Examiner sighting: Now you can be one and make mom proud

Amid whispers that it will close or merge its stealth Washington operation, The Examiner chain of free-distribution newspapers (DC, Baltimore and San Francisco) is reaching out to the real people for content. Here’s the deal, a pitch for locals (not bloggers, mind you) to become “examiners“: “If you can write three concise, timely and relevant […]

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Veep by text-message? This time they may get it right.

Who can forget the front page of the New York Post about this time four years ago? You remember, the screaming headline that proclaimed Dick Gephardt as John Kerry’s choice for vice president. Turns out it that Kerry had actually picked John Edwards, the former presidential candidate who has been back in the news lately. […]

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Privacy bill looms as web firms acknowledge customer profiling

In what could lead to an online privacy Bill of Rights, several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers. The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry by the House Energy and Commerce committee of how more than 30 net companies have gathered data to target customers through […]

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Voices emerge from conflict in Georgia; Internet sites silenced

Amid the conflict near the Black Sea, come new voices describing the situation on the ground. WordPress has a posted a page with blogs about South Ossetia. On Global Voices, several bloggers describe life in Tbilisi over the past few days. PRI’s The World has produced an excellent background page that explains the conflict in […]

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The Post gets around to our post

Four days after Andrew’s post about Launchbox Digital’s efforts to seed promising start-ups in the Washington area, The Washington Post followed with its own story. Reporter Jordan Weissman brought dimension, detail and personality about an event that attracted investors and entrepreneurs throughout the East Coast. The Post is a Launch Box sponsor. But does anyone […]

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China revisited, at least in 1421

Geoff Wade points out that Gavin Menzies’ works have been debunked firmly and repeatedly at an “exposed” site. So Menzies, with two best sellers on China’s role in civilization, looks and sounds a bit like Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. 1421 and 1434 remain good reads, though, for a fresh perspective of […]

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Beyond MSM, many views and images of China and Olympics

Like many of you, I’ll be glued to the tube for the Olympics and fresh glimpses of the world’s oldest civilization. Fortunately, there are other ways to look at a four-leaf clover. China has more than 30 million bloggers, by some estimates. A few are political. A few have been imprisoned. Some are unusual, such […]

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China: A view from the back of a galloping horse

Much of the world will form opinions about China from the legions of mainstream broadcasters and journalists descending on Beijing for the Olympics. A lot of it is an exercise in first impressions, Western perspective and cultural context. Thirty years ago I toured China as a young reporter covering the first U.S. trade mission to […]

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12 weeks, 9 companies, 7 lessons from an incubator fund

One of our partners, LaunchBox Digital, is an early-stage Internet startup incubator fund. It’s similar in structure to TechStars in Boulder, Colorado. Startup companies – or founders with ideas that could become companies – apply to participate. The projects selected for the fund commit to spending the summer working with the fund’s founders and their […]

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McCain courts bloggers. Win a trip on the bus.

Trying to close a huge gap in the blogosphere, John McCain’s campaign is offering reward points to webbies who place favorable comments on blogs and websites. The points can be traded for prizes such as books autographed by McCain, a preferred seat at campaign events or a ride on the campign bus. The comments are […]

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