Clarence Wooten over at VPFund, a great guy I met in person at the first TechCrunch BBQ, has a pretty good write-up about how the new web paradigm that many call “Web 2.0″ creates new social circles where anyone virtually knows anyone. I couldn’t agree more. One of the things I found around the time I flew into the Bay Area was how much of the borders were being brought down by the new web - a web that focusses on conversations between people.

Without the new world of relationships and conversations, I wouldn’t have worked on TechCrunch, I wouldn’t be launching an amazing project soon, and I wouldn’t be waking up to a lot of new ideas and people. To sum it up, this is a great time to be an entrepreneur (as Joe Kraus wrote three months ago).

Gotta love mash-ups. You know, using several services and data to build something the original developers didn’t think about. But once they go creepy, then I just don’t know. PervWatch is a mash-up that allows US citizens to track information about previous sexual offenders and map them (using Google Maps). Quoting:

This site aims to make it easy for anyone to quickly find sex offenders in a graphical way. Many of the state registries fulfill the purpose of making the data freely accessible, however it can be difficult and time-consuming to determine just how many live near you, and how close they are. This site plots the sex offenders on a map so you can instantly see how many and where they are.

Creepy. And it’s not that some people won’t find the information useful (creepier), but about when information crosses the border from the web and into personal data. Some might agree that once it’s on the web, it’s public domain, but turning attention into “how close” a sex offender is may result in some serious stuff.

A disclaimer: I have little tolerance for (most types of) crime. Still, I believe perpetrator data should remain private whenever possible to avoid society backlash - particularly in cases where the offender may be trying to redeem himself. There may even be cases when the data is simply incorrect, and that’s even worse. However, I’ve never had a case with my family and loved ones, so I don’t know what motivated the developer apart from obvious press.

Lets assume you live in a neighborhood with a bunch of people tagged by the mash-up as “offenders”. You don’t even know your neighbours names, so you check out the houses on the map so you can stay clear from whoever you find to have “a past”. But, what if street information is wrong? You would be assuming someone as a sex offender while they might not be one. Talk about awkward situations when the whole neighborhood stays clear off of someone who has nothing to do with the case.

Anyway, it’s a mash-up. It lets you see if your neighbourhood has any weird characters. But when can proof of concept cross the privacy limits? Morning thoughts. Link to pervwatch via Andy Baio’s amazing Waxy.org Links.

In the last 3 weeks I’ve been in the Bay Area, I’ve had a lot of (lengthy) talks with entrepreneurs and investors, most of them usually leading to the same point: how I accept or deny job offers based on how much I like the idea. One of the things most people frown upon is how I’d pick a pro-bono job for the love of it over a high-pay job that just didn’t feel right.

It’s quite simple, really

If I like the idea, I’ll become passionate about it, and if I’m passionate about it, I’ll (hopefully) do great work. I’ll contribute in every way to the development process - helping out with the design, development, the information architecture. If I don’t like the project or I’m disappointed at the way it’s being led, it’s just not the same thing.

I’ve always believed that “passion” should be the engine or the catalyst to get great work done. If you love something, you want it to succeed. You’ll give your best. That’s why I love seeing people who talk to me and are passionate about what they’re doing. Gina Bianchini over at 24 Hour Laundry was one of the people who surprised me the most (positively). The guys over at Robot Co-op and the people at Odeo always let some of the love for the idea bleed out into their audience and their products.

It’s all about the passionate teams and the passionate environments. So next time I say yes - you’ll know I’m hooked; and the next time I say no, then maybe it’s time to find someone who’ll be passionate about your product. Find passionate people and you’ll do great.

Here’s why I like the MIT, in once quote:

One person said “impossible.” Impossible? “Impossible” at MIT is a code word for “Do it.”

This is how Nicholas Netroponte, the founder of MITs Media Lab, announced victory on their effort to get a $100 laptop computer in the hands of people who can’t afford the current prices. This happened yesterday at MITs own Emerging Technologies Conference, and was the final proof that the effort was real, despite a lot of disbelief in the ability to get something like that out there.

“If you take any world problem, any issue on the planet, the solution to that problem certainly includes education,” Negroponte said during his opening keynote speech for the conference. And “in education, the roadblock is the laptop.”

Ever since I first heard about this project and read about it in MITs Technology Review, I was curious and eager to see how they’d get the laptop out here, so yesterday’s announcement was a happy surprise.

Children would be able to take the computers with them wherever they go, learning languages, math, science, geography, and economics, as well as playing games and chatting online with friends. They will likely also be able to use the devices to draw and compose music.

This is the kind of stuff I like to see investment money going - in this case, investors are AMD, Brightstar, Google, News Corp, and Red Hat. It’s both evolving technology forward by pushing the envelope in innovation, and helping people out in a good way: giving them the means to learn. Excelent.

You can follow the discussion around the $100 laptop on Memeorandum, and read the coverage article on MITs own Technology Review website (that has a few pictures, too).