“I’m absolutely certain if it wasn’t for teachers like Mrs Hill in 4th grade, I absolutely would have ended up in jail.”
In these excerpts from various interviews around 1995, Steve talks about how as a 12 year old he looked up Bill Hewlett in the phone book and called him at home to ask for some spare parts, so that he could build a frequency counter. “Some people never get that experience because they never ASK. You gotta ask. You gotta act.”
He also speaks about getting kicked out of school a lot for ‘mischief’, like setting up explosives on teachers desks. Until Mrs Hill, his 4th grade teacher, ‘bribed’ him into learning and re-ignited his curiosity, for instance by giving him kits to build his own camera. If it hadn’t been for Mrs Hill, Jobs thinks that ‘I absolutely would have ended up in jail’. Because he could see the tendencies in himself to have a certain ‘energy to do something’ that some people might have taken for a bad idea. That is why he believes that even though he has equipped so many schools with computers, great teachers remain the most important thing in education.
Source: SoundCloud / daretoASK
“ Why it works? - It’s a miracle.
A look inside the writers room of #Homeland:
The pilot of season 2 proved that Showtimes critically acclaimed drama deserved the Emmy sweep, collecting 4 awards including ‘Best Drama’, ending a four-year winning streak by AMC’s “Mad Men”.
In what was one of the strongest second season comebacks, ‘The Smile’ picks up 6 months after Carrie’s psychotic breakdown and Brody’s failed suicide attack. The writers throw the characters right back into turmoil after they had seemed to settle into calm lives - Carrie as an ESL teacher, Brody as Congressman. But ‘Nothing is as it seems”.
The season 2 pilot delivered 1.7 million total viewers for Showtime and a total of 2.1 million including Sundays re-runs — giving the show its highest viewership total ever and a 60% jump compared to the Season 1 premiere last year.
Oh Canada! - MIPCOM’s Country of Honour
MIPCOM, the flagship event for the entertainment industry, is shortly descending upon the Croisette. This year’s country of honour: Canada. As part of this tribute, Quebecor Inc.’s Pierre Karl Péladeau & Bell Canada’s Wade Oosterman will deliver two keynote addresses. Canadian master classes, business matchmaking events and screenings will be held throughout the entire event. Eagerly-awaited is the “Fresh TV from Canada” presentation of the hottest and most innovative content from Canada, hosted by The WIT’s CEO, Virginia Mouseler.
MIPCOM’s Media Mastermind sessions will see heavyweight producers Harvey Weinstein and Mark Burnett take to the stage, alongside Hulu’s Jason Killar and YouTube’s Global Head of Content Partnerships Robert Kyncl.
Harvey Weinstein’s keynote speech comes on the heels of the launch of The Weinstein Company’s (TWC) International Television Sales Division and we can expect Weinstein to announce the company’s new slate of TV shows for 2013.
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We will continue our series Media Masterminds from mipcom.
D! - Dare To ASK: Media MasterMinds
“ The basic question in Entertainment Science is ‘Why do human beings pay so much attention to stories and characters that don’t even exist? Why are stories so important to us?’
We meet David Graham of entertainment consultancy Attentional — and learn about mirror neurons, instinctive empathy for stories and characters, why Sorkin’s Studio 60 had to fail, and what kind of programming he would love to see in Europe.
FUNDED! Kickstarter project “Be Here Now” - The Andy Whitfield Story heads into post production. Film shows an intimate portrait of the star’s battle against cancer
It’s a good day. 5,265 backers raised $302,810 on Kickstarter, far exceeding the originally pledged $200k.
“Be Here Now” documents the last 18 months of Spartacus star Andy Whitfield in an honest, intimate portrait as he undergoes cancer treatment. — At the prime of his burgeoning success, the engineer turned actor was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, just after finishing season 1 of the hit show. A first round of instant treatment seemed to prove successful and the cancer was gone - but Andy relapsed, just as shooting for “Blood & Sand” was about to kick off for season 2.
Early relapse after chemotherapy often indicates resistant cancer cells that are likely to grow. When even the best medical treatment could only guarantee a 25% chance of survival, the actor and his wife Vashti decided to take healing into their own hands and tried every method available, including aggressive chemo- and radiotherapy as well as Eastern healing options.
In a preview clip from the film, Whitfield himself explains the meaning of ‘Be Here Now’ - which he and his wife eternalized on their arms with matching tattoos. “In my heart, I am convinced that this is all meant to be,” he says. “‘Be here now’ is all about being present and not fearing what you don’t know.”
During his first round of treatment, Whitfield experienced how lonely and scared the uncertainty leaves patient and family. Deciding on treatment options with limited medical understanding while running out of time can be terrifyingly overwhelming. Andy and Vashti invited documentary film maker Lilibet Foster to follow the actor’s treatment programme. “When we decided to do this, we felt that if we’re going to go through something like this, let’s see what we can learn and share,” says Vashti Whitfield. “Otherwise, it’s just another wasted journey.”
But as Lilibet Foster tells me in below interview from June, we should not expect a sad film. “This is a universal love story. Andy and his wife were this incredible force.” Foster’s previous award-winning films include Soul In the Hole and Academy Award Nominated Speaking in Strings.
After an outpouring of sadness from fans on the internet following the actors death in September 2011, the film team decided to let them participate in finishing the film and took to Kickstarter for funding of post production. The international response from fans and the press has been overwhelming and the additional funding beyond $200k will now go into international distribution and outreach programs with cancer organizations like Stand Up for Cancer to reach as many people as possible.
It is great to see Kickstarter’s value in building such strong and supportive communities that will carry the projects well beyond the fundraising stage.
// A FAB BERLIN GUIDE - Roman Kirsch, CEO Fab.de // — Fab.com, the design sensation on global meteoric rise, is known for its perfect picks for furniture, art & design. Founded by Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer in 2011 after a remarkable pivot, Fab expanded to Europe in February 2011 by acquiring Berlin-based Casacanda - now Fab.de.
Here, Fab.de CEO Roman Kirsch takes us through his equally perfect picks of locations 25hrs across Berlin.
//INTERVIEW: Brett Martin, Co-Founder & CEO, Sonar// — Brett Martin “knows people” — and their hidden connections. To be precise, his popular mobile location app Sonar does. It takes in Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds to navigate you through the urban jungle and find those people who you should really meet — right here, right now. Some call it ‘engineering serendipity’, for Martin it’s all about having more face time with people that matter to you.
Our first Sonar encounter was at TC Disrupt 2011 when Brett’s team made it through to the Battlefield finals. Sonar was an absolute favourite with the audience. What better place to launch this app, than at a crowded tech conference where everybody is eager to connect with a ‘relevant set’ of like-minds. One year on, Sonar was back at NYC Disrupt 2012 to launch their biggest product update since its launch: the Here-Now Network. By adding Status, Sonar Presence, Notifications and Messaging features, it allows for a more targeted connection with the people in your vicinity.
We meet Brett at Sonar’s Intergalactic Headquarters in NYC and talk about how growing up in beach town Ocean City inspired him to create Sonar, why impatience is the toughest thing to tame for an entrepreneur, who he would love to bond over beer with, and what he loves and hates about New York.
Here are some sound-bites:
Head over to unlike.net for Brett’s 25hrs collection of his favourite New York Hangouts.
//INTERVIEW: Edial Dekker / Steve Jang// — We just kicked off a new series over at global City Guide Unlike, where founders give us the inside scoop on their local hangouts. First up is Edial Dekker, Co-Founder and CEO of Gidsy. Originally from Amsterdam, the ex-cook takes us through the hidden gems of tulip fields and locally produced food across his current home-base of Berlin.
A couple of weeks ago, we interviewed Edial in London together with Steve Jang, CEO of SF-based Soundtracking. Turns out, the 2 are friends from Edial’s Amsterdam days at The Next Web Conference. So we asked the two: “What would be the best ever local experience in San Francisco and Amsterdam?” — Hint: It includes Surfing, Snowboarding, Food, Red Light Districts and Skateboards. (Sorry for the busy background noise.)
Gidsy now offers local experiences and invites you to ‘do something different’ in 7 cities - more international expansion is on the plan. Here’s is a snapshot selection of the eclectic mix of Gidsy tours and maker workshops:
AMSTERDAM: This is Piet’s infamous ‘Policetour Redlight district ‘1980’ that Edial mentioned in our interview. Piet was a policeman in the 80ies at ‘Bureau Warmoesstraat’ and the Redlight District was his Kiez. Be prepared for a trip “back in time, into the world of drugs, prostitution, gambling and corruption.”
SAN FRANCISCO: Like Cheese? Then this one is for you. During the ‘Cheese Workshop’ you learn to make butter, ricotta, yogurt and cheddar all at once in a splash course on home cheese-making. One hundred percent of proceeds go towards community clinics in Haiti.
NEW YORK: The ‘Long Walks in Downtown NYC’ are a great opportunity to take a deeper dive into the city that never sleeps. Tour guide Deirdre knows all the hidden gems from The Village (East and West) to Tribeca, The Battery, Nolita, The Lower East Side and Brooklyn.
LONDON: Want to make a gleaming pot of homemade chutney? Sophie and Jenny from Rubies in the Rubble host chutney making days.
BERLIN: Betahaus offers hands-on workshops to Build your own design classics. In June you create Jean Prouvé’s lamp Potence, a classic from 1950 in 6 hours from easily available materials.
//NEXT12 Music Talk// — We sit down with Ex-DJ turned investor icon Stefan Glaenzer from Passion Capital and Conrad Fritzsch, CEO of tape.tv to talk music, publishing, packaging, trials and tribulations of international expansions - and casting the perfect European A-Team for a Startup.
“Right in the middle of the conversation between fans and artists - that’s where we want to be.”
At New York’s ACE Hotel, we meet for breakfast with Beverly Jackson, the Director Marketing/Social Media for the GRAMMY Awards. This year’s show famously broke records with social media and mobile programs playing a major role. TV audience numbers soar to over 39 million people (The last time the GRAMMY’s even topped 30 million was 1988. It’s the second most watched GRAMMY telecast since 1984 when 51.67 million people watched Jackson take home eight trophies.)
In our interview, we dive deeper into the mechanics of the ‘GRAMMY 365’ campaign ‘We are all fans’, discuss how the collaboration with brands, tech partners, agencies and artists works, and get an inside into how the Academy dealt with the tragic death of Whitney Houston on the day before the show.
Last but not least, we learn what ‘Big 3’ songs will never get deleted from Beverly’s iPod.
//Where 2.0 - Interview with Will Wright// - Last time I met the creator of The Sims was for the launch of Spore, and I took my friend Yoav along to speak from “artist to artist“. We ended up less talking about the game than about Charles and Ray Eames, childhood toys and illegal car racing.
Now, 3 years on, we meet at Where 2.0 in San Francisco. Wright has since left EA and founded the rather secretive Stupid Fun Club to devote more time to robotics and fusing game mechanics with real life. The power of mobile devices that act as sensors make the real world Wright’s new playground.
Although he kept mum about what exactly he is working on right now (and when we can expect to play with it), he revealed that it has broadly to do with predictive models of user behaviour. To “really understand the user” remains the toughest and most enticing challenge for Wright. This goes far beyond Facebook profiles but concerns predictive moods, emotions and schedules. Basically, Wright is trying to crack the code of “what users really want to do - before they even know they want to do it.” Be prepared, it surely will be legendary.
“DARE TO ASK” AT LONDON WEB SUMMIT — Behind the mic and on stage: Foursquare, Earlybird, Kraft Foods, Fab.com, Soundtracking and Uber.
//DARE TO ASK: Henrik Berggren / Eric Wahlforss// — We meet the 2 “Swedish Imports” (and good friends) at the Readmill HQ in Berlin where they talk about Stockholm clubbing days, advice for young entrepreneurs, favourite sounds and (social) trust issues.
Source: vimeo.com
//DARE TO ASK: Felix Petersen / Florian Weber// — At Amen’s home-base in Berlin, we meet 2 of the co-founders behind the world’s “most opinionated app ever” and talk Focus, Hype and “The toughest call to make when developing a product”.
Source: vimeo.com
//DARE TO ASK: Team EyeEm// — We visit the 4 founders of mobile photography startup EyeEm in their Berlin studio and talk stolen cameras, data cubes and meeting perfect strangers (through images).
Source: vimeo.com
