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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, November 09, 2009 Posted by philgomes 6:39 PM Never Forget For those of us who love freedom, this is a must-see. More at Reason.Tv. Technorati Tags: freedom, communism, cold war, berlin wall | Saturday, September 19, 2009 Posted by philgomes 7:17 PM Serve.Gov Needs Volunteers... ...to watch the serve.gov site, presumably. Found this evening, though I don't expect it to be up for long. Technorati Tags: fail | Tuesday, September 01, 2009 Posted by philgomes 5:36 PM One Vinod Khosla Is Worth 20 Al Gores From The NYT: Vinod Khosla, the prominent venture capitalist who has been investing hundreds of millions of his own dollars in green technology companies for the last several years, will now invest other people’s money, too. Khosla Ventures, the firm he founded in 2004 after leaving Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is announcing on Tuesday that it has raised $1.1 billion in two funds that will invest in green technology and information technology start-ups. This is the largest amount raised by a venture capital firm since 2007 and the largest first-time fund raised since 1999, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Technorati Tags: vinod khosla, venture capital, al gore, greentech | Posted by philgomes 8:53 AM Dear Government: The Venture Capital Industry Doesn't Need You Either Sorry... My Libertarianism has been showing the past couple of days. *blush* Fruit-smashing comedian Gallagher used to joke that "If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' then 'Congress' is the opposite of 'progress.'" I can hardly disagree, given how our legislators are considering applying regulatory burdens on venture capital. From the always-insightful Techdirt: In a recent Congressional hearing where venture capitalist Trevor Loy explained this to our elected officials, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky apparently told Loy that he didn't believe him that VCs invest in private companies rather than companies likely to be rated by the various ratings agencies.... And, yet, these are the folks writing the regulations. This is why some of us get nervous about gov't regulations. Yes, in an ideal world, perfectly knowledgeable regulators might possibly be able to divinely create regulations that work. But that's not what we have. To put things in perspective, the size of the entire venture capital industry is about $30 billion — not nearly enough to affect the banking system. If that were the case, Bernie Madoff would have been able to wreak extreme amounts of systemic financial damage (rather than personal or institutional), seeing as how his infamous Ponzi scheme was more than twice that size ($65 billion) after accounting for fabricated gains. With that $30 billion, however, the venture capital industry has created untold amounts of private and, yes, public wealth. In terms that our politicians can comprehend: By attempting to regulate something that 1) doesn't need it, 2) doesn't deserve it, and 3) legislators are apparently incapable of understanding, we'll never get the next generation of those Internet tubes! Here is the full text of Mr. Loy's testimony to Congress: Testimony of T Loy Final 7-15-09 Technorati Tags: venture capital, vc, congress, regulation | Sunday, August 30, 2009 Posted by philgomes 2:50 PM Dear Government: The News Media Doesn't Need You On September 15, the Federal Trade Commission is going to begin offering workshops for media organizations entitled "Can News Media Survive the Internet Age? Competition, Consumer Protection, and First Amendment Perspectives." "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." For one thing, it's unclear how the FTC reconciles the delivery of this seminar with its self-stated mandate of working "for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them." Lacking a "Ministry of Information" in the U.S. I suppose this had to be filed somewhere. For another... Any media outlet that lets in the government, in any form, loses a proportionate share of its credibility. At that point, you might as well call it a "newsletter" or, less charitably, "propaganda." The First Amendment implications, of course, are staggering. Few government intrusions into our lives have ever been rolled back. This is real, and it starts as innocuously as this. Technorati Tags: media, government | Friday, August 14, 2009 Posted by philgomes 4:05 PM Blaming The Victim An exchange today, reacting to a press release about a topic that I have never been even remotely interested in: Sammy Spamalot: [Insert spray-and-pray release here.] Phil: Please take me off of your list Sammy: Use the unsubscribe link in the email please Phil: Way to blame the victim, dude. Sammy: Thanks Phil, it would just take me ages to find your addres in our database. Phil: Probably no more time than it took for me to fish your note out of the trash and find the link, I'd imagine. Almost as good as the time the PR person told me that she was blameless and advised that I call the company that sold them their media list. Technorati Tags: pr, spam | Thursday, August 06, 2009 Posted by philgomes 11:45 PM Government to Kneecap Innovation From The Wall Street Journal: In the Treasury financial reform proposal, who comes in for more regulatory retooling: Fannie Mae, or your average 14-man venture capital shop? If you said venture capital, you understand why one of America’s greatest competitive advantages is now at risk in Washington. It's clear to me that government isn't interested in solving problems but, rather, interested in "problems" it can "solve." Technorati Tags: venture capital, government, regulation | HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil's demented imagination. Hell, to be perfectly honest, even Phil disagrees with what he thinks sometimes. This site has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clicking on a link doesn't automatically send a 1/2-cent donation to UNICEF. You can't buy, sell, auction, swap, find a date, win friends, influence people, cross the chasm, or decode the human genome using this site. You won't get free email. You won't win a free video game console. This site will not end world hunger, foster peace in the Middle East, help you smell better, teach you how to swing dance, or move the global economy from petroleum to hydrogen fuels. You'll learn a lot about this site's master, though, which amounts to a haphazard collection of strange and useless facts that pretty much won't help you at all.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. 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