What do Henry Rollins and me have in common?
We’ll both be partying at the SoundGarden on Saturday, June 2nd to celebrate my 50th birthday. Marnixstraat 164 - 7 PM.
We’re be offering free canal boat rides, drinks and social neworking APIs. Facebook-in-a-Box marketing. Bringing social to all software.

For years I’ve been spouting off about something I call ‘Digital Lifestyle Aggregators’ (DLAs).
Now that the Facebook platform genie is out of the bottle I can finally disclose some of the design principles and underlying tenets behind DLAs, using Facebook as an example.
You see in a world where you give your ideas away, where patents […]

I’m about to take my family to Europe for the summer. We’ll start off in Amsterdam at ‘the Next Web’ conference and eventually end up in Trieste, using it as a base for European activity this summer. I’ll even jump over to India for Gaurav’s wedding.
But more importantly - this is the summer […]

Had a great time talking to an interviewer from the Japan Times - Japan’s oldest Gaijin periodical.
I met the owner of the Japan Times.  It’s owned by a large conglomerate that is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of plastic fabrication molding equipment.  Fasteners, buckles,  connectors, entire cup holder consoles - you name it, they […]

Things are getting fun around here.
Now I’ll take my family to Amsterdam - for ‘the Next Web’ conference - and then we move down to Trieste for the summer. Can’t wait to hang out at Tres Merlis and do nothing.
Or BBQ in Paolo’s backyard.
Or show Lisa San Daniele, Muglia and the back alleys of […]

Can anyone confirm a report I got today that MySpace has been talking to folks about white labeling their technology?
I find this fascinating, expecially in the light of the new Facebook APIs and platform announcement.
We’re currently tracking over 60 compeitors in this space, so adding MySpace to the list - just makes it that much […]

Heads up to all you closed platforms out there (Dan Gould - are you reading this?)
Facebook is about to announce an expanded open platform which should set a litmus for all social networks moving forward.  I’ve heard from several friends and sources that they’re very serious about turning their platform into a destination platform and […]

 Here’s the Tokyo Tower juxtapositioned with the Jojo-Ji Temple.  I stayed next door.
Old and new. Everywhere.

Bentos at the Shinagawa Eki (train station)

Tokyo - neh?

And a typical Garden scene - well annotated.

I’m finally going home tomorrow - but I’ve been having fun here.
Here I am with Mr. Furukawa of Fujitsu.  He’s the president of Nifty - Fujitsu’s ISP.
We did business together years ago in the 1980’s.
He did the FM Towns machine - the world’s first true multimedia PC - with bundled CD-ROM drive.
And here’s Odaiba and […]

Me and Mike Arrington get to be in this special box and comment on all the presentations.
Should be fun.
Or shall I say “an intellectual challenge awaits us!”
So come to the Next Web in Amsterdam on June 1st.  I’m having a birthday party the next night - June 2nd - at the Soundgarden.