Embracing the 'Dinosaur' Within

My first niece, now 19, is visiting Phoenix for the month on an ‘internship’ (I yell at people and she has been watching).

It’s only been a week, but I am asking 90 percent of the questions. Whatever I am paying her…is cheap.

Dorm life is the new lab of the internet and I am 25 years removed from it. You don’t need a white coat…probably a little weed, a bag of sours and 100 red Bulls will get you through an evening watching a few floors. I know that’s where I will be this fall when we launch some stock product ‘stream’ ideas for Stocktwits.

If you want to start a web video company, you best launch it from a dorm room and have done all your beta testing from it. If you own a TV network, it’s quite obvious you have not visited. It’s fun to laugh with Jordie together about you.

Last night I asked Jordie about HULU and she could not remember how she knew the name, but thinks she saw it on SufTheChannel . Note to self – Web Video and content will be a very tough space for a very long time.

That’s when it hit me that there is just TOO much I don’t know about the web and kids and they way kids are consuming media. It’s kind of depressing just feeling that old and tired and in the dark about ever getting it. Lucky I have a hedge fund to fall back on because this web investing thing may better suited for high school and university kids pretty soon.

One thing ‘them kids’ don’t quite yet get about the web is ‘Twitter’. Maybe it’s just all the free time they have or their hunger for vast information when all i want at my age is ‘SPEED and CONTEXT’. My niece is embracing Twitter, Tweetdeck, Bit.ly and it’s fun watching her use it, love it and share it with friends.

This morning I woke up to read The Sunday New York Times, but more importantly got to interact with Tim O’Brien , the editor of The Sunday New York Times Business section, on Twitter (tweetdeck). For me, the web feels like my little secret again.

It’s nice to know THIS dinosaur still has a few tricks and edges to pass on to the kiddies.