Technically Speaking

IBGS made an announcement this afternoon naming Paul O’Flaherty to their board of directors as their Director of IT. Here is a bit from the press release:

Effective April 1, 2008

Paul O’Flaherty owner of Your Web and co-founder of Bloomer.dk has accepted the position of IBGS Director of Information Technology. Mr O’Flaherty resides in Næstved, Denmark, will be in charge of developing and overseeing the managing of the IBGS internet operations.

Mr O’Flaherty has for the past 10 years developed his business, culminating in Your Web, a Web Design, Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Consulting Company. In 2007 Paul co-founded and oversees the day to day activities of Bloomer.dk, a social networking group for people in Denmark.

Technically Speaking, I think this is a wise move by IBGS to enhance their online marketing.

Quite interesting how a social network is now attracting all the top dogs even from what was one of the coolest places to work, Google. The real question is how long will this defection last, and what does Facebook offer to the cool top echelon of Google employees? One thing is for certain, Facebook has become a major place of employment for those wanting to work at the new cool place to work in the valley.

While they have created new jobs for those ex-Googlers that want to continue working at a company, many of the ex-Googlers have left to start their own startup. Funny thing is that Facebook has powered many a small company, mostly companies that have been formed around the openness of the Facebook development platform. So while only so many can work directly for Facebook, there are others like myself that have benefited from the growth of Facebook working at an ad network that launched last July that primarily was formed to help these developers monetize their new applications; or fb apps.

When we started we had no idea if the growth of the development platform would be as extraordinary as it has been. We have been along for the ride and our growth has been quite phenomenal from the inside looking out. Of course as I blogged earlier today on the official Lookery blog, we have had our sights on bigger social networks; even earlier than other ad networks would admit.

Technically Speaking, I think the wild Facebook ride will continue on through 2008 into 2009 and beyond. I just wonder how many more will go work for Facebook? I’m sure we will see some more big names make the eventual stop in for a desk at Facebook HQ.

While the music biz thinks that a taxation of everyone is the way to go, the backlash is quite evident. The music biz needs the slave musician in order to survive. The case in point is heard 1000 times over and more so these days by any smart band, you don’t need a label in order to make a living in the biz. Now even though 50 cent had the leverage of a big label, he too realizes that he can build his own fan base without a big label.

The key of course is how badly the musician wants to work in the new music biz vs the old “Please sign my band!” regime that dominated for many years. If you want slavery, sign a recording contract and watch your dreams tumble when you don’t meet the accountants bottom line. It’s not worth it. You can be free and record your own music and still distribute it, tour, merch - merch - merch your band - and keep all the proceedings for yourself.

Now we see that you can also build your own “mailing list” these days and have your fan base to yourself also. I think the new business model for the music biz requires a little work, but the tools are all there. The question you have to ask yourself is - do you want to do the legwork and use the tools, or would you rather succumb to music biz slavery?

Technically Speaking, if I was still an active musician in a band, I would do the first as the tools abound everywhere, and you don’t have to sign a slave contract in order to do what you want to do - play your music and tour the world.

When the NY Times finally acknowledges that there is something going on in the blogosphere, it must be mainstream. While I doubt highly that Mike nor Rafat shared much with this Times reporter writing about other writers, just enough to make a good Friday afternoon showdown in the valley via NY.

What I found interesting is that neither one admitted to building a blogging empire their own way. We are not blind, we see both groups, TechCrunch, Inc. and PaidContent, Inc., doing what they can to be at the top of the game. The funny thing is Mike is in ways like other bad guys we all love to hate. No matter how much you say “Boo!!!” Mike still rides off in the sunset daily with his cigar and his fine wine in hand.

People seem to forget that Mike started a little technology blog a couple years ago, and built the empire pretty much on his own with a few hired guns that made a name for themselves along the way. While some of them recently barfed at the thought of writing about another startup, others went on to bigger projects only to return to where they find the juice flowing again. The nice thing is that makes this blogging world even that much bigger.

My only advice, like I should be giving some, is that they need to strike in 2008 while the fire is hot. Establish a foothold like TechCrunch has already established. Other avenues are becoming more compelling to ignore. Live video has been the hot thing, and with people going over to platforms such as blog TV that makes it easy to start up your own show, who will be reading all the writing in 2009?

Technically Speaking I hope that someone is reading!

I guess the music industry is now finally waving the white flag. Well they actually have been waving it for years as the record industry never quite grasped the fact that 1999 wasn’t just about revolution and Napster sharing, it was about years of recording business slavery coming to an end.

Still there are artists that will continually be screwed and spit out by the industry. Case in point is one of my favorite bands of the past few years, Bullets & Octane. They got a deal by RCA who in turn basically did nothing for them, and subsequently drop them off in the ditch. The good news is the very talented frontman is saying “Screw it, I am a songwriter, and I’m writing new tunes!” Check out his site on MySpace, and support his efforts by purchasing his Vol 1 on iTunes.

Molly who is better known as DemoGirl questioned and received some digg page 1 love this afternoon. Her question or commentary rather was about startups and how stupid their sites are. One of the comments in the digg comment thread of doom was rather funny. He referred making his site a pain in the a$$ as a way to keep retards out. My reply of course was smart a$$ as usual, he and his 4 D&D buddies would make a killer startup - basically.

Technically Speaking, that’s it for a bit - surprised? laptop