mayor

IBM Brings the Cloud to New York City

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on January 31, 2011 at 6:30 am PT

Big Blue will consolidate the data center operations of 14 agencies in the first phase of a plan the city hopes will save $100 million over five years.

Help! I'm Addicted to CityVille

Liz Gannes in Social on December 22, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Among the early adopter types I know in the tech industry, there’s a sense that casual gaming on Facebook serves an entirely different demographic from their own. The thinking is that games from Zynga and the like replace relatively mindless activities like soap opera watching. But as someone who has just reorganized her virtual retail shops to be surrounded by virtual trees so as to accumulate more virtual bonus points, I see how social gaming–especially as it gets more social–might appeal to the desire for mindless diversions in all of us.

A Hollywood Ending? The Timing of Zuckerberg's $100 Million Donation to Newark Schools Debated at Facebook

Kara Swisher in News on September 23, 2010 at 2:55 am PT

The question is: Which movie was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinking about when he decided recently to fork over $100 million to public schools in Newark, New Jersey? Was it a bid to spiff up his image–with a splashy announcement on Oprah Winfrey’s popular television talk show tomorrow–on the very same day of the New York premiere of “The Social Network,” which casts Zuckerberg as the villain in his own creation myth? Or was it another film, “Waiting for Superman,” a just-released gripping documentary about the crisis in public education? Either way, Newark wins.

Update: Zappos's Tony Hsieh on His Magical Happiness Bus Tour and Hugging It Out With BoomTown

Kara Swisher in News on August 24, 2010 at 9:30 am PT

Also, while in Vancouver, BoomTown tried to avoid the happiness-fueled hug-stalking of Tony Hsieh, the CEO of online retailer Zappos. To no avail. I interviewed Hsieh onstage at the Grow2010 conference. The topic was the upcoming nationwide bus tour for his new book, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,” which came out in June.

Liveblogging the Geo-Location Announcement: Oh, the Facebook "Places" You'll Go

Kara Swisher in News on August 18, 2010 at 4:28 pm PT

BoomTown motored on down the lovely Highway 280 in Silicon Valley to Facebook to hear execs talk about a new geo-location feature the powerful social networking site is rolling out. The new name of the service, which will be deeply integrated into its current update system, as I reported earlier, will be “Places.” There will be no games, no mayors and no special discounts either in Facebook Places–just plain and simple checking in and, presumably, taking names.

What eBay-Rich Meg Whitman Really Wants to Do Is Direct!

Kara Swisher in News on July 12, 2010 at 2:53 pm PT

It’s worth checking out an article in the New York Times today that points to a very questionable, but–as it turned out–politically savvy angel investment made by former eBay CEO and now Republican candidate for California governor Meg Whitman. The piece alleges that Whitman’s $1 million investment in late 2008 in a Hollywood entertainment company called Tools Down! Productions was done to ease a prominent Republican strategist away from working for her rival for the GOP nod. This kind of thing has happened before, of course. But what’s interesting is to see Silicon Valley’s digitally enabled moneybags step up to the very stained political table and jump right into the game.

Terminally Happy Mayor of Zappos Meets Born-Grumpy Dictator of BoomTown: High Jinks Ensue!

Kara Swisher in News on April 19, 2010 at 5:33 am PT

While in Las Vegas recently, BoomTown dropped in at the HQ of Zappos, the online retailer Amazon bought last summer in a deal valued at about $850 million. The company is well known for its culture of intense happiness, both in its high level of customer service and the enthusiasm of its employees. I can tell you first hand that I nearly went into a diabetic coma on my recent tour of the e-commerce company led by Zappos “Mayor” Jerry Tidmore.

Dear Foursquare: BoomTown Is Mayor of "Gossip Girl" (And You're Not!)

Kara Swisher in News on March 10, 2010 at 5:17 am PT

On Monday night, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley speculated that a BlackBerry screen featured on the latest episode of the red-hot television potboiler, “Gossip Girl,” could be a veiled Foursquare moment. The text message on the screen reads, “Elizabeth Fisher just checked in at the Algonquin Hotel.” Sorry, Dennis, not so, as there is no time in the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite to check in, especially since they are all too busy checking each other out.

What Is Cisco Announcing This Morning to "Forever Change the Internet"? A Foursquare-Enabled Jet Pack?

Kara Swisher in News on March 9, 2010 at 5:15 am PT

Bright and early this morning at 8 am PT, BoomTown will be jacked into the matrix for an invitation-only media and analyst briefing to hear exactly what the heck Cisco has been yammering on about of late. Last month, the networking giant said in a mysterioso email that it would be making “a significant announcement that will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments.” Significant? Forever? It had better be good.

Viral Video: Clinton's Diplomacy in the Conan-Newark Mayor Feud

Kara Swisher in News on October 12, 2009 at 7:15 am PT

It looks like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will have her hands full with pretty dicey nuclear and terrorism issues in North Korea and Pakistan this week, but she managed to find time last week to try her diplomatic hand at working out the state of emergency between late-night television talk show host Conan O’Brien and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Here are the videos.