john ndege

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notes

Cool water color of NYC

fred-wilson:

How To Get A Reblog From Me: post an image of gotham

pegobry:

nevver:

Gotham

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a new music discovery site, looks cool, works well

text 45
notes Course Catalog: Masters Degree in Internet Entrepreneurship

kylewritescode:

innonate:

So epic. Godspeed.

jschwa:

Every year I set out searching for a graduate degree suited to my career in the Internet industry. I am looking for a combination of computer science classes in web development, design courses that focus on UI, and business courses that teach Internet entrepreneurship.

Disappointed by what universities are offering, I created my own course catalog. It is aimed at entrepreneurial, non-developer, technology professionals that work in the Internet field. There is a strong core of development courses, but they are designed for someone to understand web development as opposed to training students to be developers. I hope to see something like this offered soon.

Please comment if you think a course is missing or disagree with my choices.

Semester 1

Introduction to Programming
An overview of programming that touches on PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, and Objective-C.

Internet Activity Theory and Psychology
What causes users to do the things they do? This will be an in depth look at the psychology of an Internet user.

Ideation for Web Startups
Students will learn the process of brainstorming and picking apart business ideas. They will learn to spot indicators that an idea will work or not, and how to go about testing a thesis before heavy development begins.

Equity Financing
An in-depth course on equity financing where students and will learn about step of the fund raising process with mock simulations at each stage.

Semester 2

Pick 1

   Development in PHP
   Learn the CakePHP framework and in depth development in PHP.

   Development in Python
   Learn the Django framework and in depth development in Python.

   Development in Ruby
   Learn the Rails framework and in depth development in Ruby.

   Development in Objective-C
   Learn the iPhone SDK and in depth development in Objective-C.

   Development in Java
   Learn the Android SDK and in depth development in Java.

Frontend Development in Html5/CSS/Javascript
Students will learn to create frontend interfaces and clickable prototypes.

User Experience and User Interface Design
Students will learn the fundamentals of usability, and how to design interaction and user interfaces.

Business Modeling and Current Events
A case-study driven course will break down successful web companies and their business models. Emerging models will be discussed and students will brainstorm their own. Current events in the tech world will be closely monitored and discussed. STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ASKED TO WRITE A TRADITONAL BUSINESS PLAN.

Semester 3

Launch an App Part 1
Students will work with pairs to develop their own app. In Part 1 users will finish the semester with high-fidelity wireframes, a clickable prototype, and detailed tasks broken down for development. In Part 2 students will begin heavy development.

Scalability
This course will focus on choosing the right set of tools. It will cover languages, hosting environments (Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting), and databases (SQL vs NoSql)

Product Management
In this course students will learn to create a product roadmap. They will learn skills to conduct thorough requirements gathering and user testing. Finally they will learn to break down features into tasks for developers.

Agile Project Management
Students will learn the agile project management methodology and will take part in multiple simulations.

Semester 4

Launch an App Part II
Students will continue their work from Part I and begin development of their application.   Professors will be available throughout the process for programming help. Students will end the semester with the launch of their application.

Analytics and Performance Tracking
Students will become experts at setting up, managing, and gaining insight into analytics.

Startup Operations
Co-founders, hiring, compensation plans, benefits, management skills, company culture, and office space are all issues that entrepreneurs need to deal with. While these are common to most businesses, startup operations requires a unique touch to create fast moving and innovative environments for your employees.

Internet Marketing and PR
Students will learn to conduct marketing and PR for their startup. SEO, SEM, ad-buys, blog PR, and traditional media PR will be covered. Marketing through your website, building a brand, community management and customer service will also be part of this course.

Also, sorry for the double reblog, but I think there needs to be a strong emphasis on always making shit. Always back up what is taught and learned with hands-on, tangible stuff. Always. Let’s breed a generation of doers vs. talking-about-doing-stuff’ers.

link another gem from chris dixon - how steve jobs changed the mobile industry

quote

"

There are roughly three New Yorks.

There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and turbulence as natural and inevitable.
Second, there is the New York of the commuter—the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night.

Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last—the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.

"

E.B. White

text Aol ftw?

I’ve been watching AOL closely since Tim Armstrong became the CEO just over a year ago. AOL has been in a bad way for the last few years. The company is reliant on its dial-up modem business which is shrinking between 27-33% every year, the acquisition of Bebo has been universally derided as a waste of money at $850 million and the company has gone through a series of layoffs. However, I think AOL will be a success story within the next 5 years. Why?

Frankly, I like what Tim Armstrong has done at the company for the last year. He has removed the distraction of Bebo by putting the company up for sell (or closing it down), he is open about the company’s problems and is developing a strategy to make AOL the “Conde Nast” of online content. Armstrong is positioning AOL to take advantage of the demise of print media, you can see this with his work on Patch. As people consume more content online AOL hopes to fill that gap, and there is a gap there.

Armstrong has the ideas but can he execute? That remains to be seen but I am bullish on AOL. Q1 2010 financial results were very poor and we are yet to see a financial change in the company’s affairs but if Armstrong can bring together the right team (including crucial engineering talent which we haven’t heard much about), then I feel AOL may resurrect itself. Check out the video below for more on Armstrong’s plans for AOL.

Watch live streaming video from disrupt at livestream.com

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i think i’ve mastered the subway-ish. the problem is, the trains take FOREVER to come, its not like 2 minute london, you can wait for 10 minutes. the good thing though is that there is a lot more space and they run into the early hours. i hope the MTA workers don’t have a penchant for striking like TFL.

text remember the peanut butter manifesto? has anything changed at yahoo?

remember the peanut butter manifesto? in late 2006 an svp at Yahoo called brad garlinghouse (now at AOL) sent a memo out about yahoo’s failings and what was needed to turn the corner. the company needed a “cohesive vision”. yahoo’s strategy was like peanut butter spread across a “myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. the result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.”

today, I watched carol bartz’s fire side chat with michael arrington at techcrunch disrupt. in just under 4 years not much has changed. in fairness to carol bartz she’s only been there 15 months. let’s give her some time. yet arrington hit the nail on the head when asking if yahoo had a soul. a better translation would be its mission. what is yahoo’s mission? personally I have no idea and judging from carol bartz’s opening answer to “what is yahoo”, i doubt many do. technologically, yahoo has produced some interesting products of late like BOSS, but what is the overarching mission?

its easy to criticise, but lets be straight. its good for the internet ecosystem to have a number of powerful, innovative, successful companies. i hope yahoo finds its mission.

video

pretty cool discussion on the future of fashion and publishing given the rise of tablets (such as the ipad)

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soon to be my new home - 26 days and counting