Today  The Atlantic announced the full release of The Atlantic Wire, a slick compedium of political news and opinion from around the Web. It’s actually rather brilliant.

Herein lies a problem, however. While I just found a new content site that combines a beautiful interface with a stimulating blend of opinion, I have to access articles from on their site which is a huge problem. This morning I read an article in The Globe and Mail  called ‘Information-Rich, Attention-Poor,’ that sums up the situation very succinctly. The quantity of information I have readily available is almost infinite, however, my attention is scarce. All the multitasking and browser tabs in the world isn’t going to make me more thoughtful or well read when I can only devote a minute or two to any particular news item.

The Atlantic just made this problem even worse by creating a site I want to visit, but probably won’t because I don’t have time. Adding a new content source to my daily routine has zero transaction costs, but takes effort and some repetition to become a habit. What’s needed is a new delivery system that takes any work out of the process.

Earlier this week I had an article published in VentureBeat about Busk, a startup I encountered while I was in São Paulo this July. Busk uses real-time search technology to deliver news content based on tagged keywords and topics. Any mention of the word cricket, for instance, would search a database of 15,000 manually-added news sources and 100,000,000 articles to bring back every mention of the word cricket. Not too bad.

While this solves one problem, it doesn’t fully address the addition of a single source to my daily reading diet. One solution would be to change my home page,  but in doing so, I lose the page that I used to have there. Similarly, with an RSS reader, such as Google Reader or Feedly, I have to check them whenever I want to know about the latest articles posted. As it turns out, Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages are becoming my preferred method of receiving news. I filter most of what I know about the world through these two sites. Anything worth knowing finds its way to me. To put it another way, I’ve become accustomed to the news seeking me out, instead of going to it.

While Facebook and Twitter are good at presenting information in a ‘river of news’ format, it’s far from perfect. For instance, I have to be logged in to either site and separate hard news from social fact. While I don’t have much of a problem with it now, this is due to the scarcity of news sources I receive on Facebook and the sheer volume of duplicated news on Twitter. If I was more serious about it, I would need a more robust solution and so far I’m not aware of one that does the job. I’m sure there is a product out there that stays on top of interesting news sources–preserving the user interface without commodifying the information–and adds new sources without pain. If you’re out there somewhere, I hope we meet soon!

My hearty thanks and praise are due to satellite television, which, since I arrived in Bangalore, have made me into a born again sports fan. I haven’t been much of a TV watcher over the past several years–except to pass time when eating a meal, however, I now follow Formula 1 racing, cricket and English Premier League Football with a passion. While I have loved soccer (football), since early in my childhood, our TATA Sky setup at home allows me to watch five or more of the weeks best games on an awesome surround sound system.

Beyond the technology, I think there are many aspects that contribute to my newfound zeal for sports. It was my younger brother, Ejike, who first told me that sports are the ultimate human drama. To a large extent, he is right, though there is something about the hype, salaries and intrigue of professional athletics that makes it a drama that is almost impossible to tune out. Even a cricket test match only lasts for five days, but the pageantry spans entire generations.

There is also the sense of community that comes from watching the same game or race as people all across the globe. The isolation of living in Bangalore is unlike that I have ever experienced. If I lived in Los Angeles or Atlanta, my life might be similar. Here I spend significant portions of a typical day being chaufeurred to and from meetings, though contact with outsiders is limited to purchases or the occasional roadside beggar. However, with sports, I have an instant point of contact with friends back home and my social media community that spans South America, The U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia. A simple status update about the match I’m watching on ESPN can be enough to trigger a flurry of responses. It’s both a gratifying and unifying feeling.

Additionally, there is the thrill of learning something new. When it comes to Formula 1, or international cricket, I know almost nothing. Learning the backstory on Dhoni, or how and why a race track is set up expands my knowledge and gives me more reasons to look forward to the weekend.

While I wouldn’t expect to come to India to experience life through a television screen, it has been an ideal way to learn more about local tastes and also stay wired in. That said, one of my professors at the journalism school said the only real reporting is sports reporting. While so much in the media is staged, it’s nice to see that the eternal human struggle is played out fresh each and every day on the field of play.

During my visit to The Hub Sao Paulo, I spoke with Gilberto Jr., co-founder of Amanaie,  about the role of the Brazilian government in fostering innovation. He said that although the government has committed significant resources to hi tech investments, the money isn’t getting where it is supposed to go. Jr also challenged the notion that there are no startups in Brazil. Along with a small group of partners, Jr. launched a Web site called Startupi, which he said is like a Brazilian TechCrunch. Each week, Startupi profiles 5-10 homegrown startups.

Like what you see? Leave a comment!

Brilliance lives in the mind, but ideas need a place to grow. One of the great things about creative people is that they have no shortage of ideas, but as is often the case, hard currency can be in short supply. Before leaving the States, my friend, David, mentioned an organization called The Hub that builds multi-purpose work spaces, and plans to build one in New York. However,  since I was leaving town, it didn’t register at the time how helpful it could be. Looking back at how casually I leaped into the unknown, I realize now that I too needed a hub of some kind to connect me to the people I was hoping to meet in Brazil. After a week of furtive cold calls, I was over the moon when my efforts finally materialized into on-site interviews and a visit to The Hub Sao Paulo. My gracious guide was Paulo, a programmer and blogger whom I met through an Aardvark query. Just goes to show how creative applications of technology can deliver unexpected results. The Hub is a flexible, membership-based work space where creative types from all disciplines can come to socialize and cross-pollinate ideas that lead to exciting and unexpected new projects. “It’s a mixture between a Starbucks, a traditional office and an incubator,” said Barbara Stutz, one of the co-founders and a  partner in The Hub Sao Paulo. Opened in August of 2008, The Hub Sao Paulo was still in “soft launch,” Stutz said, with about 120 members paying 440-600 Reais (approx. USD 220-300) for an allotment of hours in the workspace. Members can book space for meetings, tackle personal projects or just hang out and be inspired if they like. Said Stutz, “It’s just an excuse to have all these people here linked and doing something.”

Paulo @ The Hub Sao Paulo

From the outside, The Hub was one of a dozen unassuming doors lining Rua Bela Cintra, a busy thoroughfare that crosses Paulista Ave., Sao Paulo’s most notable drag. Inside, however, the building had the unmistakable feel of a creative agency, such as a tony architect’s studio or a graphic design firm. The high ceilings, exposed brick and minimalist art pieces gave me a sense that experimentation and reinvention were happening constantly inside. The rear wall had a row of huge, circular windows looking out onto a handful of Sao Paulo’s innumerable office towers, a jumble of while bathing the room with natural light. On a central island, a group of people worked quietly on desktop computers, while in another corner, two women chatted excitedly with a camcorder. The first Hub location was built in London in 2005, said Stutz, and it has expanded its operation throughout Western Europe, India and South Africa, as well as three North American venues: Halifax, Nova Scotia and Montreal in Canada and Berkeley, CA. Hub Sao Paulo co-founder, Pablo Handl, confirmed that a Hub location in New York City is expected to open in 2010. He also said that walking into a Hub anywhere in the world, a certain look and feel is maintained. Tell me more …

If Brazil is the Texas of South America, then Delta Airlines is an RV with wings. All I have to say about Delta flight 121 to Sao Paulo is that I arrived in Sao Paulo in one piece. Their one “unit” of alcohol on a nine-hour, transcon flight, along with the fact they played “Hotel For Dogs” earned them a big black “X” in my travel future travel plans, However, Upon arrival I learned that an Air France plane with 228 passengers disappeared en route from Rio to Paris. The sobering news put any gripes I had about cramped quarters to rest.

Guarulhos International Airport was relatively restrained for Brazil’s busiest air hub. The excitement was provided by a clutch of teenie-boppers camped outside the international arrivals hall waiting for reggaeton singer called Rebelje. You can see him in the blue hat.

After snapping some pictures of the hubub, I asked a porter who the guy was and he wrote down the name on a business card. Subsequent Internet searches haven’t turned up any info, and the group of kids who came to see him was small, but vigorous.

Out of arrogance alone, I neglected to write down the cell phone number or taxi confirmation code  I needed to connect with Debby and Jose, my gracious hosts. My assumption was threefold:

1. I would be able to connect my laptop to a wifi network
2. Once online I could retrieve the necessary information
3. Buying a phone card to announce my arrival would be a cinch

Although I was able to complete all of the aforementioned tasks, I should have saved myself the hassle with a little planning ahead. After 90 or so minutes lolligagging in the airport, I was in a cab and on my way to the center of town.

Airports are  almost the same as hotel rooms. Their purpose is the same and beyond the language being spoken inside, they are hard to separate. (When I get to Nigeria, I will demonstrate how this is not always the case, but just bare with me, aight?) To know a city, you have to see it from the street level and Sao Paulo’s streets have a grizzly reputation. There is more than one car for every four people, in this city of over 20 million people and while there is a subway system, surface transportation is the dominant means of getting around.

The interminable gridlock has given rise to innovation of its own. According to the Guardian, Sao Paulo has a fleet of over 469 helicopters, to help those with the means avoid “Traffic jams [that] often stretch to more than 130 miles in greater Sao Paulo.” There are  [Click here for more audio] A hotel with a helipad on the rood is just around the corner from where I now sit. However, traffic is just one part of the equation. Crime is also a major factor. In addition to the boom in helicopter sales, The New York Times recently reported how crime in Sao Paulo is leading to an explosion in armored car sales. Chances are very good I will be taking a ride in one tomorrow.

While street crime seems to have a lot of folks on edge, I haven’t seen anything yet. What should have people worrying is the way people drive here. Motorcyclists zip between lanes of stalled cars with suicidal disregard, and drivers are fond of fishing their front ends before oncoming traffic as a way of merging lanes.

Beyond the traffic, I haven’t formed much of an opinion about Sao Paulo yet. The vehicle culture has dominated my 14 hours in town.  The city is enormous, and garish concrete reach into the sky as far as one can imagine. After a lunch of eggplant parmesan, beef cutlets and salad, I went for a walk up to Paulista, and watched as the sun set just after 5:45. Although summer was getting under way in New York, winter in Sao Paulo starts in two weeks. It was somewhat chilly today, with a slight breeze.

I don’t know whether I like Sao Paulo yet, but once I start meeting more people, I’m sure it will grow on me. Thanks to Debby’s networking prowess and a little social media, I’m starting to get the ball rolling from a business perspective. Tomorrow night I will be meeting the Sao Paulo CouchSurfing group at a bar called Genuino nearby and from here, I am confident that interviewing will really get underway.