Comments on: Virtual Idealists

By: Noble

Noble — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:30:34 +0000

Halo! The babes are here! This is my best site to visit. I make sure I am alone in case I get too hot. Post your favorite link here.

By: Frank Sanborn

Frank Sanborn — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:29:47 +0000

As an techno idealist, I believe that our fundamental mission in life is to make this place better, better for our child, our grand children and great grand children. If you study aboriginal cultures, you will see that this was on the forethought of every decision the tribe made (all major decision were made by all of the elders in the tribe, not just the “chief”). Today, in our society our tribes are transient, especially the work tribe, people come and people go, the corporate identity has no commitment to it’s employees. I am a huge fan of making our education system better, so I developed some really cool technology to deliver interactive content to help tell stories to k-12 kids, after investing most of my personal savings and putting in a over a year’s time into developing the idea into reality, federal funding dried up, and the vc world would not touch me.. I was at a MIT venture labs last week, (Glenn, your presentation rocked!) after the meeting I talked briefly to Greg about my misfunded venture (as I am looking for a new work tribe to play with). His quote to me was “No money for education, don’t know why”. I believe that everyone should work from the heart and the world would be a much better place. Built reality is we need to pay the mortgage, buy shoes for the kids, and eat food. At the same time we have to take the lessons the elder’s of yester years, if we really want this reality to succeed. I am refreshed when I am with people who hold similar values… Thanks for bringing your talents and energies up here to Seattle and leading Redfin, I find the site original, very useful, and cool……. You are bound to succeed (or so they say)….

By: Pablo Oliva

Pablo Oliva — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:25:53 +0000

Glenn, if you are ever in L.A., shoot me an email, I’d like to invite you to a friendly dinner.

By: Dee

Dee — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:05:04 +0000

Wow, Glenn, you really got people waxing ideologically here, didn’t you? Yes, it does seem like a big change, but so was the alphabet, the printing press, the telegraph, etc. Yes we do think about things a bit differently, but to be a bit cliche “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Oh, and about the Gap campaign… part of me wonders about the exploitation, but the other part thinks either way they’re making ridiculous amounts of money, so why not make ridiculous amounts of money and bring attention to a good cause rather than just make ridiculous amounts of money?

By: Glenn Kelman

Glenn Kelman — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:59:31 +0000

The amount donated to the United Negro College Fund is dwarfed by the amount spent promoting the donation…

By: jswesey

jswesey — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:43:25 +0000

I just have to say because of the Gap Red ad here how anxious I am to see an enterprising journalist dig into that campaign and find out exactly how it benefits Gap and others way more than any situation in Africa. It’s funny to me how they can’t even provide any meaningful numbers on the amount of money going to actual aid vs. what I presume to be a ridiculous amount of money spent on the marketing campaign. Every other legitimate aid campaign must provide these numbers. This campaign to me, sadly, is nothing more than corporate spin on people’s emotions and the hipness of feeling like you’re giving back in some way. Sure, the upside is that even a small amount of cash going is better than nothing. But the downside is that you end up with a bunch of people thinking they helped in some way by buying a red t-shirt, when the truth is that they helped Gap way more than they helped the grave situations in Africa which are much too numerous and gruesome to note here.

By: Glenn Kelman

Glenn Kelman — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:39:11 +0000

Thanks Nils. As always, you are more well read than I am.

By: Nils

Nils — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:59:00 +0000

Glenn, this transition from social-cum-political utopianism to techno-utopianism is well-chronicled in Fred Turner’s recent book, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: ttp://tinyurl.com/366b3j

By: youmustbejoking

youmustbejoking — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:55:36 +0000

By the way, I have one last snyde remark for the day:

Real Life Activity would benefit us more than Virtual Ideology.

By: youmustbejoking

youmustbejoking — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:15:34 +0000

1. Here’s a decent breakdown of where the electricity in the US comes from: http://www.newenglandwind.org/wind/about.where.php

2. Do you think we should have a National, Steve Jobs Day, like we do for Martin Luther King for all of Steve Job’s selfless Acts for humanity? Just a few thousand more I-Pod sales and tyranny will be wiped out from earth once and for all.

3. I cannot reveal my identity, however, I will reveal I reside in Washington State.

4. Actually do good. Don’t just have it as a motto while you are selling pre-IPO shares to the Republican governor of California.