Technically Speaking

It’s been going all day long, and I’m quite happy that Allen at CN kicked off the 2008 year in the right way. He is sitting on top of the Techmeme gauge, and has been for most of the day. Major players are all coming out and giving their 2 cents on the issue. Whether or not twitter has a business model in place, after today, they will have many free ideas.

If they already had one, they may decide to scrap it. There are a lot of good ideas on how to make twitter a very profitable business in 2008. I do have to agree with what Jason’s response to Allen, if you are connected - you get the money. Plain and simple as he noted on twitter earlier today that he has 5 years of funding for Mahalo and is playing the strategic build the business and grow it smartly leader.

Back to twitter. What is making this so more 2008 than 2007 now? It’s been around for a bit longer, and really didn’t grab mainstream tech adoption until last year’s SXSW conference. I’ll admit that I’m a follower as far as the twitter phenomenon goes. It took that event before I adopted and jumped on the twitter bandwagon.

What of the business model. I guess in this day and age, put the product out first and go with the flow. I agree that ideas that are not executed are doomed to stay on that ever winding road that leads you back to where you started. I call that “living in square one, round hole optional” syndrome. While popular business thought says to write a business plan, make a half dozen matrix’s, and crunch all those numbers; in today’s world - that just doesn’t work if you plan to succeed. Why? Because as Jason was saying in his post “We all live in Brooklyn (and need to get out) and need to get to the Valley.”

It’s almost like a band. Unless you get out there and just do it, it never gets done. Believe me, all the bands I was in didn’t have a business model. It never prevented us from reaching a level of success. The only thing that stopped us was the personnel factor or personal issues within the band. As far as a business, any of the bands I have been in could have survived and been a successful business. They were all the same, original music done the old fashioned way. Now would a business model have helped much? Yes and no.

Just in the case of twitter, the idea was the foremost item necessary. Just like a band, the players that wanted to play music and write new tunes were needed, so is twitter. An idea that was based on a basic need for instant communication, done in a Web 2.0 way. Nothing really scientific about it. Nothing really ground breaking on what they are doing. They kept it simple, just like rock n’ roll.

Back to twitter again - why do I like twitter? Well of course I use it to help promote my work, as well as keep in touch with people that I like to chat with. It’s almost like that big water cooler of the cubicle days. I think that twitter has a big future in 2008 as it grabs more mainstream recognition. I also believe that now there are local STL news sites on twitter, it has reached that level of acceptance. For me though, it is like the chatter of the cubicle environment where I use to have a job at.

Technically Speaking, that is why they call it the “Show Me State” (Missouri), as it always seems a bit slow on the technology uptake. I for one of course am not, just as there are also other groups here in the STL that are on the cutting edge. high risk life insurance

Telstra apparently sent shockwaves through their company. They cut off Facebook for their employees! The horror! The cruel and unusual punishment! Ok, now that my sarcasm is done, seriously Allen is correct - you sign something at any corporate company I have worked at about internet usage. Does that stop most, such as myself? Nope, you still surf when you can, and when you have nothing to work on. It’s better than talking to your cubicle person who may be busy working on some other project. Nevertheless, the company has the right to do whatever it wants.

twittercal is just another by-product of twitter. Now the thing that interests me is that with twitter receiving funding, how are they going to reign in all these freebie created by someone applications? There are dozens of them, all based off twitter. Kind of like the Google Map API I suppose; all the companies that use that mapping for their core. I guess it’s ok for now, but I just wonder where twitter will make the money.

twitter equals following. Plain and simple. The reason they were funded without a business plan is the same reason that some bands can go forever without a record contract. Following. You want a sound business plan? Build a freakin’ following. If you can do that, you don’t need one. twitter did that.

They built a HUGE following, and basically when you say twitter, people know what you are talking about; just like (for you music types) - say “Cowboy Mouth” - and there is a perfect example of building a following. There are other bands that did the same thing. None had a business plan (pretty sure about that, refute me if you are in a band with a business plan!), all reached a level of success without a record label.

Technically Speaking, it’s a Friday and I just did my Link Blog lock n’ load. Time to get back to work, my e-mail is whistling at me. bodystockings

He has now announced the fact that we all probably wondered after my post that I made about Wesabe I made last night. He comes clean today with this announcement of investing in new companies now. It looks like he is looking for some photon torpedo startups. I think someone could corner that market.

Technically Speaking, another resource to get your funding for your company is now official.

I don’t know how long a business can go without a business plan.  I have written on this subject a few times, but I keep reading others opinions on the need for a Business Plan.

I find it very interesting how some people who are currently in business do not feel they need a business plan.  Guess that explains why when I asked how their business is doing they don’t know…

Business Plans: Yes They Are Needed Still!

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The nice thing about Sunday night if you do a feed run is that most of the items are talked about on Monday morning. Here are some interesting items I just found.

Electric Sheep - First we had Second Life, and now it appears that Electric Sheep are right around the corner.

Google’s First Server - Circa 1999. Great times to be living in back then.

NBA Social Network - Who doesn’t have a social network these days?

BitTorrent and Joost - All legal, all p2p, all supported by the people that said that p2p was evil!

Spies and Mashups - I really don’t know what to make of this. Really, I don’t.

Facebook API - At least they are releasing some new API for the people to write cool stuff with. I’m actually glad to see Facebook still kicking it. Why? I don’t really know. I guess without them, all we would have would be a MySpace dominated world.

YouTube Celebrities - This sort of cracks me up. Well we do have the Friggin’ Break Report #3 out there as of today, but seriously this reminds me of that song by Brad Paisley.

Business Plan - Do you need one anymore? Is it okay to just sketch it out on the back of a Denny’s napkin?

Sad as this is our future - Schools have more issues. There has to be someone out in the SV area that can help?

p2p is evil - Let’s remember what was said a few year’s ago. Tomorrow is the launch day of the pirates and the evil doers who are all now good guys. I wonder what REALLY happened here??

$2.6 million - I hope this site succeeds so that we won’t have to see the “starving artist” commercials anymore.

Technically Speaking, I did get a lot done this weekend. I hope everyone’s weekend was great — and — Link Blog!