We have entered a new phase of the discussion on what to do about speech on platforms such as Twitter. On the plus side many more people are engaged. On the minus side the calls to treat Twitter as a traditional publisher are growing (incidentally based on a misunderstanding of what being a publisher implies). Let me start by repeating something I have written before: many of Twitter’s problems are self inflicted. In particular, Twitter has messed up its checkmark system and Twitter has been ...

Susan and I have been longtime supporters of the wonderful ChangeX platform: ChangeX helps spread social innovation across communities. This week ChangeX introduced a new model for donors, which they are calling Impact as a Service (IaaS). This is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to Infrastructure as a Service (also IaaS). It is spot on though as the two share important characteristics:IaaS, reduces or even eliminates the overhead of manual setup activities, allowing all participants to f...

There is a lot of excitement among startups and other companies about building for Amazon’s and Google’s voice platforms. My reaction to this can be summed up as follows:Google and Amazon will have a perfect copy of every enduser interaction. So anything that takes off they can wrap into the core based on what they have learned. And something that can be accessed directly by saying just “Alexa” or “OK Google” will alway get more use then something where you need to add another provider’s name...

I love it when a plan comes together. The plan in question is the Edmodo Platform. When we invested in Edmodo in the fall of 2010, the company was just beginning to really grow its network of students and teachers. One frequently asked question was how Edmodo would be able to keep offering its features for free. I remember going to the ISTE conference in 2011 and having several teachers come up to me concerned that they would have to stop using Edmodo once it would start to charge. I assured ...

The New York Times has an API and developer network. The Guardian just announced the Open Platform. These initiatives are critically important in keeping the NYT and the Guardian relevant. Opening up and giving access to the existing articles and data is a great first step, but the trick will be to turn these into real hubs, which also allow for inbound news and data. The Guardian has taken a big step in this direction with its data store (kudos to the team at AMEE, which is a featured partne...

A big step forward towards cloud computing and a potential breakthrough in scalability for startups. I (may) have found a new platform.