President Bok, former President Rudenstine, 尊敬的Bok校长，Rudenstine前校长，即将上任的Faust校长，哈佛集团的各位成员，监管理事会的各位理事，各位老师，各位家长，各位同学： I’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: "Dad, I always told you I’d come back and get my degree." 有一句话我等了三十年，现在终于可以说了：“老爸，我总是跟你说，我会回来拿到我的学位的！” I 我要感谢哈佛大学在这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年，我就要换工作了（注：指从微软公司退休）……我终于可以在简历上写我有一个本科学位，这真是不错啊。 I 我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴，你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。哈佛的校报称我是“哈佛大学历史上最成功的辍学生”。我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言……在所有的失败者里，我做得最好。 But 但是，我还要提醒大家，我使得Steve Ballmer（注：微软总经理）也从哈佛商学院退学了。因此，我是个有着恶劣影响力的人。这就是为什么我被邀请来在你们的毕业典礼上演讲。如果我在你们入学欢迎仪式上演讲，那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多吧。 Harvard Radcliffe was a great place to live. Radcliffe是个过日子的好地方。那里的女生比男生多，而且大多数男生都是理工科的。这种状况为我创造了最好的机会，如果你们明白我的意思。可惜的是，我正是在这里学到了人生中悲伤的一课：机会大，并不等于你就会成功。 One 我在哈佛最难忘的回忆之一，发生在1975年1月。那时，我从宿舍楼里给位于Albuquerque的一家公司打了一个电话，那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。我提出想向他们出售软件。 I What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret. 但是，如果现在严肃地回忆起来，我确实有一个真正的遗憾。 I 我离开哈佛的时候，根本没有意识到这个世界是多么的不平等。人类在健康、财富和机遇上的不平等大得可怕，它们使得无数的人们被迫生活在绝望之中。 I 我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想。我也了解了很多科学上的新进展。 But 但是，人类最大的进步并不来自于这些发现，而是来自于那些有助于减少人类不平等的发现。不管通过何种手段——民主制度、健全的公共教育体系、高质量的医疗保健、还是广泛的经济机会——减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就。 I 我离开校园的时候，根本不知道在这个国家里，有几百万的年轻人无法获得接受教育的机会。我也不知道，发展中国家里有无数的人们生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病之中。 It took me decades to find out. 我花了几十年才明白了这些事情。 You 在座的各位同学，你们是在与我不同的时代来到哈佛的。你们比以前的学生，更多地了解世界是怎样的不平等。在你们的哈佛求学过程中，我希望你们已经思考过一个问题，那就是在这个新技术加速发展的时代，我们怎样最终应对这种不平等，以及我们怎样来解决这个问题。 Imagine, 为了讨论的方便，请想象一下，假如你每个星期可以捐献一些时间、每个月可以捐献一些钱——你希望这些时间和金钱，可以用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活有最大作用的地方。你会选择什么地方？ For 对Melinda（注：盖茨的妻子）和我来说，这也是我们面临的问题：我们如何能将我们拥有的资源发挥出最大的作用。 During We 我们被震惊了。我们想，如果几百万儿童正在死亡线上挣扎，而且他们是可以被挽救的，那么世界理应将用药物拯救他们作为头等大事。但是事实并非如此。那些价格还不到一美元的救命的药剂，并没有送到他们的手中。 If 如果你相信每个生命都是平等的，那么当你发现某些生命被挽救了，而另一些生命被放弃了，你会感到无法接受。我们对自己说：“事情不可能如此。如果这是真的，那么它理应是我们努力的头等大事。” So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked: "How could the world let these children die?" 所以，我们用任何人都会想到的方式开始工作。我们问：“这个世界怎么可以眼睁睁看着这些孩子死去？” The 答案很简单，也很令人难堪。在市场经济中，拯救儿童是一项没有利润的工作，政府也不会提供补助。这些儿童之所以会死亡，是因为他们的父母在经济上没有实力，在政治上没有能力发出声音。 But you and I have both. 但是，你们和我在经济上有实力，在政治上能够发出声音。 We If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in 如果我们能够找到这样一种方法，既可以帮到穷人，又可以为商人带来利润，为政治家带来选票，那么我们就找到了一种减少世界性不平等的可持续的发展道路。这个任务是无限的。它不可能被完全完成，但是任何自觉地解决这个问题的尝试，都将会改变这个世界。 I 在这个问题上，我是乐观的。但是，我也遇到过那些感到绝望的怀疑主义者。他们说：“不平等从人类诞生的第一天就存在，到人类灭亡的最后一天也将存在。——因为人类对这个问题根本不在乎。”我完全不能同意这种观点。 I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with. 我相信，问题不是我们不在乎，而是我们不知道怎么做。 All 此刻在这个院子里的所有人，生命中总有这样或那样的时刻，目睹人类的悲剧，感到万分伤心。但是我们什么也没做，并非我们无动于衷，而是因为我们不知道做什么和怎么做。如果我们知道如何做是有效的，那么我们就会采取行动。 The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity. 改变世界的阻碍，并非人类的冷漠，而是世界实在太复杂。 To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps. 为了将关心转变为行动，我们需要找到问题，发现解决办法的方法，评估后果。但是世界的复杂性使得所有这些步骤都难于做到。 Even 即使有了互联网和24小时直播的新闻台，让人们真正发现问题所在，仍然十分困难。当一架飞机坠毁了，官员们会立刻召开新闻发布会，他们承诺进行调查、找到原因、防止将来再次发生类似事故。 But 但是如果那些官员敢说真话，他们就会说：“在今天这一天，全世界所有可以避免的死亡之中，只有0.5%的死者来自于这次空难。我们决心尽一切努力，调查这个0.5%的死亡原因。” The bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths. 显然，更重要的问题不是这次空难，而是其他几百万可以预防的死亡事件。 We If we can really see a problem, which is the first 就算我们真正发现了问题所在，也不过是迈出了第一步，接着还有第二步：那就是从复杂的事件中找到解决办法。 Finding Cutting through complexity to find a 从这个复杂的世界中找到解决办法，可以分为四个步骤：确定目标，找到最高效的方法，发现适用于这个方法的新技术，同时最聪明地利用现有的技术，不管它是复杂的药物，还是最简单的蚊帐。 The Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle 要实现这个新的目标，又可以采用新的四步循环。这是一种模式。关键的东西是永远不要停止思考和行动。我们千万不能再犯上个世纪在疟疾和肺结核上犯过的错误，那时我们因为它们太复杂，而放弃了采取行动。 The 在发现问题和找到解决方法之后，就是最后一步——评估工作结果，将你的成功经验或者失败经验传播出去，这样其他人就可以从你的努力中有所收获。 You 当然，你必须有一些统计数字。你必须让他人知道，你的项目为几百万儿童新接种了疫苗。你也必须让他人知道，儿童死亡人数下降了多少。这些都是很关键的，不仅有利于改善项目效果，也有利于从商界和政府得到更多的帮助。 But 但是，这些还不够，如果你想激励其他人参加你的项目，你就必须拿出更多的统计数字；你必须展示你的项目的人性因素，这样其他人就会感到拯救一个生命，对那些处在困境中的家庭到底意味着什么。 I What 那次经历之所以让我难忘，是因为之前我们刚刚发布了一个软件的第13个版本，我们让观众激动得跳了起来，喊出了声。我喜欢人们因为软件而感到激动，那么我们为什么不能够让人们因为能够拯救生命而感到更加激动呢？ You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact. And how you do that – is a complex question. 除非你能够让人们看到或者感受到行动的影响力，否则你无法让人们激动。如何做到这一点，并不是一件简单的事。 Still, 同前面一样，在这个问题上，我依然是乐观的。不错，人类的不平等有史以来一直存在，但是那些能够化繁为简的新工具，却是最近才出现的。这些新工具可以帮助我们，将人类的同情心发挥最大的作用，这就是为什么将来同过去是不一样的。 The 这个时代无时无刻不在涌现出新的革新——生物技术，计算机，互联网——它们给了我们一个从未有过的机会，去终结那些极端的贫穷和非恶性疾病的死亡。 Sixty Thirty 马歇尔发表这个演讲之后的三十年，我那一届学生毕业，当然我不在其中。那时，新技术刚刚开始萌芽，它们将使得这个世界变得更小、更开放、更容易看到、距离更近。 The 低成本的个人电脑的出现，使得一个强大的互联网有机会诞生，它为学习和交流提供了巨大的机会。 The 网络的神奇之处，不仅仅是它缩短了物理距离，使得天涯若比邻。它还极大地增加了怀有共同想法的人们聚集在一起的机会，我们可以为了解决同一个问题，一起共同工作。这就大大加快了革新的进程，发展速度简直快得让人震惊。 At 与此同时，世界上有条件上网的人，只是全部人口的六分之一。这意味着，还有许多具有创造性的人们，没有加入到我们的讨论中来。那些有着实际的操作经验和相关经历的聪明人，却没有技术来帮助他们，将他们的天赋或者想法与全世界分享。 We Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world. 哈佛是一个大家庭。这个院子里在场的人们，是全世界最有智力的人类群体之一。 What for? 我们可以做些什么？ There 毫无疑问，哈佛的老师、校友、学生和资助者，已经用他们的能力改善了全世界各地人们的生活。但是，我们还能够再做什么呢？有没有可能，哈佛的人们可以将他们的智慧，用来帮助那些甚至从来没有听到过“哈佛”这个名字的人？ Let 请允许我向各位院长和教授，提出一个请求——你们是哈佛的智力领袖，当你们雇用新的老师、授予终身教职、评估课程、决定学位颁发标准的时候，请问你们自己如下的问题： Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems? 我们最优秀的人才是否在致力于解决我们最大的问题？ Should 哈佛是否鼓励她的老师去研究解决世界上最严重的不平等？哈佛的学生是否从全球那些极端的贫穷中学到了什么……世界性的饥荒……清洁的水资源的缺乏……无法上学的女童……死于非恶性疾病的儿童……哈佛的学生有没有从中学到东西？ Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged? 那些世界上过着最优越生活的人们，有没有从那些最困难的人们身上学到东西？ These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies. 这些问题并非语言上的修辞。你必须用自己的行动来回答它们。 My When you 想一想吧，我们在这个院子里的这些人，被给予过什么——天赋、特权、机遇——那么可以这样说，全世界的人们几乎有无限的权力，期待我们做出贡献。 In Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives. 不要让这个世界的复杂性阻碍你前进。要成为一个行动主义者。将解决人类的不平等视为己任。它将成为你生命中最重要的经历之一。 You Knowing what you know, how could you not? 知道了你们所知道的一切，你们怎么可能不采取行动呢？ And Good luck. 最后，祝各位同学好运。
incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the
Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially,
the graduates:
want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job
next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my
resume.
applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your
degrees. For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me
"Harvard’s most successful dropout." I guess that makes me
valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who
failed.
I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop
out of business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited
to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer
of you might be here today.
was just a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was fascinating.
I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn’t even signed up for. And
dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House.
There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night
discussing things, because everyone knew I didn’t worry about getting
up in the morning. That’s how I came to be the leader of the
anti-social group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our
rejection of all those social people.
对我来说，哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。校园生活很有趣，我常去旁听我没选修的课。哈佛的课外生活也很棒，我在Radcliffe过着逍遥自在的日
子。每天我的寝室里总有很多人一直待到半夜，讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道我从不考虑第二天早起。这使得我变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头，我
们互相粘在一起，做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿态。
There were more women up there, and most of the guys were science-math
types. That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I
mean. This is where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds
doesn’t guarantee success.
of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, when I made a
call from Currier House to a company in Albuquerque that had begun
making the world’s first personal computers. I offered to sell them
software.
worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang
up on me. Instead they said: "We’re not quite ready, come see us in a
month," which was a good thing, because we hadn’t written the software
yet. From that moment, I worked day and night on this little extra
credit project that marked the end of my college education and the
beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.
我很担心，他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生，从而挂断电话。但是他们却说：“我们还没准备好，一个月后你再来找我们吧。”这是个好消息，因为那时
软件还根本没有写出来呢。就是从那个时候起，我日以继夜地在这个小小的课外项目上工作，这导致了我学生生活的结束，以及通往微软公司的不平凡的旅程的开
始。
of so much energy and intelligence. It could be exhilarating,
intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. It
was an amazing privilege – and though I left early, I was transformed
by my years at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked
on.
不管怎样，我对哈佛的回忆主要都与充沛的精力和智力活动有关。哈佛的生活令人愉快，也令人感到有压力，有时甚至会感到泄气，但永远充满了挑战性。生
活在哈佛是一种吸引人的特殊待遇……虽然我离开得比较早，但是我在这里的经历、在这里结识的朋友、在这里发展起来的一些想法，永远地改变了我。
left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the
world – the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and
opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and
politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the
sciences.
humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how
those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through
democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad
economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human
achievement.
left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated
out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew
nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and
disease in developing countries.
graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the
world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years
here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how – in this age of
accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and
we can solve them.
just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a
few dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that
time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and
improving lives. Where would you spend it?
Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most
good for the greatest number with the resources we have.
our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about
the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries
from diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country.
Measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever. One disease I
had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids
each year – none of them in the United States.
在讨论过程中，Melinda和我读到了一篇文章，里面说在那些贫穷的国家，每年有数百万的儿童死于那些在美国早已不成问题的疾病。麻疹、疟疾、肺
炎、乙型肝炎、黄热病、还有一种以前我从未听说过的轮状病毒，这些疾病每年导致50万儿童死亡，但是在美国一例死亡病例也没有。
were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were
dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to
discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For
under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that
just weren’t being delivered.
you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn
that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to
ourselves: "This can’t be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be
the priority of our giving."
answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives
of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the
children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in
the market and no voice in the system.
can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a
more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces
so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living,
serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. We also can
press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that
better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.
我们可以让市场更好地为穷人服务，如果我们能够设计出一种更有创新性的资本主义制度——如果我们可以改变市场，让更多的人可以获得利润，或者至少可
以维持生活——那么，这就可以帮到那些正在极端不平等的状况中受苦的人们。我们还可以向全世界的政府施压，要求他们将纳税人的钱，花到更符合纳税人价值观
的地方。
ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we
will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world. This
task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to
answer this challenge will change the world.
am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim
there is no hope. They say: "Inequity has been with us since the
beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just …
don’t … care." I completely disagree.
of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human
tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing – not because
we didn’t care, but because we didn’t know what to do. If we had known
how to help, we would have acted.
with the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news, it is still a complex
enterprise to get people to truly see the problems. When an airplane
crashes, officials immediately call a press conference. They promise to
investigate, determine the cause, and prevent similar crashes in the
future.
if the officials were brutally honest, they would say: "Of all the
people in the world who died today from preventable causes, one half of
one percent of them were on this plane. We’re determined to do
everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of the one
half of one percent."
don’t read much about these deaths. The media covers what’s new – and
millions of people dying is nothing new. So it stays in the background,
where it’s easier to ignore. But even when we do see it or read about
it, it’s difficult to keep our eyes on the problem. It’s hard to look
at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don’t know how to
help. And so we look away.
我们并没有很多机会了解那些死亡事件。媒体总是报告新闻，几百万人将要死去并非新闻。如果没有人报道，那么这些事件就很容易被忽视。另一方面，即使
我们确实目睹了事件本身或者看到了相关报道，我们也很难持续关注这些事件。看着他人受苦是令人痛苦的，何况问题又如此复杂，我们根本不知道如何去帮助他
人。所以我们会将脸转过去。
step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to
find a solution.
solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we
have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual
asks "How can I help?," then we can get action – and we can make sure
that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it
hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes
it hard for their caring to matter.
如果我们要让关心落到实处，我们就必须找到解决办法。如果我们有一个清晰的和可靠的答案，那么当任何组织和个人发出疑问“如何我能提供帮助”的时
候，我们就能采取行动。我们就能够保证不浪费一丁点全世界人类对他人的关心。但是，世界的复杂性使得很难找到对全世界每一个有爱心的人都有效的行动方法，
因此人类对他人的关心往往很难产生实际效果。
solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find
the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that
approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the
technology that you already have — whether it’s something
sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.
AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end
the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal
technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a
single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund
vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade,
so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the
best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky
behavior.
艾滋病就是一个例子。总的目标，毫无疑问是消灭这种疾病。最高效的方法是预防。最理想的技术是发明一种疫苗，只要注射一次，就可以终生免疫。所以，
政府、制药公司、基金会应该资助疫苗研究。但是，这样研究工作很可能十年之内都无法完成。因此，与此同时，我们必须使用现有的技术，目前最有效的预防方法
就是设法让人们避免那些危险的行为。
again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking
and working – and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in
the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit.
final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to
measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures
so that others learn from your efforts.
have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show
that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be
able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these
diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also
to help draw more investment from business and government.
if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more
than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work – so
people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.
remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health
panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives. Millions!
Think of the thrill of saving just one person’s life – then multiply
that by millions. … Yet this was the most boring panel I’ve ever been
on – ever. So boring even I couldn’t bear it.
几年前，我去瑞士达沃斯旁听一个全球健康问题论坛，会议的内容有关于如何拯救几百万条生命。天哪，是几百万！想一想吧，拯救一个人的生命已经让人何等激
动，现在你要把这种激动再乘上几百万倍……但是，不幸的是，这是我参加过的最最乏味的论坛，乏味到我无法强迫自己听下去。
made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from
an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of
software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I
love getting people excited about software – but why can’t we generate
even more excitement for saving lives?
I’m optimistic. Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new
tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever.
They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and
that’s why the future can be different from the past.
defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the
computer, the Internet – give us a chance we’ve never had before to end
extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.
years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a
plan to assist the nations of post-war Europe. He said: "I think one
difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that
the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make
it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear
appraisement of the situation. It is virtually impossible at this
distance to grasp at all the real significance of the situation."
六十年前，乔治·马歇尔也是在这个地方的毕业典礼上，宣布了一个计划，帮助那些欧洲国家的战后建设。他说：“我认为，困难的一点是这个问题太复杂，
报纸和电台向公众源源不断地提供各种事实，使得大街上的普通人极端难于清晰地判断形势。事实上，经过层层传播，想要真正地把握形势，是根本不可能的。”
years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without
me, technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more
open, more visible, less distant.
emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful
network that has transformed opportunities for learning and
communicating.
magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance
and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the
number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same
problem – and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering
degree.
the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this
technology, five people don’t. That means many creative minds are left
out of this discussion -- smart people with practical intelligence and
relevant experience who don’t have the technology to hone their talents
or contribute their ideas to the world.
need as many people as possible to have access to this technology,
because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings
can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for
national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller
organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches,
and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty,
and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.
我们需要尽可能地让更多的人有机会使用新技术，因为这些新技术正在引发一场革命，人类将因此可以互相帮助。新技术正在创造一种可能，不仅是政府，还
包括大学、公司、小机构、甚至个人，能够发现问题所在、能够找到解决办法、能够评估他们努力的效果，去改变那些马歇尔六十年前就说到过的问题——饥饿、贫
穷和绝望。
is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the
benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of
people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard
dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never
even hear its name?
me make a request of the deans and the professors – the intellectual
leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review
curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves:
Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world’s worst inequities?
Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the
prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls
kept out of school … the children who die from diseases we can cure?
mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here – never
stopped pressing me to do more for others. A few days before my
wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter
about marriage that she had written to Melinda. My mother was very ill
with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver
her message, and at the close of the letter she said: "From those to
whom much is given, much is expected."
我的母亲在我被哈佛大学录取的那一天，曾经感到非常骄傲。她从没有停止督促我，去为他人做更多的事情。在我结婚的前几天，她主持了一个新娘进我家的
仪式。在这个仪式上，她高声朗读了一封关于婚姻的信，这是她写给Melinda的。那时，我的母亲已经因为癌症病入膏肓，但是她还是认为这是又一个传播她
的信念的机会。在那封信的结尾，她写道：“对于那些接受了许多帮助的人们，他们还在期待更多的帮助。”
consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in
talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what
the world has a right to expect from us.
line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the
graduates here to take on an issue – a complex problem, a deep
inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of
your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to
make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing
power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same
interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.
同这个时代的期望一样，我也要向今天各位毕业的同学提出一个忠告：你们要选择一个问题，一个复杂的问题，一个有关于人类深刻的不平等的问题，然后你
们要变成这个问题的专家。如果你们能够使得这个问题成为你们职业的核心，那么你们就会非常杰出。但是，你们不必一定要去做那些大事。每个星期只用几个小
时，你就可以通过互联网得到信息，找到志同道合的朋友，发现困难所在，找到解决它们的途径。
graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard,
you have technology that members of my class never had. You have
awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that
awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will
torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change
with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start
sooner, and carry on longer.
在座的各位毕业的同学，你们所处的时代是一个神奇的时代。当你们离开哈佛的时候，你们拥有的技术，是我们那一届学生所没有的。你们已经了解到了世界
上的不平等，我们那时还不知道这些。有了这样的了解之后，要是你再弃那些你可以帮助的人们于不顾，就将受到良心的谴责，只需一点小小的努力，你就可以改变
那些人们的生活。你们比我们拥有更大的能力；你们必须尽早开始，尽可能长时期坚持下去。
I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect
on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will
judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but
also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities … on
how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common
with you but their humanity.
我希望，30年后你们还会再回到哈佛，想起你们用自己的天赋和能力所做出的一切。我希望，在那个时候，你们用来评价自己的标准，不仅仅是你们的专业
成就，而包括你们为改变这个世界深刻的不平等所做出的努力，以及你们如何善待那些远隔千山万水、与你们毫不涉及的人们，你们与他们唯一的共同点就是同为人
类。
2007年8月21日
比尔·盖茨6月7日在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲
100 Ways to Have Fun with Your Kids for Free or Cheap
Yesterday I posted about Family Day,
where we try to have fun together as a family, often for free or
without spending much money. I thought it would be useful to list some
ways to have fun with your kids without spending a lot of money:
- Have a reading marathon.
- Write stories together.
- Play soccer.
- Paint or draw together.
- Create a fort in your living room out of blankets or cardboard boxes.
- Go on a hike.
- Have a sunset picnic at a park or beach.
- Play board games.
- Play kickball.
- Get up early, pack breakfast, and have a sunrise breakfast.
- Go to a museum.
- Go to a playground.
- Play hide-and-seek.
- Have a pillow fight.
- Ride bikes.
- Build sandcastles.
- Rent a dvd and make popcorn.
- Tell stories.
- Have a scavenger hunt.
- Make mazes or puzzles for each other to solve.
- Play card games.
- Garden together.
- Bake cookies (let the kids help).
- Go to the zoo.
- Go to the library.
- Shop at a thrift shop.
- Create a blog together.
- Create a scrapbook.
- Make a movie using a camcorder and computer.
- Learn to play music.
- Fingerpaint.
- Make play dough from scratch.
- Make homemade mini pizzas.
- Buy popsicles.
- Make hand-painted T-shirts.
- Set up a hammock, make lemonade, relax.
- Go to a pool.
- Go to a public place, people watch, and make up imaginary stories about people.
- Visit family.
- Write letters to family.
- Paint or decorate the kids’ room.
- Make milkshakes.
- Play freeze tag.
- Create a treasure hunt for them (leaving clues around the house or yard).
- Decorate a pair of jeans.
- Do a science experiment.
- Play games online.
- Teach them to play chess.
- Learn magic tricks.
- Create a family book, with information and pictures about each family member.
- Fly kites.
- Go snorkeling.
- Barbecue.
- Volunteer.
- Donate stuff to charity.
- Compete in a three-legged or other race.
- Create an obstacle course.
- Pitch a tent and sleep outside with marshmallows.
- Roast marshmallows.
- Play loud music and dance crazy.
- Write and produce a play (to perform before other family members).
- Paint each other’s faces.
- Have a water balloon fight.
- Have a gun-fight with those foam dart guns.
- Explore your yard and look for insects.
- Go for a walk and explore the neighborhood.
- Go jogging.
- Take pictures of nature.
- Play a trivia game.
- Make up trivia questions about each other.
- Make hot cocoa.
- Play house.
- Decorate the house with decorations you make.
- Make popsicles.
- Play school.
- Do shadow puppets.
- Make a comic book.
- Play in the rain.
- Make mud pies.
- Blow bubbles.
- Take turns saying tongue twisters.
- Sing songs.
- Tell ghost stories in the dark with a flashlight.
- Build stuff with Legos.
- Give them a bubble bath.
- Play with squirt guns.
- Play video games together.
- Play wiffleball.
- Play nerf football.
- Build a rocket from a kit.
- Bake a cake and decorate it.
- Play dress-up.
- Thumb-wrestle, play mercy, or have a tickle fight.
- Make a gingerbread house, or decorate gingerbread men.
- Learn and tell each other jokes.
- Play basketball.
- Learn to juggle.
- Walk barefoot in the grass and pick flowers.
- Build paper airplanes and have a flying contest.
- Prank call their grandparents, using disguised, humorous voices.
ALL THINGS DIGITAL/WSJ
By [ 方军 ] 原文地址：http://www.mindmeters.com/showlog.asp?cat_id=49&log_id=5360
http://allthingsd.com/
about: http://allthingsd.com/about/
有这么一句话：Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media.
But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media.
We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate.
We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
新闻稿一则：
道琼斯推出“ALL THINGS DIGITAL” 网站 由莫博士和KARA SWISHER当家 在AllThingsD.com，可浏览每日更新的博客和视频； 并可看到科技、媒体业领袖人物贡献的作品纽约— 道琼斯公司(Dow Jones & Company)宣布推出All Things Digital (www.allthingsd.com)网站，为读者呈现科技、互联网和媒体领域的新闻、分析和观点。从1991年起在《华尔街日报》撰写“个人科技”专栏的莫博士(Walt Mossberg)和“BoomTown”专栏的作者Kara Swisher担任该网站的联合执行主编。
该网站由专栏、博客、文字报道和视频组成，作品来自莫博士、Swisher和其他资深记者。另外，科技、网络和媒体界的领袖人物将在此开设博客。屡获殊荣的科技新闻博客“早安硅谷”(Good Morning Silicon Valley)的前撰稿人John Paczkowski担任All Things Digital网站的高级新闻编辑。他撰写的“Digital Daily” 入时而睿智，以文字和视频的形式每日点评科技界消息。 道琼斯公司执行副总裁兼《华尔街日报》出版人L. Gordon Crovitz说，“莫博士和Kara长期居于科技、媒体报道领域的前沿，他们为All Things Digital组建了卓越的团队。道琼斯凭借有洞察力和生动的博客、专栏、读者互动及视频吸引了日益壮大的忠实读者群，跻身于互联网前沿”。
这一网站是著名的“D: All Things Digital” 会议的网络延伸，该会议由莫博士和Swisher于2003年开始主持举行，参会者皆是数字革命的领军人物。AllThingsD.com是一个免费网站，由如下5个主要单元构成：
1) 莫博士多个的专栏和视频的免费网上主页，并可以搜索两年内的内容；
2) Kara的“BoomTown”博客，这是她取得重大成功的印刷版专栏的新面孔；
3) “Digital Daily”，由John Paczkowski撰写的科技新闻博客；
4) 莫博士的 “Mossblog” ，囊括了他专栏以外的作品，包括文字和视频
5) “Voices”特约博客，来自”D”交流圈和科技及媒体圈人士。
另外，该网站还将成为“The Mossberg Solution”的免费网络主页，该专栏由《华尔街日报》记者Katherine Boehret撰写，由莫博士编辑，每周三在《华尔街日报》出版。
莫博士说，“我们会恪守最佳主流媒体的新闻标准，并将展示最佳新媒体的新思想和敏锐度。我们的目标是第一、入时、同时又谨慎和准确”
Swisher补充说：“尝试新的新闻形式，尤其是一些更具创新性的网络传播方式是很重要的。在当前传媒业令人振奋的时刻，我们有更大的机会为读者提供更多高质量的内容。
All Things Digital将包括这三位主力记者的大量视频，和大量特约博客的视频。不久将推出的一个功能，会包括视频讨论会，及莫博士和Swisher的讨论，名为“Head-to-Head”。
Dow Jones Online将负责AllThingsD.com的广告销售。除了AllThingsD网站广告机会外，其他广告机会还包括《华尔街日报》网络版、MarketWatch和《巴伦周刊》网络版等。
关于莫博士
莫博士是《华尔街日报》个人科技专栏的创办人兼撰稿人，该专栏从1991年开始每周四发表。除了该专栏外，莫博士还为《华尔街日报》撰写“莫博士信箱”专栏并编辑Mossberg Solution专栏，该专栏由他的同事Katherine Boehret撰稿。
莫博士和Kara Swisher是AllThingsD.com的联合执行主编，同她一道主持“D: All Things Digital”会议。从2003年开始的这个一年一度的盛会被认为是科技和媒体业的领衔会议。
莫博士1999年获得了Loeb“评论”奖，他是唯一一位获此殊荣的科技新闻记者。2002年5月，他被加入商业新闻翘楚(Business News Luminaries)行列，进入商业新闻领域的名人堂。同年，他赢得了媒体和新闻方面的“世界科技奖”。
莫博士从1970年开始担任《华尔街日报》记者和编辑。 他在《华尔街日报》哥伦比亚特区从事了18年的国内、国际事件报道，之后转行报道科技新闻。他毕业于Brandeis University和哥伦比亚大学新闻研究生院。
关于Kara Swisher
Kara Swisher从1997年开始在《华尔街日报》旧金山分社报道数码科技新闻，并撰写BoomTown专栏。此前她从事主要互联网企业及互联网政策的重大
消息报道，并为《华尔街日报》撰写科技领域的文章。她还为Personal Journal撰写Home Economics专栏。
Swisher 与莫博士一起担任AllThingsD.com的联合主编，与他一道主持 “D: All Things Digital” 会议。此前Swisher在《华盛顿邮报》担任记者。她还是1998年出版的 “aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web,” 和2003年出版的“There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future,” 两本书的作者。她毕业于Georgetown
University和哥伦比亚大学新闻研究生院。
关于John Paczkowski
John Paczkowski从1997年起报道科技业和科技人物。他1999至2007年在硅谷日报San Jose Mercury News期间撰写网上科技新闻博客“Good Morning Silicon Valley” 。他是AllThingsD.com的高级新闻编辑。
Paczkowski还管理Knight Ridder的SiliconValley.com，这是一个科技新闻和观点网站，2003和2004年被授予EPpy奖。之前，他担任San Francisco Bay Guardian新媒体版的编辑总监，并担任Turner Broadcasting 1995创立的网站SPIV的编辑。他还为Business 2.0、Mercury News、Forrester Magazine、Red
Herring和Salon撰稿。他毕业于Brown University。
公司值多少钱
这家公司的前身是帮客户做网站和消费者俱乐部的互联网广告公司“鼓V街”，拥有麦当劳、阿尔卡特手机、喜力啤酒和星巴克等大客户，但始终有个问题困扰着文亨利——这个公司不值钱。文亨利说，“这样的盈利模式赚钱并不难，因为成本低，又是按项目收费。但是我们做的公司不值钱，如果我们想把公司卖了退休，没什么可卖的，因为鼓V街的价值是以公司里的人的价值计算的。”
因此，“他想做一个资产形式的公司，即便公司没有人也会具有价值。”他将“鼓V街”的资源改造成现在的智买道。文亨利说，“和以前做的公司不同，我们现在的公司有特约商家和用户，有一个积分网站可以连接商家和消费者，只要有这个系统在就可以赚钱，整个公司是有价值的。”
可以引申一下：最理想的情况，莫过于一个自动运转的系统（比如Google的广告服务，只要服务器开着就行，广告主完全可以自助服务）；或有一套运转的系统，包括品牌、运作架构、相应的知识产权，一套完整系统的价格要较高；或者有品牌或知识产权。除了商业模式之外，业务运转模式对公司价值的影响也很大。从公司价值讲，或许每个公司从第一天开始就要建立架构、建立一个接近于自动运转的系统、削弱人的影响。
Google vs Everyone: 10 Markets Where Google Wants to Win
Google is the 600-pound gorilla: the company that no one wants to see build a competing product. Google dominates many of the markets it enters, whether by building a superior product or acquiring one. But Google isn't perfect: in some areas, they come out behind. Today, Mashable takes an in-depth look at 10 markets where Google wants to win.
Google became the Internet's biggest company by dominating what has become the web's biggest market segment - online search and paid text links. Google claims a dominating 56% market share in search (Nielsen/NetRatings, May 2007) , but that hasn't stopped dozens (probably hundreds) of companies from trying to grab a piece of the action. Most of the major search engines also come with their own advertising system, while a few startups actually rely on Google to serve up paid text ads.
Yahoo - Once the web's biggest search engine, Yahoo still handles a reported 21.5% of searches worldwide. The company's much anticipated but delayed Panama system for text ads has finally gone live, with early results pointing to better click through rates.
MSN - While rumors of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo have persisted (and been discredited in the same breath), the company's Live Search product remains number three.
Ask.com - As the crown jewel of the IAC network of sites, Ask.com has received rave reviews, including Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal declaring, "Google deserves credit for universal search, which I'm sure will get better. But Ask's new design is much more compelling and well worth a try." Nonetheless, Ask.com is a distant fourth in the race for search dominance.
Eurekster - Social search engine Eurekester is built around users tagging and promoting the best results. The company also markets the "Swicki" platform allowing online communities to create their own vertical search engines for users.
Rollyo - This search engine allows you to create a personalized search engine. With Rollyo, you set up a "search roll" which searches only from sites you specify, in the hope of providing you with only content you trust. Additionally, you can opt to share your search rolls with others.
Quintura - Visual search engine Quintura lets you search visually, presenting you with tag clouds relating to your search terms. As we noted in "Google Labs: A Look Under the Hood", Google is experimenting with contextual search that shows related searches side-by-side with your original query.
Mahalo - Recently launched Mahalo is a commercialized Wikipedia of sorts, paying people to create pages on thousands of topics and continually update the results. Each content creator also gets their own profile pages where you can see the pages to which they have contributed.
Powerset - Much hyped Powerset hasn't launched yet, but intends to build a natural language search engine that could change the way people find things online. The company has raised significant venture capital that has already valued PowerSet at more than $40 million.
Wikiasari - As part of his for-profit company, Wikia, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales looks to create the world's largest human-powered search engine. The project is still in development, but with Wikipedia now one of the world's largest web sites, it has an opportunity to grab a piece of the market.
Image Search - In addition to text queries, Google faces a variety of competitors in image search, including all of the usual suspects plus upstarts like Pixsy, Picsearch, and Yotophoto. We previously covered the image search competitors after Google proved victorious in a court battle over the thumbnailing of images.
Our Take: Google is the dominant player here, but we should remember that less than a decade ago, Yahoo owned search. Competition from both big web companies and well-funded startups will force Google to remain focused on continuing to innovate in search.
With AdWords the most dominant player in paid search, Google is looking to take the same system of aligning buyers and sellers to other forms of advertising, including web banner ads, radio, print, and mobile. Through acquisitions and several homegrown initiatives, the company is now lined up against dozens of other companies competing for ad dollars both online and off.
Contextual Advertising
Thousands of companies have built a business around Google's contextual advertising platform that matches text ads to web site content. While AdSense dominates this market, all of the big players have competing offerings, as well as a few specialty outfits. In its most recent quarter, AdSense accounted for $1.35 billion in revenue for Google.
Yahoo Publisher Network - YPN still claims to be in Beta, but offers a very similar product to AdSense. Publishers create an account and cut and paste code to their site, and Yahoo serves up ads relating to the content of the page.
MSN AdCenter - Microsoft offers its AdCenter platform to advertisers looking for exposure in Microsoft Live searches and on other MSN Properties. Currently Microsoft does not provide an open system for other web sites to serve AdCenter ads, although the company does sell advertising for Facebook. Meanwhile, Google powers the search and contextual advertising on MySpace.
Ask.com Sponsored Listings - Ask.com recently launched an AdSense competitor, going after one of Google's perceived weaknesses - a lack of transparency in terms of telling publishers what their cut of revenue is.
MIVA - Formerly known as FindWhat.com, a popular search engine in the first Internet boom, MIVA focuses on a variety of advertising options for publishers, including contextual product MIVA MC.
Kanoodle - Kanoodle offers a solution for publishers that want to run ads next to their own search results. It's a subsidiary of Seavast, an online marketing conglomerate.
AdBrite - Offering a marketplace of sorts, AdBrite allows publishers to place text ads on their site and have advertisers buy them directly at a fixed price. They also allow you to set a floor price and run ads from a competing network (such as AdSense) when that price can't be beaten.
Our Take: Until someone proves they can pay more than Google and still make a profit, AdSense will likely be the preferred contextual ad provider for Web publishers. However, there are only so many ads to go around, so there is also a place for competitors with strong offerings.
Online Display Advertising
With its acquisition of DoubleClick in April, Google set off a buying spree in the online ad space. In the weeks that followed, Yahoo snapped up Right Media, Microsoft bought aQuantive, and 24/7 Real Media was taken out by WPP Group. In addition to the DoubleClick purchase, Google has increasingly been integrating graphical advertising into its AdSense platform for web publishers. While it remains to be seen how exactly Google will integrate DoubleClick, the company is positioned to take a big slice of the online display advertising market, alongside these competitors:
Right Media - Acquired by Yahoo for $680 million, Right Media offers web publishers both a web-based ad management system and a marketplace called RMX Direct where advertisers can compete for publisher inventory.
aQuantive - The biggest acquisition in the history of Microsoft, aQuantive is the parent company of several online advertising outfits, including Razorfish, Atlas, and Drive. The company offers both technology for managing advertising and services for aligning buyers with web publishers.
Advertising.com - AOL was actually one of the first big players to move in on display ad networks, acquiring Advertising.com in 2004 for $435 million, a steal given the price tags of recent online advertising deals. Advertising.com claims their network of publishers reaches more than 85% of online users.
Valueclick - The biggest remaining independent ad network, Valueclick owns a wide variety of online ad properties, including Fastclick (banner ads), Commission Junction (affiliate advertising), and PriceRunner (comparison shopping). Wall Street currently values the company at $3 billion.
Tribal Fusion - Tribal Fusion is an ad network serving an estimated 19 billion monthly impressions. They provide advertisers with a variety of topical channels on which to target their ads.
24/7 Real Media - A provider of both technology and one of the Web's largest banner advertising networks, 24/7 Real Media was acquired by global advertising agency WPP Group in May for $649 million. The company was founded all the way back in 1994.
Our Take: DoubleClick works with most of the web's largest publishers, providing Google with new relationships to not only sell display ads, but increase AdWords usage. Google's main competitors have tried to keep up, but the company has clearly positioned itself to take the lead in this category.
Other Ad Formats - Broadcast, Print, In-Game
In print, Google has extended its AdWords platform to allow you to bid on ads in major newspapers. In broadcast, Google acquired dMarc, a company that aligns radio advertisers and stations. For in-game advertising, the company acquired AdScape, a small startup. Competitors abound in all three segments, primarily in the form of the status quo of buying ads directly from the newspapers and radio stations with whom you want to advertise. Meanwhile, here is how a few key players are attacking these markets:
Microsoft - In May, Microsoft acquired Massive Incorporated, which has deals with major gaming companies like Electronic Arts to provide in-game ads.
IGA Worldwide - The largest independent in-game ad network, IGA places ads in popular titles like Counter Strike and works with major advertisers like T-Mobile and Intel.
Linden Labs - As the operator of virtual world Second Life, Linden Labs has attracted major brands like Pontiac, Dell, and Coca Cola to its "game" with mixed results, including several incidents of virtual vandalism.
Bid4Spots - An online auction of sorts for last minute buying of radio advertising across the US.
SWMX Radio - Provides tools that allow radio stations to manage their advertising inventory, while offering a marketplace for advertisers to buy air time.
Newspaper National Network - Jointly owned by 24 of the nation's largest newspapers and the Newspaper Association of America, Newspaper National Network connects advertisers directly with some of the largest newspapers in the US. The company also helps sell inventory for newspaper's online versions.
Nationwide Newspapers - An ad agency specializing in placement of both display and classified ads in newspapers across the US, including mailers like the Penny Saver and college newspapers. Nationwide Newspapers claims a circulation of up to 60 million papers weekly.
Our Take: As the manufacturer of Xbox, Microsoft has a leg up on in-game advertising. Meanwhile, print and broadcast are notoriously slow to adopt new technologies, so it will likely take Google some time to gain traction in this area, although acquiring dMarc certainly gave them a head start. With Google clearly intent on spreading its advertising platform to the offline world, more acquisitions are likely in the space.
Google responded to the rather lackluster performance of homegrown Google Video by purchasing market leader YouTube for $1.6 billion in November 2006. While Google also inherited the legal headaches including a $1 billion lawsuit from Viacom, the purchase instantly made Google the #1 player in online video by a landslide. Nonetheless, dozens of companies have received funding in this space, and the other big players have also launched competing products:
Metacafe - This startup offers a similar video sharing experience to YouTube, with a focus on the male audience. Metacafe has been a rumored acquisition target of Microsoft and Yahoo.
MySpace Video - MySpace launched its own video sharing service last year that integrates tightly with user profiles, allowing users to instantly add videos to their space with no need for copying and pasting embed codes. Recently, this became MySpaceTV, which has been labeled as a "YouTube clone".
Yahoo Video - Yahoo offers a fairly standard video sharing service with tagging, favorites, featured videos, etc. Yahoo also acquired online video editing service JumpCut in September '06.
Blip.tv - Blip.tv is designed for serious video bloggers, offering tools for uploading high quality video, inserting ads, and maintaining a feed so fans can keep up with your show.
Revver - Originally Revver was the first video site to offer a revenue share with users, but others including YouTube have since followed suit. Beyond the financial arrangements, Revver offers a fairly standard video sharing experience, showcasing recent videos, most watched, and editor's picks.
Dailymotion - One of the most popular video sites (particularly in France), Dailymotion is comprised of a variety of channels that users can join, such as Extreme Sports, Funny, and Webcam. The site also includes privacy options for sharing videos with select family and friends.
See also: Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources
Our Take: While Google will spend plenty of time in the court room over copyright issues on YouTube, the company has the financial strength to fight off just about any lawsuit thrown its way and preserve a dominant position in online video. Meanwhile, niche players like Blip.tv have an opportunity to take advantage of the growing market for high quality user generated content.
Google was ahead of the game with blogging, acquiring Pyra Labs, parent company of Blogger, back in 2003. Last month, Google acquired FeedBurner, which is far away the dominant player in RSS feed management. Rounding out Google's efforts to dominate the blogosphere is Blog Search, which the company developed in-house. While FeedBurner is the industry standard for feed management, there are dozens of blog software and search options. Here are a few key competitors:
WordPress - The preferred software package for serious bloggers, WordPress offers both an installable version at wordpress.org and a hosted product at wordpress.com. The company maintains an open platform allowing third-party developers to create plugins.
Six Apart - The biggest independent blog company, Six Apart owns the hosted Typepad platform, the installable Movable Type software package, the community-focused LiveJournal, and the recently launched Vox personal publishing solution.
Technorati - The largest search engine focused exclusively on blogs, Technorati monitors, organizes, and ranks the authority of the blogosphere. Recently, the site has had its share of bumps (technical glitches, key staff departures, etc.), and a recent move towards multimedia has taken the focus off the core product.
Sphere - This blog search engine also offers the popular "Sphere It" widget that allows bloggers to show related blogs from around the web on their sites, and earn a share of the revenue on advertising.
Pheedo - As Google looks to monetize FeedBurner, they go up against Pheedo, who specializes in RSS advertising. Pheedo is compatible with most feed management services, including FeedBurner, Typepad, and WordPress.
Our Take: News out of Blogger has been nearly non-existent since Google acquired it, and Blog Search is not nearly as reliable as Google's main search engine. FeedBurner is dominant in RSS, but advertisers still have plenty of options for feed-based advertising. The blogosphere remains a healthy area for competition.
Recently making headlines with its purchase of GrandCentral, mobile is an area Google has had its eyes on for a while. Google Labs features GOOG411, which goes up against a variety of companies looking to transition paid 411 services into an advertising-based model, while the company has also made acquisitions in the space including AdScape Media and Dodgeball. Here are some key players Google is up against for domination on your handset:
Jingle Networks - As the first mover in the space with 1-800-FREE-411, Jingle Networks is already up to a reported 3% of market share for 411 volume. GOOG411 is still in Google Labs, but presumably will use an AdWords-inspired system to allow advertisers access to user's 411 queries.
Yahoo Mobile! - Yahoo has made major efforts in mobile, offering a comprehensive application designed for cell phones and PDAs. Yahoo! Go adds mobile widgets to the equation.
MSN Mobile - Microsoft offers a free mobile version of its search and popular web sites. Weather, news, sports, movie times, and more are all available via MSN Mobile.
InfoSpace - InfoSpace specializes in mobile content, providing applications for search, content, and commerce that are typically private labeled by other brands and carriers. The company claims more than 250 million WAP page views per month.
VoIP - While the GrandCentral acquisition gave Google a unique offering, dozens of other startups are creating innovative applications that will keep Google on its toes. Check out "The 7 Most Disruptive VoIP Services" for a few prime examples.
Our Take: Adoption of the mobile Internet in the US trails Europe and Asia, leaving the space wide open. Yahoo has a head start here, while specialists like InfoSpace and the VoIP value-added service companies know the market better than anyone. However, GOOG411 and Google SMS (search by text message) offer a compelling user experience that is perfect for advertising.
Google Personalized Home has become iGoogle, going up against the likes of My Yahoo!, Netvibes, PageFlakes, and dozens of other companies that want you to start your online experience with them. We list a few of the top competitors here, but you should also check out "14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature" to get an overall view of the innovation taking place in this market.
My Yahoo! - The original dominant portal, Yahoo can still claim the most widely used start page on the web. The company has continued to upgrade the service in hopes of retaining users, adding the ability to drag and drop content items, subscribe to RSS feeds, and integrate other Yahoo services like mail, weather, and finance.
AOL - While its subscriber base continues to dwindle quarter by quarter, millions of people still start their Internet experience by signing on to AOL. However, Google powers AOL's search, and Google took a 5 percent stake in the company back in 2005.
My Netscape - One of the early big names on the Internet, Netscape has moved on to become a Digg clone and a start page provider. The site still gets considerable traffic thanks to its iconic brand and AOL relationship.
Netvibes - The hottest startup in the start page space, Netvibes provides a beautiful drag and drop interface for organizing your start page content, and also allows you to pull in widgets from third-parties. The company recently launched Netvibes Universes, private label versions of its start page product that other companies like The Washington Post and USA Today offer to their users.
Our Take: If it wasn't clear already, iGoogle solidifies Google's quest to be more than a search engine and take up more minutes of the user's online time. While the startups have proven most innovative in this space, Google can use its massive reach and brand cache to convert users to iGoogle. However, Yahoo has the advantage of more than a decade of start page experience, and convincing the average user to invest a few hours in changing services isn't easy.
While Gmail dubiously maintains its "Beta" tag, Google's email service put the company on the map in being much more than a search engine and going after the big boys. The company has also launched Gtalk in an effort to join the instant messaging space, though the product lags behind competitors in adoption. Maintaining webmail and instant messaging services requires massive amounts of manpower and hardware, making it for the most part a four-way race between the big boys: Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL.
AOL - Millions of people remain attached to their AOL email addresses. AOL has made it easy to do, allowing users to keep their address even if they cancel their AOL accounts. This makes AOL.com's webmail product one of the more popular, albeit less advanced email services. Meanwhile, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is a major player in IM, particularly in the US.
MSN - Microsoft owns the original big boy in webmail - Hotmail - which recently received a major facelift and became Windows Live Hotmail (see: "Face Off: Windows Live Hotmail versus Gmail"). MSN Messenger has a huge user base globally.
Yahoo! - Yahoo Mail recently upgraded to offer an Outlook-like interface that includes the ability to chat with Yahoo Messenger buddies from within your account (Gmail does this with Gtalk). Yahoo's IM product is among the top commercially-run products.
Our Take: Don't let the market share numbers deceive you; Google is a serious player in communications. The other three players have a head start thanks to longevity, but Gmail has become the email provider of choice for professionals, thanks to a clean interface, effective spam filtering, and offering the most storage space. Meanwhile, Gtalk faces a slightly bigger challenge, since users have entrenched buddy lists with the other services that make changing a hassle.
While it can be argued that YouTube is one of the world's biggest social networking sites in addition to being the #1 video site, Google has been relatively quiet in the space. Friendster passed on a rumored $30 million Google bid back at the dawn of the social networking boom, while homegrown Orkut has enjoyed some success, primarily in South America. Readers of Mashable are no strangers to the hundreds of social networks looking to gain users, or at least, get acquired by Google.
Facebook - The hottest social network of '07, Yahoo reportedly passed on buying Facebook for $1 billion last year, a bargain by today's standards. With the Facebook Platform all the rage right now and an advertising deal with Microsoft, Google may be starting to feel it backed the wrong horse ...
MySpace - News Corp made the savvy purchase of MySpace for $580 million back in 2005, just when the social networking leader was at the height of its exponential growth. The site has lost its swagger to Facebook in recent months, but still remains the biggest by far.
Bebo - Extremely popular in the UK, Bebo has been on the rise in '07. It has also been the subject of acquisition rumors with Yahoo. The site receives praise for its privacy options.
AIM Pages - AOL made the logical move of extending AIM to include social networking through AIM Pages, enjoying moderate but not phenomenal success.
Windows Live Spaces - Microsoft's social networking play is very youth-oriented, providing simple blogs and profiles to MSN users.
Yahoo! 360 - Yahoo's biggest social networking effort has been criticized for not doing enough to integrate other Yahoo services and overlapping too much with other Yahoo products. The lack of success may be why Yahoo is always at the top of the rumored buyers list when other social networks go up for sale.
Our Take: The social networking space has proven fickle in its early history, with Friendster the early leader, MySpace the current dominant player, and Facebook on the rise looking to unseat MySpace. With YouTube already under its roof and one of the deepest pocketbooks in the industry, Google can sit back and wait for the right time to acquire one of the top social networks.
Google was relatively early to jump on the photo sharing bandwagon with the 2004 acquisition of Picasa, but the service has since been surpassed by rivals that do a better job of integrating with blogs and social networks. Here are the prime players:
Flickr - One of the darlings of Web 2.0, Yahoo deserves praise for acquiring Flickr in early 2005 before valuations became far steeper. The site is a favorite of techies and serious photographers, and is moving towards mainstream adoption as Yahoo closes Yahoo Photos in favor of Flickr.
Photobucket - By offering a free place to store photos that can be embedded on social networks, Photobucket became one of the most highly trafficked sites on the Web. While MySpace briefly blocked Photobucket, it recently decided to acquire the company for an estimated $250 million.
Zooomr - This startup receives a lot of hype, but is also becoming the choice of some high end photographers and giving Flickr some competition. We compared the two in "Face-off: Flickr versus Zooomr Mark III" after Zooomr's latest round of enhancements.
BayImg - The Pirate Bay provides free uncensored image hosting for files up to 100MB. Given the bi player's need to appease advertisers by removing offensive content, it's an interesting alternative that has some traction.
For a look at dozens of other players in the online photo space, check out "90+ Online Photography Tools and Resources".
Our Take: With a fairly dominant image search product, Google doesn't really need to move into the high maintenance area of photo storage and sharing. However, with the company expanding into display advertising, which is favored on many photo sharing sites, Google may become interested should the right company become available.
With the acquisition of Writely, which has since been merged into Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and the launch of a PowerPoint competitor imminent, version 1 of the Google office suite is nearly complete. While the company has a long way to go to match the feature set of the ever dominant Microsoft Office, it has Redmond moving fast to market web-based versions of its core products. Several startups are also working on word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software to compete with Microsoft.
Microsoft - With Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook the entrenched franchises of nearly every personal computer on earth, Microsoft Office is a mighty foe to take on. While it is by no means Google's core business yet, they are clearly putting pressure on Microsoft to remain innovative in the office arena.
Zoho - This well-funded startup has a full office suite of its own, with products including Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, and Zoho Show. Many of the company's products are free.
Open Office - The free, open source office project that originates with Microsoft foe Sun Microsystems includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and more, and is designed to be compatible with as many operating systems and programs as possible.
Our Take: Microsoft's dominance in office software stems from dominance in operating systems, a market it still controls. However, Google Docs & Spreadsheets' web-based, collaborative approach is very lightweight and useful for certain tasks. While it will take years to build a product that offers the full functionality of Microsoft Office, Google is the best-positioned company by far to build a viable competitor if it wants to.
THE FUTURE
As the most watched, scrutinized, and reported-on company in the web space, Google's every move is analyzed by competitors big and small. Its rapid expansion into areas beyond search and seemingly insatiable appetite for acquisitions has the company strongly positioned to dominate numerous key parts of the Internet. However, we should be reminded that not everything Google touches turns to gold; for example, the demise of Google Answers and the demotion of Froogle. Stay tuned for what are sure to be hundreds of announcements in the years to come.
10 Most Beautiful Social Networks
If you asked most MySpace-haters what's their problem with the service, they'd probably say: it's ugly. Meanwhile, people tell us they are switching from Twitter to Pownce because it's prettier and easier to use. For those who prize beauty above all else, we brought together 10 of the prettiest social networks.
Virb - generally known as the designer's MySpace, Virb lives up to the hype by offering sleek and easy-to-customize profile design. The details on various features, for example music and video player, are quite polished - even the ads look nice. If blinking images, huge sigs that mess up the formatting and colorful backgrounds make you insane, Virb is the right place for you.
Trig - Trig is a sweet sight for the sore eyes of a web designer/hipster who spent too many days wailing about horrid MySpace profiles. It's quite similar to Virb but in our opinion looks even nicer, with black and 20 shades of gray being the dominant colors. Trig is mostly music-oriented, so if you have a band that's simply too artsy to have a MySpace profile, you know what to do.
Purevolume - neat and tidy are the words that first come to mind when you first look at Purevolume. The site is purely music-oriented and the profiles are divided between artists and listeners. The actual profiles, while beautiful, have the problem of looking all pretty much the same; we like the black/white/gray look, but more customization options wouldn't hurt.
my.9rules - 9rules is a blogging community which always put a lot of emphasis on quality design, so it's no wonder that their social network, my.9rules, looks very neat, too. Just like on Purevolume, though, the profiles on 9rules are visually very similar, which keeps the look of the site consistent but it also makes the whole experience slightly dull.
Pownce - Pownce has been categorized as everything: from web-based IM to a forum, so we guess that simply calling it a social network isn't that far off. Taking the Twitter recipe and perfecting it, Pownce added some of its own flavor to the mix, and one of the features we really like about it are skins. Don't get us wrong, Pownce looks nice to begin with, but having the option to change the skins is a big plus. Currently, the only beef we have with this feature is the fact that the available amount of skins is so small: only four. Give us more!
Flickr - yes, we like the Flickr look. It probably has to do with the fact that the site is full of beautiful photos, but Flickr's easy-on-the-eyes aesthetics are carefully thought out and make the site really enjoyable to use.
Threadless - one of the first really successful sites that harness the power of community for commercial purposes, Threadless enables users to submit their own T-Shirt designs; the community votes for the very best, which then become a part of Threadless' official catalog. The designs are really great, and Threadless has been the favorite place to buy t-shirts for many a design student for quite some time. The site itself has a laid-back design that might not appeal to everyone, but you have to give it credit for originality.
Shelfari - Shelfari is a community of book lovers which you can browse by user, by interest groups or by books themselves. It's all packed in a neat visual package which might not stand out with extraordinary design, but it will make it really easy to find your way around the site. The inclusion of actual front pages of individual books is a nice touch, too.
Beautiful Society - ok, this one was a no-brainer. With a name like that, one would expect beautiful design and Beautiful Society delivers. The site revolves around the concept of "favorite things" - users get to pick things they like, which become separate entities that get more votes and rise the rank of popularity as more and more users add them to the list. All this is wrapped in a nice orange/blue design with a lot of rounded corners and nothing to upset our sensitive eyes.
Humble Voice - we've saved the best for last. HumbleVoice is yet another community for designers, artists and musicians, and it looks gorgeous. Page real estate is used generously, with most images on the site being really large, and all of the content is wrapped up in neat little boxes. As sometimes happens with art-related sites, some of the fonts are too tiny to read if you don't have 20/20 vision, but we're ready to forgive Humble Space this small blunder. After all, it's artists we're talking about here.
See also:
Online Music: 90+ Essential Music and Audio Websites
Podcasting Toolbox: 70+ Podcasting Tools and Resources
Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers
14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature
230+ Keyboard Shortcuts for Top Web Services
Online Photography Toolbox: 90+ Online Photography Tools and Resources
Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources
Online Productivity Toolbox: 30+ Resources to Get Things Done
The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources
Analytics Toolbox: 50+ Ways to Track Website Traffic
Google vs Everyone: 10 Markets Where Google Wants to Win
创业的十个原则
via 阮一峰的网络日志 by 阮一峰 on Jul 13, 2007
南桥在他的网志上，提到他听了盖伊・川崎（Guy Kawasaki）的演讲，还做了一些笔记。
我看了觉得很有意思，以前我也读过盖伊・川崎的文章，正好这次就系统地了解一下他的思想。
盖伊・川崎是一个日裔美国人，1954年生于夏威夷。他的名字很独特，Guy在英语里是"家伙"的意思，Kawasaki则是日语里的"川崎"，直译过来就是"川崎佬"，有点"不东（方）不西（方）"的感觉。和他的名字一样，他本人的经历也非常独特，无法用寻常的模式归类。他本科是斯坦福大学的心理学，后来到加大洛杉矶分校读了MBA。最早的时候，他做珠宝生意，后来转行，加入了苹果公司。他是苹果公司的第一批雇员，1984年的时候就在推销苹果电脑。他说话非常具有感染力，苹果公司任命他为"布道师"（evangelist），专门负责推广苹果的品牌和产品。----我还是第一次听说"布道师"这个职位，难怪有人说苹果公司其实是个宗教组织。----他离职后，成立了一家风险投资公司，帮助那些创业的人们。盖伊・川崎有一个个人网站，guykawasaki.com。
他的个人网志的题目叫做"如何改变世界"（how to change the world），在他看来，真正优秀的创业者就是要去改变世界，他将帮助他们达到这个目标。不知为何，他的网志在中国大陆被屏蔽了。不过，你在译言上可以看到他的几篇重要文章的中译。
==========================
下面就是他总结的创业十大原则，我从南桥那里拷贝过来。
1. 做有意义的事情（make meaning）
创业的首要目的应该是去做有意义的事，而不是为了赚钱。如果你只是为了寻找金钱，你就会遇到不该遇到的人，比如咨询公司和MBA。
2. 响亮的口号（make mantra）
最好找一些大家都能记住的话。（顺便说一句，我觉得"Creating & Sharing" 这句话很不错。）
3. 超前的思维（jump to the next curve）
4. 优秀的产品（Roll the DICEE）
所谓DICEE就是深邃（deep），智能（intelligence），完整（complete），优雅（elegant），用情（emotive）。
5. 百花齐放（let a hundred flowers blossom）
尽量把自己的产品做成开放式的，允许人们随意使用它。
6. 不要害怕出错（don't worry, be crappy）
7. 不要企图满足所有人，不要四平八稳，以让少数极端化的用户满意为自己的出发点
（polarize people）
8. 不断改进产品（Churn baby churn）
9. 清楚自己的定位（niche yourself）
请看下面这张图。
第I象限表示你的产品很独特，对用户也很有用，这样的产品最容易成功。
第II象限表示你的产品很独特，但是对用户没什么用，这样的产品应该放弃。
第III象限表示你的产品不仅对用户没用，而且毫无创意，与他人雷同，这就像现在的许多互联网公司。
第IV象限表示你的产品对用户有用，但是没有独到之处，这种情况下，你只有跟其他人拼价格了。
10. 10/20/30原则（follow the 10/20/30 rule）
PPT是世界上最无聊的东西之一。记住，一次presentation，幻灯片不要超过10张，时间不要超过20分钟，字体不要小于30号。
11. 不要在乎别人说什么（ don't let the bozos grind you down）
这一条是10+1附送的。
==========================
最后，我提供一份盖伊・川崎的专著《创业的艺术》（The Art of the Start）的SUMMARY，供大家下载。非常好的材料，如果你对创业感兴趣，请务必下载浏览一下。
（完）
2007年上半年最佳美国电影
Zodiac很耐看。
via 阮一峰的网络日志 by 阮一峰 on Jul 12, 2007
今天，我突然想找一张值得一看的美国新片的清单，以便按图索骥。
于是，我来到IMDB，在高级搜索里设置了如下的搜索条件：
----生产地：USA
----上映时间：2007
----网友评分：7分以上
----评分人数：400人以上
结果，找到了30部电影。
下面就是结果名单，按首字母排序。
- 1408 (2007) 7.6/10 (10301 votes)
- Air I Breathe, The (2007) 9.5/10 (509 votes)
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007) 7.5/10 (4077 votes)
- Becoming Jane (2007) 7.1/10 (788 votes)
- Blades of Glory (2007) 7.0/10 (14978 votes)
- Breach (2007) 7.4/10 (7757 votes)
- Bridge to Terabithia (2007) 7.5/10 (10154 votes)
- Death Proof (2007) 8.1/10 (4691 votes)
- Disturbia (2007) 7.3/10 (10924 votes)
- Evening (2007) 7.1/10 (803 votes)
- Fracture (2007) 7.1/10 (6217 votes)
- Freedom Writers (2007) 7.6/10 (5472 votes)
- Grindhouse (2007) 8.4/10 (33999 votes)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) 7.9/10 (2748 votes)
- Live Free or Die Hard (2007) 8.0/10 (27271 votes)
- Lookout, The (2007) 7.8/10 (2071 votes)
- Meet the Robinsons (2007) 7.1/10 (4332 votes)
- Mr. Brooks (2007) 7.7/10 (4375 votes)
- My Name Is Bruce (2007) 9.9/10 (1002 votes)
- Ocean's Thirteen (2007) 7.3/10 (18858 votes)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) 7.3/10 (57299 votes)
- Ratatouille (2007) 8.7/10 (13756 votes)
- Reign Over Me (2007) 8.1/10 (6174 votes)
- Shooter (2007) 7.2/10 (16808 votes)
- Sicko (2007) 8.5/10 (8875 votes)
- Surf's Up (2007) 7.2/10 (2168 votes)
- TMNT (2007) 7.1/10 (10359 votes)
- Transformers (2007) 8.1/10 (36959 votes)
- Waitress (2007) 8.1/10 (2910 votes)
- Zodiac (2007) 8.1/10 (20837 votes)
（完）
梁唐:北印三城记(一)
via mindmeters思维的乐趣 on Jul 11, 2007
《东企》7月刊已经上市。印度之行的"上"----北印三城记----经过（文字、摄影）记者、编辑、设计师等的通力协作，以22页的版面呈现给大家。欢迎诸位捧场。
从反馈回来的消息看，有同志觉得总体还不错，也有同志觉得文字较一般，没有展现应该展现出的力量。我个人的感受是，此次行程较之前大图景操作的区别在于，共穿越6个城市，行文也因此需照顾到各个城市的特质细节，难免在提炼主线上遭遇到不小的困难。主观上以为这不是狡辩，尽管，这很可能是论据不充分的自我辩护（如果还不算强词夺理的话）。
现把开篇和主文的前两大部分（一稿）贴在这里，对事实细节的探讨、对文体的评价都欢迎。当然，最好是去报亭买本杂志看完整先：）
开篇
在新德里的外交官们中流行着一句话，意译过来是"除非饱尝困惑撕扯之苦，否则不可能了解印度"（If you are not confused yet, you don t know india）。早在1895年，带着妻儿进行"赤道环球演说旅行"的马克.吐温也在这片神奇土地上说过类似观点：印度政经社会充斥着太多相背相斥的维度，可谓"极端之地"（Land of Extremes）。
4月21日凌晨国航CA947飞越万年冰封的喜玛拉雅山麓时，我们还没听过这两个表述。于是，在华硕笔记本电脑上踌躇满志着整理多达36份采访提纲，自信如果高质量完成这些访谈，印度的"机会与未来"将可能被化约为三段论式的表述。
二十天走过了六城市，按时间顺序是政治中心德里、金融和商业中心孟买、软件城班加罗尔、电子制造和汽车城清奈、高原城市海德拉巴以及社会运动之城加尔各答，囊括了东南西北中各个方位。旅程愈是深入，越发觉得对这个伟大文明和有着强劲未来的邻国所知甚少。
印度最有影响力的纸媒集团----时代公司----副主编以中印两国交往为例：且不提玄奘、法显，古代史上七下西洋的郑和是在南印故世；近代史上，康有为于戊戌变法失败后1901-1903年流亡印度；到了现代，联合国曾不承认新中国并建议由印度取代常任理事国地位，遭尼赫鲁断然拒绝......"有多少中国经济学家、银行行长或历史学家知道印度的改革开放肇始自1991年的国际收支危机，晚了中国将近十三年？"
美国前助理国务卿卡尔.英福斯预言，到本世纪中叶，世界三大经济超强将是中国第一，美国第二，印度第三。他以为，鉴于这一远景，三国之间必须建立新互动的新颖关系（new interactive dynamics），不搞竞争三角（competitive triangle）。这也从侧面验证了"翻越喜玛拉雅山"的必要性。
采访基本算圆满：访到了执政党中坚人物商务部长杰伦.兰密施（Jairam Ramesh），他也是Chindia的原始造词者，被认为下任总理的完美候选人；还有ZeeTV台长普奈特.贡珂（Punit Goenka）先生，庞大Essel集团的未来掌门人，具强大竞争力的印度传媒娱乐业核心操盘手之一；英国前首相梅杰的政策顾问、现任塔塔集团总裁阿兰.罗斯林（Alan Rosling），是他协助拉坦.塔塔（Ratan Tata）启动了国际化战略；再就是印度管理学院布拉卡什.阿皮特（Prakash Apte）院长和印度科学院的巴拉姆（P Balaram）院长，分别就管理教育和高尖科研动向表达看法。
同时，又为如何下笔以向读者传递所闻所见的真实印度渐生惶恐。梁漱敏认为，这不是用文笔可以穷尽描述的国度，"印度文明与西洋文明、中国文明一样，需亲身体验。"而探寻对印度的三段论式总结，现在看来实在是年轻人荷尔蒙分泌过盛引发的狂妄。
笔者写此开篇之际，是北京初夏夜晚。不知怎么，回忆起了孟买印度门旁直面阿拉伯海的泰姬酒店：正午，豪贵人士与中产时髦阶层在有舒适温度和典雅音乐的大堂交流着。这是一群受到庇护的人，剽悍的锡克族门卫、停泊的奔驰宝马，总将他们隔绝于外界的嘈杂。
这当然是真实的印度，但只是真实的一部分，因为门外就是近50摄氏度的高温和每顿饭只花5卢比的大量人口。于是，高档酒店咖啡厅里孵着空调采访零售大王基索.比亚尼（Kishore Biyani），和在滚烫热浪里与为了生计而大搞欺诈的人力车司机斗智斗勇时，我们会得出关于这个国家完全不同的结论。或许，印度有两个未来，它们的方向截然相反。
北印三城记：显影"印度象"真容
离六月雨季还有二十来天的酷热下午，在孟买的古堡区----银行、特色餐厅、别致专卖店、电影院、高档酒店沿街散布的资本主义力量勃兴地----来自英国伦敦的游客兼英语教师埃米拉，嗅出了奈保尔《幽暗国度》里描述的做派气氛。
因订制纱丽店里刷卡机失灵，她不得不来到T字路口的FL外汇公司把英镑兑换成卢比。笑容可人的接待小姐说业务员刚出去，但很快就会回来。"很快"最终被证明为35分钟，原来是下午茶时间，尽管越来越少的英国年轻人会享用下午茶，印度人却顽强吸取了该习俗。
气鼓鼓的她联想起了两周前读《英吉拉.甘地传》中的一段情节："1984年10月31日......英吉拉经过总理府花园的菩提树下，警卫本特.辛哈（Beant Singh）副巡官拔出左轮手枪朝总理射击......照规定，当时屋外停有一辆救护车，不过这是印度，司机溜班喝茶去了。"
埃米拉的抱怨很精致：公元时间的指针还停留在上世纪中叶。
对此，走在德里东南以开国总理尼赫鲁命名大道上的王洪森有保留。距大同教"莲花庙"不到五分钟，这位中钢印度总裁感慨着拐进爱神企业大厦（Eros Corporate Tower），戏言现在是德里时间2017年。
他指的是地产时间。几年前，中钢买下了爱神12楼的整层作为办公室，顺带想法是稳健利用两国十年左右的发展时间差，赚些楼价：不料价格随后疯涨----中档商品房折合人民币1万/平米，甲级写字楼达3.5万/平米，黄金地段物业甚至比北京有过之无不及。
"温州炒房团没必要来考察了，已透支未来的价格。"办公室窗口看出去，新落成的摩登销品贸Cineplex旁，几头大白牛躺在施工遗留下的砖沙旁，和明信片上的油画一模一样。这就是张力满满的印度，每个人都有不同乃至极端的解读，夸张的说法是，在像德里、孟买和加尔各答这样有深邃历史的城市的任何一处街角拐弯，都可能进入另一时空境地。
一，极端之地
印度斯坦族人口占全印近47%，多信仰印度教，年老者长着与络腮胡相连的粗浓眉毛，眼睛仿佛是从一堆浓密乱草中向外窥视。即使以他们的目光，也能发现自1992年以来，尼赫鲁1947年建国后效仿苏联所推行的中央计划和重工业"新秩序"，已渐崩溃，自由放任经济与服务业才是新图腾。
沙贾汗为莫卧尔帝国迁都德里而修建的红堡旁，孟买滨海大道摇下车窗享受阿拉伯海暖风，或者在加尔各答中兴的达尔豪西广场，都是这种感觉。
著名记者、作家威廉.达尔林（William Dalrymple）曾自1989年在印旅居五年，不久前再回德里，看到昔日宽阔通疏的街道已为日制马鲁帝轿车和颇像QQ的塔塔汽车拥堵，在家里接听卫星传播的大小耳朵比清真寺圆顶和庙宇塔尖还多。
但德里是否会恢复到上一个千年中段，伊斯兰文明昌盛奥朗则布做皇帝时的荣光程度，是个问号。毕竟在那个时代德里有200万人口，城市规模甚至比伦敦和巴黎都要大得多，号称伊斯坦布尔到江户（东京）之间最壮丽的城市，"一个天降黄金建立的王国，珍珠和红宝石在市场上像谷子一样地贩卖。"
去年初成立的印度中国企业商会在归总资料时发现，从中兴通讯这样的通讯设备制造公司到电子消费业巨头TCL，从国有基建企业到能源行业公司，基本上开拓印度市场的中国企业第一站都选择德里，而不是金融、商业中心孟买。"毕竟两国经济尚处双边政治推动阶段，而首都汇聚着众多部委，在牌照公关和文件审批上都有效率优势。"
而地位相当于中国贸促会的印度工业联合会（CII），其执行总裁哈希.塞格尔女士（Harshit Sehgal）建议，到底挑选哪个城市作为入印首站，根据不同行业和发展规划需备不同选择。比如高新科技可考虑南印三城（班加罗尔、海德拉巴和清奈），传统产业孟买、德里、加尔各答甚至浦那（Pune）都有各自优势。
新德里和"新新德里"（指离德里不远的包括Gurgon、Boida和Manesar等卫星城）相对优良的城市规划是加分因素。由于筹备2010年的英联邦运动会，机械工程车在城市地表隆隆作响。不久前接受培训由公交司机转成起重车司机的旁遮普邦移民卡芒确信，两年后"他的德里"从外观到便利性都会进一步脱胎换骨。
这个城市的基础是在1911-1913年间由爱德文.路提彦（Edwin Lutyens）打下的，"新德里按巴洛克的结点放射形式规划，比独立后委托法国人乐.考布申（Le Corbusier）兴建的昌迪加尔好N个档次。"多数中国游客看来规划有序的昌市被德里知识分子断定为城市大灾难，一座座染色混凝土的粗暴堆垒。
新德里的焦点是以前叫"英王路"的拉吉路，至今仍是星球上最宏伟壮观的庆典大道之一。大道的一头是乳黄色的印度门，另一端是新佛教风格的议会大厦，连接两座宏伟建筑的是足以与香榭丽舍相提并论的宽路，两旁草坪广阔尤加利树与木麻黄排列成行。
夏夜，这些草坪成了真正的公共空间，家庭聚餐和羽毛球鏖战的地点，恋爱中的年轻人则闭上眼睛听摩托车载广播最时兴的音乐波频，Sa Re Ga Ma Pa（类似于印度的超级女生选秀节目）冠军时丽雅.沃夏尔（Shreya Ghoshal）的歌曲颇受欢迎。而若切换成白天，草坪外大道上并不罕见慷慨激昂却又不乏秩序的游行队伍。
不过和印度几乎任何城市一样，贫困人口集居区会在任何地点出现----往西北方向的支路走去，又见成排草棚。借用余秋雨1990年代初对上海的批判，"它是一个巨大的悖论，当你注视它的恶浊，它会腾起耀眼的光亮，当你膜拜它的伟力，它会转过身去让你看一看疮痍斑斑的后墙。"
英国人以伦敦为样板打造了350年的加尔各答更具典型性：小学校门旁衣不蔽体的人们支起了最原始的烧饭锅；"大亨梦寐以求的健身房"广告下，精瘦黝黑的印度骆驼祥子拉车跑过，苦赚着晚饭钱。
前电子工业委员会主席、现家族上市企业Aplab董事长迪优塔（P.S.Deodhar）先生不讳言，集中了全印50%现金流量、70%股票交易和60%集装箱吞吐量，拥1400万人口的特大城市孟买某种程度而言与德里、加尔各答类似，同样被日益增长的城市贫困人口腐蚀。
由于地势狭长----事实上通过填海相连7座岛屿而成----感觉孟买没有东西概念，租车公司的司机不是向北行驶就是在往南开，交通状况自然有点糟糕。在南城的古堡地区，孟买是高楼林立大都市，海滩上远远望滨海大道颇有些纽约曼哈顿或香港的味道。
但出租车一出机场，很容易感受到城市贫民问题的严重，低矮草棚连绵不绝。市政府网站公开资料显示，"数百万人口居住条件恶劣"，地方媒体给出的统计数据更吓人，有500万人住在贫民窟。
其实自上世纪八十年代，市议会就通过了清理非法占用公共用地的法案，1985年7月最高法院还做出"地方当局有权强行拆除阻碍交通和占用公共场所非法建筑"司法解释，但至今的经济增长并没有惠及低阶层人群，所以并未从根本上改变局面。早些时候，曾有人雄心勃勃往大陆上"延伸"孟买建设双子城，迁徙工厂、工人和低收入者，但实践不了。
二，期待"底部抬升"
甘地陵墓在静静流淌的亚穆纳河西南侧，与所有的宗教场所一样，无须付费但得赤脚入内。这里是"非暴力不合作"运动领导者莫罕达斯.卡尔姆昌德.甘地（Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi）被刺第二天火化的地方，纪念者络绎不绝着抛洒玫瑰花瓣，火炬日夜不灭。圣雄家族属印度第三等种姓吠舍下属的一支商人种姓，非婆罗门和刹帝利出身。
离开不远，尼赫鲁的纪念点则安静得多，入口处没有小男孩问你是日本人还是韩国人。作为甘地追随者和后来的国大党领袖，他一直肯定甘地的超凡团结能力与极富道德感召力的斗争方式。但21世纪以来，研究学者们在时代精神刺激下，开始频繁总结尼赫鲁的遗产，其中之一直指甘地。
事实上，当发现无论在德里、孟买、加尔各答还是其他印度城市，贫困的人像与物像那么频繁地冲击眼球，尼赫鲁五十年前的断言自然会萦绕脑海：印度的一个危险就是，贫穷可能被奉为神圣。一种苛刻的解读是，甘地把印度带出了黑暗年代（Kal Yug），但他的成功又不可避免地将印度推入另一个黑暗年代。
"马克思神圣化了无产者，而圣雄的简朴把贫穷神圣化了。"瓦吉布出生于穆斯林家庭，今年22岁，为补贴大学学费在加尔各答的高级餐厅打工，工作地离1947年甘地为印度教和穆斯林冲突而绝食的地点只有十分钟步行距离。他最大的梦想是本科毕业后能申请到奖学金去美国留学，习惯动作是拉扯自己的大耳朵，主修政治学的他还认为"宗教与甘地主义发生了化学反应，所以才有嚣张不绝的城市贫困"。
他偶尔会奢侈下。三月份第一家麦当劳在加尔各答贵静的公园街五十五号开店，进去买杯可乐，大不了来份105卢比的套餐。手捧前通信产业部部长、现国会议员、著名学者阿伦.舒里亚（Arun Shourie）的名著《法院和判决》，一呆就是一个下午。他是个思维跳跃的年轻人，会突然把书掩上，发表"印度教等宗教的昌盛是世界变平阻力"之类观点。
按印度教的教义，人生并不是以生为始以死为终，而是不断的循回，是上世的修行造成了现世境况。于是中下阶层人群的惯性思维不是骂政府、埋怨父母、或者自责不够聪明努力，而是忍耐作为以待来世。"不会因为义务教育资源没有公平分配而抗争，在他们看来，床头挂只象头、弯鼻、长牙、巨腹，足踏小老鼠的甘奈施（Ganesh）神，是更有效的方式。"
于是，他们在大选年把选票投给出资修建最堂皇庙宇的政治家，另一方面赚生计以外的业余时间都捐了各派的宗教领袖，或者去现场或者在家看电视直播。机型不过14寸彩电，几乎每五个频道就有一个宗教台，宣讲的大师时而朗朗诵读、时而翩翩起舞，台下"粉丝"数量不输巅峰时期的迈克尔.杰克逊。
与甘地主义起化学反应的应该还有上世纪初的英国泊来品，市场原教旨主义。
印度最成功传媒娱乐公司Zee电视台的高级副总裁阿什.考尔（Ashish Kaul）长得高大强壮，热情好客，初次见面若印象不错就会邀请别人坐上他的红色马鲁帝越野车，在孟买并不卓越的道路条件上飙个半小时。车载音响播放着那盒经典得不能再经典的《Best of Bee Gees》。这个快车手信仰自由市场，真诚地相信穷人之所以贫困基本上都是自身原因造成的，毕竟"印度是自由世界民主社会，机遇是开放的。"
在红灯前停下了车，一个穿劣质亮色纱丽的妇女移动过来敲了敲刚锁起来的车窗。他把握着语调分寸开玩笑，"天知道她们一个月挣多少钱，说不定比我还多"。红灯转换成绿灯的那一瞬间，他转过头来一脸严肃地说：与其说他们是穷人，不如说他们选择成为穷人。
靠个人奋斗成功的阿什在某个层面上对的：面对贫困，得选择正确的态度。
德里的机动三轮车司机们有正确的态度。相较那些同样信仰印度教的出世者，他们的生活态度更积极。但不幸的是，方式上却错得能把人肺给气出烟来。所有初到德里的国际游客----只要不是下飞机有五星级酒店接送、以高级轿车代步那种----都会发现，他们中的很大一群靠坑蒙拐骗营生。
一出机场，无论你手里是否已拿着Prepay租车公司的付费凭证，都会涌上来一群野路子司机，言辞自信热烈得好像如果不通过他们，预订好的旅馆就会从地表消失似的。看你面露狐疑，他们争先恐后着从已被洗得变形了的衣服口袋里掐出张"政府颁驾驶执照"以示意权威与合法性。
信息是不对称的。他们显然不知道2006年初《洛杉矶时报》做过影响力报道，"德里75%的司机驾驶执照都是假的"。所以旅行者们心里暗暗好笑。但笑着笑着就变成了苦笑，因为除非雇得起3000卢比/天的轿车，总得和这些人打交道啊。
在加纳浦里（Chanakyapuri）行政区为众多大使馆围绕的国际青年酒店，能不断听到新来者在大堂里抱怨。一五一十听完，总是那么几种情况：
前几天住在城北老德里一家没有热水的三星级宾馆，实在受不了了决定搬到新德里去。于是先按旅游圣经《寂寞星球》上留的酒店电话进行地址确认，然后上街叫了辆车。艰苦卓绝的讨价还价后，出发了，发动机的声音响得你恨不得自己是个聋子，司机用自己的声音压过发动机的声响，不断打听个人信息：从哪个国家来，还要在德里待几天。
车终于停在一家酒店前，而广告牌上的名字你从来没有听说过。等发动机熄了火，问到底怎么回事，回答相当直白，都是旅馆有什么大不了的区别，不如就住这家吧。当然，车钱还得照给。这是直接的那种，心里弯弯更多的会把大包小包行李的你先带到一幢拆迁中的建筑旁，然后说你预订的酒店两天前经营不善关了，"要不要继续找别的？"
对待贫困的错误态度、方式如果在代际间继承，哪怕是在转轨社会，就不再是个人问题，而是政府公共教育政策的失败了。上述情况，其实自半个世纪之前的印度城市化进程开始，农民们迁徙出世代生活的村庄，就没中止过。
当然不能据此类现象就推断印基础教育的执行有误，但数字不会撒谎，尤其是统计正确的时候。来自印度教育部的数据显示，全国的平均识字率低于59%，在经济落后的比哈尔邦，30%以下，要知道新华网上的愤怒青年一直认为中国只有91%的识字率是件不体面的事。
中印比较学者谭玉妮观点鲜明，世界日趋复杂精致，农业文明口耳相传的民间智慧早已不够。以加尔各答为首府的西孟加拉邦等印共治理区为例，"所有报纸上写改革、开发区征地遭农民游行抗议其实都发生在这些地区"，还笑称除了中国企业，很少有西方公司愿意去那里投资，因为不少企业家认为那里人的大脑意识（mindset）有问题，而严厉的劳工保护政策又导致了"请神容易送神难"。
因种族政策而被刺杀的英吉拉.甘地，曾说印度是"开放的社会，封闭的心灵"，她开出的药方是将消除贫困上升到政治最优先次序，并以"远离贫困"为竞选口号。瓦吉布在麦当劳里也开出了药方：他从近代历史上在加尔各答曾波澜壮阔的"文艺复兴"说起，认为只有市场启蒙与政府公共政策合作发力，"当前印度所必须的Bottom Up（底部升抬）才会发生，然后成功地在2050年前赶超美国。"
三，三亿中产阶级
四，超越"龙象之争"
巴菲特语录
via 阮一峰的网络日志 by 阮一峰 on Jul 10, 2007
好几个星期以前，译言上就登出了一篇沃伦・巴菲特的演讲的翻译，一共连载了九次，我直到今天才看完。
下面就是我的一些摘录。
1.
雇人时，要看三个方面：诚信，智能，和精力。
2.
不要做低回报率的生意。时间是好生意的朋友，却是坏生意的敌人。如果你陷在坏生意里太久，即使买入价很低，你的结果也一定会很糟糕。如果你在一桩好生意里，即使买入价比较高，只要你做得足够久，你的回报一定是可观的。
3.
不要用属于你、并且你也需要的钱，去挣那些不属于你、你也不需要的钱。这太愚蠢了，用对你重要的东西去冒险赢得对你并不重要的东西，简直无可理喻，即使你成功和失败的比率是100比1，或1000比1。
4.
同样愚蠢的是，不要用你最宝贵的时间，去干那些你不喜欢的、仅仅是为了让简历更好看的事情。
5.
我不投资那些我看不懂的生意。我也不投资那些对竞争者来说很容易进入的生意。我要找的生意必须符合三点：简单，容易理解；经济上行得通；诚实、能干的管理层。
6.
基本上讲，我只会买那些，即使纽约证交所从明天起关门五年，我也很乐于持有的股票。
7.
人们根据第二天股票价格的涨跌，判断他们的投资是否正确，这简直是胡扯。正如格拉姆所说的，你要买的是企业的一部分生意。这是格拉姆教给我的最基本最核心的策略。你买的不是股票，你买的是一部分企业生意。企业好，你的投资就好，只要你的买入价不是太离谱。
8.
那些最好的买卖，刚开始的时候，从数字上看，几乎都会告诉你不要买。
9.
1919年，可口可乐公司上市，价格40美元左右。一年后，股价降了50％，只有19美元。然后是瓶装问题，糖料涨价等等。一些年后，又发生了大萧条、第二次世界大战、核武器竞赛等等，总是有这样或那样不利的事件。但是，如果你在一开始用40块钱买了一股，然后你把派发的红利继续投资于它，那么现在，当初40美元可口可乐公司的股票，已经变成了5百万。这个事实压倒了一切。如果你看对了生意模式，你就会赚很多钱。
10.
一个杰出的企业可以预计到，将来可能会发生什么，但不一定知道何时会发生。重心需要放在"什么"上面，而不是"何时"上。如果对"什么"的判断是正确的，那么对"何时"大可不必过虑。
11.
我不关心宏观的经济形式。在投资领域，你最希望做到的应该是搞清楚那些重要的，并且是可以搞懂的东西。
12.
你所找寻的出路就是，想出一个好方法，然后持之以恒，尽最大可能，直到把梦想变成现实。但是，在华尔街，每五分钟就互相叫价一次，人们在你的鼻子底下买进卖出，想做到不为所动是很难的。
13.
华尔街靠的是不断的交易来赚钱，你靠的是不去做买进卖出而赚钱。这间屋子里的每个人，每天互相交易你们所拥有的股票，到最后所有人都会破产，而所有钱财都进了经纪公司的腰包。相反地，如果你们象一般企业那样，50年岿然不动，到最后你赚得不亦乐乎，而你的经纪公司只好破产。
14.
你应该做的是远离那些促使你做出仓促决定的环境。
15.
保持持续增长是我们努力的目标。那也是唯一衡量我们公司价值的标尺。
（完）