Technically Speaking

This morning I have found, as well as well e-mailed, twitter’d, and found on my own some great posts on Open Social. One of the first ones I read this morning was the one that provides concrete data on why Facebook shouldn’t worry. This has been Facebook’s forte from the get go. When you have a different audience, you are going for different demographics so it’s a moot point.

Another one is from the place down under, well not really as it’s really the data bytes created out of Portland, OR. There are concerns and valid ones that Marshall raises in his Open Social, not so “ga-ga” post.

Another one came in via e-mail that points you in the right direction if you want to get started with Open Social. This should be one that is looked at if you are a developer wondering how to get in on the supposed hottest event of the week.

Now is that the complete Open Social round up? Of course not! If you want the lowdown on the ins and outs of Open Social this morning, you need to probably read one of these articles. There is even Facebook’s claim of not being let in on the Open Social movement.

You also have another good source posted early this morning that also includes the Open Social FAQ. Tired of Open Social coverage yet? Ok - keep reading!

Is this the end all? Nope. As I was stating yesterday in my unrelated to Open Social post, Google is marching onwards to biggest company status. That is a good thing, as it’s the only thing keeping our economy afloat in these dark times of consistent bad employment data on the mainstream news sites.

Now if you are looking for a job, here is a great source. That along with a post about video startups to get away from all this Open Social and Google talk today!

Burning Money at Both Ends - At a time when many adults are struggling with their own personal finances, they may be faced with expenses from the generation before them as well as the one after. … read more posted 11/2/2007 - 7:03am PDT

Want to start a business? Start saving your money. - Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business and being your own boss with your own hours? It may seem like a dream, but it’s not impossible to attain—a majority of first-generation millionaires got there just by starting their own businesses. These aren’t just tech businesses though—these are electricians, plumbers, and other local small businesses. These are companies that anyone can start—even you. … read more posted 11/2/2007 - 10:53am PDT

Technically Speaking, there are enough articles there for reading and digesting this morning. Being that it’s Friday, you have been briefed on all you need to know for the moment. 2000 Mustang

ImThere hosted a STL startup meetup last night. It was a great group of guys who had some really good ideas. These guys are doing what I use to always say when I was in bands, “You should be able to live anywhere, and still do what you love to do!”

UPDATE: This was actually a co-hosted event with St. Louis Startups. Thanks for the link Paul, as well as Mike’s link below.

Now the trick of course is to see if the Venture Capitalist’s of the world will realize there is great “music” everywhere. I saw some really good ideas last night, and feel that VC or angel money would be well spent on an idea outside of the Valley. David the founder of ImThere realizes the reality of how there is no VC money here in St. Louis, and will actually be presenting at Under The Radar in November.

Some of the other great ideas I saw were from two guys who have developed a great new mapping mashup. Now many of you are thinking “Oh Google does that well.” - Well I’m here to tell you that Google doesn’t do everything, and there are some things their application does well. Not only that, they have a full suite of other apps, one of them could be used as a great way to eliminate e-mail attachments. Check ‘em out for yourself.

Since I have already alluded to music, it was great to see a music place that I haven’t heard of. In fact it reminded me of the old mp3 dot com, garageband, etc… The place is supported by a big time radio company. It is currently being re-tooled for 2007. The site, once re-tooled, has all the potential that the above mentioned sites did in helping the consumer discover new music.

There was one more presentation, and it sort of reminded me of Minority Report. This person is designing a new way of storing items and viewing them. It is sort of a web top, but than again it’s not. I don’t have the URL to share, but if you are reading this (Mike) - send it to me and I will link it. UPDATE: Here is Mike’s site - only works in IE 7

Technically Speaking, there are startups here in the STL with some great ideas.

MyDaySpace.com launched today, Thursday October 18th, and welcomes users to create a Web page dedicated to their own special day in history.

My Day Space is a unique website where you can purchase any day in history, starting from 1900 to one year in the future and create an online tribute to that day. Each day can only be purchased once, so as long as you are the first to buy the day then it will be yours forever. When you buy a date on myDaySpace.com it is your exclusive space in time.

Users simply purchase their desired date and then design the webpage with an easy to use wizard allowing you to add text, images and a background. Once finalized and published, the page cannot be changed and then becomes an internet time capsule to share with others. It’s like owning a page in a universal and eternal diary.

Time capsules have been around for generations. Just as the traditional time capsule captivated your parents and grand-parents, myDaySpace.com is here today to captivate a 21st Century audience where interaction is done primarily online.

myDaySpace.com is a privately funded company with US representation in St. Louis, MO. Please visit the FAQ for more information.

Full Disclosure: Rex Dixon is a co-founder of myDaySpace.com. intranet software

It’s been quite a busy day for me. I just went through and updated my Link Blog for only the 2nd time today. What I’m doing these days is fun, exciting, and at the same time frustrating at times. You know that being said, I wouldn’t trade it for any day job that I’ve done. Even when I worked in the IT industry full time, I will have to say, this is still 120% more fun.

Well I just went through my Link Blog, as I stated above, and one of the articles that jumped out at me of course is from CenterNetworks. One thing about Allen, he has a great way at putting across the news of the moment. I saw a bunch of articles about the twitter money grab, but he put it across in an engaging and interesting manner. One that grabbed my attention, and made me want to read it. Any article that finishes with the line

I am sure the cats who handle the servers are eating some fine Kibbles ‘n Bits tonight!

deserves to be read.

I will however have to say, even though the article he posted the other day on a great blog that talks about VC funding, I am going to have to lean to what I have always stated. Any freakin’ idea will sell to any VC if you know the right people. If you know how to grab someone’s attention, and hold it for at least 7 minutes, you can sell them another social network. Don’t believe me? Look through any of the major sites to see how many social networks have received $millions in the past 30-45 days.

So where do I stand as far as executive summaries, biz plans, and all that tree killing stuff? Well as a traditionalist I would say “Yes, you should have all of that ready to roll.” As a person that hates to kill trees for any purpose but to burn wood over an open fire, I would say, if you can talk the talk and get in front of some people; show that your product just “works” (twitter), all that stuff can be reserved for an open bonfire on your camping trip.

Another interesting item that I have yet to see is Om’s new show. GigaOm TV. Nice. Now again, I did read Allen’s review of the show earlier today (see guys/gals, I may not be blogging as much, but I am reading and taking note when I get a second!) - and I will have to say, I am still intrigued at watching. That just proves that a bad review or middle of the road interview is not a show stopper.

I agree with what Om said, all that production stuff is hard to deal with. When I was doing the podcast thing last year, 4 nights a week, I will say that was the worst part of it all. I can walk in and plain lay it down. Perform. That’s me. When it comes to producing a show, now that is another story entirely. As many have seen, I forgo any production these days with my occasional video web cam casts. Why? Because I would rather be the talent, and let someone else do the producing stuff. OR, I’d rather just produce and let someone else be the talent. Either or, but not both.

When you have the crew of Revision3 behind you, anything can be cool looking. Unlike the videos that I was in earlier this year that I did produce. The Technically Speaking Live shows, and the Friggin’ Break Reports. Yup, Rev3 could have probably made those shows rock. Unfortunately, being the talent as well as the producer takes quite a bit of time. All of these shows I speak of, podcast or video can be found on my media page.

Finally a “just this in“, well not really. It’s been in for a bit now, but looks like Microsoft is going after anything that strengthens their stake in the world of online advertising. They just acquired this Santa Barbara startup called AdECN Inc. I’m not the first to say anything about it, as I saw the smattering of stories as I went through the Link Blog, and it’s quite interesting to see their focus now on the advertising world.

One that I posted earlier in the Link Blog, that everyone that is in a startup should look at. It’s called, when it’s time to move on from your startup idea. I agree with the 3 points it made. For those that are in a failed startup, maybe it’s time you read this article that pretty much lays the facts out there. What was that saying? Oh yeah, “Lie to yourself, Lie to your mother, but don’t Lie to Rex Dixon.”

Technically Speaking, yes, I can be a goof ball - but when you live like I do, you have to have a weird sense of humor to keep your sanity some times day to day. Oh, and why it’s almost a total full time job being a blogger - this just in for real - Alesis iMultiMixer - now this is just plain COOL! I think some Wilmington NC real estate might be the plan someday.

Sprint killing over 1000 accounts - now it seems it’s a big deal in the mainstream media. This leads me to believe the real reason that top C level executives are leaving old media. They are tired of the pace that it seems to move. Tired of the way old media has not embraced new media. Yes I already talked about Sprint last Friday.

I don’t blame them one bit. That is why I set up Planet Social Media Services. I’m not out to kill traditional places, I’m just here to offer the new companies the option of getting there via the social media outlets that are available. Using the tried and tested methods that rocketed Lending Club to where it is today; only like 50 days after launch on May 24th.

You can’t argue with the data that was reported both by TechCrunch and Mashable. Most interesting is watching from the inside how traditional media sources are also picking up on the buzz that is being created.

Places like the Boston Globe as well as the San Francisco Business Times and Kiplinger.

This all leads us back to where it all started. Well not where it started obviously as there were many that tried to get traction before, but MySpace is now recognized as the leader.

Why? Well fresh out of Europe is this look at how they have taken over the world. Not quite, but they have millions of registered users. I say registered, not active. The activity is high, as I can tell when it goes bonkers, but what is the actual activity going on?

A bit dangerous to talk about, but I’m glad that VentureBeat covered the porn connection of Stickam. I’m sure by the morning there will be some denials as well as clear distinction being made. The facts remain, I know VB does fact checking. Not only will they fact check, but they will double and triple fact check if need be. One site that I trust, will rather run a story late or not at all if the facts are not all checked - is VentureBeat.

Statistics. You have to love them, hate them, or just ignore them and continue doing what you do best. Allen is correct, stats are a freakin’ joke. He makes a valid point about “time spent on a site” as something that could be easily challenged and gamed.

Once again it’s to my main point that I have said many times now. Why are some sites considered the leader, and other stats ignored because the leader(s) say to ignore them?

I am agreeing totally, there needs to be a new stat master and I for one would love to see Allen be the one to erase the slate and come up with something. His background in the industry more than qualifies him to be the new slate eraser and creator all in one stroke.

Technically Speaking, I should have been working some more, but it’s been a long productive day and tomorrow awaits!

Go BIG Network has been in business since January 2006. The company is a place for startups, new businesses, and small businesses to look for VC and angel funding.

Wil Schroter and I had a conversation about his new startup. I say new, as Wil is a veteran after launching nine different startups. One of the key things that he always wanted was a central location to seek out funding. Now there is a place.

With over 70,000 startup companies as subscribers, and 10,000 active requests it seems like this is a winning combination. They have a 7 day free trial, but their revenue is generated from subscribed users. Give it a try for 7 days, you might generate interest and find it worthwhile for your business. Subscription fees are $50 a month. Ads can be run for 30 days for $59.

Technically Speaking, resources such as this need to be supported to further growth in the new business world. One thing that needs to be mentioned, is that anytime the word “VC/angel funding” is mentioned, most think of internet startups. Well the one thing that is different is that Go BIG Network invites all small businesses to look here.

Wil Schroter is the founder who has launched nine companies, written a book about startups and authors a nationally syndicated column on startups. Go BIG Network has 12 full time employees and located in Columbus, OH. The company is not looking for funding, as it has been profitable since August of 2006.

SiloBreaker, is another aggregation site where you can bring in blogs, news, etc… It has a very nice layout, but I feel this space is a bit overcrowded right now. CoRank is a site that went this a very similar route recently. CoRank is a classic example of having a startup idea, and shifting gears to find something that works.

There are other sites that do this already, and as you can plainly read - all the names escape me as I write this.

This goes to prove my point. Eventually I feel that Mashable will probably have another “cover it all” post on these emerging aggregation sites. There are many, and even though SiloBreaker has a nice layout, they will need more than that to gain traction amongst the user base.

Technically Speaking, when you launch a product in a sphere that is starting to get overcrowded, you need something new to show. On first inspection, I see nothing compelling that would encourage me to sign up to their site at this time.

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/9″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 9!

Episode 9 notes:

Rev3 picks up $8 million

Revision3, a San Francisco company creating high-quality video shows on niche topics, has raised $8 million more from investors.

Adelson said two of the company’s ten shows in production are now profitable.

Sponsors include GoDaddy, Sony, Microsoft and Verizon. The company as a whole is not yet profitable, but he said the funding is enough to help the company get there.

Viewers are downloading two million shows a month.

Battle of ValleyWag

John Battelle, CEO of FM Publishing, the ad network behind the ads, throw his authors, including us, under a bus today when he writes:

I think the key, as Scoble says, is to disclose. Our draft principles say:

Appearing in Ads: If you lend your voice or name to copy in an ad unit (for instance, “My dream search engine would operate on my spoken word,”) disclose that fact and your relationship with the advertiser, if any, in a post or on a disclosure page.

I think that’s absolutely right, and I wish all our authors did this before running the campaign.

hmm. Disclose? Disclose what? That the text inside of an ad unit is an ad? Thanks, John. Classy move.

Startup Tip #23 - CenterNetworks

Day #23 in the CenterNetworks Startup Tips Month come from Alison Covarrubias from Ladies Who Launch. Alison offered so many great tips on locations that I have decided to give her two days!

To Office or Not To Office…

90+ photo tools

Photos are everywhere on the web. From sharing with friends, to editing, printing, buying, selling, searching, remixing and free hosting, we’ve lined up a plethora of resources for photo fiends.

IBM Social Network

This is an interesting article in the IT Pro magazine. It outlines plans by IBM to introduce a suite of social networking tools for the corporate environment.
It is branded as Lotus Connections is being marketed as social software for business.

Read - Lending Club blog
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Follow - Rex Dixon
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I’m also located on social networks such as - Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ojeez, Vertagio, and the new Mashable one.

VLES (Virtual Lower East Sides) is something that caught my eye last night. I decided to sign up, and of course, Kristen beat me there! She was already browsing around on the site. Being the social media person these days, I figured I’d wait for her report which is always good stuff to read.

What did I think of it? I think it has pretty good potential as an online game such as SIMS, Second Life. I like the fact they are putting in a dose of reality and using a “real” place that has a lot of cool things going on. I also like the fact they are incorporating bands and music there.

Technically Speaking, you had me with the music hook! Oh one last thing - if you join up and than find that everything isn’t working yet — please don’t come and b*tch at me about it. It’s still in a Alpha-almost-Beta mode release right now. If you don’t like pre-release stuff, than just stay clear.

Not a literal one, but one where people just turn it all off. It could very well be a possibility that looms large on the near horizon. I sort of alluded to that fact a few years ago. I was at the time being interviewed (phone interviewed), and I stated that if you meet the person that knows everything and is an expert at everything; they are either extremely gifted or a liar. Maybe a bit of both.

The point I was trying to make to one of these recruiters was that no matter what the job specification said, there was no way that a person could know every single point on that specification. At least not well enough to jump right in.

Same goes for Web 2.0 overload. One of the more interesting things I heard today was Marshall’s SplashCast on Evoca (a Skype recording program). Marshall was praising OpenID, but was bummed that he couldn’t use it anywhere. Jeremy on the other hand didn’t really like it.

With OpenID you can log in anywhere, anytime with one login ID, one password. The concept is great, but with it you are back to the crash. How many social networks are necessary to build the internet into a viable business model? How many photo sharing programs do you really need? How many different sites that do the same thing, only branded a “little bit left or right“, do we really need?

The main article that I’m referencing goes into this and a little more. I am right now leaning towards agreement. If the money is diluted with poor VC/angel choices, the money dries up and pulls out. What will the VC’s invest in?

Other companies that are no longer centrally located as an online industry. There are plenty of companies looking for funding that have absolutely zero online interest. These would be in the bio-tech circle, clean energy, sports business, and sports entertainment area. That is my informed guess.

Technically Speaking, VC’s like playing games. Bloggers such as myself would rather see solid innovation and companies that push things ahead. I really have absolutely no interest in another photo site.

If you are a VC or angel funding person that is about to invest in one, please think again - there are others like me that are tired of seeing junk spilled online just because you have the money to let the startup put junk out there. If it is not innovative, new, or something that pushes the industry ahead; please do us all a favor and pass!