Author Archives: Brent
Charity Auctions on Social Networks
Did this paper provide an early proof for the Groupon model? Conitzer and Sandholm introduced the idea of using auctions to allow individuals to offer to match the contribution of others. We explore this idea in a social network setting, where … Continue reading
Thick, Uncongested and Safe
Successful marketplaces require three key elements. “They must be thick, uncongested, and safe,”… Having sufficient “thickness” means there are enough participants in the market to make it thrive. “Congestion” is what can happen when markets get too thick too fast: … Continue reading
Open Source Motivations
Alex King has published a great post today about Open Source Motivations. One comment stood out for me: Unless the WordPress community at large starts to better recognize and reward the developers that create the tools that they use and … Continue reading
Canon – It Works!
The slogan for Canon’s camera range is Delighting you Always. Of course this isn’t always possible, it’s aspirational. And Canon do make delightful cameras. Let’s compare this to their slogan for printers in Thailand – It Works! Yep, that’s it. The current … Continue reading
My Git Workflow
A longtime Subversion user recently asked me for tips on switching to Git. A sort of “top 5 commands I need to know to get going”. Having only recently mastered this beast, I gave a few more than 5 commands … Continue reading
Starting a Business is a Misnomer
When I was 22, fresh out of university, I set out to start a business. I spent a lot of time creating a company brand, thinking about the management structure, writing the marketing plan. The type of stuff you do … Continue reading
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