Monday Links: September 22nd, 2008

Wow, it’s been a hectic week three weeks.  Apologies for my unforseen blogging hiatus.  Before we get to links, a few things have happened while I’ve been away:

1. The economy imploded.  If you’re looking for an informative break-down of the subprime crisis, I recommend this chart from Wikipedia (thanks for the link, Hank).  If you think the economic crisis has a lot to do with deregulation and failures of the “free” market, AND you’re looking for a chuckle as your money disappears, I recommend this diagram from Indexed’s Jessica Hagy.
2. New Facebook made it’s debut became mandatory for users.  As anyone with a Facebook account could have predicted, many users are FURIOUS and making their displeasure known through things like status updates, Facebook groups, profile changes, and posts of friends’ walls.  I’ve fortunately been able to follow this hot air fest though the intuitive interface and all-inclusive feed on the new Facebook.  Whoops.  Seriously, people: get a grip.  Want to whine about Facebook?  How about you focus your energies on combating these obnoxious “I heard someone has a crush on you!  Download this virus to find out who!” spam wall posts.
3. Hell froze over The Rays made the playoffs, and my BoSox aren’t far behind (though I don’t think we stand a chance against the Angels).
4. A desperately needed extension of tax credits for alternative energy production sits in the Senate after passing the House.

On to links!  Lots of them today to make up for ignoring you:

• This Sunday’s NY Times Magazine featured an article on start-up Unigo: an open platform for students to review their colleges and for prospective students to read those reviews.  My alma mater’s admissions director is quoted in the article saying, essentially, ‘that’s cute’:

“I’ve got to be honest with you,” Christopher Gruber, a vice president who oversees admissions at Davidson College, told me. “I’m not spending a ton of time navigating those student-driven sites. It’s too much to manage. My sense is that the traditional big players, like Princeton Review, are the major sources for online information too, in part because those are the names that parents still recognize. Those are the names that are going to have greater panache, and so those are probably the ones that will be turned to. The ones that we supply information to are the ones that we spend the most time on, filling out surveys for them to make sure that that information is accurate.”

In early September, after Unigo offered Davidson and the other 266 colleges a two-week preview of the site — “because we don’t want them to feel ambushed,” [Unigo founder] Goldman explained — Gruber confirmed that the letter from Goldman was sitting on his desk but said he hadn’t yet found the time to visit the site itself. If he does, he will see reviews, photos and videos by roughly 230 current Davidson students (one-eighth of its entire student body) already posted there.

I know and respect the folks in the admissions office at Davidson.  They do a great job with a small staff.  But this is foolish to the point that it’s downright irresponsible.  Just like social networks, there will certainly be a number of “student-driven” sites like Unigo that pop up.  Some will fail (Friendster), while others will explode in popularity and influence (Facebook, MySpace, etc).  To categorically write-off the value of peer-to-peer marketing online is to assume that Davidson can jump into the ‘Princeton Review 2.0′ world when it damn well pleases…when a victorious, influential site has emerged.  Unfortunately, the web doesn’t work that way.  Some of Davidson’s peer institutions will almost certainly beat us to the punch and effectively engage the non-”traditional big players,” putting Davidson in a place years (months?) from now where it scores well in traditional measures (Princeton Review, US News and World Report) while ignoring the very sites that most prospective students frequent. [Thanks for the tip, Jeff and Jane]

• Seth Godin argues that the new Microsoft ads represent a fundamentally flawed understanding of the company’s market leader status:

Microsoft has fallen into a trap that befalls many large companies in search of cred, buzz or respect. They’ve decided to buy some via advertising[...] [T]hey have Apple envy  [...]

When was  the last time you met an Apple employee who was truly passionate about the products she made or sold? My guess is this happened the last time you went to an Apple store. When was the last time you had a similar experience with a Microsoft employee?

If you talk to Google employees, odds are that they are totally engaged and on a mission to change the way people interact with the internet and with information. Talk to a Microsoft person and they will be happy to talk about reliability or standards they set or the way to engage the bureaucracy of the organization.

• Speaking of Microsoft, EcoGeek reports that big man Bill Gates shares my geek love for algae as a biofuel stock:

Sapphire Energy, which hopes to create fuel for cars from algae, is undergoing series B financing, and Gates and several other large investment companies brought up Sapphire’s total invested capital to $100 M.

• Matt Yglesias mentions the Center for American Progress’ excellent proposal on green-based economic revitalization in light of last week’s chaos and government intervention:

When [the proposal] came out on September 9, I think you might have looked at it and said “well, this sounds good, but perhaps it’s a bit too expensive.” But put in the perspective of a $700 billion bailout, the idea of spending $100 billion over two years to ensure that the ordinary people who are getting stuck with the bill for Wall Street’s screw-ups don’t all lose their jobs is small change.

• Instead of making assumptions on imperfect information, I wish more voters would use this tool to figure out how their taxes would change under President Obama or McCain.  [Hat tip: Ezra Klein].

• TechCrunch reports on internshipratings.com, where former interns rate their experiences.  Sounds like a similar model to our friends at rateyourstudyabroad.com, which with one more mention will become a paid sponsor of Tropophilia (they just don’t know it yet).

• Blog friend Rachel Will [apparently] Blog for Food Haterade as she thrashes childhood icons Babar and Paddington Bear (not to mention my personal favorite Corduroy…you WOULDN’T!!).  This seems about as courageous as threatening Canada or bashing Scientologists.  I’m looking forward to future posts on why the following are lame/ugly/stupid: Alf (he’s pretty on the inside…), puppies, the single grey duckling waddling behind the rest, dandelions and/or clover, lemonade stands, bicycles, hot chocolate with little marshmallows, France, and Saturdays.

• Last, but certainly not least, here’s LeBron James getting spanked in a game of HORSE with an amateur:

That’s all for now, but (once again) I promise to be a better blogger this week.