Top Items:
Om Malik / Om Malik on Broadband:
Google, Skype Fund FON — [Updated with comments from Martin Varsavsky and Glenn Fleishman]. FON a wireless services company started by maverick entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky has just raised $21.7 million from Google, Skype, and Sequoia Capital. The cash infusion has been led by Index Ventures …
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Martin Varsavsky:
A dream come true — As you know, FON is a global community of people who share WiFi connections. We call these people "Foneros", as a tribute to our heritage as a Spanish company. In order to become a Fonero, you go to FON, to download software that you install in your router …
Discussion:
linuxjournal.com, Share Skype, Gizmodo, isen.blog, Googling Google and Randy Holloway Unfiltered 2.0
Glenn Fleishman / Wi-Fi Networking News:
Google, Skype, Others Invest in Fon — I have noticeably ridiculed Fon since its hapless announcement and subsequent hype fest two months ago (Reuters, Associated Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune): Today, news broke that instead of a bottom-up, grassroots-driven effort …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Venture for Sharing Wi-Fi Draws Big-Name Backers — SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5 — A telecommunications executive said on Sunday that he had received $21.7 million for what he called "a global network of shared Wi-Fi connections" from backers, including Google, the Internet phone service provider Skype …
Wendy / Wendy's Blog:
FON SCORES ITS FIRST TOUCHDOWN — Martin Varsavsky has just blogged about FON's partnership with Google , Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors. FON is a startup, of which I'm on the board of advisors, that aims to put wireless internet everywhere by linking sharing and commercial installations.
Ethan / ...My heart's in Accra:
FON, and why sharing WiFi's a cool technology for Africa — My friend Martin Varsavsky just announced some amazing news: his new company, FON, has just accepted €18 million in investment from an all-star list of partners and investors: Skype, Google, Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.
David Weinberger / Joho the Blog:
Google and Skype team on wifi — Martin Varsavsky has just blogged about what I think is an amazing feat: Google and Skype have both invested in a company he started three months ago that aims at enabling a global wifi network bottom up. — Disclosure: I'm on the US board of advisors.
Dan Gillmor / Dan Gillmor's blog:
FON Times — I met Martin Varsavsky last March at the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security last March in Madrid, where he'd invited me to join an Internet working group. He impressed me with his energy, vision and genuine belief that people working together could improve the world.
Discussion:
SiliconBeat
Alec / Alec Saunders .LOG:
FON Raises $22 Million — We live in interesting times. FON has just raised $22 million from Index, Sequoia, Skype and Google. FON is trying to create a ubiquitous global shared WiFi network, by encouraging broadband subscribers to share their connections with others. — They have two models:
Dave Winer / Dave's Wordpress Blog:
How RSS can bust through — Fred Wilson says "RSS has to become brain-dead simple to use." — I'm pretty sure we can do it, but it would require the companies to give up hope of locking users into their software, into their extensions, their mistakes. — How RSS can bust through
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Steve Gillmor / Steve Gillmor's InfoRouter:Who do you trust? — RSS got another big boost today when portals …
Discussion:
Fractals of Change
Jason McCabe Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
NYT check in on Goodmail debate (or "We are keeping the White List so Fred and Brad are happy") — Saul Hansell of the New York Times picks up on the Goodmail spam solution that we are adopting (we being AOL). Yahoo is also testing Goodmail's spam solution. — However , Saul leaves out one of most important pieces of the story:
Zephoria / apophenia:
how to kill email — Rumors are (once again) flying around that people are going to be charged for sending email, postage stamp style. The details are uncertain, although the NYTimes has their version; apparently, Yahoo! and AOL are involved in this and there will still be free email, but paid for email will be given priority.
Stowe Boyd / Message:
First Take: Cocomment Takes Comments Out Of The Dark — Two of my buds at the Web 2.0 Workgroup, Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington, beat me to the punch on Cocomment. Robert is enthusiastic while Michael is more lukewarm. — The idea is to collect all the comments that you leave on other blogs …
Discussion:
Don Dodge on The Next …, POP! PR Jots, Full Circle Online …, Blog Tips at ProBlogger and Raw
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Brian Benzinger / Solution Watch:Comment Tracking with coComment
Discussion:
Cameron's Brain, TechCrunch, Scobleizer, Newsome.Org, Zoli's Blog, mathewingram.com/work, AMCP Tech Blog, EBB, Devin Reams, It's Rishi and Ross Mayfield's Weblog
Tom Foremski / IMHO:
The 14-year old coders are back in business-proof of Internet 2.0 — Yes, it is official, the 14-year old programmers are back, that means concrete proof that we have a new dotcom boom emerging-but this time with an interesting twist. — The twist is this: The 14 year olds are not being employed …
Chris Beasley / sitepoint.com:
Amazon-Sense? — Amazon is apparently looking into the feasibility of starting their own ad network like Adsense. They've been contacting select members of their associates programs, including myself, asking if we'd like to be beta testers. The way they want the beta test to work is to give …
Discussion:
TechBeat, Things That, Squash, @ Alex Moskalyuk Online, AdMoolah News and Views and Somewhat Frank
Stowe Boyd / Message:
The Conversational Index: Thoughts After The Deluge — Wow. What I thought was a modest post with a neat and helpful small idea — The Conversational Index — took off in a big way yesterday, getting picked up, and picked on, by a long list of smart people.
Discussion:
Rational rants, Full Circle Online …, Weblogsky, BusinessBlogWire and The Doc Searls Weblog
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Dan Farber / Between the Lines:
Gillmor Gang: Memeorandum and the future of media — Gabe Rivera of Memeorandum joined a partially populated Gillmor Gang (Steve, myself, Doc Searls and Mike Arrington-Jon Udell, Mike Vizard and Dana Gardner unavailable) podcast on Friday. As I said during the show, I'm a fan of Memeorandum.
Damien Barrett / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
Apple Special Event - Feb 22nd - Airport Video? — We've known Apple's planning a specialmedia event for a week or so, but didn't know the precise date or what would be announced. On Flickr today, someone has posted up what claims to be an image used on theevent invitation.
