Author Archives: Ryan Markel

Trending Location: My Mind

The trending hashtag here is oddly melancholy.

Because the Cart Came before the Horse

Shannon Whitley, in an open letter to Ryan Sarver of Twitter, responding to the new Twitter API strategy statements:

I understand the thinking behind this strategy, “We must control input to the system.  We need to have X in place to generate revenue using Y.”  I don’t have to tell you how wrong this thinking is, but somehow it’s moved beyond a bean counter’s dream into reality.  Somehow, everyone in the boardroom forgot about Twitter’s history of amazing innovation due to having an open API.  They forgot that Twitter is a beautiful messaging platform with unlimited potential.  Twitter has unlimited potential specifically because innovation on top of the API has been largely unlimited, until now.

What Twitter is doing right now is exactly what happens when you build your platform without a revenue strategy. Now, the strategy appears to be incompatible with the innovation that has come before.

Same Dance, Different Tune

Glenn Greenwald:

On Friday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley denounced the conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention as “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid,” forcing President Obama to address those comments in a Press Conference and defend the treatment of Manning. Today, CNN reports, Crowley has “abruptly resigned” under “pressure from White House officials because of controversial comments he made last week about the Bradley Manning case.” In other words, he was forced to “resign” — i.e., fired.

Boy, we sure did get that change we were looking for in government, didn’t we?

Katamari Hack

http://kathack.com/

Turns your browser into a JavaScript and CSS transform based Katamari Damacy thing using a bookmarklet. Fun stuff and nifty to see how it works.

For Perhaps the First Time, Words Fail Me

Earlier, I chose the quickest method of communication to reach the most people we would have told (Twitter) that we were expecting a child, but by now I’m sure most of you know that we have unfortunately miscarried. Many of you have already sent us kind words and encouragement. I may write more later, but words aren’t readily available yet. The words may never arrive.

Those of you who know me know that I don’t hide my emotions well. I chose to share our good news early so you, my family, friends, and colleagues, could celebrate with us and share in our happiness. I appreciate that you are also so willing to share and offer your condolences in our sorrows and I am grateful beyond words for your love.

I’ve said before that being a parent is the source of both the greatest joys and the greatest sadnesses in my life. Today it is more the latter.