The latest from TechCrunch
- Why We Endorse Former Facebook Exec Chris Kelly For California Attorney General (Video Interview)
- TweetMeNews Tries To Be A Custom News Firehose For Twitter
- Contest: Win a Movado Watch from the TheWatchery
- 25 Years Later, First Registered Domain Name Changes Hands
| Why We Endorse Former Facebook Exec Chris Kelly For California Attorney General (Video Interview) | Top |
| We first reported that Former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly is running for Attorney General of California in the 2010 election. He confirmed the bid earlier this year. Kelly’s official campaign site is here . We’ve been looking for time to sit down with Kelly to do a long form interview on a wide range of issues before giving (or not giving) him our endorsement (see our 2008 presidential endorsements here ). We know his track record at Facebook, and his general politics (libertarian-leaning Democrat), but there was lots more to learn. The last thing California needs is someone like Henry McMaster taking over the top law enforcement job in the state. The most important issue first: we want Kelly to give us (meaning me, personally) immunity in California for any crimes allegedly committed while he’s in office. Give us that and the endorsement is his, no more questions asked. His answer? Sadly, no: Most of the rest of the interview is serious. We just have a long tradition of ribbing Kelly at every opportunity (read the last paragraph of this April Fools joke from 2008, and see our birthday present to Kelly earlier this month that mocked recent Britney Spears sponsored virtual gifts on Facebook). Our Endorsement We are enthusiastically endorsing Chris Kelly as the next Attorney General of California. He has intelligent and tough positions on crime, seems to understand the limitations of the office and what can realistically be accomplished, and has a deeper understanding than anyone of the key privacy and other issues affecting Silicon Valley companies and the people that use tech/Internet products. We have a significant difference of opinion with Kelly on how Facebook handled Holocaust denial groups earlier this year (and spend some time in the interview discussing that), but other than that we’re on the same page. Our interview and the full transcript ( thanks, SimulScribe! ) is below. Transcript: Mr. MICHAEL ARRINGTON (Host): Hi. This is Mike Arrington from TechCrunch. I am here with Attorney General Candidate Chris Kelly. Mr. CHRIS KELLY (Attorney General Candidate): Thanks for having me, Mike. Mr. ARRINGTON: Thank you for coming by our office to talk with us on video a little bit about your campaign. Mr. KELLY: Glad to sit with you on a glorious day. Mr. ARRINGTON: It’s nice. Mr. KELLY: It’s a nice day. Mr. ARRINGTON: Yeah. Mr. KELLY: Good day to be outside. Mr. ARRINGTON: So, you until two weeks ago or three weeks ago, you were full time at Facebook as a chief privacy officer. When did you start in Facebook? Mr. KELLY: So I started on Facebook in September of 2005. We’re about 25 people. Mr. ARRINGTON: Very early on. Mr. KELLY: Two and a half million users. Mr. ARRINGTON: Yeah. Mr. KELLY: And now, we’re over a thousand people and - and 250 million users. So it’s been a little - pretty good for us, right. Mr. ARRINGTON: And you’ve now - you’re on a leave of absence now? Mr. KELLY: I’m on leave of absence now. Mr. ARRINGTON: Does that mean your stock options stopped vesting or… Mr. KELLY: So, it’s - I mean, not… Mr. ARRINGTON: Or has it been four years? Mr. KELLY: I’m not commenting on the particulars of, of these, you know, of these matters. But you know, but to - we’re, you know, I’ve been working hard. Mr. ARRINGTON: How much stock… Mr. KELLY: I’m still consulting. Yeah. Mr. ARRINGTON: You’re still - OK. Mr. KELLY: Still consulting. Mr. ARRINGTON: And how much stock did you sell on the recent $100 million transaction? Mr. KELLY: So again… Mr. ARRINGTON: We agreed not to discuss any… Mr. KELLY: I’m not going to comment on the particulars of these things. But - but, you know, I’m happy to be at the company for as long as I’ve been. Mr. ARRINGTON: I want to get up to Facebook a little more later. Not - not you’re not worth but, but just talk about some of the property issues of Facebook and… but let’s start with your background and your politics. Can you just tell us a little bit about who you are? Mr. KELLY: So, I grew up in San Jose. We moved to San Jose in 1977 before it was Silicon Valley, just when the chip revolution was starting. And I grew up, went to high school at (unintelligible) down in San Jose and got some good judgment education, spent my first two years in college at Berkeley. Decided that it was too big and too close to home, I home. I need to see the rest of the world and that… but I knew that the Bay Area would be my home. So, I headed off to Georgetown and got some more judgment education in. Started PC program in clinical theory of all things at Yale after I graduate from there and then became an emirate of the fascinating, you know, young obscure southern Governor named Bill Clinton. I dropped out of grad school to go to work for and then working for Clinton for three years and worked on hundred thousand cops, community police on the streets and Americorps among other programs, elementary and secretary education, (unintelligible) authorization. I worked with now Los Angeles School Superintendent Ray Cortines when he was head of the Inter-covenant Letter Agency Group in Education and had a wonderful, wonderful experience in Washington but decided I needed to go back to school and I went to Law School of Harvard and I came out here… Mr. ARRINGTON: How many degrees do you have? Mr. KELLY: I’ve got three… Mr. ARRINGTON: Georgetown, yeah. Mr. KELLY: Three… Mr. ARRINGTON: Yale was… Mr. KELLY: I took my masters degree at Yale. Mr. ARRINGTON: And then a Harvard Law degree. Mr. KELLY: And then, yup, a law degree from Harvard in ‘97. Mr. ARRINGTON: Yeah. Mr. KELLY: And then came back out here, clerk for a federal judge in San Diego for a year, and then joined our fellow alma mater Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto. Mr. ARRINGTON: Yeah, we both worked at Wilson Sonsini - what year - but you, what years were you there? Mr. KELLY: So I was there ‘98 and ‘99. Mr. ARRINGTON: Yes, we overlapped a little but never had the pleasure to work with you so… Mr. KELLY: Yeah. Mr. ARRINGTON: So, is it - is it fair to characterize you as a liberal taxing spend democrat then? Mr. KELLY: I wouldn’t say that. I think that I’ve got a healthy appreciation for government and what it can do but I want to make it more effective and more efficient. I think that, you know, tax dollars are, are hard to come by these days and we obviously need to have a great deal of government reform. Make sure that the government works for people again. Mr. ARRINGTON: We tax too hard or too low today? Mr. KELLY: So, I think that it’s hard to say right now with the tax make up that we have is, is a confusing one and one that obviously does not work. I mean, it’s one of the reasons that we… Mr. ARRINGTON: I paid a year. I pay more taxes if our tax is almost simpler… Mr. KELLY: And also, it’s the ability to know that the money is going to good purposes and that’s one of the things that we have to work on and convince people overtime that the government can spend their money effective. There’s a fundamentals of breaking a faith with the people that you know, is a lot of the reaction the government needs. So on the rejection of Proclamation 1831E in the last ballot, people expect Sacramento to actually do its job to, you know, make… Mr. ARRINGTON: Yeah. Mr. KELLY: Make hard decisions and stick with them and to get a budget done. That’s one of the things that I want to see out of this race and I think one of the things that it will be a sleeper issue for some time but will be a big deal at the end as government perform and who’s going to most effectively guide, you know, be the best lawyer for the people in the government reform that’s coming because folks are really, really angry and really, you know, looking for something different. Mr. ARRINGTON: So, you’re actually looking forward to being the attorney general, it’s not just a stepping stone to parade for president, governor or senator? Mr. KELLY: Nope. I think it’s a great job. I think it’s one of the best jobs in politics and particularly, this… at this period in the State’s history. Mr. ARRINGTON: Yeah. Mr. KELLY: You know, I think it’s likely that we’re going to have a constitutional convention in 2011 and to be the chief lawyer for the people in that convention would be very, very exciting and sort of a surprising you know, practical way to apply my time working in early American political thought and political theory and constitutional theory. Mr. ARRINGTON: So, it seems like one of the things that attorney generals from various states do to get press is attack social networks. Mr. KELLY: Yeah. Mr. ARRINGTON: As chief privacy officer of Facebook, you’ve had to deal with negotiations with attorneys general, I’m sure. MySpace has had those issues for even longer. Recently we saw your future colleague, although he’ll be leaving office as you’re entering Henry McMaster, the attorney general of South Carolina going to suicide mission against Craigslist. How are you going to deal with that? Mr. KELLY: Well, it’s one of the things that obviously, the attorneys general across the nation has been focused on is internet safety over the years and Facebook, we’ve had an extraordinarily responsible record of actually building a safer and more trusted internet and that’s made our relationship with the attorneys general much better than with a lot of other sites. And I think that, you know, major sites across the net have been focused on this issue and are trying to deal with it in a responsible way. I hope that bringing additional knowledge for both sides of the fence on this will help the attorneys general across the nation in helping, in assisting companies and consumers across the country in you know, in having a safer internet experience. So I think that having been on you know, on this side of the table and representing the largest social network in the world will stand being in good stead in providing input on how we build the same contrast… Mr. ARRINGTON: OK. But - OK. So that’s great. But let’s get to a real answer like is it BS that the AGs have gone after social networks to the extent they have. Are they overblown issues to get press? Mr. KELLY: So there’s a real concern out there about safety on the Internet, and obviously companies can’t prevent everything from going wrong online just as states and police departments don’t prevent every crime in communities. And so you weave, work for a productively with responsible change(ph) channel and you know stay focused on these issues. They’ve understood when we engage in productive dialog that we can’t stop everything bad from happening. I think we got to a very good place working with a trained General Cooper or trained General Blumenthal with a variety of people from across the nation during General Cuomo to make responsible improvements on the way that online safety works. Mr. ARRINGTON: OK. I’m going to try this one more time. You’re saying some great things. I mean, and it’s important but do you think that attorneys, generals and not just McMaster(ph) but- I’m sorry, who was the guy in New York? Spitzer. You think occasionally they after online sites and other sites just because it’s such as good- it’s such a huge press in for them. Sometimes they get more than their share of negative attention. Mr. KELLY: I think that sometimes there are misunderstandings about what’s going on and how responsible companies are. I also think that an IRE(ph) company has always been responsible… Mr. ARRINGTON: Sure Mr. KELLY: And so, you know, that there are some legitimate targets out there and there are some people who, you know, engage in changing behavior online. And I think it’s entirely… Mr. ARRINGTON: Are you talking about Craigslist now? Mr. KELLY: No, of course, not. Mr. ARRINGTON: Do you plan of going after Craigslist? It’s your first duty in office. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. KELLY: Obviously not something that I’m focused on. Mr. ARRINGTON: I’m not going to get you the comment directly on McMaster(ph) at all, am I? Mr. KELLY: Probably not. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. ARRINGTON: All right. We’ll leave that - we’ll let that on go for now. Let’s go back to the campaign. How much money do you need to raise to become attorney general in California? Mr. KELLY: So, it’s hard to say for sure. I mean, the candidates last time raised about, you know, four or five million dollars. Mr. ARLINGTON: OK. Mr. KELLY: And I think that that’s what it’s going to take, you, know, to be competitive. Mr. ARLINGTON: Yeah. Mr. KELLY: And - but I plan to raise more than that. I think that, you know, getting our message out, you know, obviously - I actually come to this in advantage by the time of the June 2010 primary. Looks like about a third of the state of | |
| TweetMeNews Tries To Be A Custom News Firehose For Twitter | Top |
| TweetMeNews is a recently launched Twitter application that will tweet you personalized, relevant news based on your interests and preferences. The app will ask you questions about what genre of news you are interested in (business, technology, advertising, venture capital and health) and what types of publications you’d like news from (blogs, newspapers, video, magazines). TweetMeNews then analyzes data, including your Twitter feed, and uses a proprietary algorithms to send you stories that match your interests and behavior. TweetMeNews’ co-founder Brett Hellman says that the startup even checks your feed to make sure not to send your news that you’ve already received. You can choose for the service to send you up to ten stories per day. In theory, the idea sounds great. But as a blogger, I need news fast. I tested the service out and it sent me a Tech news story from yesterday, which isn’t terribly helpful when it comes to receiving breaking news. Other news firehoses, like Techmeme’s are far more valuable to me when it comes to reporting breaking news throughout the day, because it’s fast, comprehensive and varied. But for users who aren’t concerned with the speed of breaking news, TweetMeNews could be a useful Twitter-focused news service to add to the mix. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
| Contest: Win a Movado Watch from the TheWatchery | Top |
| We know with the economy the way it is, it's tough to justify spending money on those luxury items that you want. And we want to help you out. That's why we've teamed up with the Bing-loving people at The Watchery to bring you the chance to a very nice Movado dress watch, just for giving us a shout out on Twitter. Don't worry, ladies: you can win a women's model if we pick you. So how do you win? TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
| 25 Years Later, First Registered Domain Name Changes Hands | Top |
| Did you know the first .com domain name that was ever registered was Symbolics.com , on the 15th of March 1985 by the now defunct Massachusetts-based computer manufacturer Symbolics ? While the first that was created in January of that same year was Nordu.net (used to serve as the identifier of the first root server, nic.nordu.net), symbolics.com was the first domain name to actually be registered through the appropriate DNS process a few months later. This was of course long before there was a WWW, but you already had ‘the Internet’. In fact, the first TCP/IP-based wide-area network had already been operational for two years when nordu.net was created, right around the time the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the construction of the legendary NSFNET, a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone. Only six companies thought it’d be a good idea to reserve the domain name on the root servers in 1985 (the others were bbn.com, think.com, mcc.com, dec.com and northrop.com). But Symbolics was first to make the move. Remarkably, Symbolics.com hasn’t changed ownership once during the nearly 25 years that followed its initial registration. Marking an end to that era, domain name investment company XF.com Investments has just purchased the domain name for an undisclosed sum. Which calls for a bit of history about the original owner: Symbolics, Inc - a spinoff from the MIT AI Lab - was a computer manufacturer headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and later in Concord, Massachusetts, that designed and manufactured a line of Lisp machines , single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. The machines became the first commercially available “general-purpose computers” or “workstations” way before those terms were coined. The company also offered one of the premier software development environments of the 1980s and 1990s, now sold commercially as Open Genera for Tru64 UNIX on the HP Alpha. In the late eighties, the company started its slow descent towards bankruptcy and oblivion, neatly chronicled in this blog post by former Symbolics employee Dan Weinreb: The world changed out from under us very quickly. The new "workstation" category of computer appeared: the Suns and Apollos and so on. New technology for implementing Lisp was invented that allowed good Lisp implementations to run on conventional hardware; not quite as good as ours, but good enough for most purposes. So the real value-added of our special Lisp architecture was suddenly diminished. A large body of useful Unix software came to exist and was portable amongst the Unix workstations: no longer did each vendor have to develop a whole software suite. And the workstation vendors got to piggyback on the ever-faster, ever-cheaper CPU's being made by Intel and Motorola and IBM, with whom it was hard for Symbolics to keep up. We at Symbolics were slow to acknowledge this. We believed our own "dogma" even as it became less true. It was embedded in our corporate culture. If you disputed it, your co-workers felt that you "just didn't get it" and weren't a member of the clan, so to speak. This stifled objective analysis. (This is a very easy problem to fall into — don't let it happen to you!) … Meanwhile, back at Symbolics, there were huge internal management conflicts, leading to the resignation of much of top management, who were replaced by the board of directors with new CEO's who did not do a good job, and did not have the vision to see what was happening. Symbolics signed long-term leases on big new offices and a new factory, anticipating growth that did not come, and were unable to sublease the properties due to office-space gluts, which drained a great deal of money. There were rounds of layoffs. More and more of us realized what was going on, and that Symbolics was not reacting. Having created an object-oriented database system for Lisp called Statice, I left in 1988 with several co-workers to form Object Design, Inc., to make an object-oriented database system for the brand-new mainstream object-oriented language, C++. Symbolics still exists as a shell of its former self. But now the very first .com domain name ever registered becomes property of a small domain name investment holding that is so shy about its identity that it doesn’t publish the names of the people involved with the company, let alone a company address, on its website. There’s absolutely no indication of what the future has in store for the historical domain name, apart from the fact XF.com intends to celebrate its 25th birthday next year. To quote Samwise Gamgee in Lord Of The Rings: “I don’t know why, but it makes me sad.” Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
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