Facebook Acquires Innovative E-Book Publisher Push Pop Press

Push Pop Press, hailed for its genuinely interactive Al Gore book Our Choice, just received an offer from Facebook it could not refuse. As a consequence, the e-book publisher's two founders announced they "were setting off to help design the world's largest book -- Facebook." That's pretty good work, considering the acquisition was made on the basis of one completed e-book and some sexy beta test results.

However, as an April 2011 Podcasting News (PN) story noted, the gold in Push Pop's hills emerges when one examines its "underlying publishing platform." The PN writer, James Lewin, noted its features:

* Easy to Publish -- Layout and publish interactive digital books without writing code

* Mixed Media -- Tell rich stories using text, images, audio, video, images and interactive graphics

* Interactive graphics -- Embed interactive graphics that use the microphone, accelerometer, and more

* Multi-Touch User Interface -- Edge-to-edge content, without any distracting toolbars or buttons

* Visual Table of Contents -- Browse through hundreds of pages quickly and easily

* Pages Load Instantly -- Pages load as fast as your finger can swipe

* Start Reading Immediately -- Start reading the first chapter as the rest of the book downloads in the background

* Updatable Content -- Update your content without having to update the app

* iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch -- Publish one universal app that can be read on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

The San Jose Mercury News offers a brief, coherent story about the acquisition announcement, and is one of the few articles that notes Push Pop's founders' former employment with Apple. Earlier this year, Wired published a useful piece on the firm's guiding lights and their ambitions. (The above image originally appeared in Wired and shows Push Pop's founders Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas.) The TED video linked here shows Matas's address to a March, 2011 Long Beach, California conference in which he introduces the Gore book and its features.

Kaskade and LA's "Electric Daisy Carnival Experience" -- a Postscript

Last Wednesday, a publicity stunt to promote the Los Angeles premiere of a new documentary on the Electric Daisy Carnival Experience went wrong. Essentially, a very large crowd and the LAPD had something of a rumble. What brought the crowd together in the first place was the lure of a free block party in which Kaskade, the internationally known, would be the show. Kaskade tweeted his approximately 95,000 Twitter followers about the allegedly impromptu event. About 3,000 people quickly materialized outside the chosen venue, Grauman's Chinese theater. For an overview of the day's events, the LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and the LA Weekly all have stories linked here; the photo in this post originally appeared in the LA Times.) To put it mildly, there's no shortage of articles and posts about this event.

The Electric Daisy Carnival Experience (EDC) has a brief, checkered history in the City of the Angels. Last year, the "Experience" was held at the Olympic-scale LA Coliseum; a 15-year-old died from a drug overdose at the event. City and county officials huffed and puffed about EDC, discomfited by tales of participants' rampant use of Ecstasy and barely harnessed energy. What probably bothered them was that EDC put the DJ nightclub world and its behavior into the daylight, and demonstrated the mass appeal of the music and its sexual associations.

EDC holds shows in other American cities, notably Las Vegas. The Sin City show this year was a tremendous success in certain respects. The event, held at a local raceway, drew nearly a quarter of a million people over a three-day period. No serious violence was reported. Drugs? You betcha. Yet the City of Vice knew how to handle the crowds for this planned event. Hotels near the venue, according to one local account, charged triple the usual room rate and probably looked the other way when the rooms were crammed with EDC fans. Nobody complained, as they were more concerned with the music and the buzz. Las Vegas, still reeling from the economic recession that supposedly ended a year ago, welcomed the influx of money. Some LA media suggested EDC stay in Nevada, and that's probably what will happen next year.

I admit this overview of the EDC events is something of a post-game report. However, I was really struck how the stories brought to light the culture of DJs and their fans, its powerful, swift means of communication, and the energy providing that community's momentum and urgency. The combination makes for quite a cocktail, and a strong, yet fascinating one to consume. The LA Weekly's photos from EDC provide a visual taste.

Matt Damon's Speech Backing Teachers, Blasting Standardized Testing

Matt Damon spoke at yesterday's "Save Our Schools March" in Washington, part of a four-day event in which working teachers protested the current tilt in education policy toward increased standardized testing, business management perspectives, and other "reforms."

The concise, articulate speech notes the actor's public education background, his gratitude to his instructors, and his belief that American public schools aren't the intellectual and developmental desert "reformers" relentlessly assert they are. Damon's address is brief and worth reading. "The Answer Sheet," a blog by the Washington Post reporter Valerie Strauss, has the transcript of Damon's remarks. It takes about two minutes to read, and will leave one thinking about the issues he raises for far longer than that.

The photo, by Tracy A. Woodward, originally appeared in the Washington Post.

ATT Announces Plan to Slow Data Speeds for "Top 5%" of Data Users On its "Unlimited" Access Plan

Earlier this week, ATT released a statement which declared that its "top 5%" of data users in its unlimited mobile data access plan would slow those customers' broadband speeds. The duopolist characterized this corporate policy as a way to manage what ATT claimed was "exploding demand for mobile data." The story has appeared in many major news outlets; the LA Times link is reasonably succinct version of the announcement and its implications.

For some time, it has been evident that rationing of broadband access, via tiered access plans, was in the works. ATT is hardly the only interested party in this scenario. The other member of America's unloved mobile telephone duopoly, Verizon, has skin in this game. So does Sprint, which ATT wants to gobble up. The cast of usual suspects expands if one counts the cable TV distributors.

The financial stakes for consumers, distributors, and content providers are profound. Consumers are being set up to swallow the notion of eye-popping mobile phone service bills. For example, some users who send infinite numbers of stupid "Here We Are" mobile phone photos to their friends will soon pay extra for the privilege. Small businesses advertising via YouTube videos will be pegged in the 5% crowd, and be compelled to move into expensive, often annoying enterprise plans. Institutions such as K-12 schools, which have regarded the Internet and mobile phones as their panacea for the so-called "education crisis," will be made-to-order for captive, high rate schedules. Meanwhile, the duopolists, through its management of an allegedly finite spectrum, can charge "market rates". And why would a duopolist stop at a mere 5% of "heavy" data users? Why not 10%? Or 20%? Also, by not establishing a line in the data sand (say, 100 GB), the telephone companies establish a moving, monthly target left undefined for consumers, until the unlucky user crosses an invisible line of violation.

ATT' s announcement notes how the firm would send usage warnings to those nearing the undefined area of "too much." Would you feel any comfort from that arrangement?

Finally, ATT's statement does note one goal of this initiative. It plainly asserts the company currently lacks sufficient spectrum to manage its customers' anticipated demand. For that reason, ATT reiterated its desire for the federal government to approve its merger with Sprint and its valuable spectrum range.

Whether or not ATT gets its way with the Sprint deal, this week's announcement casts a bit of a dark cloud over the euphoria regarding mobile phones, endless applications for them (and tablets), and seemingly unlimited access. We may soon see a class system developing in the mobile data world, and it may very well resemble the financial one that has ironically diminished our citizens' social mobility.

Search for Women-Run Venture Capital Firms In the US Nets A Grand Total of One

Venture capital is a realm where typically those with big ideas in technology roam. In many ways, VC is America's leading incubator for putting remarkable ideas into practice. When they hit big, VC investors make a fortune. However, at its highest reaches, venture capital is a man's world, something the with-it tech crowd doesn't really like to publicize. (The movie The Social Network hints at tech's rampant, aggressive sexism.) For every Meg Whitman, there are hundreds of "cool" guys blessed with ideas, ego, and drive (both professional and sexual).

Therefore, I was intrigued when a story in today's San Jose Mercury News focused on what is most likely the only female-run VC firm in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. The article, by the interesting journalist Peter Delevett, interviewed the firm's two managing partners. Their business acumen convinced them to invest in Pandora, which turned out to be a winner. The two women -- Cynthia Ringo (photo) and Nancy Pfund -- also believe in taking environmental and social issues into account in their business decisions.

Vator.tv includes a thumbnail biography of Ringo. The website was founded by Bambi Francisco Roizen, a Silicon Valley journalist who knows just about everyone involved in the area's tech and VC communities. She still runs Vator and retains a strong interest in emerging enterprises.

It's refreshing and important that women such as Roizen, Ringo, and Pfund (sounds like a law firm) are marking their territory in tech's boy's club. However, they only have a toehold in the merciless commercial and entrepreneurial jungle known as Silicon Valley. More women are needed in impact positions in VC and innovation. Men don't have a monopoly on brains; in fact, they let the wrong head do their thinking. It's time for greater gender balance, for everyone's benefit.

Spanish Bank Uses Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka Contracts as Financial Collateral

When most entrepreneurs start or expand a business, they apply for loans. The bank reasonably requests collateral, including firm assets, such as property or (heaven help us) cash. A Spanish bank has offered a unique form of collateral in its loan request. According to presseurop, the Bankia group of savings banks has posted the contracts of Real Madrid soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo (photo, left side) and Kaka (photo, right side) as collateral. That's right: human beings are now the stuff of loan guarantees. While the use of human collateral has a long, unpleasant history, one doesn't expect its acceptance in contemporary, sophisticated business transactions. There are exceptions, notably in the entertainment business. However, perhaps bankers could start a new business trend and put themselves up as collateral. Then one could learn their true "free market" value. Then again, the bankers might not want to know.

PS. Thanks to the financial blog Zero Hedge for posting this item.

Netflix, Hulu Viewers' Device, Programming Choices; Apple's TV Strategy

A recent Nielsen survey of Netflix and Hulu customers revealed some interesting consumer choices. The AP story, picked up by the San Jose Mercury News, found that "more Netflix users are watching video on the TVs rather than their computers," often using game box consoles as their connection.

Hulu clients skew heavily toward computer use. They also tend to watch TV programs. That contrasts with the Netflix crowd, which tends to prefer viewing movies. (The image shows Hulu's icon for its desktop application.)

Now, if Apple acquires Hulu, that act would imply a major Apple push into the television distribution market. A computer-driven audience would play into the Apple plan. TV also happens to play better on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, including the iPhone. Apple's bete noire in this hypothetical strategy would be the cost of bandwidth, which would be controlled by the phone duopoly and cable providers such as Comcast (which happens to own NBC).

Netflix-Style Streaming Video, Brought to You By Wal-Mart

The least likely Hollywood entry, Wal-Mart, has just taken the plunge into providing streaming video to the masses. The Bentonville, Arkansas firm, courtesy of its website, offers the service on a rental or purchase basis. It is hard to fathom obtaining, say, Rules of the Game or Boogie Nights from Wal-Mart. However, what was once inconceivable is now the norm.

The story appeared in today's LA Times.

Man Wakes After Long Snooze in Morgue Fridge

A brief AP story included in today's San Jose Mercury News tells the story of a Johannesburg, South Africa man who found himself in a perplexing situation.

Apparently, the man had been given up for dead and, reasonably enough, an undertaker sent the corpse to the city's morgue. The only problem was that he wasn't dead.

Around 21 hours later, the "dead man" pulled a Lazarus. According to the AP story, he "started yelling, prompting morgue workers to run away in fear." Eventually, the shouter was removed from the fridge and discharged by medical officials "who deemed (the man) stable."

The bureaucrats had the final word on the matter. A Johannesburg health official, presumably with a straight face, "urged South Africans to call on health officials to confirm their relatives are really dead."

The poster promotes the 1943 Jacques Tourneur film I Walked With a Zombie.