Category: blog posts

the f*cked up part about GoDaddy and SOPA

by justin

Like many of you, I’ve been somewhat closely following SOPA (as well as its companion PROTECT IP Act, aka PIPA) and the growing online campaign to block their passage  in recent weeks. It’s been great to see the web quickly mobilize to go after one of our own (using that phrase loosely here) and successfully compel GoDaddy to switch their position.

But, while it pains me to say this, there is one thing that GoDaddy did right.

If there’s anything that I’ve learned since making the leap into the tech startup world, it’s that execution is king. It’s one thing to have a cool idea, it’s quite another to build a company that can bring that idea to life. Ideas are cheap and easy, but executing on the right idea is what creates value. GoDaddy successfully worked the system to carve out an exemption for themselves. Or, put another way, they executed on a strategy to protect their narrow interests (a bad idea) while most everyone else and stood around talking about their opposition to the bills (a good idea).

What’s amazing about GoDaddy is that they seemingly did so w/o spending a ton of cash. Check out their own PAC spending through June 30, 2011 from OpenSecrets.org:

We all have much to learn from GoDaddy – and the boycott that compelled them to switch their position should now push them to reveal precisely what they did in order to obtain their exemption.

Everyone in the tech industry should be doing all that they can to oppose SOPA and PIPA. The big vote is coming up on January 24th, and this is an election year. If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, tell your elected officials that these bills will kill jobs. If you have the financial resources, donate generously to those candidates that oppose these bills and tell others that you would donate if they changed their opinion. If you’re a big company, hire the most aggressive lobbyist you can find and give them the resources to work their black magic.

I’m expecting more than a few folks will disagree with these last two sentences. They’ll cite Larry Lessig, telling me that by tying political donations to specific policy decisions we’re only reinforcing the system that got us into this mess in the first place.  And while I couldn’t agree more, there is a time for idealism and a time for pragmatism. When both the mechanics of the web and the sharing culture of the web are threatened, we need to be pragmatic about our opposition. Make phone calls, write letters, leverage your network, show up to a town hall and – yes – use your financial resources to oppose SOPA/PIPA.

If you’ve got any doubts as to whether money can solve this problem, make sure to read about how SOPA supporters have contributed 4x more to elected officials than the tech industry.

–

My $0.02: The tech industry should have a broad vision in its political advocacy, kill SOPA and PROTECT IP by any means possible right fucking now, and fight for meaningful political reform in the long run. We want to see the system changed, but we also need the modern web to be around to enjoy what a reformed system would afford.

Hell – an emerging, innovative industry having to resort to spending cash to protect itself is a great story for all of the rootstrikers out there.

a new adventure

by justin

For more than a decade I’ve been in the non-profit / public sector, working on a variety of issues – anti-racism, fair housing, education, technology, and data analysis. I’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing people on some outstanding projects that made a real difference. It has been incredibly rewarding and gratifying work, and I will miss it dearly.

Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in how technology and data can be used to help people make better decisions. For years, savvy companies have crunched their numbers through expensive and complicated business analytics packages to improve their market position – and, until recently, they were among the only folks who could afford to exploit data in this way. For the average Jane or Joe, using massive amounts of data to make every day decisions was next to impossible. There were barriers of access, technology, connectivity, and ease-of-use.

But things are changing quickly. Very quickly. Just about anyone with basic computer literacy is now able to tap into massive databases to make all sorts of choices, from choosing which car to buy to deciding on the next book to read. As smartphones grow more and more ubiquitous, there is an enormous opportunity to bring the insight and intelligence of data to bear on an incredibly wide array of decisions.

—

For almost three years (’07-’10) my work focused on MoveSmart.org, a tool to provide housing seekers a way to find neighborhoods of opportunity and diversity. There is a plethora of research addressing how most Americans make poor housing decisions, clouded by ignorance and prejudice. Our goal was simple: expose the data-based realities of neighborhoods, connect people to housing opportunities, and empower anyone to make a smarter move. Reflecting on the experience, we met with moderate success; a few foundations and organizations gave MoveSmart.org small grants, bloggers said nice things about the project, NetSquared selected us a finalist, and more than 7,000 people used the site to explore neighborhoods.

For better or worse, I made the decision early-on that MoveSmart.org would be a non-profit organization. We went through the entire process of incorporating, establishing 501(c)3 status with the IRS, developing a board of directors, applying for foundation and government grants, conducting fundraising campaigns, etc. It was a mountain of work, but the entire team behind the project thought it was a pre-requisite for funding. We’d had a number of preliminary meetings with foundations and HUD officials, folks were excited about the project, and there was a mountain of research to back us up.

After three years of banging our heads against the wall, MoveSmart.org went largely dormant. I was exhausted and had a kid on the way. The Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) had offered me a fulltime job that was almost too good to be true. When I learned that we didn’t receive a large HUD grant because I neglected to explain why I set our travel per diem at $40/day instead of the regular $60/day, it felt like a sign that it was time to move on.

Just a few weeks before we got the news from HUD, I saw a demo of the Food Genome at the amazing NPDev Summit in Oakland. I spent the plane ride home sketching and brainstorming and, a few days later, emailed Eric to start noodling on ideas together.

While each American generation is more mobile than the prior one, most of us will only move a handful of times in our lives. But food is an entirely different story; most Americans eat out more than a few time every week (or for most of their meals, depending on location). Eric and I started wondering what would happen if we could apply the same approach to food that MoveSmart.org took with neighborhoods…

After a few months of tossing ideas back and forth, we came up with the core concept in April 2010. What if we could make individual dish suggestions not based on the social graph or unreliable website reviews, but on their actual ingredients and the user’s tastebuds? Food Genius was born.

—

Until we started working on our Excelerate Labs application, Food Genius was a hobby. In my wildest dreams, I thought that maybe one day, far in the future, we might get lucky and it could turn into a job. But the Excelerate process compels you to think deeply about your endeavor; a question on the initial application asks who is going to go fulltime and when. With a 10-month old daughter at home and a stable job that I loved, making the leap to becoming an entrepreneur should have been scary as hell. Throw in that I’ve been in the non-profit sector for more than a decade, and some might say I need to have my head examined.

There are still two weeks before we start the program, but I already know that jumping head-first into entrepreneurship through Excelerate Labs is one of the best decisions that I’ve made. Food Genius has been able to marshall more resources and funding in three months than I was able to assemble after nearly three years in the non-profit sector for an analogous project.

It’s time to do more, faster.

 

 

 

unsolicited advice for gov data app and viz builders

by justin

I spend a good deal of time exploring apps and data visualizations that use government data. Unfortunately, most of that time is spent yelling at my monitor about how they are missing some critical element or don’t provide me with enough information. In that spirit, here is some unsolicited advice.

—

1. show your work (and if you can’t, stop what you are doing)

First and foremost, your project needs a clear and concise explanation of what you did. What data did you use, how did you transform / normalize / prepare it, and how did you represent that data visually? If you can’t answer all of these questions, then you need to stop what you are doing and get some help; feel free to ping me and I can point you in the right direction.

You should know what every chart, map dot, thematic layer, and/or graph in your app means and be able to clearly communicate that to your users through concise, narrative text.

2. link to the source data and include the proper disclaimers

There’s a ton of public government data now available. Lots of it is from the same agency and multiple data sets will have similar sounding titles. You should, whenever possible, clearly explain what data set you used, where someone can find and download it for themselves, and re-present any and all disclaimers that the data providers attach to the data. It’s hard for me to count the number of projects that completely ignore this when it comes to crime data.

Everyblock.com does a really fantastic job on this.

3. label everything

It kills me when I see a chart w/o the x and y axes clearly labeled or labeled but lacking units of analysis. Come on people, this is an easy one.

4. provide an easy method for user feedback

I’m the kind of person who would love to ask you questions or point out awesome (and sometimes bunk) things about your project, but far too frequently there’s no easy way to send you my thoughts. Everything should include a feedback link. While it should go without saying, you need to respond to the feedback you do receive.

—

There’s more – much more – I can write here, but I think that these are the most critical basics. If you app meets these four tests, give yourself a pat on the back.

Please add your suggestions / ideas / comments below – my hope is that this list becomes a resource for folks over time; bookmark this and refer back when you start working on that next project.

work music

by justin

I’ve become a huge fan of Rdio.com (pronounced arrr-dio). Just about anything I want to listen to is nearly always available to me and – to boot – I am discovering a ton of new music through the service. For $10/month, that’s not too shabby.

One of my favorite features is that you can create and share playlists; below is what I’ve been listening to at work for the past month or so. I’ll be adding to this playlist over time, so feel free to check back.

Enjoy.