News Roundtable Panel on This Week in Startups #137

TWiST #137 Roundtable News Panel

In the second weekly News Roundtable edition of TWiST, Om Malik (GigaOm), Brian Kennish (Disconnect), Tyler Crowley (Skweal) and special return guest Lon Harris (Ranker.com) all join Jason for some lively debate. They panel discusses Facebook's recent additions, the iPhone privacy uproar, the hacking of the PlayStation network--and the ethics of being a tech writer and tech investor.

Support This Week in Startups by joining our new producer program at twistlist.co!

To see the full list of news stories covered and up for debate, visit bit.ly/TWIST-137.

1:30-3:00 Jason has just returned from his listening tour in New York.
3:00-8:30 Introduction of guests.
8:30-10:30 Ad for MailChimp.
10:30-13:30 Facebook deals launches in five cities. Does Facebook have enough juice to be a legitimate Groupon or Living Social killer or will it have to settle for coexistence?
13:30-17:15 Why is it that Facebook can knock off any startups in 60 days when Google, Microsoft and others, cannot?
17:15-21:30 Why doesn’t product move faster at Google, Brian (an ex-Googler)?
21:30-22:00 How long is the board of Facebook willing to ignore the swelling back channel?
22:00-23:00 Facebook has also debuted a ‘send’ button. What’s the difference between this and the old ‘share’ button?
23:00-23:45 Brian, what do you think of this button?
23:45-25:30 What information do you think Facebook has at this point, what % of my surfing of the web are they capturing? (Watch the clip.)
25:30-26:15 Facebook could, in theory, use your browsing history to make their deals even more targeted?
26:15-28:00 Ad for Trada.
28:00-33:15 It was reported this week that Apple’s iPhones are tracking users’ locations. They say they’re only keeping it for seven days, but why seven days? Why not one day or one hour?
33:15-34:30 Why are they storing the signal strength of all these recorded access points?
34:30-36:45 The problem with Apple as a company: Because they’re so revered they feel like they should get a pass on everything. This feels like such a big mistake that they may need to pay a price for it in some way.
36:45-40:00 The PlayStation network was hacked and has been down since April 20 and isn’t expected to be restored until May 4. How does this happen? (Watch the clip.)
40:00-41:45 What are the class action lawsuits going to result in? What’s the exposure?
41:45-44:00 What should the punitive damages be, Tyler?
44:00-45:45 GoToMeeting ad.
45:45-48:15 Mike Arrington and his conflict of interest in becoming an investor again and running TechCrunch. Om, thoughts?
48:15-49:00 Lon: To say that writers might not be inclined to play favorites...? These things happen.
49:00-49:30 Would a writer kill the story if it reflected negatively on their boss’s investments?
49:30-52:00 Tyler, what are your thoughts about the appearance of a conflict of interest? (Watch the clip.)
52:00-52:30 Brian: It’s naive to think that even in the mainstream press there’s no conflict of interest.
52:30-54:15 Jason discusses the movie Inside Job.
54:15-54:45 The State of the Internet Report: Things are getting faster.
54:45-56:45 Firefox’s awesome bar. Firefox got all its revenue through Google, does this mean Mozilla is trying to compete with them? Thoughts, Brian?
56:45-58:30 Delicious has been purchased by two YouTube founders. What do you make of this? Why did they buy it?
58:30-59:30 Om: I think this is a structured database play.
59:30-1:01:45 What is the courteous thing to do for Steven Chen and Chad Hurley when buying Josh Schachter’s old company? Do they check with them first? (Watch the clip.)
1:01:45-1:04:00 Square gets funded. Who’s the bigger winner, Square or VISA, or is it a win/win?
1:04:00-1:05:00 Any other thoughts, Lon? Could VISA give it to every small business for free?
1:05:00-1:07:15 Milk, Kevin Roses’ new mobile lab startup, raised an angel round.
1:07:15-1:08:15 Any guesses about what kind of apps they’re going to do?
1:08:15-1:10:00 Info about Om’s Structure conference in June and his newsletter OmSays.com.
1:10:00-1:10:30 Brian talks about his new site that’s up, Disconnect.me, and how things have gone since the LAUNCH conference.
1:10:30-1:12:00 Tyler gives us an update on Skweal.com.
1:12:00-1:13:00 Lon’s career history, in brief.
1:13:00-1:13:30 Reminder to join TWiST List to get the benefits of being a producer of the show. Go to TwistList.co.

Multilingual? Translate this episode of TWiST into another language and email the transcript to translate@thisweekin.com

FOLLOW ON TWITTER

Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
Om: @om
Brian: @byoogle
Lon: @lons

And support This Week in Startups by joining our producer program at twistlist.co!

Comments

[Diesel Laws]

Brilliant episode! Thanks so much for continuing to put out quality panels and discussions. Building an Australian startup is much easier now thanks to quick access to content like this - speak soon!

Diesel Laws
CEO Barkles