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Posts Tagged “
Joi Ito
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When Joi met Esther
Hyperglobal adventure capitalists Joi Ito and Esther Dyson met by coincidence at London Heathrow's just-opened Terminal 5, and raced to post photos of each other to Flickr. Before Yahoo bought the photo site, Dyson was an investor in Flickr. Suggest a caption in the comments. (Photos by Esther Dyson and Joi Ito) More »
reid hoffman
Shanghaied LinkedIn founder misses a photo shoot
Valleywag hears that LinkedIn, which has largely missed out on the social-networking buzz, is getting ready for its closeup. Employees were getting lensed today at a photo shoot, which is usually a sign that a company's about to get the cover treatment, or at least a major feature story, from a big business publication. Missing at the shoot, however, was LinkedIn founder and president of products Reid Hoffman, who recently stepped out of the LinkedIn CEO chair. Hoffman, a tipster says, is away in Shanghai, with friend Joi Ito, the Six Apart backer pictured here to his right, purportedly looking for new startups to invest in.
conflicts of interest
Joi Ito discloses his graceful side
After Valleywag pointed out the unseemly appearance created when Six Apart funneling donations from users' purchases to charities tied to investor Joi Ito, the company — right in keeping with its recent problems living up to its ideals of transparency — never publicly conceded the existence of a conflict of interest. But today, Ito, to his supreme credit, did just that on his own blog — and even acknowledged Valleywag in the post. Well done, Joi. If only the blog-software company you backed could learn from your example.
conflicts of interest
Six Apart funnels donations to backer's pet charities
LiveJournal, the online community run by blog-software maker Six Apart is rowdy, contentious, and mostly undeserving of attention. But occasionally its cantankerous users, in their perpetual, pointless war with Six Apart management, make a decent point. For example, this one: Why do three of the four nonprofits chosen to benefit from a recent sale of paid LiveJournal accounts have ties to early Six Apart investor Joi Ito? Ito no longer serves on Six Apart's board, but he's the CEO and founder of Neoteny, a Japanese venture capital firm which provided Six Apart with much of its initial backing. Neoteny chairman Jun Makihara has a board seat. And Six Apart CEO Barak Berkowitz previously worked for Neoteny. I'd never say the organizations Ito's linked to — the EFF, Creative Commons, and Witness — aren't doing good work. But it all seems very cozy. So cozy that the supposedly pro-transparency company didn't care to disclose the fact to customers.
joi ito
Joi Ito preaches the World of Warcraft gospel
Serial entrepreneur and investor Joi Ito, a terribly accomplished technologist, is introducing the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit to the communicative and social power of World of Warcraft. His points: More »
joi ito
Waggable: Lord of the rings
Forgive me for running a mere reprint, but this quote from angel investor and ICANN board member Joi Ito speaks enough about the world of tech that it needs no comment. More »
charity
Internet Millionaires to African AIDS Babies: Drop dead!
Marketer and pro-blogger advocate Curt Hopkins is a good and reasonable man. Good because he's running the Blogswana project, in which students will help those affected by AIDS in Africa tell the world about their plight. Reasonable because when he asked the following Valley people — people known as good souls with a passion for world-changing technology — for financial support, he expected a few yeses and a few nos. More »
remainders
Remainders: Let's slay this ogre and discuss your business plan
Geeky investor Joi Ito says the new golf isn't extreme biking, it's World of Warcraft. [1up.com]Pixar's taking over Toy Story 3, not shelving it. A power play against Lasseter, or can he wring more magic from the series? [Moviehole]
Google can keep a copy of your tax records, love letters, and porn folder, and they promise not to peek — as long as that's considered evil, anyway. [EFF]
Get in on the ground floor (or own a piece of doomed software history) — order a Flockstar tee. [Factory Joe]
Homeland Security saves the Internet from hackers and, um, bloggers in a simulation. They probably cheated and skipped the "Cory Doctorow of Mass Destruction" simulation. [Newsvine]
