Geek tees

Switched have a done a neat review of the top geek t-shirts....here are my favourites:

Facebooks for Enemies

So you set up your facebook account and connect to all your buddies, but what do you use for those that you detest, hate or want to diss?
here's a selection...


EnemyBook is a handy app that you can plugin to Facebook and add people as Facebook enemies, specify why they're your enemies, and even become friends with the enemies of your enemies.

Next up is Hatebook, a Facebook clone that simply connects you to all the people you hate. Presumably their Supoerpoke equivalent includes "run-over", "shoot", "stab", "poison" etc



Finally, Snubster. This site enables you to create a list of people that you want to alienate yourself from - avoid them like the plague. You can put them to "on notice" or "dead to me".



This is all humorous evidence of a real issue with social software in that very few sites are able to reflect your social context within the confines of their technology. You don't want to be connected to 'everyone' and forced to share everything - most peoples social spheres consist of multiple sub-segments of groups (close family, not so close family, current colleagues, old colleagues, mates that live close by, mates that live abroad, etc etc). Technology needs to mirror how we communicate in the real world, notably enabling me to share different things with different groups - to fence these groups off from one another so that the lines dont blur.

A Social Network for Two...

Cool animation set to Zefrank's recent tune "A Social Network for Two".
Via reboiled

Work Naked...

Nothing to do with us, I swear!
image via crackunit

Google acquires Jaiku

Here's the news from the Jaiku team - another interesting piece of the puzzle in the long running Google Phone (probably an OS) speculation...

"Wonderful Jaiku users,

Exciting news, Jaiku is joining Google!

While its too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new friends at Google over the coming months to expand in ways we hope you'll find interesting and useful. Our engineers are excited to be working together and enthusiastic developers lead to great innovation. We look forward to accomplishing great things together.

In order to focus on innovation instead of scaling, we have decided to close new user sign-ups for now. But fear not! All our Jaiku services will stay running the way you are used to and you will continue to be able to invite your friends to Jaiku.

We have put together a quick Q&A about the acquisition at http://jaiku.com/help/google

Jyri Engestrom and Petteri Koponen, Jaiku Founders"

Vodafone InsideOut 4 2ndLife

Vodafone have launched 'InsideOut' for fans of SecondLife, enabling you to call and text within SecondLife and between SecondLife and the real world. So as your directing the construction of your new condo in ever-bright city , you can call and text people in the real world from your virtual mobile device.
Vodafone is handing out free HUD's (Heads Up Displays) from a Vending Machine in Vodafone InsideOut Island - they allocate you a virtual mobile number (currently a +49 german number) - and you carry the HUD around with you in SecondLife to make calls and text to other residents within SecondLife and people outside as well.
Until the end of November all calls and texts are free, although Voda reserve the right to charge from this point onwards.
The HUD could evolve to provide location alerts to other users within SecondLife, notification and live-streaming of real-world events in to SecondLife, and a neat monetisation model for online to offline communication.

We are now recruiting for the following role at Naked - pls get in touch if you know anyone that might be appropriate...



Role: Software Engineering & Infrastructure Lead
Company: Naked Ltd
Direct Reports: 2-4 (Year 1)
Salary: Competitive + Equity + Options + Health
Based: London, UK


Who is Naked?
Naked Ltd is a London based start-up company with a core team of 7. Naked is properly funded and is finalising its next financing round to support the scope of its ambition to grow into a global community within 5 years.

Being Naked
Naked is a state of mind as well as a service offering. Being Naked is being close to the people you care about, individually or as a group, by being true to yourself through genuinely open and transparent communication. This closeness is unique and special for each individual, and exists between their chosen groups of family members, friends and aquaintances – their ‘world of we’.

Open Messaging
Naked is a new open messaging service that addresses people’s desire for closeness between friends, family and acquaintances. Naked enables people to share idle thoughts, profound comments, feelings, experiences, through short-form lightweight mixed-media posts. Unlike conversational systems like instant messaging, the resulting stream is both ephemeral and permanent, and is automatically shared in online spaces dedicated to each individual and the specific people and groups they want to be close with. Posting to and accessing these streams can be done through multiple channels (web, mobile, IM, email, RSS) enabling ongoing and ‘anytime’ sharing.

Platform Approach
- Open
Naked adopts an open approach to platform, architecture and member data. 3rd party platform API’s ensure open access to developers and other web services while an open architecture means support for industry efforts to converge messaging across services, channels and networks, through standards bodies and API’s. And open member data recognises that our members own their personal information and should control when, what and where this data is shared with others.

- Channel Agnostic
Naked is designed to work across devices, enabling anytime and anywhere messaging on a pc or mobile, via the web, im, email and rss. Availability of open API’s and web services ensures that as the service evolves, others can compliment the channel spectrum with whats new and needed.

- Rapid & Agile
A development methodology that recognises our members as co-developers, incorporating feedback in to regular rolling release cycles that spur the evolution of the service and its social application.

Who are we looking for?
Naked is seeking a Software Engineering and Infrastructure Lead to recruit and lead a small, close-knit team of exceptional IT talent. You need to be an exceptional coder, collaborator, inventor, architect, leader and mentor, all rolled into one. You like working in a fast-paced and engineering-driven environment and you love envisioning projects, motivating a team of engineers and are happy to roll your sleeves up to implement critical components yourself.

You will be responsible for all software and infrastructure related projects, including those that are managed in house and externally in collaboration with 3rd party development partners. You will need to direct your team efficiently across projects and govern the technical roadmap for Naked. You will manage the ongoing scaling of the application environment and the associated infrastructure requirements and costs.
You will need to play a stakeholder role in all related industry activities while leading the implementation of supporting initiatives within Naked. You will be an opinionated proponent of open member data and technology, and develop a vision for how to realise this within the context of a social messaging environment such as Naked.
You will have in-depth experience across web and mobile technologies and standards, as well as substantial experience in designing, documenting and supporting web services API. You will have worked in an agile way on a number of previous projects and be accustomed to supporting a member-led development process.
You and your team will play a critical role in shaping the evolution of the next killer application and will be ready for all the tears and laughter that accompanies this challenge.


To work at Naked you need to have:

• A degree BS/BA/MS in Computer Science or related field.
• Software background with significant knowledge and exposure to Ruby on Rails.
• Entrepreneurial drive, demonstrated ability to achieve and stretch goals.
• Solid leadership skills and experience building strong engineering teams.
• Significant experience in software development across boundaries in a highly geographically distributed environment.
• Multi-domain expertise in mobile, web, and messaging technologies and standards.
• Strong project management skills.
• Budget forecasting , management and reporting experience
• Proven track record of product delivery.
• Able to fit in well within an informal start-up environment and to provide hands-on management.
• Able to establish credibility with smart engineers quickly, and provide long term vision and motivation.



What’s in it for you?
Apart from working in a fun but highly dynamic and challenging environment, we offer a competitive salary and benefits, stock equity package and an outstanding and unusual working environment.
Naturally we are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Nokia's Mobile Social Network; Mosh

While most operators are busy enabling mobile access to the leading social networks, Nokia has been developing its own with a strong mobile flavour - Mosh. Out now in private Beta. Luca Filigheddu has a good overview.

Amazing Times...

thanks for the link Biff

Naked Needed

It's clear from Om's frustration with Facebook, that he needs Naked. I'll send him a beta invite ;-)

Navigate your Internet...

Naked Yak

Since February this year, I’ve been working on a new company called Naked. We’ve been pretty quiet as of late, but are now beginning to emerge out of stealth as we finalise the Beta, which is due to launch in Q4.
Naked is a new ‘open messaging’ service that enables people to share thoughts, feelings, and experiences, through lightweight mixed-media posts. Unlike conversational systems such as IM or text messaging, the resulting stream is shared in online spaces dedicated to each individual and the specific people they want to be close with. It’s new, it’s different and I want to avoid saying it’s like X because it really is a very differentiated proposition from what is available today. We’ve combined functionality in to a totally new communication experience that we believe addresses a core human need to keep in touch and stay close to the people that you care about. It’s not a platform for collecting and broadcasting that you have 5000 friends, it’s a much more intimate environment that is member centric and cross-channel, so it works on your mobile, you can access it on the web, and keep in touch with it via IM and email.

You can follow the first part of our member engagement strategy at NakedYak.

Stay tuned, there’s more to come… ;-)

Seedcamp

A great initiative kicking off in September 07 to identify, support, fund and mentor Europe's most promising start-ups. Sign up for it here


i came across this on Saul Kleins blog here

Social Networks using Ruby on Rails

Congratulations to my mate Alan, who has recently finished his first book - "Practical Rails Social Networking Sites". It's out now on Amazon, and is a must read if you're considering building anything in Rails.

"Practical Rails Social Networking Sites shows you the complete development cycle of a social networking community web site. The project develops first as a simple content management system, after which it progressively adds features in order to build a full Web 2.0--enabled community-based social networking site using Ruby on Rails".

"You will learn how to make the best use of the Ruby on Rails framework within a large project and how to implement and adapt features specific to a community. The book offers practical advice and tips for developing and testing, along with guidance on how to take your site live, as well as optimize and maintain it".

"The book also explores how to integrate with other community sites such as Flickr and Google Maps, and how to make good use of Rails' Ajax features. You will also learn how to optimize and adapt your site to work well on mobile browsers".

Unlimited SMS, MMS & Video for $5/month

Unlimited SMS, MMS & Video for $5/month on Cingular

Blue Planet Run team need Global Mobile Sponsor

Just got pinged by the CEO of the Blue Planet Run Foundation - a charity that is raising the awareness of the global safe water crisis (unsafe water kills 6000 people/day). They need some help - ideally about 50 cheap (preferably free) mobile contracts with big data plans (roaming enabled), 3G/UMTS cards etc, and pronto...

"On June 1, 20 runners will leave the UN Building in New York City on an unprecedented adventure – running around the world, 24 hours a day, to raise awareness of the global safe drinking water crisis. This crisis shapes the lives of the over 1b people that live today without safe drinking water; half the hospital beds in the world are filled with people suffering from water borne disease. The 20 runners will run relay style, passing the baton each 10 miles, as they run across countries including the UK , France , Belgium , Netherlands , Germany , Poland , Russia , Mongolia , China , and Japan , then returning to the US on August 1 and running from San Francisco to New York City , where the Run will conclude on September 4th".

With 20 runners, 30 support people, and lots of multimedia to be pushed to the website, wireless connectivity is critical. The event should be generating tons of press throughout Europe, Asia, and the US. The Team will be using wireless technology for voice comms, wireless email, location positioning and wireless data.

I know a few of my readers work in some pretty big European/Global mobile operators, so I was kinda hoping that you might drop this request on the desk of your friendly PR/Sponsorhip department. This is a genuinely credible and extremely worthwhile request, so if you think you can help, please get in touch, and I'll forward on the details.....thanks :-)

MySay

If you've observed and enjoyed the recent hype surrounding Twitter, then take a look at MySay - its the voice based equivalent - "phatic voice". Im not sure the target demographic likes voice quite so much though.

Vodafone MobileScript

Just heard that Vod have released a device optimistation script for Betavine developers....

"Vodafone MobileScript is an ECMA script extension that allows developers to access device functionality in a very simple manner. The goal of Mobilescript is the creation of a common framework in order to easily and quickly develop new services in mobile platforms, using a ECMA Script Open Source engine including new features which enable the developer to control new actions and events in the terminal".

Download from here
More info here

Blyk to use Orange for Mobile Ad MVNO

Orange and Blyk (the first ad-funded mobile network) today announced an MVNO deal that will see Blyk customers using the Orange network to make calls, send messages and access the mobile internet. The two companies have entered into a wholesale agreement regarding the transportation of voice and data traffic across the Orange network.

Full release here

Mobile Long Numbers?

Does anyone know where I can get hold of a range of voice and SMS enabled mobile long numbers (virtual MSISDNs)? I have a UK supplier - I need someone/anyone in Europe ??

Thanks
j

Sonopia - MVNO Long-tail?

Sonopia are recently out of stealth mode and have announced that they are offering the ability for brands, communities, people, clubs or whatever to set up and offer their own mobile service offering (in the US).
Say you're a soccer team with a legion of committed fans. You can now offer your own branded mobile proposition consisting of customised calling plans, handset range etc. Each brand also gets it own customised "community" platform which is accessible both on the PC and mobile. Sonopia makes it easy for the brands to interact with their customer base, and for the users of the brand to interact with one another.

The example above is LonelyGirl15's mobile offering - she's apparently famous on MySpace and is now using Sonopia to offer a mobile package!!!!!

Read more at VentureBeat and GigaOM

Orange & Bebo tie-up

The Times reported that Orange and Bebo are close to closing a deal to enable Orange customers to interact with Bebo while out and about...

"The tie-up — Bebo’s first with a mobile operator — will allow Orange customers to edit their Bebo profiles, update their blogs and find friends on the online “hang-out” without sitting at a personal computer.

The service, the latest in a series of alliances between cult internet brands and mobile operators, will start in Britain this summer, with extension to other markets expected later.

Bebo, which has amassed 31 million users in the two years since its launch, hopes that the link will enable it to extend its reach in its target audience of people aged 18 to 24.

For mobile operators such as Orange, the ability to market well-known PC applications can be a critical tool in attracting and retaining customers in fiercely crowded markets".

Flurry Update and Director of Marketing Role

There's some great news from the Kings of Mobile Email - Flurry. Not only have they raised a whopping $3.75m Series from DFJ, Draper Richards and follow-on investors Borealis, they are now looking to recruit a Director of Marketing to compliment their existing team.

If you haven't upgraded to a whoppingly expensive mobile device and subscribed to an even more whoppingly expensive mobile email service, simply go to flurry.com and get it sorted. It works, it works really very well and it uses a tiny amount of your monthly data allowance (it will even show you how much on the web site).

If you're a senior marketing dude, you understand brand, entry strategy,
proposition, positioning, pr and comms, and you're looking for a hot role with great start-up based in San Fran - read on:

Job Title: Director of Marketing
Description: Flurry is a leader in the growing field of next-generation mobile services. Our flagship product is an easy-to-use mobile email and RSS solution that works on hundreds of different cell phone models and thousands of email providers and carriers worldwide. It is the first service to be introduced by flurry based on our Mobile Services Platform, a platform designed to provide high-performance, consumer friendly applications.

We're seeking a smart, creative, enthusiastic, and experienced marketing executive to help us build the brand, drive consumer adoption of our products, lead overall marketing and communications strategy and manage related marketing programs.

Responsibilities:
• Establish overall marketing and communications strategy and strategic positioning
• Lead all aspects of engagement marketing for flurry and all its products. Candidate will design, implement, and manage strategies to increase user acquisition, retention, usage and monetization. Special emphasis in viral marketing and community growth around the service
• Create corporate and product communications plan
• Lead and manage all public relations activities
• Work closely with product, development, and management teams to achieve business objectives through effective marketing programs
• Manage production of marketing collateral and marketing budgets
• Establish and manage affiliate relationships
• Build and keep to schedules and budget; meet or exceed department goals
• Define key metrics to measure the effectiveness of marketing programs

Requirements:
• BA required; MBA strongly preferred
• 5+ years of consumer marketing experience, with emphasis on online consumer marketing
• 3+ years of management/leadership experience
• Proven track record of success in acquiring users for consumer products
• Experience managing outside agencies (e.g., PR)
• Strong business acumen, keen analytic skills and direct marketing experience
• Excellent verbal and written communication, presentation skills, and relationship management
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment

This position reports to the CEO and would be based in San Francisco.

to apply for this, visit www.flurry.com for contact information

CEBIT-Vodafone shows Internet (Skype) calling on mobile - Starfish

"HANOVER, Germany, March 15 (Reuters) - Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile , Research), the world's most international mobile phone carrier with over 200 million subscribers, showed Internet-calling for mobile phones with Skype, which it said it may launch in the future.

Code-named Starfish, Vodafone showed the application in the future zone of its booth at the world's biggest technology trade show, CeBIT. It has yet to decide whether it will start offering consumers the service, which could eat into its traditional mobile voice telephone business".

via Reuters (full article here)

Technology Yoda Required!

We (Naked) are currently looking for a high calibre individual to review and assess the technology implications, opportunities and challenges for a mobile start-up. If you are the man (or woman) for the job, or you know someone who might be, ping me at james@getnaked.com - thanks. (we expect project duration to be in the region of 20-30 days at a competitive day rate).

REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

The candidate will have 10yrs + experience in a leading mobile operator and/or Internet player with at least 5 yrs in a senior architectural, engineering or CTO role. With a comprehensive understanding of core messaging and voice architectures and standards (IM, IMPS, VoIP, SMS, MMS, Email, Web services and standards), the candidate will be adept at mapping commercial requirements to the realities of today’s and tomorrows technology capabilities. Familiar with communication related product offerings from leading vendors and emerging start-ups, the candidate will have a strong industry network and an in-depth understanding of the technology value chain.

ROLE OVERVIEW

• Provide technology strategy insights to the commercial start-up team.
• Review and assess the company’s overall strategy, entry strategy and goals in light of current technologies, capabilities and trends.
• Provide analysis and recommendation on software, hardware and handset architecture and infrastructure.
• Identify and provide access to possible technology partners
• Conduct technical due-diligence on capabilities, IPR and fit of potential technology partners.
• Review and assess the technical team’s organizational model
• Navigate key technical challenges and risks to provide a service realisation recommendation supported by key assumptions, evidence and insight.