Where Are They Now: Web 1.0 Edition. The New York Times style section profiles Pseudo Programs founder Josh Harris. Valleywag describes Harris as “the Silicon Valley O.G. who washed up when the 1.0 tech bubble burst.” Harris is also the subject of an upcoming Sundance documentary We Live In Public–hence the profile. Web 1.0-ophiles may remember Harris best for webcamming his entire life for online voyeurs (including bathroom visits, the Times is quick to mention). But he’s also responsible for some of the first webcasts through Pseudo. Valleywag pegs him as “maybe the first chronic oversharer,” who gave rise to the Twitters, Tumblrs, and Facebooks of the world. So where is the man who once convinced 100 people to live in an underground facility with an altar, see-through shower, and firing range? The man who Jason Calacanis calls “One of the 10 most important people in the history of the Internet”? Living in his friend’s LA poolhouse and eeking out a living playing poker at the racetrack. Possibly Calacanis’ poolhouse, conjectures Valleywag. Harris is also trying his hand at a new startup, with Calacanis’ help. “Basically, it would have a large group of people living in a sort of three-dimensional real-world Facebook, where ‘friends’ could participate in one another’s every move,” explains the Times.

The internet, by the numbers. Sure the internet has drastically changed the way we live our lives, but what about its actual economic impact? According to a recent study conducted by two Harvard Business School professors, it’s pretty darn big. Some of the statistics to come out of the study show that 3.05 million people’s jobs are tied either directly or indirectly to the internet, accounting for about $300 billion in wages. Also, the study shows the direct economic value the internet provides to the rest of the U.S. economy to be an estimated $175 billion. On his blog, Scenarios and Strategy, scenario-planner Lawrence Wilkinson takes a closer look at the study’s results and tries to put some meaning to the numbers. As he puts it, “The experience of telecoms suggests that, while there will continue to be growth in (and money to be made in) internet-specific businesses, the larger and faster-growing opportunities, at least in aggregate, lie in what the net enables, in what we can do with the web.”

A Facebook exodus? Is Facebook, one of the most successful startups of the past decade, in danger of becoming passe? That’s the contention of Virginia Heffernan in this week’s New York Times Magazine. Heffernan asked around and found that a number of Facebook users have decided to part ways with the site: “Is Facebook doomed to someday become an online ghost town, run by zombie users who never update their pages and packs of marketers picking at the corpses of social circles they once hoped to exploit?” she asks. “Sad, if so. Though maybe fated, like the demise of a college clique.” Fred Wilson looks up the numbers–which show massive traffic and continued growth–and throws cold water on this theory: “Here’s the deal, churn is part of online media, particularly social media. People come and go. Some stick around, some don’t. These stories about quitters are true of course, but they miss the big picture. More and more people are using these services every day.”

How do small businesses spend their IT budget? Spiceworks’ annual survey of small and medium-sized businesses is out this week and GigaOm has the breakdown. Of the 1,130 IT professionals surveyed (from companies with less than 500 employees), 39 percent reported cutting IT budgets this year, with an average of 22 percent reduction. More surprisingly 30 percent saw their IT budget increase, with an average of 27 percent. The bulk of the money (37 percent) went to hardware and 24 percent to software. The respondents’ purchase plans for the rest of the year? 38 percent will spend on backup and recovery, 46 percent on antivirus and spam prevention, and 30 percent on virtualization software. 56 percent of companies use at least one hosted or cloud service (web hosting being the most popular with 25 percent). “However,” says GigaOm, “It doesn’t seem like full-scale cloud technologies like Amazon’s S3 and EC2 have caught on as quickly outside Silicon Valley.”

The argument against forcing VCs to register with the SEC. VC investor Alan Patricof and NYU b-school professor Eric Dinallo have an op-ed in the New York Times stating that VC funds pose no systemic risks and therefore should be exempt from the Obama administration’s proposed law to require private capital (like funds that cover derivatives and mortgage-backed securities) to register with the SEC to be monitored. Particularly now, say the authors, VC funds need the freedom to flourish. Dan Primack at peHUB takes issue with one of their claims, namely that VC only deal with privately-purchased equity securities in start-up companies, which are not publicly-traded. Says Primack, “Not only do some of those companies, if successful, ultimately create public securities that VC firms hold, but more and more VC firms are making investments in already public companies.”

EMC founder dies. Richard Egan, founder of EMC and former ambassador to Ireland, died Friday in an apparent suicide. The Boston Business Journal says, “His aggressive business style and no-nonsense presentation were legendary at EMC as well as within Massachusetts’ technology community, and remain hallmarks among the company’s management and senior executive ranks today.” Egan was 73.

The underwear index. No need to look to Wall Street any longer for signs of an economic recovery; just look in your top drawer. As the Washington Post reports, underwear sales for men have proven to be a good economic indicator as they are typically stable since they are a necessity, but tough economic times leads men to hold onto the Fruit of the Looms longer between new purchases. Thankfully the MUI, or men’s underwear index, does show some signs of an upturn. Research firm Mintel predicts that underwear sales next year will fall by 0.5 percent, a positive sign in that it marks a slower decline than this year’s expected drop of 2.3 percent in sales. The Post quotes one D.C.-area resident as not having bought a new pair of underwear in at least eight months.

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Nokia has unveiled in Europe its first-ever Linux phone.

Why is this interesting?

- Nokia is the world’s largest cell phone maker, including smartphones. Therefore, everything it does is interesting.

- Symbian is their operating system of choice. People talk about the iPhone and Microsoft’s mobile O/S and Blackberry and that up and coming scrapper, Android by Google. Pfffft! Symbian is bigger than all of those put together.

- Nokia has been playing around with Linux on its “Internet Tablets” for awhile now. This is an interesting jump.

- Nokia is especially known for its high-end, high dollar mobile devices. Thanks to the economy, Goldman-Sachs is projecting Nokia’s market share of the devices priced above $350 to drop to 13 percent in the upcoming year. Two years ago, they ruled at 33 percent. Linux may be a Hail Mary pass to regain some of that yardage.

Stay tuned…

Nokia has unveiled in Europe its first-ever Linux phone.

Why is this interesting?

- Nokia is the world’s largest cell phone maker, including smartphones. Therefore, everything it does is interesting.

- Symbian is their operating system of choice. People talk about the iPhone and Microsoft’s mobile O/S and Blackberry and that up and coming scrapper, Android by Google. Pfffft! Symbian is bigger than all of those put together.

- Nokia has been playing around with Linux on its “Internet Tablets” for awhile now. This is an interesting jump.

- Nokia is especially known for its high-end, high dollar mobile devices. Thanks to the economy, Goldman-Sachs is projecting Nokia’s market share of the devices priced above $350 to drop to 13 percent in the upcoming year. Two years ago, they ruled at 33 percent. Linux may be a Hail Mary pass to regain some of that yardage.

Stay tuned…

Nokia has unveiled in Europe its first-ever Linux phone.

Why is this interesting?

- Nokia is the world’s largest cell phone maker, including smartphones. Therefore, everything it does is interesting.

- Symbian is their operating system of choice. People talk about the iPhone and Microsoft’s mobile O/S and Blackberry and that up and coming scrapper, Android by Google. Pfffft! Symbian is bigger than all of those put together.

- Nokia has been playing around with Linux on its “Internet Tablets” for awhile now. This is an interesting jump.

- Nokia is especially known for its high-end, high dollar mobile devices. Thanks to the economy, Goldman-Sachs is projecting Nokia’s market share of the devices priced above $350 to drop to 13 percent in the upcoming year. Two years ago, they ruled at 33 percent. Linux may be a Hail Mary pass to regain some of that yardage.

Stay tuned…

Nokia has unveiled in Europe its first-ever Linux phone.

Why is this interesting?

- Nokia is the world’s largest cell phone maker, including smartphones. Therefore, everything it does is interesting.

- Symbian is their operating system of choice. People talk about the iPhone and Microsoft’s mobile O/S and Blackberry and that up and coming scrapper, Android by Google. Pfffft! Symbian is bigger than all of those put together.

- Nokia has been playing around with Linux on its “Internet Tablets” for awhile now. This is an interesting jump.

- Nokia is especially known for its high-end, high dollar mobile devices. Thanks to the economy, Goldman-Sachs is projecting Nokia’s market share of the devices priced above $350 to drop to 13 percent in the upcoming year. Two years ago, they ruled at 33 percent. Linux may be a Hail Mary pass to regain some of that yardage.

Stay tuned…

Nokia has unveiled in Europe its first-ever Linux phone.

Why is this interesting?

- Nokia is the world’s largest cell phone maker, including smartphones. Therefore, everything it does is interesting.

- Symbian is their operating system of choice. People talk about the iPhone and Microsoft’s mobile O/S and Blackberry and that up and coming scrapper, Android by Google. Pfffft! Symbian is bigger than all of those put together.

- Nokia has been playing around with Linux on its “Internet Tablets” for awhile now. This is an interesting jump.

- Nokia is especially known for its high-end, high dollar mobile devices. Thanks to the economy, Goldman-Sachs is projecting Nokia’s market share of the devices priced above $350 to drop to 13 percent in the upcoming year. Two years ago, they ruled at 33 percent. Linux may be a Hail Mary pass to regain some of that yardage.

Stay tuned…

In two recent discussions with a small business owner and a PR firm about many of the things I’ve recently covered in this column, a big concern that came up was time.
“How much time will it take me to create a good social media presence?” Great question. The answer is, of course,”it depends.”

When I spoke to Mark LePage last year in Building Success by Blogging he mentioned that he spends 10-12 hours a week on bloggin, separate from his standard marketing efforts.

If one goes by the old adage that an entrepreneur should spend about 20% of her time marketing, Mark might be spending more time when you factor in blogging and standard marketing (or working 80 hours a week).

Sometimes, though, the social media efforts really require some focus and organization. Use tools such as Google Reader to organize RSS feeds from websites you care about, so you don’t have to check each site separately. Create Bookmarks in your browser to remind you to check important sites (like your competitors, industry trade association sites, The Startup Toolkit, etc.).

Social Media Consultant Chris Brogan notes how much work he does in “How Many Chores Does It All Add“. Chris’ thoughts are great, but more focused on the high-end social media user. However, the things in his comments below the post can also give you great ideas.

If you’re using Twitter, consider tools that help manage your incoming messages, such as TweetDeck, CoTweet, PeopleBrowsr, or just look at the @Replies tab on your home page more than your regular page to see if people are talking about you or your company. Don’t forget to search twitter for mentions of your company or industry as well.
(Disclosure: in the past I have done some consulting for CoTweet, but am not currently doing so.)
If you have a blog, make sure new comments are set to come to you in email, so you can respond to them. Make a time, in the morning or afternoon, to check your social presences, such as a facebook fan page, myspace page, or whatever you’re using. Check it then don’t watch it all day. It is true that Social Media can take a lot of time, and we’d all probably be looking at pictures of our friends on the beach than doing the hard work of running our businesses. But if you make specific appointment times and use those times to check in, respond to questions, and post new content for your customers and fans, you’ll be able to manage the time and be more effective.

What methods are you using? Share them in the comments below.

At the end of July, Ireland’s most famous band, U2, returned to Dublin for a long week of parties and concerts. To call it a once-in-a-lifetime experience is an understatement. A week of partying that leads up to one of the best concerts is, alone, a great experience. As if I needed more of a reason to be excited, a couple friends offered me front-row tickets. My wife is a huge U2 fan (as any red-headed Irish girl should be), and I had it all planned out.

Only one glitch. I couldn’t go. My schedule was too booked and I had to turn the tickets down. The problem is that I’ve let my schedule get too filled up with little things that become big things.

We are all busy. When the economy is tight, we take on extra work to save payroll costs. When the economy is great, we are so flushed with work that it’s a full plate. I’ve gone 12 years now with this business and each one has been busier and more time-consuming than the last. The lie we tell ourselves — “When I finish this issue/event/project, I’ll be free to work on that project” — almost always plays out differently. Something always comes up and we get too engrossed in our fires to focus on what we need to. So, instead of taking advantage of a great new opportunity, we’re mired in mundane tasks than we can pass off to others.

This situation I’m in is unacceptable and has to get fixed. Today, it’s the front row at U2. What will I be too busy to do tomorrow? An important client meeting? A speech to a large group? A dance recital for my girls? A family emergency? I’m not sure, but damn it, I’m not going to find out.

So, what’s an entrepreneur to do? In order to force myself to get more things off my plate (and thus to free up more time for bigger things) and be available for bigger issues, I’m going to take more and more off my plate. My goal is to get to a point of having no more than 10 planned hours of work every week. That way I have the rest of the time to focus on big issues. There are always big-picture items I can tackle, and the only way to be free to focus on them is to remove the little things. I’ve done a great job of hiring well, and now that the team is in place to handle my smaller issues, I can let go without fear. If I need more help, I’m going to hire more great people. (Check out our hiring site, where we’re working to attract top talent.)

My plan is pretty simple — I offer it up not as the best plan, but as a possible solution. I would love to hear your thoughts and maybe we can all learn from my loss.

The business of pogo sticks. Looking for something to do this weekend? Try competitive pogoing. Over the past decade, there has been a burst of innovation in the pogo stick industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. Okay, “industry” might be a stretch, but, there’s no doubt that it’s boom times for manufacturers of pogo sticks. “Pogo riders today, mostly teenage risk-takers who might otherwise favor skateboarding, can bounce more than six feet in the air and perform spins and flips,” according to the article. In 2000, SBI Enterprises, which owns the original design for the pogo stick (invented by George Hansburg in 1919 as a training tool for dancers), introduced a new stick. The Flybar uses rubber bands instead of springs and can send someone who weighs 250 pounds five feet in the air. Business is booming–SBI’s founder says that his company sells half a million pogo sticks a year–and competitors have sprung up with other extreme pogo models. One company, Vurtego, based in Mission Viejo, California, claims that its compressed air pogo stick can send riders up to 16 feet in the air.

How to speed up your SBA loan approval. This year, the SBA set aside $375 million to temporarily eliminate loan fees and increase loan guarantees to 90 percent. Time is now running out for business owners who want to access those sweetheart loans; the old rules return this winter. Approvals can take as long as 120 days, but the Journal has six ways to speed up the process. Start by updating your financial statements. You should have at least 3 years of tax returns, income and cash flow statements, balance sheets, and sales projections. Consider tapping a preferred SBA lender, like KeyBank or TD Banknorth, which are often able to underwrite their own loans. Offering a bigger down payment or some sort of personal guarantee can be another way to speed up the process.

Sharks circling Skype. Looks like Skype’s planned 2010 IPO might have to wait. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington is reporting that an investor group consisting of venture capital and private equity firms are combining resources to make a bid to acquire the Internet phone company from eBay. Arrington suggests that one of the investors involved could be the newly-formed Andreesen Horowitz, a venture firm led by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape. Earlier this year, eBay announced that it would spin Skype off next year in an IPO.

Parlez-vous entrepreneur? The word “entrepreneur” has its origins in France, but the country itself has shown a reluctance to embrace the concept. That is, until now. Time Magazine has an interesting story on the entrepreneurial revolution currently underway in France. Thanks to a innovative government program called “auto-entrepreneur,” French officials estimate that nearly half a million new firms will have been created in 2009 alone. The government program cuts through the administrative red tape typically involved in starting a business and significantly eases the tax burden on startups. As one French entrepreneur puts it, “I’m finally doing only the work I enjoy, but would never have launched into on my own before.” For you francophiles out there, take a look at Inc. senior editor Rick Schine’s video coverage of the French American Conference for Entrepreneurs.

Singularity University graduates its first class. Ray Kurzweil, an inventor, entrepreneur, and a futurist, should never be accused of thinking small. Kurzweil has appeared in Inc. magazine numerous times (he let us scan his brain and told us how to predict the future) and is the leading advocate of a school of thought called the singularity, which says, essentially, that humans will eventually turn into robots and live forever. Earlier this year he launched Singularity University with a handful of other tech luminaries with the stated mission of “preparing the world for accelerating change.” The university graduated its first class yesterday, sending 40 students–each of whom paid $25,000 for a nine week course–into to world. The San Francisco Chronicle has an account of the event, during which students pitched their projects, such as a new disaster communication system, to faculty and venture capitalists.

Peak Water, not as crazy as it sounds. Naked Capitalism links to a post on The Burning Platform, which makes a compelling case about how freshwater shortages in the wrong places could lead to food shortages, famine, or starvation–even for a planet covered with 70 percent water. Check out our special report on the business of water, which features 11 entrepreneurs at the bleeding edge of a new economy around water shortages.

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