Jason Calacanis missive unpublished by Silicon Alley Insider

Jackson West — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:00:00 EDT

It's Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis's world, we just have the misfortune of living in it. The former Silicon Alley Reporter publisher decided to quit blogging, instead opting to send out his verbose fonts of wisdom as emails. Take his latest 2,948-word missive, "(The) Startup Depression" — claiming that anywhere from half to four in five startups will fail thanks to the current economic crisis (or at least, will blame their failure on the economy). Apparently Calacanis asked that the post be taken down. Because of a principled stand for intellectual property? Because SAI's publisher was getting the pageviews and Mahalo wasn't? Or because Calacanis can't take the heat in a public forum? The fight that broke out in the comments between Wallstrip creator Howard Lindzon, Blodget and serial entrepreneur Scott Rafer suggests the latter.

Awesome.

Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?

Owen Thomas — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Wi-Fi startup Fon, has concocted another excuse for Web 2.0's jet set to rack up frequent-flier miles and buy carbon offsets: It's called Menorca TechTalk, held on Varsavsky's ranch on the Mediterranean island this weekend. The website is password-protected, but Valleywag got a list of who's going. It's a curious mix of professional conference attendees, like Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman, Loïc Le Meur of Seesmic, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and David Sifry of Technorati, mixed in with a few people who have day jobs. There are even Googlers on the list — and when have you known those lot to leave the protective bubble of Mountain View? Oddly, Jimmy Wales did not seem to make the cut, though his New York patroness, Louise Blouin MacBain, is listed. In the comments, sort the TechTalkers into your preferred categories.

Alan Levy (BlogTalkRadio)
Alec Oxenford (OLX, DineroMail)
Alejandro Estrada (DineroMail)
Alexis Bonte (Erepublik.com)
Andrew McLaughlin (Google)
Anil de Mello (Mobuzz)
Arturo J. Paniagua (Hipertextual)
Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf)
Axel Schmiegelow (Sevenload, Denkwerk Group)
Benjamí Villoslada (Menèame)
Brent Hoberman (Mydeco)
Carlos Martìn (IG Expansiòn)
Cedric Maloux
Christophe F. Maire (Nokia gate5, investor)
Claudia Gisiger-Gonzalez (UNHCR)
Dan Dubno (Blowing Things Up)
David Sifry (Technorati)
Demian M. Bellumio (Cyloop)
Eduardo Arcos (Hipertextual)
Efe Cakarel (The Auteurs)
Ehssan Dariani (studiVZ)
Esteban Sosnik
Esther Dyson (EDventure)
Felix Petersen (Plazes)
Hans Peter Brøndmo (Plum)
Ibrahim Evsan (Sevenload)
Ivan Communod (Vpod.tv)
Jacob Hsu (Symbio)
James Gutierrez (Progress Financial)
Jennifer L. Schenker (BusinessWeek)
John Markoff (The New York Times)
Joichi Ito (Creative Commons, Six Apart Japan, investor)
Jon Berrojalbiz (Trading Motion)
Jonas Birgersson (Labs2)
Jörg Rohleder (Vanity Fair)
José María Figueres (Grupo Felipe IV)
Jose Marin (IG Expansion)
Julio Alonso (Weblogs SL)
Lars Hinrichs (XING)
Loïc Le Meur (Seesmic)
Louise T Blouin MacBain (Louise Blouin Media)
Lukasz Gadowski (Spreadshirt.com, investor)
Lukasz Wejchert (Onet.pl)
Marc Samwer (European Founders Fund)
Marcelo Claure (Brightstar Corp.)
Marko Ahtisaari (Blyk, Dopplr, FON)
Mathias Entenmann (Betfair)
Matt Biddulph (Dopplr)
Megan Smith (Google)
Michael Arrington (Techcrunch)
Michael Jackson (Mangrove Capital Partners)
Michael Wolf (Farallon Point)
Nikesh Arora (Google)
Ola Ahlvarsson (Result, FON)
Om Malik (Giga Omni Media)
R.J. Friedlander (Grupo Planeta)
Ricardo Galli (Menéame)
Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz (Vpod.tv)
Rupert Schäfer (DLD, Hubert Burda Media)
Scott Rafer (Lookery, Mashery, Winksite)
Tariq Krim (Netvibes)
Thomas Crampton (Next Media)

Gawker: valleywag, scott rafer

Jason Calacanis missive unpublished by Silicon Alley Insider

Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?