Technically Speaking

While many people will agree with the article I found this morning, there are many in the Valley that will agree to disagree. The points made in the article are all valid, but I agree with one of the final statements made by Seth Goldstein:

“People in New York feel a chip on their shoulder because they’re not in the center of this thing,” says Seth Goldstein, a longtime Silicon Alley player now decamped to Marin County.

Being that I’m about 2,000 miles from San Francisco and the Valley proves that under the right circumstances you can be in the thick of this up time in the industry. Another case in point is RWW’s own Marshall Kirkpatrick who resides up the coast in the nice metropolis of Portland, OR. Being there hasn’t stopped him from being Mike’s main go to writer last year, nor has it stopped him from working for SplashCast, another startup *not* in the Valley.

The Valley does provide great access to resources, and for most startups that I have talked with, I suggest that a possible re-location might boost the chances. Than again, I also state that you should be able to live anywhere and enjoy the bubble while it lasts.

There is nothing out there that states you must be in NYC or San Francisco to be in a successful Web 2.0 company. The fact is that many companies that I have dealt with are in the area, but in the same token I have dealt with companies outside the area as well; just as successful, and enjoying this Web 2.0 bubble.

Will it all come crashing down like a house of cards? I think there will be a downturn coming soon, but as for an actual crash, no. One thing we have to remember, everything hardware, software, and knowledge level has all increased to the power of ten since the first dot com bust. Infrastructure speaking, it’s a better ship we are riding on this time out.

Technically Speaking, yes, I still live in St. Louis, Missouri but am employed one company where we all live in a variety of places (Lookery) - but still based out of San Francisco, CA and another company in Sunnyvale, CA (Lending Club).

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/11″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 11!

Episode 11 notes:

Mugglenet

Emerson Spartz, the 20-year-old creator of the popular Harry Potter fan site Mugglenet (mugglenet.com), experienced a similar run-of-the-mill adolescence. “I wasn’t an entrepreneur when I started,” says Spartz, who now tallies more than 1 million hits per day at Mugglenet. “I became one after I realized the Web site’s potential.”

Although worried that his image as a businessman could tarnish his Potterhead status, Spartz tells BusinessWeek he pulls in “a six-figure income.” To angry fans who accuse him of financially exploiting their Potter passions, he simply cites server costs: Once a minor fiscal drain, they now run $125,000 annually. “If I can meet Harry Potter fans’ needs and make money at the same time, why shouldn’t I?” he asks.

Business and web 2.0

We’re now at the busy crossroads where globalization meets Web 2.0. This presents both a challenge to the old ways of doing business and an opportunity to gain tremendous leverage via the right goods and services. To thrive in this era, companies will have to figure out how to engage young people from all over the world when they conceive of products and services. Businesses need their help in turning concepts into finished products and, especially, in marketing them. Another angle: Companies can follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit young employees all over the world.

Better get used to it. Flying blind is the unavoidable consequence of coming to terms with today’s most important demographic group: the tens of millions of digital elite who are in the vanguard of a fast-emerging global youth culture. Because of smartphones, blogs, instant messaging, Flickr, MySpace, Skype, YouTube, digg, and de.lic.ious, young people scattered all over are instantly aware of what’s happening to others like them everywhere else. This highly influential group, many of whom are also well-heeled, is sharing ideas and information across borders and driving demand for consumer electronics, entertainment, autos, food, and fashion. Think of it as a virtual melting pot. As the population of the young and Web-savvy grows into the hundreds of millions, the pot is going to boil.

Plaxo re-launch

Plaxo, the contacts updating service, was popular briefly a few years ago but then started irritating people — it would constantly ping you with update requests from friends and solicitations to join Plaxo.

In short, it got a reputation of being “evil,” and then turned quiet, and we wondered if we’d ever hear from it again.

But tomorrow, the company launches with a promising new release. It’s a complete overhaul, and extremely ambitious. In some ways, it looks like it wants to target Facebook.

GigaOm spin on Plaxo

Now you can sync your Google Calendar and Address Book with your corporate calendar and address book Exchange/Outlook, Apple Apps, LinkedIn, and any other web service or software you prefer to use. (I say almost because there are still some platforms that are not supported, and the beta release isn’t quite bug free.) The Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up has just executed a reboot as a web-based service, and is now focusing on syncing. The company is also making all the information available via its mobile page: m.plaxo.com.

Google-Grand Central

Big rumor of the day: Google is buying GrandCentral. We checked with GrandCentral and they declined to comment. If it indeed does happen, it would be delicious irony: Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet were with DialPad, which got sold to Yahoo. So this would even the score. GrandCentral has raised about $4 million from Minor Ventures and has been looking to raise more cash. Google dollars might be an easier option.

Via - TechCrunch post - Google-GrandCentral

Spotplex

The web offers more than a few sites with variations on the Digg theme, but Spotplex, which has designed a potentially more democratic ranking system, is different.

Instead of the submit-and-vote system used by Digg and its clones, Spotplex ranks articles based on the number of impressions they get. Bloggers insert a line of code into their blogs, and Spotplex works in the background, tallying each time someone lands on an article’s page.

Mashable spin on Spotplex

The good thing about this service is that it’s rather hands off for bloggers; no need to go back to the site to re-distribute content or bookmark it. Of course the downfall of this model is that only items submitted by bloggers can be searched. In order for it to become an ideally useful tool for both bloggers and readers alike,

Google Reader down

Michael Arrington

MySpace vs Facebook

Over the last six months, i’ve noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That’s only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it’s not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Which go where gets kinda sticky, because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class.

More on Yahoo management shuffle

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc. said Sunday that its chief domestic sales officer had resigned and that the company would merge its search and display advertising departments in the U.S. as the Internet powerhouse fights to catch up with online search leader Google Inc.

Yahoo said it hoped the latest shake-up would streamline the way it sold advertising to customers who increasingly want to buy ads across a variety of formats, including being linked to search terms, popping up as a graphical display and being shown as video.

The reshuffling comes after a major executive overhaul announced last week, with co-founder Jerry Yang replacing Terry Semel as chief executive. In the latest organizational change, Yahoo said Wenda Millard, chief sales officer in the U.S., was leaving the company effective immediately.

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This is a topic that has been hashed around probably a dozen or more times. That is a dozen or more times every single week. Instead of writing a super long post on my feelings of “if there are too many”, I figured I’d simply ask my readers to participate in the comments.

The basic questions are:

Social Networks: How many is enough?
Social Networks: Do we need more? Should there be less money invested in them?
Social Networks: What improvements do you see needed in the social networking sphere?

Technically Speaking, this is one for the readers; participate if you really want to be considered interactive and web 2.0 (for lack of a better term at this moment). Interact, post your thoughts, comment on what others say. I’ll jump in if something looks interesting or there is a point that needs to be emphasized.

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!

This should have gone up hours ago. Why bother? Because the news is streaming so fast today, you might have missed it. Doubtful, but you never know:

Inpowr - Now this is a cool social network. One that is quite useful. It’s about YOU!

AllOfMp3 - Is it gone for good? Any signs of life?

Traditional Business - Is always slow on the uptake. We all know that!

Rex sells out - Yes, and Alex from Planypus made sure to welcome me! haha!

Funny Or Die - Big VC money for Will Ferrell; Marshall didn’t think it was all that funny.

And now… finally catching up to 3 hours earlier …..

Google - Launches the PowerPoint clone! It is done, the battle for the whole ball of wax is ON!

Technically Speaking, it’s very hard to keep up during conference week. There was a literal boatload of items on Mashable; Pete and Kristen make quite a team; puts the rest of us to shame.

It’s going to be hard pressed to keep up with a major conference going on this week. My computer memory, along with everyone else’s out there will probably be cooking to fry mode this week keeping up.

Let’s start off with some interesting financial news. Why? Why not! I think these two items are quite important:

Sallie Mae $25 billion - Sold! The housing market is something that really everyone needs to know about.

Wachovia - Profit’s rise by 33%. I remember when I interviewed for them; never heard of them back in those days!

Now on to the tech stuff. We kick it off with one of the most reliable sources for good information, CenterNetworks:

Viddler - Now Allen is a big Viddler fan. Everytime I see a post on it, I think “Batman” as in the RIDDLER! haha.

Want to watch people? - Web 2.0 conference hallway cam is about to be live and world wide! Better then watching my chair!

Fun Reading - It seems everyone has a bit of Jeff Foxworthy in them.

Technically Speaking, more in a few.

As promised, now that you have digested the first round up for the day, here is another one for you to check out. It beats cleaning your blinds on this rainy and cold day in the STL!

Eight Hours of Sleep? - I could not tell you honestly the last time I was able to get eight hours! Now I have said this forever, it is your genetic makeup that is responsible for how much sleep you actually need.

Gutsy Gibbon - I love the naming people at Ubuntu! Where do they come up with the names such as “Feisty Fawn“? Hopefully I will get some more work done on my two Xubuntu computers today. I have sound working on the laptop, but having a hard time getting it to work on my desktop (fileserver). Anyone that can lend me a hand, drop me a line! Yes, I have been “modprobe” the card, etc… Doesn’t seem to work, and it’s “seeing” some other card that was part of the old motherboard; no longer in use.

Web 2.0 Startups - Very good list of what this writer thinks the top 10 has been so far.

Technically Speaking, upcoming is an article I probably shouldn’t be writing. I just need feel it needs to be said! Tentative working title is “Get over it.. Everybody is DIRTY… ” - Look for it very soon right here on this blog.

I hit most of the items before I went to bed last night. Here are a few more:

Sell your Web 2.0 - I believe I hit this one time, but it is worth a mention once again. If you have that Web 2.0 site that is failing or you just want to get out of it; sell it here on Steve Poland’s new venture.

Christopher Reeve - Social Network. Let’s hope for success on this one; seems like a great cause/social network.

Technically Speaking, more in a few!

Just another fantastic post on things I do not miss (either!) about Web 1.0. The funny thing is that no one “gets” GMAFB. In fact over a month ago Scot had to put together a “how to use” podcast due to the fact that he had talked with people that didn’t get it!

I should have just read into the future, to today, and read Ali’s post. It would have saved Scot and myself the time of even discussing putting out a podcast on “how to use” GMAFB.

The hard truth is the fact that these people are still stuck in Win98; Web 1.0! Duh! I think that Scot and I should have just shook our heads and said,”What item have you dugg lately? What feed do you read daily? Have you tried SplashCast, and do you feel it rocks harder then YouTube?“

When they gave blank looks back, we could have gone back to concentrating on fixing the lame UI. We could have not wasted time on trying to lead people along that have not gotten online since 1998!

This is now painfully obvious. We probably wasted a good week of time doing a few podcasts geared towards the web 1.0 challenged people. Those are the people that still miss those fatastic flash entrances with the “enter here“. Yes, I’m guilty of creating one of those once! Yes, I meant FATastic!

Technically Speaking, if you have to ask what a digg-like site is, you are still in Web 1.0; I’ll give you Web 1.5 just to be nice.

It appears that Bambi Francisco and Vator.tv is the buzz news of the day. These dot tv domains are starting to get really popular.

It was reported in depth on VentureBeat this morning, and it has been followed up by Om talking about Vator.tv.

Apparently there is no paternity test needed here, as Bambi is Vator.tv. The main issue is that she was doing this on the side, and as pointed out in the early article by VentureBeat, she should strike out on her own. As also pointed out, much easier said then done.

It’s no wonder with the expansion of the online world as a solid business practice that Bambi would want to venture out of the woods on her own. If the attraction is not there, are you really serious about what you do as your passion? I am not referring to a J-O-B, but what you really desire to do for a living. I will say this much, from personal experience, getting there is a lot of work.

Technically Speaking, I hope that Bambi jumps that fence and makes a go of it.