Wikipedia’s Pledge Drive Ends — So Do Those Jarring Testimonials!

The Wikimedia Foundation’s annual fundraiser ended today after the nonprofit raised $20 million from one million donors worldwide.
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Yelp, YouTube and 23andMe Co-Founders All Working on New Start-Ups

In recent weeks, I’ve stumbled onto a few fresh new start-ups from the departed co-founders of current influential tech companies.
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Kara Visits TEDMED (Featuring Synthetic Skin and Heart-Scanning iPhones!)

Can your cellphone check your blood sugar? What does a wireless BandAid do? Is my pill networked? Can a videogame cure cancer? Will a robot care for my mom? Can an iPhone save my life? And, of course, does synthetic skin feel gross? The answer to the last question is yes, but it is also pretty astonishing to touch, as noted in one of the many tech-heavy talks at TEDMED, the medical and health-care conference, which has returned after a five-year hiatus, to Hotel Coronado near San Diego.
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Weekend Update: 9.5.2009–One for the Kids

The week that took us from August to September was one for the books over at BoomTown, especially if you’re 12. Kara spent Monday morning at Activision Blizzard, where they are pushing forward with the entire Guitar Hero line, even as the game industry faces a nearly 50 percent decline in U.S. sales this year. Kara got to play hero to several of the forthcoming releases, including previewing the much anticipated DJ Hero console.
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23andMe Co-Founder Linda Avey Leaves Personal Genetics Start-Up to Focus on Alzheimer's Research

Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe, the personal genetics start-up, will be leaving to start a foundation related to Alzheimer’s disease. With Anne Wojcicki, she founded the high-profile company–whose Series A investors include Genentech, Google, and New Enterprise Associates, as well as Wojcicki’s husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin–in 2006. Avey noted in an email to staff, which is posted in its entirety below: “I also recognize that the company has reached a critical point in its growth where new leadership can take it to the successful heights we all think it can achieve.”
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A Google Guy Keeps His Charity in the Family

Google guy Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andme CEO Anne Wojcicki, have donated $500,000 to Creative Commons, the nonprofit that’s trying to reinvent copyright. It also happens to have a direct tie to the couple, in the form of Wojcicki’s mother, Esther.
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An American (Well, Lots of Them) in Paris for Le Web

BoomTown just got to Paris, as in France, to attend and moderate sessions for the third annual Le Web conference. Le Web is organized by Loïc and Geraldine Le Meur, with 1,500 people signed up to hear a range of Internet players, many of whom are from the U.S., tomorrow and Wednesday. Silicon Valley speakers include Marissa Mayer of Google, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Dan’l Lewin of Microsoft. And some interesting European execs include France Telecom Orange Chairman and CEO Didier Lombard and Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO and co-founder of a very interesting fashion sale site, Vente-Privee.com.

The Entire D6 Demo of 23andMe

In the less contentious spirit of DEMOfall and TechCrunch50, two demo conferences taking place simultaneously this week, we’re happy to bring you all the demos we had onstage at the D6 conference. Next up is the demo for 23andMe, the Web-based, direct-to-consumer genome site, which showed off its new 23andWe service.

D6 Conference Recap

Here are all of the highlights from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference, organized by day and speaker: Day One Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft You would have loved Windows 1.0. Walt. You would have LOVED it.” –Ballmer Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Windows 7 Demo Day Two Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com People loved their horses, too. But you don’t keep riding your horse to work just because you love it.” –Bezos on the difference between physical books and digital ones Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Bobby Kotick, Activision The social element has really transformed the gaming experience.” – Kotick on the impact of games like Guitar Hero Session post  |  Video Guitar Hero IV Demo with Tony Hawk and Paula Abdul Howard Stringer, Sony If we were any more successful, we’d be bankrupt.” –Stringer on the success of Sony’s LCD business Session post  |  Video Barry Diller, IAC Hollywood is a community that’s so inbred, it’s a wonder the children have any teeth.”   Session post  |  Video Michael Dell, Dell I could take him.” –Dell on his chances of success in a brawl with Apple CEO Steve Jobs Session post  |  Video Jerry Yang and Sue Decker, Yahoo I will never be a CEO again.” –Yang Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Jeff Bewkes, AOL AOL is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Web. We don’t get no respect.”   Session post  |  Video Nathan Myhrvold, Intellectual Ventures We invest in the creation of ideas… It’s like Baby Mama, with me as the mama.”   Session post  |  Video Demo: G.ho.st Web Operating System Lets users access their desktop from any computer with an Internet connection. Session post  |  Video Tom Glocer, Thomson Reuters We have one great advantage over bloggers: we write once, and sell many times to many different media outlets.” Session post  |  Video Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook I won’t ever stop until you’re either the biggest thing around, or you’re dead.” –Kara Swisher on her relentless coverage of Facebook Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation I want to meet Obama. I want to know if he’s going to walk the walk.”     Session post  |  Full Session Videos: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six Day Three Demo: evri An application that graphs the Web via grammatical information. Session post  |  Video Demo: 23andMe Web-based, direct-to-consumer genome services. Session post  |  Video Melinda Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation All lives are equal.” Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Demo: TransMedia’s Glide A mobile-operating system that cuts across all operating systems. Session post  |  Video Tom Rogers, TiVo The TV set and its primary position in the home isn’t going anywhere in the future.” Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Demo: Deka The “Luke Arm” prosthesis, a state-of-the-art bionic arm. Session post  |  Video Kevin Martin, FCC and Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless You’re the chairman of the FCC. How did you allow this to happen?” –Walt Mossberg grills Martin on the lousy broadband situation in the States Session post  |  Videos: One and Two
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Genotyping Rupert Murdoch: 23andWe Demo

Today’s session begins with a demo from personal genomics outfit 23andMe. Founded by Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki (wife of Google’s Sergey Brin), the company is among those pioneering Web-based, direct-to-consumer genome services. Today the two will talk about 23andMe’s newest effort, 23andWe, which will conduct large-scale genome-wide association studies with the help of individuals willing to share information about their health and other personal traits.

23andMe Announces Sequel to 'Gattaca'

23andMe Announces Sequel to ‘Gattaca’

Kara Visits 23andMe