Crowd-funding was very much on the ascent in 2012. I suspect 2013 is going to be an even bigger year for it, particularly in light of the AngelList and SecondMarket tie-ups, the sprucing up of Indiegogo, and the expansion of Kickstarter into the UK, and I suspect other countries the end of this year. On all levels this is exciting. Unknown teams and products are being backed, and now (for a 10% brokerage fee - a bit of a piss take!) mom and pop can join McClure and co as they invest in burgeoning startups. A few days ago Arrington was bemoaning the lack of tech excitement in 2012. I can’t help but feel the levelling of the funding, pre-selling, and PR playing field will help alleviate that. Thing of all the very impressive crowd-funded projects we wouldn’t have heard about in 2012 without these platforms. Related articles Just a millionaire? AngelList and SecondMarket pave the path for ‘micro-venture investing’ (venturebeat.com) Just a millionaire? The only slightly wealthy can now invest in hot startups (venturebeat.com) A GigaOM guide to Kickstarter wannabes [Earth2Tech] (gigaom.com) Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to launch in France, now accepts €/£ (rudebaguette.com) 8 Kickstarter Alternatives You Should Know About (mashable.com)
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Crowd-funding was very much on the ascent in 2012. I suspect 2013 is going to be an even bigger year for it, particularly in light of the AngelList and SecondMarket tie-ups, the sprucing up of Indiegogo, and the expansion of Kickstarter into the UK, and I suspect other countries the end of this year.

On all levels this is exciting. Unknown teams and products are being backed, and now (for a 10% brokerage fee - a bit of a piss take!) mom and pop can join McClure and co as they invest in burgeoning startups.

A few days ago Arrington was bemoaning the lack of tech excitement in 2012. I can’t help but feel the levelling of the funding, pre-selling, and PR playing field will help alleviate that. Thing of all the very impressive crowd-funded projects we wouldn’t have heard about in 2012 without these platforms.

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On Vodka Jello Shots

We escaped relatively unscathed.

No trip back to Hong Kong is ever complete without the obligatory visit to Al’s Diner for vodka jello shots and a stiff dose of 80s tunes. We probably cheated. In fact we definitely cheated, swooping in for a single VJ before swooping out equally fast and climbing to safety high above the gutters of LKF. But here’s a toast to the old times, and to “institutions” that never fade, and to that unforgettable gag reflex upon inhaling an Al’s VJ in one go… oh, and to finally holding to that promise of “just one!”. Although I suspect karma is going to bite me in the butt and that won’t be my last brush with Al’s this trip.

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App of the Week: Hotel Tonight

Three pages of iOS folders, each with about 12 apps in each. Yup that’s a lot of apps. So it’s time to share the love and highlight the ones I think are awesome (Echoer aside…).

I’ve been flirting with using Hotel Tonight for some time and finally booked a room with it during a layover in Chicago. The whole experience was amazing! After the thrill of arriving at O’Hare with no hotel booking to speak of, I logged in and Hotel Tonight showed me a selection of great hotel deals in the city that night. The deals for that day go live in the early afternoon and in my experience there have always been 3-4 great options at varying price points. It has a very sleek interface and booking is made safe and easy - all within the app.

I stayed at The James in Chicago for $99 pre-tax. The rack rate is something like $140, so a great saving. And the app curates hotels with its own rating system and short snippets from the Hotel Tonight editorial team.

My favorite part? When confirming a reservation you have to trace an outline of the Hotel Tonight icon (below). Unexpected, cute, and a genius way to drive the app’s branding into your physical memory.

Hotel Tonight also has a review and referral scheme which gives you booking credits.

The app is free to download on iOS or Android. I suspect I’ll be using this a lot and am excited to see it spread to even more cities.

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How much sharing is too much?

Last summer I was invited to the Northern Voice conference in Vancouver to speak about location-based services and online privacy, a topic close to Echoer’s heart. The title of the talk was “Did I really want you to know that?!”. I had a whim that this would be an awesome topic to speak on. Once accepted we put that whim to the test and I worked with Andrew, one of our interns, to pull together the materials.

The findings were shocking and took us way off where I thought the session was going to go. Originally it was meant to be a “social media nightmares” wall of fame/shame. Instead it became a detailed account of how each of our lives could be systematically violated and turned inside out by a few hours of online research.

Andrew was set the following task: Find someone on Twitter who has just checked in on Foursquare. Now start looking into their online persona, Twitter, 4sq, LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, Google… go for broke… I expected to keep Andrew busy for a few days and to churn through a few candidates, but we struck “gold” within hours.

In no time at all, Andrew had a tome of info on Jane Doe, from the banal to the intimate and intriguing. We stopped there because it was getting a little too close for comfort, but before we did I tried a small experiment. We pulled up lists of the most frequently asked questions from banks and utility companies. And we had it all. Pet names, maiden names, zip codes, memorable places, and even SS numbers. Those few bits that were missing were likely a search or two away. What’s even more shocking is that Jane Doe’s blog would have given us enough to know where to meet her and spark one of those “I feel like I’ve known you a lifetime” moments. That reeks of danger.

As I spoke at Northern Voice the room fell silent. Heads down, fingers taping away. I figured the session had tanked. I briefly checked my twitter feed and it was on fire. With terror. There was a room full of bloggers wondering what they had exposed themselves to and trying to recall writings from years back. How much had they divulged to anyone who wanted to systematically profile them?

When I woke up jet-lagged today I had planned to write about how some medicines have funny compound reactions with others. And that’s what reminded me of the Northern Voice session and the risks of sharing. Very few people will read this, but even so, how comfortable am I with people knowing I take X or Y? While we all need to share, and learn, and educate, we should also be aware of how much we put online. Jane Doe’s undoing would have been her blog + Twitter + LinkedIn. We’ve erased everything we learnt, but we’re all still at risk from people with more sinister motives than ours.

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