I just saw VH1's "I Love the 90's - 1997".  Michael Ian Black had the best comment on American interest in soccer:

"If it wasn't for the Spice Girls, we might never have known who David Beckham was."

Pure brilliance.

After three games, Fordham Young Alumni Softball is still looking for its first win. While the team has looked solid, the guys and gals in maroon always seem to be inches away from a clutch hit or a run saving catch.  Call to the stand yesterday's 8-4 loss to Partsearch...

Just a few plays would have made the difference, but none of them went Fordham's way.  Fordham loaded the bases with two outs in the third, only to have the pitcher just barely get a glove on Christine Schildknecht's smash up the middle.  In the field, Larry Porco came within a step of a terrific Web Gem in the field, getting on his horse from center over to right and diving for a fly ball.  He tumbled on the catch and just barely lost his hold on it, which would have ended the inning, but was a great effort nonetheless. 

Christine also made a few nice grabs in the field, gloving two hot shots to second in the fifth.  In fact, the game featured several new faces at new positions.  Dave Murphy started at third, and manager Charlie O'Donnell subbed in for the under-the-weather Alexis Kramer.  O'Donnell's shortstop debut turned out to be a mixed bag--solid at first, but two misqueues late in the came cost Fordham two runs.  "I'm looking forward to getting back to the outfield where I can roam free like an antelope," he commented after the game. 

Patti Dickerson played her second game at firstbase, turning in another game of solid play.  Other highlights included Antoinette Mirsberger's first hit of the season, a seeing eye infield single.  Her personal hitting coach, Trevor Freeman, is proud of the great strides she's making.  "She told me before the season that if she didn't learn to hit, she'd dump me, so I've been working extra hard to make sure she learns the ropes," Freeman told the press in an interview. 

Brian Cuthbert went the distance on the mound in the loss for Fordham.  He'll return to the mound for Fordham's next game, on May 19th.... same time (6:30) same field (Heckscher #1).  More pictures from the game can be found here.

Phillip Seymor Hoffman for Robert Scoble was just too easy, but nice work elsewhere.  Link: hyku | blog - Casting "Blog" the Movie - Josh Hallett.

So I got the letter below attached to a LinkedIn invite.  This is the kind of thing that gives LinkedIn a bad name. 

1)  I have no idea who this person is.  They identified themselves as having worked for General Motors before and invited me as "a former colleague."

2)  I don't even know what a Names Sourcer is.  I have a name.  I certainly don't need another one, although Pastore and I have briefly considered switching last names, because he looks more Irish than I do and I look Italian.

3) You don't need to be on LinkedIn to do business with me.  If you know my e-mail address, then send me what you're offering and I'll look at it.  I certainly don't need/want to be connected to you forever.

So, here's the letter.   As Steve Rubel says, never e-mail a blogger unless you'd like that e-mail stamped on your forehead for the rest of your life.

"Hi. My name is Maureen Sharib and I’m a Names Sourcer for TechTrak.com. I'd like to link with you on this wonderful networking system of LinkedIn and maybe do some business with you sometime in the future! I source passive candidates holding specific titles in specific companies. Our goal is to save you time (and money!) and help you succeed.

Maureen Sharib
Names Sourcer
www.techtrak.com
Our fee structure can save your project an average of 85% to 95% in hiring fees.
513 899 9628
Maureen@techtrak.com
Invite me to your LinkedIn and ERE networks!"

Wooooooooo!    Congrats to Harsh Acharya, John Bitzer, Anita Erzetic, Michael Odell!

Link: New York Society of Security Analysts | NYSSA Announces Challenge Winners.

New York (April 27, 2005) – With a ‘buy’ recommendation, the team from Fordham Business School won the Third Annual NYSSA Investment Research Challenge, held on April 21st at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Randy Johnson and the exploding bird.

The pine tar incident.

The All Star Game tie.

Add Fordham's Friday night game against The Deal to your list of wacky incidents.  A scheduling error by the league left Fordham opponentless for 45 minutes until The Deal finally started showing up around 6:15--early as far as they knew.  Both teams scurried to start as time on the field permit ticked away, but in the end, since the game didn't go the full time, the league decided to suspend the game with Fordham up 7-5 after five, to be continued later in the season.

Fordham bats were quiet but effective during the game, with several "seeing eye" hits doing some major damage against The Deal.  Patti "Hit it where they ain't" Dickerson drove in four runs on two clutch floaters  just over the infield.  The game of inches also came back to hurt Fordham as well.  Pat "The Mighty" Quinn just missed a great stab at a liner over third and Larry Porco attempted a diving stop of a smash to first.  Both plays would have shut the door before The Deal put three on the board in the third, but as it was, luck wasn't much of a lady to either team on Central Park's Great Lawn that night.

Fordham sent Charlie O'Donnell to the mound in place of their absent ace Brian Cuthbert.  O'Donnell frustrated The Deal with his unwillingness/inability to keep the ball around the plate, causing some ugly and desperate swings.  He also walked three, but never game The Deal much of anything to hit.  He slipped several called strikes past the surprised Deal hitters, and while it might of been ugly, it kept Fordham in the game.

No word yet on when the remaining two innings will be played, but Fordham will look for their first win this week at Heckscher #1 this Thursday night at 6:45 in Central Park.

When I first started at Union Square Ventures, I made a concerted effort to make sure all my various only profiles matched up.  I was rewriting my bio, resume, etc. and so I figured I'd update everything at once, especially if I was going to be a useful networker at a venture firm.  That included getting up to speed on LinkedIn.

I've written before about how I didn't see the value of social networking sites, other than for dating.  (I will admit to going on a Friendster date....although, at DTUT, I think every couple there is on an internet date.)  Anyway, the problem is that there isn't anything to do on these sites, except maintain your network.  You basically only logon to accept invites and invite more people.

Well, I've had a change of heart in the last few weeks.  In the last few weeks, using LinkedIn, I've helped a company that Fred invested in find a top tier job candidate and also pulled an "off the list" reference on an entrepreneur we're currently evaluating.  For an analyst who, at this point in his career, relies heavily on the extended networks of others, its incredibly valuable.  Its a great way to find knowledgeable people and people who can be spoken for by people you trust.  I've even got Fred to buy off on the value of this interconnected network of professionals.  (I'm sure he'll probably blog about it soon. UPDATE:  He did... but he doesn't ever trackback, so just go here.)

Here are some observations about my experience with it so far:

1)  The permissions system is great.  You can choose to only be contacted through others on the site by referrals from people you know.  So, if Bob Smith knows Sam Jones and I'm friends with Sam, then Bob needs to ask Sam for an introduction to me.  Even then, I can choose to respond or not before Bob gets my e-mail address.

2) Much of my network is made up of onesies and twosies.  In other words, for many of these people, I'm their only contact.  I think LinkedIn needs to find a way to make a convincing argument for those people to share more.  A lot of people accepted my invites just because they know me and didn't mind being connected to me, but that's as far as the sale went.  Well, thanks folks, but I already know you.  This gets really interesting when we both know other people that are mutually beneficial to each of us...the power of shared networks. 

3) The ease of implementation needs to be experienced.  Signing up is very quick, and the Outlook integration really makes this a no-brainer.  At minimum, if you're on the site, download the Outlook toolbar and open it up.  Basically, what it does is that it looks at everyone you've e-mailed and tells you right away whether or not those people are already on the system.  So, right away, you know who in your real network of people has already bought off on this concept and is probably likely to accept you into the fold.  Voila!  Instant network.  Next, it gives you the list of all your contacts and asks you who you'd actually like to invite to join the network.  Basically, I think I actually connected to six people on my own, but the Outlook plugin took care of the other 80 or so.  Plus, its all opt-in.  If they don't want to be connected to me or join, that's fine.

What makes this really interesting is that groups of people can connect to each other by just advocating its use.  For example, Fordham has a problem whereby it has this huge database of 100,000+ alumni.  Integrating all of those people into a web database, dealing with all the privacy issues, etc. won't be easy.  However, all they really need to do is push LinkedIn as the goto place for Fordham alumni.  They don't even need to sign up for the "LinkedIn for Groups" service.  Just tell everyone to join in and put that they went to Fordham in their profile.  All of the sudden, your opt-in/privacy issues are solved and you've got thousands of people on the service able to contact other Fordham alumni within three degrees of each other.  Cost to Fordham?  Zero.  Benefit to individual Fordham alumni?  Huge.  Benefit to the school?  Well, now they can search and see what all the alumni is up to and the network becomes a real resource.

Anyway, that's my experience with the service.  If you actually know me, feel free to invite me.  I might ignore or turn down invites from complete strangers, but that's to be expected. 

Kottke wrote a post called A whole new internet? (kottke.org) and basically said that the business of creation on the internet, in many places, is getting in the way of creation itself--that the people that were once community and discussion leaders, like Mena Trott (or rather, anyone fitting a Mena-like profile), are now too busy making businesses out of tools to contribute to the community in the same way.  Mena responded here. 

I'm sure it was a lot of fun when today's doers were doing things out of their basements and they had the time to be the leading voices.  But, you can't do that forever.  Things change... and they change for the better.  Would Six Apart, or blogging in general, be better of Ben and Mena were still coding out of their house?  Same thing with Joshua Schachter.  Would del.icio.us be better off if Joshua continued working a fulltime job and then slaving away late at night and on weekends building this great service?  No way!  Truth is, a little more in the way of resources and organization can do great things for a grassroots, individual effort.  Its not the solution for everyone, but it works in many situations when done right.  Maybe the niche little tech community loses a voice to a bit of distraction, but the whole non-bleeding edge community gains as a result, and their feedback, their voices, and their insight are just as valuable as anyone elses.  The Mena-likes are not contributing less now because they blog less, they're contributing MORE with their deeds.  It reminds me of when people say that you're not successful if you're only a teacher.  To me, if you've enabled the minds of others, you've used your own mind in a very positive and productive way.

Check out the link below.  They've divided all their reviews into places that you want to 1) cheat on someone, 2) dump someone, 3) take someone that you want to f*ck, or 4) make a scene.

Now, I wouldn't advocate any of this and believe people should have the purest of intentions when choosing a venue.  HOWEVER, if you do find yourself being asked to one of these places, now you know why.  If I were you, I'd certainly keep the dump list handy.

"Wait a second...  oh no... we're going to Caffe Taci?  But I thought things were going so well!"

Link: Bar & Restaurant Reviews.

Finally — useful bar and restaurant reviews, divided into four convenient categories that address the common situations that confront us every day.

This, of course, is the tricky thing about video.  Since the world hasn't found a single format that it likes (like Mpeg 3 for audio), we're all forced to see our video through a patchwork of Quicktime, Windows Media, etc.   Some people have been telling me that the Pimp My Web (see the tab above)  screencasts, which can be accessed by clicking on the Lesson One, Lesson Two, and Lesson Three screencasts, don't work.  Well, they work for me, work for Fred, and seem to work for a number of other people.  Do they work for you?  If they don't, can you let me know and tell me something about your system?  I'd like to fix the problem. 

If they don't load (and give them a few seconds, Ourmedia isn't the fastest), can you comment here and let me know what operating system you have, browser, and whether or not you have Windows Media as well as the version.  Thanks!

Do you want to play softball on Thursday?  Did you go to Fordham?  Well, come on down to Hecksher Field #1 on Thursday at 6:30PM and we'll do our best to accommodate you!  We're having an open practice and then we're going to the Young Alumni Happy Hour (as we do every 3rd Thursday of the month).  This month, we'll be going to T.G. Whitney's.

Here's the field map:

These would be the kind of deal we love at Union Square Ventures, except for one thing, someone has already ripped off one of the little phone number tear-offs, so we can't say its proprietary deal flow.  Brad and his keen eye for deals snatched this off a bus stop on Broadway.  (I saw it on my way in this morning, but thought that maybe $5,000 would be  a bit under our radar.)  In keeping with the team approach to all of our deals, the best spot for this is posted on Fred's door.  (So Fred would notice it right away.)

The best part about the deal is that, as it says right on the piece of paper, that "this is not a sales pitch or a gimmick, but a real investment opportunity."  That's great, because I believe our PPM explicitly stats that we can only invest in gimmicks with the expressed consent of our advisory board, and that's always a sticky situation.

Today was Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's.  Kerri and I hit up the location on 23rd Street between 7th and 8th.  You still have time, but as you can see from our pictures, the lines are long.  They're also giving out coupons for a free extra scoop on your next purchase (while supplies last).  The offer ends at 8PM tonight, so go out and get what's coming to you.   Feel free to post your own Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day pics using the "freeconeday" tag, like I did.  (PS...  Flickr really needs a better way to post multiple photos at a time to my post.   I already have today's pictures on Flickr, but now I'm reuploading them to Typepad.  That's a real pain in the ass.  Otherwise, I love the service.)

Just got this from Flickr...    Now you can all grovel for my two free accounts.  :)

*******************************************************

Hi ceonyc!

You may have heard on the grapevine that we planned to
reward our dear Flickr members who bought a Pro Account in
the early days. Well, it's true! And since you're one of
those lovely people, here's a little something to say YOU
ROCK!

1. Double what you paid for!
   Your original 1 year pro account has been doubled to
   2 years, and your new expiry date is Mar 30, 2007.

2. More capacity!
   Now you can upload 2 GB per month.

3. 2 free Pro Accounts to give away to your friends!
   This won't be activated for a day or two, but when it
   is, you'll see a note on your home page telling you
   what to do.

Thank you so much for putting your money where your mouth
is and supporting us, even while we're in beta. Your
generosity and cold, hard cash helped us get where we are
today.

Kind regards,
The Flickreenies.

As user generated content becomes more important, does identity become less important?

I was thinking about this when I was watching Scoble and Steve Gillmor talk about attention.xml in their little home movie.  Was I watching because its was Robert Scoble and Steve Gillmor?  Eh... Not really.  I mean, that's how I found the video, because I'm more likely to find things from the more popular blogs, but when I was consuming the content--watching the actual video, I don't think I really cared who they were.  In fact, I had to look it up to remember who Steve Gillmor was.  I forget "who" I'm reading all the time, especially when I read RSS feeds and they strip away the format.

I think, in today’s world, the playing field of publishing has never been more level, and it doesn’t matter if you’re the NY Times of a blogger…  your stuff has to stand up on its own.  Legitimacy comes more from being vetted and approved by the community at large than by reputation. 

What about my own content?  Does the amount of myself that I offer up to the masses make my identity more or less critical?  When I post on my blog, my thoughts, in my view, belong to everyone...they become part of a community wide conversation, to be clipped, quoted, linked to, commented on and to inspire new thoughts.  Sure its on my blog, but what does “ownership” really mean?  Do I really own my content if anyone can use it?  Google makes money off my content--a lot more than I do.  So will Feedburner, at some point...and Bloglines and whoever.  I certainly don't feel like I own it when its offered up to the public.

As for my identity, do people read my stuff because I'm Charlie O'Donnell?  Maybe some.  Do people read because they think I'm some punk analyst that has a greater chance of spilling the beans on the del.icio.us valuation than Fred does?  Probably, but again, that's about the content, not about me specifically.  They'd read the blog of Benny, the front desk guy at 915 Broadway, if they thought they'd get the same information out of him. And yet, because of all of this user generated content, we now we have more personal information about ourselves that ever before.  We know about Brad Feld's reading habits, Jen Chung's eating habits, and my cholesterol level. 

Given the old rules of supply and demand, one might argue that the more information that gets put out there, the less valuable it is, but in Web 2.0, that’s not necessarily true.  To a point, the more information you have about me, the more valuable it is.  Knowing that I am a Mets fan might be valuable, but knowing that I’m a Mets fan and a kayaker is even more valuable, especially if you’re trying to sell me a paddle with a Mets logo on it via AdSense.  However, is information like that valuable because I, Charlie O’Donnell, am a kayaking Mets fan?  Not really, because if I was the only one, you couldn’t really make a business out of selling one Mets paddle.   No, what really makes my identity valuable is the small group that I belong to—the subset of kayaking Mets fans, and blogging, social networks, Web 2.0 is all about that…  small groups.  What makes Scoble and Gilmor’s conversation meaningful to me is the fact that these two guys are connected to a subset of other like-minded people that they have not only been influenced by, but that they will also influence, and I find this group to have value.  Their conversation, in the grand scheme of the world, isn’t that important, but to an analyst at a VC firm—any analyst, not just me… the group of VC analysts—it is important.  This is what helps give value to things like the list of RSS feeds I subscribe to or the things I tag in del.icio.us.  Both put me in the context of a group and say much about me… or rather, the kind of characteristics people in my small group share. 

Sure, Charlie O'Donnell has a unique voice in that group…   or does he?  I tend to think that, more and more, its not about my unique voice, but more of the aggregate conversation my small group is having that is really meaningful.  If I’m not taking part in a conversation, then I’m just grandstanding and talking for my own benefit—not particularly valuable to anyone but me. 

So, all of the sudden, the Mets have drawn even at 5-5, erasing their dismal 0-5 start.   They beat the Marlins 4-0.  In fact, the Mets have a better record than the Yanks right now.  Tonight, they did it on the back of...  Aaron Heilman??  I've panned this guy so many times before...  he's a career 3-11 in 20 starts.  People are saying "finally" because they've touted him so much, but I have to see another start.  I remember Dave Mlicki shutting out the Yanks one time and that was about it for his career.  At least with Mlicki, he had a 12-6 curve that made me think he had something.  I'm not getting on the Aaron Heilman bandwagon just yet, but I'll throw the guy a bone for a 1-hitter.  Impressive start.  Tomorrow, I'm going to see Pedro's home opener against Al Leiter.  Should be quite a game and the weather is supposed to be faaaantastic.

Link: FreeNYC: We All Scream For Ice Cream.

April 19th...  Free Cone Day from 12PM - 8PM at Ben & Jerry's.  I will be waiting outside the one on 23rd between 7th and 8th at least 15 min ahead of time at 11:45 AM.  Cherry Garcia is my poison.  Who's with me??  What's your flavor?

Link: OnlyOnce: Go Ahead...Make My Day.

After his fascination with the word "sketchball", Fred and I talked once about evaluating character based on some kind of a "sketchball scale".  I can't tell you who we'd put on the bad end of that scale, but Fred suggested that, at the very tip of the other end, on the good side, we'd put Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path.  I met him at the Union Square Ventures Christmas party and I'd have to say I'd agree.

So, it was very fitting when I read Matt's post from today about his attempt to be nicer to fellow joggers in Hudson River Park by waving at them.  Only 2 of the 30 even acknowledged him, but, undaunted, he still suggests, "go ahead -- be 10% more friendly or smiley today.  See what effect it has on people around you.  Make someone's day!"

Please wave to Matt if you see him tomorrow morning.  Fred and I will vouch for the fact that he's not nuts.  He's just a really nice guy.

At work, I use a fancy tablet with all the bells and whistles.  At home, I have a four year old computer that runs on hamster power.  My dad uses an abacus and AOL dial-up to connect to the internet.  Everyone's got a different way of getting on and, unfortunately, everyone's got their screen set to a different resolution.  So, while older computers were struggling to keep my columns squeezed next to each other, Fred, for example, was complaining that I was only using half the screen.

So, I went to Learning Moveable Type, as I do for all of my template questions and searched for "screen resolution."  Of course, Elise's site had the answer, this time written not by Ms. Moveable herself, but by Arvind Satyanarayan.   The solution was to make my widths relative to each other.  So, in my stylesheet, instead of making my container 800px wide, I made it 95% wide, so its fits across 95% of your screen.  I did about a 40%/60% mix for columns and we'll see how that works out.  So now, everyone should be happy, even if they're surfing via abacus.

I love making everyone happy.  Between the new two column format and the white on gray, I think the readability of my template has gone up tenfold.  Blogs tend to be much more effective when reading them doesn't burn your retinas.