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Tara Hunt, one of Jimmy's old friends |
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thekohser |
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I stumbled across this video today, an interview between Tara Hunt and Jimmy Wales. (Thanks to what appears to be a botched editing job, you'll want to let the video run for about 40 seconds before paying attention.) Ms. Hunt describes Jimmy as one of her friends and heroes, though it's been so long since they last chatted, she thought he still lived in San Francisco, unaware that (Golden Acres) Florida is where he puts down roots now. I got to researching just what Tara Hunt does for a living, and it's difficult to understand how she pays the bills. She apparently identifies as a "consultant", running a website called HorsePigCow.com, which according to Alexa reaches about one-half the people and garners about one-fifth the page views that Wikipedia Review does. She claims to have founded Citizen Agency, but then left it in early 2009, and they haven't blogged about themselves since October 2007. When Tara and Jimmy were both living in San Francisco, they "could never see each other there", but they would meet up in Paris or London, at conferences and such. Seriously, what is the means of income for someone like Tara Hunt? I didn't spy a wedding band. Other tidbits: 04:10 -- Jimmy Wales: "I have a friend who is a TV host in Saudi Arabia. And she..." 05:16 -- Jimmy Wales' copy of the book, The Victorian Internet, was given to him by Marc Andreesen. Marc used to date his co-founder of Ning, Gina Bianchini, whom we've discussed here before, but has recently stepped down from Ning... into Marc's venture capital firm. For more of my thoughts on this video snippet, you may join the conversation here.
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carbuncle |
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Fat Cat
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QUOTE Although I spend a good deal of time railing against marketing and consumerism, I am by profession an Online Marketing professional and, well, a consumer to the nth degree. Anyone who seems to spend all of their time going to conferences and hanging out with bold type internet names but seems not to actually do anything is usually in marketing or PR, in my experience. See this 2009 article about her remarkably successful start-up, coming real soon now...
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thekohser |
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I just received a promotional e-mail from Tara Hunt & Co. I thought I would share. QUOTE Hey...sooooo... You may or may not recall signing up for this list -- we know it's been a while! We apologize for the delay, but we didn't want to fill your inbox with empty promises and meaningless updates until we had something REAL to tell you. Well...here it is! Something real! Shwowp.com will be part of the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield tomorrow (Tues, September 28, 2010) at 3:30pm (PT)! We were chosen one of 24 startups to launch out of over 1,000 applicants...the team at TechCrunch think we're onto something. We do, too. And mostly, we hope that you do. Tune in via livestream! Now you are asking the question: "Big deal! When do I get in?" Here is where we give a promise that we are aiming to fulfill in spades. The demo we will be giving tomorrow is about 90% ready for you to use...but there are still bits and bobs missing. These bits and bobs should take us about another week or two to hack together. Keep in mind that when we DO invite you, there will still be oodles of work to do - we'll be inviting you to a private ALPHA (we can't even call it a beta!). But we want to build Shwowp with your feedback early on. Lastly, thank you. Thank you for expressing interest. For your support. For your excitement. Together, we will truly put customers at the center of the consumer universe (and that may be meaningless now...but tune into our demo/presentation tomorrow to know what exactly you signed up for)! xo Tara, Cassandra, Jerome + Team Shwowp
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carbuncle |
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Fat Cat
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QUOTE(thekohser @ Mon 27th September 2010, 7:14pm) I just received a promotional e-mail from Tara Hunt & Co. I thought I would share. QUOTE Hey...sooooo... You may or may not recall signing up for this list -- we know it's been a while! We apologize for the delay, but we didn't want to fill your inbox with empty promises and meaningless updates until we had something REAL to tell you. Well...here it is! Something real! Shwowp.com will be part of the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield tomorrow (Tues, September 28, 2010) at 3:30pm (PT)! We were chosen one of 24 startups to launch out of over 1,000 applicants...the team at TechCrunch think we're onto something. We do, too. And mostly, we hope that you do. Tune in via livestream! Techcrunch isn't listing them on the agenda. Sooooo, uh, what does that mean?
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Somey |
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Can't actually moderate (or even post)
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As I understand it, shwowp.com is some sort of "social network for shoppers," which hopes that people are going to take the trouble to enter the details of all their shopping, online and off, into Shwowp's database in exchange for "value-added services" that apparently amount to the same sort of thing you can do with a common spreadsheet program and a few Google searches, though of course you have to know how to use the common spreadsheet program, and you have to be able to use Google without it constantly crashing your browser. It looks like they're hoping people will ignore the obvious privacy implications of this, not to mention the effort involved in submitting all this data to a third party, and that instead they'll enter in their ongoing expenditure reports because it's "fun," and that the site will "go viral" and become "the Facebook/Twitter of e-Commerce." Call me a cynic, but I don't think it's gonna work, personally... This blogger saw Ms. Hunt's presentation back in May at a similar "startup camp"-type conference and was also less than fully impressed. Jimbo would be well-advised to avoid being ensnared in this venture - that doesn't mean he has to stop being friends with Tara Hunt, who is (arguably) very cute, but Wikipedia and Wikia are already too privacy-invasive for most non-passive internet users as it is. This looks to be at least 10 to 20 times more so.
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EricBarbour |
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blah
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(snicker) I saw a lot of this during the Web 1.0 days. A few snotty Stanford kids would pool their trust-fund money and throw up a broken website, then run around trying to troll VCs for money. It rarely worked, because VCs aren't as stupid as snotty Stanford kids think they are. DEN is the most notorious example of this, although there were plenty of others. I recall a magazine article about this in 1999 or so. (Don't go to den.net now, it is still there but it'll crash your browser. And that's a horrible WP article. I bet they're ignoring it, because Web 2.0 wunderkindred don't like to be reminded of the disasters of Web 1.0.) Facebook was started in a similar way, but was different in that Zuckerberg coded a working site from the start, and had himself a runaway hit immediately. Most of the trust-fundies know nothing about code. Tara is a flake, and I wish her the best of luck in scamming people who are older, smarter and meaner. This post has been edited by EricBarbour:
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thekohser |
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Just received this automated e-mail from Tara Hunt: QUOTE Okay, okay, so the name SHWOWP sucks...then help us find a new one! The Story Behind This We've known it for a long time now...people just don't like/respect/wanna say/feel warm and fuzzy about the name Shwowp. It's kind of the victim of a bad mashup much like an equally hated word (Syner...won't say the rest). We thought it would be descriptive (WOW in SHOP), but instead it rolls off the tongue like a fuzzy sandwich. It was already in the works to change the name. We came up with this bright idea EONS ago...but Tara was all, like, "Let's do it when we raise our Angel round as a new unveil!" Well, it seems people just don't want to wait that long. It's just *that* offensive. The truth is, we don't have a gabillion dollars to go out and bid on awesome, fancy names yet. But that doesn't mean we don't already have options lined up. We've bought a few URLS over the past few months that are actually pretty nifty (or we think so, but we *did* come up with Shwowp, so...) and we thought we've decided to throw it out there to see if they resonate with everyone. We've also left a spot open for your own suggestions. We can't offer up a fancy prize yet, but can say that we will have a reward in the future for someone who comes up with the 'winning' name. In the meantime, you will get all sorts of love, attention, adoration and whuffie. The Parameters These are some of the things on our wishlist for the future name: - It should be fairly short (under 10 characters for sure, under 5 would rock) - It should be kind of descriptive (shopping, taste, persona, style - something that says "This is the stuff I buy that says a little bit about who I am") (to understand what we are about, watch this: http://www.vimeo.com/15847235.)- It should be able to be made into a verb (Shwowp can be Shwowpping and Shwowpper) - It needs to be available or inexpensive to bid on (under $500) Check it on GoDaddy.com or NetworkSolutions.com So...get creative! And thank you in advance for still using Shwowp, talking about it and being overall awesome! Go here to take the survey: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?fo...2ZjVvTlVjRkE6MQ============================================== You are receiving this email because you opted in when you signed up for Shwowp. Our mailing address is: Shwowp Inc. 460 St. Catherine St. West Suite 914 Montreal, Quebec H3B 1A6 Our telephone: 15149950063 Do our work for us, for an undetermined future prize, PLEEEEEEEASE? This post has been edited by thekohser:
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carbuncle |
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Fat Cat
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Apparently being awarded worst brand name of 2010 has motivated them. QUOTE The Parameters These are some of the things on our wishlist for the future name: * It should be fairly short (under 10 characters for sure, under 5 would rock) * It should be kind of descriptive (shopping, taste, persona, style - something that says "This is the stuff I buy that says a little bit about who I am") (to understand what we are about, watch this: http://www.vimeo.com/15847235.) * It should be able to be made into a verb (Shwowp can be Shwowpping and Shwowpper) * It needs to be available or inexpensive to bid on (under $500) Check it on GoDaddy.com or NetworkSolutions.com Good luck getting usable anything under 5 characters for $500!
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Cedric |
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General Gato
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QUOTE(thekohser @ Thu 10th February 2011, 9:53am) Just received this automated e-mail from Tara Hunt: QUOTE Okay, okay, so the name SHWOWP sucks...then help us find a new one! *snip*
We can't offer up a fancy prize yet, but can say that we will have a reward in the future for someone who comes up with the 'winning' name. In the meantime, you will get all sorts of love, attention, adoration and whuffie.
*snip*
Do our work for us, for an undetermined future prize, PLEEEEEEEASE? The whuffie is a lie!
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thekohser |
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Tara Hunt just sent me an e-mail from the "new" brand name: QUOTE Buyosphere news-ishsome changes in these here parts! Categories Sure, we had tags, but whatev! We're thinking towards the future of big data and big data needs big statements! Seriously, though. It will make it much easier to start to slice and dice products in the near future...as we have well over 10,000 products now! (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) Wa-hoo! Tastebuds Cute, eh? Yep. When you post your products on Buyosphere, you are giving us all a little insight into your personal taste. We decided that 'friends' is often less relevant to our tastes than finding others who have similar styles...so we called them tastebuds! A note from our spokesdog Remember that we are in super duper ultra early days beta...and NEED YOUR FEEDBACK! Like the changes? See progress? Hate them? Have suggestions? Want to know where we are going with this? Please use the feedback tab or feel free to email us: contact@buyosphere.com Thanks, — Ridley the pug (photo of dog) Upcoming Appearances 7/12 Strata Online Conference http://strataconf.com/strata-july2011Everywhere.com 7/13-7/15 Startup Festival http://www.startupfestival.com/en/Montreal, QC follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend Copyright © 2011 Buyosphere, All rights reserved.
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