Category: Uncategorized

THE MOSCOW TIMES — Nov 25 — Since most of Maria Shubina's paintings are called "Me," visiting her exhibition at Fine Art gallery is a bit like flipping through a friend's photo album. She posts her paintings on Internet dating sites and then hangs them in galleries along with e-mails from her would-be suitors. She uses the same alias — "femaleart". 

The full article was originally published at Moscow Times, but is no longer available.

THE MOSCOW TIMES — Nov 25 — Since most of Maria Shubina's paintings are called "Me," visiting her exhibition at Fine Art gallery is a bit like flipping through a friend's photo album. She posts her paintings on Internet dating sites and then hangs them in galleries along with e-mails from her would-be suitors. She uses the same alias — "femaleart". 

The full article was originally published at Moscow Times, but is no longer available.

BUSINESS WIRE — Nov 1 — Terremark today announced that Facebook has deployed over 450 servers at the NAP West facility. Over 60% of Facebook's users log in each day to view over 200 million pages in any given 24-hour time period and around 25,000 new users sign-up for the site daily. 

RTE — Nov 23 — Filming starts on Irish film 'Speed Dating' on location in Dublin.  The cast includes Hugh O'Connor (My Left Foot) and Emma Choy (The Vanguard). It is about a speed dating addict who ends up in hospital with amnesia after an encounter with a mysterious stranger. The police believe that he has some involvement in the disappearance of a young woman and he has to try and figure out what happened. 

The full article was originally published at RTE, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Internet dating and speed dating are getting a bad rap these days. 

I just listened to an interview between Accel VC Jim Breyer and Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's Founder.  Here's some interesting points about this phenomenon of good judgement, timing and site design… Mark Brooks

LOOMIA — Oct 26 — 450 servers and 25,000 signups a day.  230 million page views a day!  Mark considers Facebook, not as a social network but as an online directory.  Some have called it a 'walled friendster' but Mark says it's a utility, a directory.  They made a decision to keep individual schools walled to keep maximum focus.  Users can see fellow alumni only…so they feel more comfortable listing private information such as their cell phone number.  "Friendster, myspace and facebook are all very different things.  We have this directory, Friendster is a dating site and…who knows what Myspace is." (laughter).  Mark is very humble and reveals, (32:08) "I've no idea what I'm doing."  Jim adds, "I'll add a couple of comments. (laughter).  Mark has a number of skills that one rarely sees…he's a great listener and you learn from listening…I'm still stunned how many entrepreneurs come to our offices and it's all output and there's no thoughtfulness.  It's amazing that the very best entrepreneurs are…great listeners and…their organisations tend to be great listening organisations. 

The full article was originally published at Loomia, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: This is what Friendster got fabulously right.  Jonathan (Friendster's founder) listened and observed the real world for 6 months after splitting up with his girlfriend.  He bottled what he saw in how his friends networked and met new people in the real world.  On another note, I'm very pleased to announce that Sierra Ventures ($1.1 Billion managed) confirmed today that they will be speaking at the next Internet Dating Convention on raising venture capital and working effectively with VC's.

A little more from Mark Z. from the interview…(42:53) "One of the things one of my friends and I were messing around with the other night was seeing if we could comput who we thought would be in a relationship…and we realised we had over a third chance of predicting which two people would be in a  relationship in a weeks time."  (laughter). 

Mark Brooks: Hmm, so dating is intriguing to Mark.  I believe Facebook will eclipse the other 'social networks' simply because it offers the highest utility (focus+integrity) at the biggest point of pain and value.  Pain being, the pain of losing connections with alumni.  Value being, in maintaining contacts and reaping the long term emotional and financial benefits.  A central directory was needed, Universities knew this…but they never quite got around to it.  I visited and pitched UC Irvine and UC Berkeley on a plaxo-esque directory in 1999.  Alas, a little early, wrong company.

ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS — Nov 22 — McDaniel is a bartender at Schwabenhof, a small, log-sided bar, and he's been thinking of starting "speed dating." In Anchorage, the genders are nearly even, with about 102 males for every 100 females, while guys have a particularly tough time in Denali, where there are 139 men for every 100 women.

The full article was originally published at Anchorage news, but is no longer available.

Nov 23 — The Miami Internet Dating Convention has been moved up one day.  It’s no longer Feb 1-2, but rather Thursday and Friday Feb 2-3, 2006.  So now you can stay over and enjoy Miami on Saturday as well.  IDATE SITE

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — Nov 21 — Official quiet parties have been thrown in Washington, D.C.; Seattle; London; Barcelona, Spain; Houston; and Beijing. The first San Francisco quiet party, held in April, drew more than 70 people. The New York parties regularly had more than 100 attendees, and at the first party in Beijing, there were about 170 people. It seems like a lot of people just want to shut up. FULL ARTICLE @ SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Mark Brooks: I don’t get it…which is why I need to try it! 

MICHIGAN TECH ONLINE LODE — Nov 16 — “Quick and easy” seems to be the catch phrase of the century. The information superhighway and dating has made a trend that seems to be changing the face of romance.  The Internet allows a person to break out of the physical limits and meet someone who could be there match.  On PsychologyToday.com, Hara Estroff Marano writes about problems with online
dating in her article, “Online dating not just a trend.”  One main problem is that interactions are in private, she explains. “It’s just you alone with your own psyche, its dreams and its hungers,” says Marano.  “Many of the usual brakes on human behavior are absent.”  She calls the back and forth rhythm of online dating like “slow dancing at the cyber café” and a truly seductive trend. Online matchmaking’s advantages extend into finding that special person, but when it comes to actually romancing the stranger, use the more traditional tactics. That will help you find the idiosyncrasies of that person that you may have to deal with for the rest of your life. Both sides deserve a fair chance to know who the other is—beyond what his or her online profile says. FULL ARTICLE @  MICHIGAN TECH ONLINE

Mark Brooks: Chemistry is still a face to face phenomenon.  I like the concept of webcam dating, allowing users to go on their first date online, essentially.

THE DAILY VIDETTE — Nov 16 — According to Gary Creasey, a psychology professor, the rules of dating have changed over time.  "Students are now dating earlier than our parents did. They are more comfortable and experienced with the opposite sex today." People are getting married at a later age than their parents might have. Dating in college today may be more casual than it was in the past. Creasey explained that a lot of college students today are looking for more support and companionship, rather than looking at whether someone is "marriage material."  Tools such as the Internet and cell phones may also have made a profound impact on dating. People with significant others at different schools can keep in touch often by the stroke of a key.  "If you were dating someone at a different university, communication used to be limited to a 10-minute phone call once a week. Now with cell phones and instant messaging, long-distance couples can have more communication and feel more comfortable," Creasey said. "People used to meet through work, but now it’s more through extracurricular activities or friends," Creasey said.  "Younger people tend to look more for physical attractiveness. As they get older, they look beyond that and look for people with similar interests and values."  FULL ARTICLE @ THE DAILY VIDETTE