than have a vague sense of what those ideas should be, he insists it is important to select 'committable' core values. "By committable, you must be willing to hire and fire based on them" he explains.

So next time you're in Las Vegas, remember that Zappos offers tours every weekday; Hsieh suggests Mondays or Thursdays are best. "Just e-mail me and we'll pick you up in the Zappos shuttle, give you a tour and drop you off at your hotel." That's a fairly impressive offer, and one not many companies are likely to make.

If you truly want to get a feel for the young bright Zappos CEO, watch the video below, and perhaps you'll get a glimpse into why this company is wowing the social media set.

The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa. Part 2 is here.

Africa: An Emerging Market?

Running Through the Numbers:

Africa is a continent which is inhabited by roughly 1 billion people. Astoundingly, the "Dark Continent" has been a fertile market for the mobile industry, with 300 million Africans currently carrying an active mobile account. This is an adoption rate of around 30% on a continent that is not known for having an affluent population.

In some African countries, mobile adoption nears 80-90%. Specifically in South Africa, which has a population of 47 million people, 42 million carry and use mobile networks.

Like the rest of the world, excluding North America, most African mobile customers opt for pre-paid mobile phone accounts. In South Africa, only 10% choose to have a service agreement with a specific mobile network operator. In some African countries, pre-paid customers account for 95-96% of the mobile customer base.

Going High Speed

More people in South Africa have 3G high speed-capable handsets than traditional wireline broadband. Praekelt says "traditional broadband is just not going to happen here." He also added that South Africa was the second place in the world to receive an HSDPA network following only Germany. Because a strong traditional broadband infrastructure doesn't exist in South Africa, there aren't many Wi-Fi hotspots to accommodate wireless consumer needs. HSDPA gives customers high speed capable networks that are highly practical and portable at the same time.

Only a few countries on the African continent have 3G including Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Mauritius, South Africa, and Swaziland. In the next year however, many new countries will come on board with 3G data service. However, not all customers will be able to afford 3G handsets right away.

With adoption numbers around 30%, how many of these mobile customers are using the mobile Internet? According to Praekelt, only 1-2%. However, some mobile websites based in Nigeria are attracting up to 200,000 users. Praekelt noted that when he was recently in Lagos, he saw people with 3G handsets even though such a network has yet to be built.

Finally, I asked Praekelt how many African's have smartphones. He replied by saying adoption is very low at around 5% at best. In some demographics, as much as 10% of mobile handset sales are smartphones. For example. his company built a mobile advertising platform that required a smartphone. The campaign, featured on a local radio show as a trial, drew 10% of 18-24 year olds.

Even though smartphone adoption may be low, 50% of African mobile customers use WAP services. Even though smartphones feature rich internet applications, most modern cell phones have browsers in them that enable users to download ringtones and use WAP sites.

Africa as An Inviting Mobile Market

Almost every African country has at least three major mobile network operators. However, initially in the 1990's, none of the major international carriers thought Africa was worthwhile to explore as a potential market. A few key mobile network operators including Vodafone, Celltell (now called Zain), and MTN explored certain African geographies, selected markets and, as a result, cleaned up in terms of market share. In Africa, Vodafone network has 7 territories, Celltell has 10-15 territories and MTN has 21 territories. Local companies understood the emerging environment and the challenges ahead and built out wireless networks. Now they are benefiting from these early bets.

It is astounding how these mobile network operators are able to thrive in markets where average revenue per user (ARPU) is relatively low. For example, in the North American market, normal ARPU is around $60-$70 per month. But in markets such as Africa and India it is much less. AirTel in India has the world's lowest ARPU, however, they area able to turn a respectable profit by making it up in volume with massive subscriber counts.

According to Praekelt, an inviting regulatory environment makes it possible for mobile network operators to come in and do business in Africa. Also, traditional copper phone lines take so long to get that wireless is a no-brainer to most customers who need communications solutions. The long wait for a traditional phone line, combined with firece wireless competition caused wireless phone service prices to go down, leading to success for mobile network operators.

Regarding Open Source and Mobile Handset Adoption, and the iPhone

I asked Praekelt what impact the open source on mobile movement would have in Africa. With developments such as the LiMo Foundation pushing Linux on Mobile, Nokia buying and open sourcing Symbian, and Google's Android now on the market, how will this impact emerging markets? Prawkelt replied, "In a word: nothing".

He expanded by illustrating that Finnish handset maker Nokia has gained such a solid footing in the mobile handset market, "almost everyone is on Nokia."

Nokia is successful in markets such as Africa because they make such a wide array of handsets with a plethora of feature sets and price points. Nokia has a huge market share because they market cell phones that are cheap, expensive, and everywhere in between. Nokia has been able to be successful on both the high and low end of the price spectrum. Plus, Africans like Nokia handsets because they find them easy to use. Oddly enough, the Nokia E90 communicator is quite popular in Africa because it is the one phone that can do almost anything, as Praekelt points out. A very practical device, the E90 features 3G connectivity, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a large screen, adding to it's popularity.

Additionally, application developers are attracted to the Nokia/Symbian platform because of its "openness". For example, a programmer working on Symbian can release mobile applications and services in a non-walled garden environment, unlike Apple iPhone developers. Many African mobile users depend on functionality that is locked out by the iPhone, such as full access to the Bluetooth stack and MMS capabilities.

In Praekelt's opinion, no one will be able to afford an Android handset. An entry-level Android handset might appeal to some Africans, but only if it's offered at a low price but only time will tell, as Praekelt stated.

Also, looking at the iPhone, Praekelt doesn't anticipate these devices taking off in South Africa as purchasing the Apple mobile phone requires a contract with a specific mobile carrier. Plus, at present, South Africans are unable to access the iTunes store for purchasing music and media. The iPhone will likely appeal only to extremely rich persons who are willing to pay $500 for a mobile phone.

This mentality regarding the iPhone carries over to other emerging markets as well. In areas such as Africa, India, and China, iPhone sales are not strong. This means you have 3 billion people who are overlooking Apple's iPhone. The iPhone has been effective in advancing usability in the mobile phone industry through competitiveness, however, the platform is too closed off for many customers in emerging markets.

How Africans Use Their Mobiles: Making Easy Mobile Payments

Africa is home to the largest mobile-based payment network in the world, M-Pesa is a mobile payment system that allows users to exchange money via SMS. A cross between PayPal and Western Union, M-Pesa works with pre-paid mobile calling credit. If you wish to pay a friend or colleague, you can simply use SMS to transfer money his M-Pesa account, resulting in a credit to his calling balance. You can even go to an M-Pesa agent and get cash payments from your M-Pesa balance.

What makes Africa a great environment for a mobile payment system? It's a matter of their economic and societal make up. Most of the one billion people in Africa do not have bank accounts. For example in South Africa, only 13 million out of 47 million people have bank accounts. Of these, only 2 or 3 million have traditional internet access that would allow them to log in to their bank account online to transfer money. For a population who deals mostly in cash, being able to transfer money via a mobile phone payment system presents a huge opportunity to them.

Leapfrogging PC's and Going Mobile

If you look at South Africa's mobile adoption, virtually 100% of the population has a mobile phone (actual adoption is at roughly 91%, but excluding children, it's close to 100%). This drastic adoption has occurred just 10-15 years after the first GSM network was launched in South Africa.

Western based companies who are building their website and web presence tend to think of their mobile internet site as an afterthought. What is often forgot is formating and structuring the site to appeal to mobile internet users in addition to 'traditional' PC-based Internet users. Mobile websites, in Praekelt's experience, are referred to as "the same thing" when in reality the requirements for mobile are quite different. This mentality is not relevant in mobile-heavy populations such as Africa. In a society where virtually everyone is reachable by SMS, new marketing opportunities present themselves.

Mobile customers in Africa are leapfrogging the "traditional" web and going straight for massive WAP and mobile web adoption. 3G phones are available in countries such as Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa. Combine this capability with inexpensive 3G data rates and a fully-capable 3G phone such as the Nokia E90 Communicator, and you have a population of mobile consumers that sees the online world through an entirely new lens. As Praekelt stated, "with these capabilities, who needs a PC with web access?"

In the markets described above, traditional DSL or cable-modem based internet adoption is relatively flat and growth is linear. However, the mobile adoption is exponential year after year.

Conclusion

The adoption numbers and usage models found in Africa point to a population who has quickly taken an enabling technology and woven it into their daily lives. The next part of this series will illustrate how the Praekelt Foundation has teamed up with social organizations and NGOs to deliver mobile-based social marketing solutions for social good.

About the Author

Jason Harris is a technology and mobile enthusiast based in Portland, Oregon. To connect with Jason or read more of his posts, check out his blog at Techcraver.com.

Photo: Paul Watson

UPDATE: See also Africans and Their Mobiles, Part 2: Using Mobile Phones For Social Good

In a word - profit. We are looking for companies that have some Web 2.0 characteristics. But we can be loose in that criteria. We are not looking for a "pure" Web 2.0 characteristics. Whatever works, works. But something that is using online technology to disrupt an existing market, maybe using SaaS, user generated content, social media, whatever works in the Web 2.0 bag of tricks.

But we do want to write about companies that have crossed the most important threshold, the one where cash flows from the business and not from investors. So, as we don't believe in overnight sensations, the company was probably founded before 2004. We want to hear from the CEO, who maybe the original founder or somebody who took over when the original business had failed.

We want to hear about massive skepticism, huge mistakes, changes of tactics and even of strategy, near death experiences, all the usual tales of derring-do.

The company can be bootstrapped, or funded by angels, friends and family or VC. No matter where the financing came from, the entrepreneur can now say to them a) no more dilution, and b) thanks for your help, enjoy the ride.

We are launching this series later today with a profile of Jigsaw and their Founder CEO, Jim Fowler. Our earlier profile of Zoho (Part 1 and Part 2) fits the bill too.

We will also give unsolicited advice to these gritty entrepreneurs about the Great Credit Crisis (we're hoping you help us out in the comments on this).

We Want Names

If you know any gritty entrepreneurs, or you are one yourself, we want to hear from you. Send us an email or leave a comment below.

Obligatory cat pic: pasma

UPDATE: Gritty Entrepreneurs: Jigsaw, a Profitable Web 2.0 Venture; the first post in this series

His story is an inspiration and it is our pleasure to connect you with Mike Dunn on ReadWriteWeb.

What is your background?

I'm an emerging media technologist. I've spent the latter half of my career as a chief technology officer for companies in media or technology.

I've always been an early adopter. I enjoy finding ways to adapt emerging media, trends, methodologies and technologies into a company. I've been attracted to change agent roles and opportunities.

I like the complexity of environments in the midst of change, where the need to implement innovation is necessary to grow or turn around anything from an entire company to an individual product opportunity.

I tend to be responsible for the technical assessment of Venture and M&A opportunities. I'm asked to manage strategic partnerships with technology companies, service providers and academic institutions.

I'm a director for a bank and an online ecommerce site, an advisor to a media marketplace startup, a b2b operating company, a major technology trade publication and an insurance industry information portal startup.

My portal glemak.com contains pointers to my bio and online activities.

You've been CTO of Dell Online, Time Warner and now Hearst. How did you evolve through these experiences?

My roles in each have been very different. My Dell role occurred just as ecommerce was striving for adoption, Time Warner occurred right in the middle of the bubble, and Hearst is occurring while the web is dynamically changing as it moves to massive online communities and the long tail of media.

Dell Online was an internal start-up championed by Michael Dell to lead the way for the entire enterprise, not only to build the online capability, but also to spread its adoption and utilization. We pointed the way for transitioning a company via ecommerce.

I was part of an excellent team tasked with designing and building a high availability transactional environment, and one which did it all with nascent ecommerce development tools.

I spent a great deal of time briefing customers and partners on the value of our approach to building the infrastructure and platform that represented the revolutionary change to selling securely via the web. This was early days of ecommerce and prior to the 'all-in, spare no expense' bubble. Employees and customers needed to be convinced Dell's online efforts were safe and provided value.

When Time Warner approached me to become the CTO, I accepted since the reason I was hired at Dell had been satisfied. The site and team were built and stable, and the ecommerce transition had started to happen.

At Dell I learned how to plan and build for scale, how to partner with diverse technology units driven by multiple motivating factors, how to lead via influence, and how to educate and socialize the value of a complex paradigm shifting technological change for a company.

Time Warner was a huge role and opportunity. I'd spent time earlier working in technology management for Hanna-Barbera and Turner. Both became Time Warner properties after I'd left Turner in the early '90s.

My role involved overseeing corporate technology assets and services such as the global WAN connecting diverse businesses, our messaging environment and corporate applications. I managed an IT team responsible for these functions, but that was only 20% of my job. The other 80% was strategic, seeking opportunities to leverage traditional and emerging technology initiatives across over 660 businesses.

I relied on virtual teams, groups of diverse experts loaned part-time from individual units so that Time Warner could leverage internal resources and expertise. We used consultants of course, but our SMEs were the leaders and guides.

Mid tenure the AOL acquisition occurred, causing us to realign our initiatives to deal with this massive merger event.

I learned a lot about strategic guidance via influence. It is better to spend time convincing folks about something you'd like to see change so that they adopt the idea as their own.

A valuable lesson I learned at Time Warner was never to get overwhelmed with the scope of responsibility an initiative or role entails.

My current role with Hearst is also about leading via influence. As emerging media technologist, I advise and work directly with the various divisions. I also oversee relationships with technology partners and academic institutes.

I provide technical due diligence for our enterprise level investments and acquisitions, and I provide guidance and oversight for our portfolio companies, and am responsible for the technology aspects of wholly owned entities.

At Hearst I've had to evolve my methods to align with a larger entity changing to meet a rapidly shifting media landscape.

How has the media landscape changed in the past 5 years?

Dramatically. I started at Hearst 5 years ago, so I've seen the changes inside my company and from the media landscape at large.

Five years ago blogging, social media / networking, user-generated content and ubiquitous online consumption of rich media were not pervasive, and were not leveraged in any substantial way by the traditional media industry.

Yes there were those of us blogging, utilizing RSS and generating media online who were both inside and outside the traditional media industry. These will continue to grow dramatically.

Today most media entities are exploring or immersed in emerging media capabilities, especially publishing online and direct community engagement. The connected aspect of the communities has been a constant evolution. Instead of talking 'at' their audience, they need to become an active peer participant in the conversation.

The desire to access media has changed dramatically. Traditional methods of producing and distributing media have been extended in dramatic ways via technologies such as flash video, mobile access and Podcasting.

What are the economics of the print v. online world for media companies?

Traditional and online media production and distribution are of equal importance in today's rapidly changing media landscape. It's all about transitional focus.

I'd broaden the question to: What are the economics of all forms of traditional media v. online?

Today the same product that is produced for traditional distribution needs also to be leveraged in as many other media as possible, and as many times as possible. For example, the concept for an article is published traditionally, yet there are numerous ways to extend the reach and life of that content online: by publishing an extended version to the web, syndicating it to other sites, maybe posting a Podcast of the original interviews. The original article can now be leveraged for a longer time and in many more venues.

What tangible revenue models do you see for online media today and on the horizon?

The revenue models for online are much the same as those available via traditional means: (e)commerce, affiliation, subscription, advertising, sponsorship (donation), pay to play, and product placement.

The biggest difference is in scale. Traditional media is larger yet narrower and today provides a greater percentage of revenue than the smaller yet much broader online revenue landscape. The barriers to entry into traditional media are costly and complex, while online they are much less expensive and simpler for new entrants.

Tangible revenue models being focused on today are advertising via CPM and PPC, with some seeing success via PPL and PPS.

What strategic changes are you implementing at Hearst to prepare for the future?

We're pursuing strategic investments and acquisitions in emerging and innovative media, and we're aggressively scaling or creating integrated digital media groups inside our business units.

On the enterprise technology side my group has been implementing program management and enterprise governance processes. Both are important structural changes.

On the strategic relationship side, I'm coordinating our relationship with the MIT Media Lab. The MIT sponsorship is a key research and development mechanism, from a 'what will media look like 3 to 10 years out' perspective.

You've been writing about technical due diligence on your blog. What are the top 5 things that must be in place?

1) The primary things I look for are a thorough understanding of a company's current technology state and a roadmap of their future. I then fill in the building blocks to paint a picture of the company and its structure via the next 4 areas.

2) Staffing: The company should have a proper ratio of dedicated to outsourced staff. The focus for in-house staff should be on owning and extending the company's value-add. The focus of the outsourced staff / service should be on areas where technology is available at a reasonable price.

3) Infrastructure and Architectural: I look for alignment between the infrastructure in place and their roadmap. I try to understand their architecture, i.e., have they designed something that will be stable, yet scale and grow as their business requires? Have they over or under built, are their investments proper for current state and extensible as their growth requires?

4) Workflow and Processes: This is usually the hardest part of my interviews with startups because while most have ways they do things, they often aren't comfortable expressing them. They also aren't normally done in a way that's repeatable to the point where they could be called a workflow. This is OK. As they mature, standardized workflows and processes will be established, normally out of a necessity to ensure they're providing a stable environment that doesn't get negatively affected as they introduce change.

5) Costs: This is the spreadsheet part of the conversations. What has been spent to get them to the point they're at, what do they need to spend near term, possibly with funding from my company, and what do they envision they'll need to spend? I look for a grounded approach to spending.

What is your secret for balancing personal and business life?

You work to live, not live to work. I've always had a passion for my career, but I've also made sure I spend priority time with my family. We spend time together snowboarding each winter in Vermont, and mountain biking the other months, along with our dogs.

Both my boys are athletes, so I make as many of their games as possible. I work hard and travel a lot, but I'm home for important family events.

What is one insight, business or technical that you want to share with our readers?

Try and develop the art of listening. Too often folks spend so much time trying to think about and express their own opinions that they miss the details of the conversation occurring around them.

Most of the successful folks I've been around in my career are excellent listeners.

What is the meaning of life according to Mike Dunn?

My geek answer is the same as Brad Feld's meaning of life = 42. But the serious one is that life is all about learning.

If you can learn something useful at every stage of your life and use that knowledge to improve your life as well as to teach it to others, whether its your kids or someone you mentor, then your life should be rewarding.

The venture investing process used to be largely a mystery. Young entrepreneurs were not sure how to value their companies, nor were they sure what to make of the term sheets offered to them - largely because the mechanics of venture math weren't open to them. But recently the rules of the game have changed. The venture process is now much more open, in no small part because of Brad Feld.

Feld is also responsible for building what is today a thriving tech community in Colorado. When he moved to Boulder 15 years ago with his wife Amy, there was little to no tech presence. Today Boulder is a boom town, buzzing with some of the sharpest brains in tech. Companies like Lijit, Me.dium, and Gnip, as well as a whole pack of TechStars (which Feld started with Dave Cohen) alumni headquartered in Boulder.

Besides making a huge impact as a VC, Feld is one of the most inspirational people I've met. It is my pleasure to connect our readers with him via this interview.

What is your background?

I grew up in Dallas. I got an Apple II computer for my bar mitzvah and quickly became a reasonably well adjusted teenage computer nerd way before it was cool. I went to MIT, got a few degrees from there, and started my first successful company (Feld Technologies) when I was a sophomore. With a partner, we grew Feld Technologies into a decent sized (20 person) software consulting firm before selling it in 1993 to a public company (AmeriData Technologies). I worked for a few years at AmeriData while making angel investments with some of the money that I made (companies like Net.Genesis, Thinkfish, Harmonix, and Critical Path).

My wife Amy and I randomly moved to Boulder, Colorado from Boston in 1995 (Boston wasn't home for us) and have never looked back. In 1995 I started working with the Softbank making investments with them and in 1996 teamed up with three of the other guys working there to start Softbank Venture Capital (which turned into Mobius Venture Capital). I've been actively investing as a VC since 1996 in a wide range of software and Internet companies around the US. Last year (2007) I started a new firm with four of my friends from Mobius and we launched our new fund (Foundry Group - www.foundrygroup.com) in the fall of 2007.

How did you get interested in the Venture Capital business?

While Feld Technologies never took in any investment (we only raised $10 to start the company) a number of our customers were Venture Capital firms. We wrote back office software for the VCs to help them manage their portfolio accounting and reporting which - prior to us coming along - was a nasty spreadsheet exercise. I got to know some VCs and after we sold Feld Technologies did some consulting work for a few of them as I was investing as an angel investor. My connection with Softbank was random but timely, as Softbank was making an aggressive push to invest in Internet companies in the US (which directly overlapped with my angel investing). I woke up one day and had co-founded what became Mobius Venture Capital.

What are the top 3 things that you look in a company before you invest? Is there any one thing that always kills the deal for you?

I am a thematic investor. I like to pick a few themes - either deep technological protocols or what I anticipate to be broad market changes in the adoption and use of technology - and invest in the themes over a 10+ year period. Historical themes including email and RSS; current themes include these along with the Implicit Web, Human Computer Interaction, Digital Life, and something we call Glue.

So - thing #1 is "does it fit a current theme?" If no, we pass unless it is an entrepreneur that we know or have worked with before (we aren't a slave to our themes, but the bar for looking at something outside a current theme is usually having an existing relationship.) The next thing we look at are the people. Are these people we want to work with? Do we think we'll have fun creating a company together? Do we trust each other and believe we can have an open conversation regardless of the circumstances? Will we be able to kick ass together? If we get past these two gates, then we go deep.

What was your best/worst investment ever?

Best: Based on combined financial metrics and realized absolute dollar returned, probably Service Metrics. Worst: In terms of heartbreak, probably Interliant. I co-founded it, it maxed out at a $2.5b public market valuation in 2000, and was bankrupt in 2002. I've had plenty of bad investments that didn't ever get off the ground; the toughest ones for me have been the ones that had huge value at some point and then got decimated when the Internet bubble burst.

What are the top technologies that you want to invest in over the next 3 years?

Implicit Web, Human Computer Interaction, Digital Life, and Glue.

How did you become a marathon runner?

I was a cross country runner in high school and always loved running. When I hit age 35 (around 2001) I was a blimp, way out of shape, and physically worn out because of how intense work had become. I decided I needed a big goal that would force me to spend time away from work that would benefit me. Marathon running was a logical one since I had always loved to run. I decided that I would run a marathon in every state in the US by the time I turned 50. I've knocked down 10 of them (the 11th is happening on June 21).

Which business leaders, past or present, do you admire the most and why?

Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Andrew Carnegie, George Soros, and my grandfather.

What is one insight, business or technical, that you want to share with our readers?

"Do, or do not. There is no try."

What is the meaning of life according to Brad Feld?

When it's over, they dig a hole in the ground, put you in it (or spread your ashes somewhere), print your picture in the newspaper and write some nice things about you, and then life goes on for everyone else but you. Live every minute that you have.

Welcome to the second installment of our new People in Tech series. In this post we interview Jason Devitt, CEO/Co-Founder of Skydeck. It's a mobile web startup built on the premise that "you ought to be able to manage your cell phone records the same way that you manage your email." The second big idea of Skydeck is that your true social network is hidden in your communication records. Read on for more insights...

Almost a decade ago, Devitt and Joerg recognized the power behind the idea of a hand held computer that users carried around with them wherever they went. The duo went on to build Vindigo city guide - one of the first successful consumer applications for mobile devices. The software automatically loaded local information onto Palm Pilots and allowed people to find reviews of local businesses and restaurants. It was downloaded by over 2 million users and won numerous awards.

Five years later, Vindigo was acquired by For-Side.com - one of the largest mobile media companies in the world. And Devitt is back with Skydeck, which brings the social dimension to your phone in a whole new way. Before reading this interview with someone we found to be a very insightful and visionary entrepreneur, we recommend that you get a feel for what sort of person Jason Devitt is by watching his testimony before the US Congress.

Note: Skydeck is still in private beta, but if you mention ReadWriteWeb during sign up, you will get an invite straight away.

What is your background?

I grew up in Ireland, studied electronic engineering and law (long story), and then spent four years working for an extremely successful hedge fund called D. E. Shaw, in London and New York. That was like getting paid to do an MBA, but more importantly the company moved me to New York in the middle of the dotcom boom and I finally discovered what I wanted to do with the rest of my life: start companies.

Tell us about your first startup - Vindigo.

Vindigo was one of the first companies in the US to sell content and applications for mobile devices. We published about twenty different titles for BREW, Java, Palm, and Windows devices. We powered apps for MapQuest, the New York Times, MadLibs, and Plaxo, we managed the mobile web portal for a tier 1 US carrier, but we also developed our own content and we were best known for our first app, the Vindigo city guide. We started that company in my apartment, built it up to $10 million in revenue, and sold it in 2004. Vindigo is still in business and still profitable as far as I know, but I left in 2005.

How did you come up with the idea for Skydeck?

My co-founder Mike Wells and I were working on a completely different business idea, and our research for that led us to take a close look at cell phone bills. We realized that there's a lot of useful information locked up in your bill in a useless format. For example, if you live in the US, there's a complete record of all your calls each month - both incoming and outgoing. We asked ourselves why is this data so hard to get at? Some carriers let you download a CSV file, some smartphones let you export a file, but the vast majority of carriers and phones don't offer either and there are no standards for the rest.

You may think it's a good idea that all this data disappears into the ether. But it doesn't. Your carrier uses it to market new services to you. Your employer can get at it if you have a business plan. The police can get it if they have a warrant, and the NSA can get it without a warrant. So why can't you? That was the starting point.

What is the main idea behind Skydeck?

There are actually two big ideas. The first is that you ought to be able to manage your cell phone records the same way that you manage your email.

Imagine if Outlook or Apple Mail or Thunderbird only showed you the last ten emails that you had sent or received. What would you do? You'd try to make notes about emails that were important. You'd send someone an IM instead of an email just to make sure you had a record of the message. You'd try to guess the last time you sent an email to a customer. But most of the time you'd just forget about a message as soon as something else grabbed your attention. You'd get by - you may remember life without email at all - but it would be broken. Yet that's how our cell phones work today. We plan to fix this. We start with the data in your phone bill, marry it to your address book, and turn the list of numbers into a history of all your conversations so that you can search and sort and filter it just like your email archives. We're working towards real-time data.

The second big idea is that your true social network is hidden in your communication records.

Your true network is not the list of people that you 'friend' on Facebook or LinkedIn; it's the people that you call and text and email and IM every day. Those friends are not created equal. The ones you speak to most often are important, and the guy that you exchanged one email with in 2001 is not, even if he tags you on every new social site online. Skydeck maps your true social network using your cell phone data. Straight away you can see who you call most often, who you need to call, and who never calls you back. If you make a lot of phone calls, this can change your behavior. Over time we'll help you use the data to manage and prioritize all your communications, including activity on other networks. And as of last week we let you share some of the data - with everyone opting in - so that Skydeck members can see not only which other Skydeck members have connected to you, but which of them really know you well.

What influenced your choice to build a browser extension?

We need you to trust us with some very sensitive information. We decided that one way to earn that trust was to avoid asking for the username and password to your cell phone account. So we wrote an extension that stores those in your browser, retrieves your bills on your behalf, and uploads them to Skydeck.

We've had mixed reactions to this approach. Some people see any download as a security risk in itself; others share a computer and don't want to store passwords in the browser. And some people would sooner give up their social security number, home address, and medical records than spend 30 seconds installing a toolbar. On the other hand, some people appreciate the effort we made and others love the toolbar because we included a gauge showing how many minutes and text messages you have left on your account each day. In the future, we'll offer people a choice.

What are the most complex technical challenges facing Skydeck?

Your true social graph is much richer than a list of connections, because each connection has some measure of strength associated it with. The challenge is that this graph is directed and asymmetric, unlike most networks you create online. This means, for example, that each person has a unique, personal view of the network.

We've just started giving users the ability to browse and explore this network. Adding better ways to navigate it, keeping it up-to-date as the data flows in, and scaling the whole thing are some of the technical challenges we're excited about.

What are your goals for 2008 and beyond?

We just talk about the next iteration. And the next iteration is data that updates every day, not just once a month.

How did the mobile landscape change between your first and second coming?

When we started Vindigo in 1999, a smartphone was the Neopoint 1000. In 2000 I bought the first phone in the world with a color screen, the Sony Ericsson T68. There was no mobile web, there was only WAP, and WAP was so awful that we built our first app for PDAs. Just a year ago people claimed that the iPhone would never be a mass market product because it was too expensive. Now it's $199. Five years from now, a phone with the feature set the iPhone had at launch will be free from Tracfone, without a contract.

But the biggest and most important change is the move towards open platforms. Mobile 1.0 companies like Vindigo couldn't do anything without the permission of carriers, and some of our best ideas died on the vine. That's why I was happy to testify to Congress and the FCC in support of the open access provisions for the 700 MHz auctions.

Today most phones have a credible web browser and more than 10% of new phones have an open OS. (Not open source, just open to installing a third-party application; the bar is low in mobile.) That means there are a lot more services that companies like Skydeck can take directly to the consumer. This is the only way the mobile market will ever realize its potential, unless the carriers get religion and embrace innovation. And thanks Alex, but my 'second coming' won't do that.

Which business leaders, past or present, do you admire the most and why?

In our culture we place too much emphasis on leaders and not enough on teams.

What is one insight, business or technical, that you want to share with our readers?

The implicit graph will be to social software what PageRank was to search.

The implicit social graph is the true social network that I mentioned previously, the network deduced from your communication history: automatic, dynamic, weighted, and not necessarily symmetric. Social software refers to any application where people interact, from Facebook to eBay to email.

A problem common to all social apps is that the more successful they get, the harder it gets to pluck the signal from the noise. Yogi Berra may as well have been talking about MySpace when he said "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

Starting out on eBay, my reputation should not be zero, it should be based on the reputation of the people who know me well. I should be able to give out a public email address, but block messages from everyone except my true 1st and 2nd degree. On Twitter I should be able to follow the 25 people who are most important to me at any given time. And I should be able to do all this without having to make and maintain a list of who those people are, and without having to fill out forms, check boxes, and assign people to groups every time I meet someone new.

I'm not claiming that we've got it all worked out and that Skydeck will be the next Google. I know of at least six startups exploring different aspects of this. There are also people working on it at Yahoo, Google, and Facebook, and readers should take a look at MIT's work on reality mining.

My 'insight' is that someone is going to build a billion-dollar company around the implicit social graph. And I'm betting on Skydeck.

Wrap Up

Please post any additional questions for Jason and also, let us know who else you'd like to see interviewed in our "People in Tech" series via the comments below.

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All of these algorithms are running on a scalable, distributed grid, powered by Amazon Web Services. After meeting with Tori, we instantly knew why Zemanta won a Red Herring 100 award this year in Europe - not only are Tori and his team doing some amazing work, there is a wonderful story and passion behind the company.

RWW: What is your background?

Andraz Tori: I started programming at age of 10 and have been successful at international programming competitions in high school. I went to study computer science, however always did some things in parallel. For example, I had a 5-year detour as TV host on Slovenian national television and established a successful computer center in Ljubljana. I always look for how to improve life with technology and decided to go entrepreneurial when seeing an interesting opportunity on how to do it on a large scale.

What is it like to be a tech startup in Europe?

It's fun. It's hard. But that is even more rewarding when you overcome the challenges. Seedcamp (a UK competition inspired by Y Combinator) was a great boost for European early stage ventures and for us too. It is fun trying to bring a startup culture to Slovenia, a country that is not really used to it.

How did Zemanta get started?

We've seen that local TV house was providing all their video production on the Internet. Naturally Google could not understand and index them. We discovered that TV house had subtitles for all the shows and wrote a program to automatically create web pages that are automatically indexed and then point people to the right videos. That was too easy so we added a bunch of natural language processing and automatically connected those pages to other stories on TV portal and to Wikipedia. Now full blown web pages were created automagically. We sold this solution for pocket change and then realized that it is actually a very unique product - like nothing else out there! Then we (with co-founder Bostjan Spetic) realized that this amazing technology works on the language that only two million people speak. So we decided to go international and applied to Seedcamp. There we got first seed funding and later proper seed round from UK investors.

What is the main idea behind Zemanta?

When dealing with secretary, do you instruct her how to do every single detail or do you tell her approximately what you want, wait for result and just correct it if there are any the mistakes? We use computers today in the first way, while at Zemanta we believe it should be more of the second. Zemanta applies that idea to content creation. When author writes initial text, the service analyzes it and suggests how it can be improved.

Right now it suggests images to add, related articles, tags and in-text links. All this unobtrusively and implemented via slick interface. The better the computer understands the text and its context, the more it can help you write it. That's the idea behind Zemanta. Right now we are applying it to bloggers (via plug-ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer so they work even on hosted platforms) and we also are planning to open up an API.

How does your product use semantic technologies?

When doing our analysis we need to connect pieces of text to their semantic meaning. When suggesting tags we need to know their semantic neighborhood. But all this stays in background, the user never sees the magical semantic hand which is hidden behind simple and slick user interface. Because we find out what parts of text are about, we are able to create correct semantic markup that helps pages to get better visibility in semantic search engines or applications such as Yahoo! SearchMonkey.

What is Zemanta's architecture and use of Amazon Web Services?

Deep processing of text is a processor intensive task. You need to make it scalable, AWS EC2 is the right answer. We created our own high-availability high-performance solution that makes sure service is kept alive and well. All existing solutions only map well to classical web server + SQL server combination. We also use S3 for backups and some SimpleDB. AWS (and similar services) make life easier for startups. However you need to design your systems to be 'cloudable' from the start.

What are your goals for the rest of 2008 and beyond?

Simple, be the best utility service for bloggers in 2008. Get bloggers on board so they tell us what they want from the 'smart' service. Then provide more functionality and benefits from using Zemanta and provide an API to early adopters that want to integrate it in their own CMS or other types of applications.

Beyond 2008, we envision suggestion service so helpful that the experience becomes ubiquitously expected. In a few years you will want it whenever you will create content - be it writing a blog post, or using word processor or even in your email client. Users are going to expect computers to understand their intentions better. And help with good, insightful, directly usable suggestions. Zemanta is going to provide that service to large many of them via different delivery methods.

What companies are competing with you in the space? What other Semantic Web companies do you find interesting?

You could create Zemanta experience if you pulled different companies' products together. But we are the only one having a rounded product, not just API and not just one or two types of suggestions. You could find parts of Zemanta experience in Sphere, Calais, BlogRovr, Watson, etc.

I am a big fan of Cyc and Metaweb and hope people will build wonders on the foundations those two companies are building. I am also interested in Powerset and Twine which both could become very important if/when they make it into the mainstream.

What is one insight, business or technical, that you want to share with our readers?

Developing diverse skills pays off. And doing things with your whole heart always means an interesting journey, even when you end up at different place than you initially expected.