Fukumimi writes about the recent Google Japan open house.

Even more disappointing than the fluffy presentations were the questions from the floor. The first guy up introduced himself as a marcom guy from MSFT who, in what I though was a fairly aggressive/pointed manner for a guest, asked something along the lines of “what do you (GOOG) think is the best marcom strategy?”. Which was answered (or not) with some typical fluff response which was equally unnoteworthy. And it pretty much went downhill from there. I think the questions asked showed GOOG that the people asking the questions were not GOOG material, so I guess the event served some purpose (maybe not for marcom, but rather for HR…). It also felt like some of the Googlers were getting a little bit defensive at some of the questions. Maybe they expected a load of fanboys who would gush praise and give them an ego boost. What they actually got were people who were either agnostic or even antagonistic. I guess the silent majority may have been fanboys, difficult to tell. There was a pretty edgy vibe in the room, I thought.

It was almost as if the Googlers couldn’t understand why the audience weren’t lapping up the kool-aid.

If they are as good at “innovating” and “learning from mistakes” as they claim to be, their humility should allow them to acknowledge that they have a huge amount of work to do in the marcom area in Japan, and they’ll learn from last night. Just plying guests with free food and booze does not guarantee a friendly audience.

Sounds like it didn't go quite as planned....

The difficult part is just starting. I'm skeptical that the DPJ can make effective use of this failure of the LDP- a failure that was from within, not from any effective attack from the DPJ.

Observing Japan: The results are in...

RConversation: Shi Tao's case: Yahoo! knew more than they claimed

I always enjoy Lenodd's mixes. This one is a stunner!

Slap Bass Odyssey

Mixed by Lenodd

July 2007

1) Solaris Heights – Solarism
2) Mavenelli Project – Bradford Jazz (Jims on his todd again mix)
3) Problem Kids – Feel Alright (Crazy Penis snacks mix)
4) Tiny Trendies – The sky is not crying (Swags sky high dub)
5) Crazy Penis – Do it good (Shaboom mix)
6) Kenny Dope – The Illout
7) Bebel Gilberto – Simplesmente (Cosmos mix)
8) Solaris Heights - Fusique
9) Recloose – Spelunking
10) Midjut Boys – Energy (Bass Fresh mix)
11) Azymuth – Carambola (Mark Pritchard mix)
12) Crazy Penis – You started something (Extended mix)
13) Global Communication – The Groove (Original mix)

I'm on vacation this week (July 23-27) in Japan at a conference help by the US-Japan Leadership Program. I'll try to blog a bit but can't make promises. I am reachable by email/IM as usual.

I've been enjoying this Gingersteve - Funk Me Harder mix a lot recently. Funk, breaks, house, garage, breaks, it's awesome!

01. Bebel Gilberto - Aganju (Latin Projekt Remix)
02. The Juju Orchestra feat Carolyn Leonhart & Terry Callier - What is Hip? (Mo Horizons Funk Restyle)
03. Mike Monday - Fun with a K
04. Flint - You Can't Find
05. Authist & Dub One! - Get on Upaaah!
06. Beatfanatic - Holdin'
07. Kraak & Smaak - Hello Big Mama
08. A Skills & Krafty Kuts - Tricka Technology Feat MC Islam (Ed Funk Vocal)
09. Mike Monday - Zum Zum
10. Beatfanatic - Boom Bangin'
11. DJ Regal - Rock The Funky Beat (Special 12)
12. All Good Funk Alliance - Super Jam (Flow Dynamics)
13. Spirit Catcher - Move Closer
14. Nitin Sawnhey - Eastern Eyes (Seiji Mix)
15. Groove Armada - Final Shakedown
16. Jak Jaxon - Put Your Funk Down
17. Tom Novy feat Michael Marshall - Your Body (Soul Avengers Remix)
18. Milton Jackson & Droido - Long Circuit
19. Krafty Kuts - Bring Back The Funk
20. Nitin Sawnhey - Sunset (MJ Cole Mix)
21. Mossa - Town Hall (Eloi Brunelle Remix)
22. Minos Pour Main Basse (Sur La Ville) - Le Patron Est Devenu Fou! (Zdar Wars Mix by Philippe Zdar)
23. Will White - Digital Funk

Awesomely geeky. One dude is wearing a Blogger t-shirt too.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!!!

Clay goes from the Ise Shrine to perl to software support (comp.lang.perl.misc) to AT&T to love.

"perl is a shinto shrine"

"you will make more accurate predictions about software, and in this web-driven world, about services, if you ask yourself not 'what's the business model' but 'do the people who like it take care of each other?' That turns out to be the better predictor of longevity."

"it does mean that the ability to aggregate non-financial motivations, to get people together outside of managerial culture and for reasons other than the profit motive, has received a huge comparative advantage. And it also means that many of the future commercial opportunities are going to be inextricably intertwined with that kind of work and those kind of groups."

"We have always loved one another. We're human, it's something we're good at. But up until recently, the radius and half-life of that affection has been quite limited. With love alone, you can get a birthday party together. Add coordinating tools and you can write an operating system. In the past we would do little things for love, but big things, big things required money. Now we can do big things for love."

Video: Clay Shirky on Love, Internet Style

My sister, Aya Kanai, is profiled at Worship Worthy,

"an all female-authored daily newsletter and lifestyle blogsite targeted toward women, featuring continuously updated news, images and analysis of New York’s hippest fashion, trends, events and products to tastemakers and fashion forward city dwellers."

I had to look up a word, "louboutins", that my sister used in her interview.

Wow. I can't make this stuff up.

On its Web site and in press reports, Stickam says that it is owned by Advanced Video Communications, or AVC, a three-year-old Los Angeles company that sells video conferencing and e-commerce services to businesses in Japan and other Asian countries.

But according to Alex Becker, a former vice president at Stickam, and internal company documents, Advanced Video Communications is managed and owned by Wataru Takahashi, a Japanese businessman who also owns and operates DTI Services, a vast network of Web sites offering live sex shows over Web cameras. Mr. Becker alleges that Stickam shares office space, employees and computer systems with the pornographic Web sites.

The sites, with names like DxLive, EXshot and JgirlParadise, use the same video technology as Stickam to link paying users with performers in one-on-one video chat sessions.

Mr. Becker recently left Stickam after four months there and said he was speaking out because the company was not doing enough to protect young users of its service.
...

Mr. Becker said he first learned of the extent of the pornography business last April, when Mr. Takahashi, who employees refer to as Mr. T, took him to dinner at a downtown sushi restaurant. Through translators he described some of his companies’ assets, which include at least 49 pornography sites, a pornographic film production company, nine restaurants in Japan and private planes, Mr. Becker said.

“I don’t think I discovered everything, but I learned more than enough to be able to say with certainty that they are not leaders in the video-conferencing business,” Mr. Becker said. “They are leaders in pushing porn via a Flash player and streaming porn from the United States to Japan.”

Mr. Becker said Mr. Takahashi told him that he had based his sites in the United States because of Japan’s restrictions on explicit nudity.

I would bet that this news would scuttle any future growth for stickam, but I've been proven wrong many times in the past.

Accuser Says Web Site Has X-Rated Link [nytimes.com]