March 31, 2006
ama-zone: since when does wage-slave cowardice count as brains?
[Inspired by Amazon CTO, Werner Vogel's recent post. More backstory from Shel and Rick.]
[Update:] Scoble pipes in.
Where I gave them stuff like "blogging doubled sales at Stormhoek winery, according to its CEO." Or "Munjal Shah, CEO of Riya, says blogging is very important to his new company." Or "Axosoft raised more than $14,000 in just a few days with nothing more than a few links on some blogs." Or "Foldera got more than one million signups for its service in 17 days by doing nothing more than talking to six bloggers." Or, a tailor in the UK saw his sales go up by 10x by doing a blog. That probably wasn't well enough communicated, or it wasn't the kind of answer that would convince Werner. That means I need to go back and do some more homework.
And this is really rich: Here's some anonymous Amazon folk in the comments bragging about how smart they are. OK, if they're so smart, [l.] Why are they working for somebody else? [2.] Why are they posting anonymously? Since when does wage-slave cowardice count as brains?
Sure, Amazon offers a great product for us online shopping folk. And I'm sure Werner's not a bad fellow, just a guy with strong opinions who likes a robust debate. But this episode [the anonymous commenters, more so than Werner's opinions] made me very glad I don't work for them.
[UPDTE:] Dennis Howlett pipes in here:
* First it is about ROi (little i is deliberate here.)
* Next it is not about predicting outcomes in the way Werner wants. It’s about getting involved with people who have influence on your business. Your customers. Your staff. Your partners.
* Then it’s about deepening and leveraging those relationships in a manner that helps you and your ecosystem to grow in what becomes a win-win situation.
* But mostly it is about change.
[Bonus Link:] Classic sparring between Dennis and I on the ROI of blogging, when we first crossed paths. And more here from Dennis:
I smell a rat. You don't know what you can't measure and you can't talk meaingfully about campaign effectiveness without telling about the numbers. Don't be so coy Hugh - it doesn't suit you![Final Link:] Old gapingvoid cartoon: "What's blogging's ROI?"
March 30, 2006
swiss watches
An article in the Int. Herald Tribune about Swiss watches:
Cellini, an exclusive watch retailer in the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel here, waited nearly two years for its first Jean Dunand Grande Complication, a complex mechanical toy worth $775,000 to any number of collectors.Yes, the parallels between them and English Cut are many.
The watch, a display model, arrived at the end of February and "will be gone by the end of the month," Philip Duffell, Cellini's manager said.
In the highest reaches of the luxury universe the mere suggestion that something is unavailable seems to trigger a Pavlovian urge to own it.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to English Cut over the next half decade, as the number of top-drawer Savile Row tailors dwindles into single digits.
Meanwhile, our new line of $300 bespoke shirts is doing very well, so far. I know it's still early days for the shirts, but I'm finding it all very exciting.
[Thanks to Boss Report for the IHT link.]
winecast blogs the geek dinner:
Over the past year, I have been following the Stormhoek meme over that gapingvoid (where the drawing to the left comes from). The winery is now entering the U.S. market and has an ambitious plan to supply their wines for 100 (wine) geek dinners across the country. I have volunteered to host one here in the Twin Cities on May 4, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. From my Frappr listener map, I see there are several local listeners who might be up for a nice evening of wine, food and conversation.[Stormhoek Geek Dinner info here.]
[P.S. We've now added a Frappr map to the proceedings. If you're signed up for the dinners, please add your name to it, Thanks.]
sprint
Like Tara Hunt, Sprint also offered me one of their freebie uber-phones this morning. Very nice of them etc.
Sadly, they offered it without realizing I live in the United Kingdom, not the USA, ergo not eligible for this offer.
Better luck next time, Guys. But thanks for asking.
sunshine facelift
The Sunshine movie blog has had a major facelift. Kudos to Gia etc.
About three years ago, I had this idea that a blog would be a great marketing tool for films. Later, based on what I learned from writing about Young Adam, I wrote the "10 Rules for Professional Movie Blogging."
Two years later, it's stood up rather well.
I think the most important rule is Number Seven:
7. Start early. To build awareness of the movie properly needs at least least a year, preferably two. It's not about telling millions of people at once. You talk to a few thousand at a time. Let the word spread gradually. Give it time to seep into the Zeitgeist, like absinthe on a sugar cube.
March 29, 2006
dennis comes clean
Yes, blogging does make me money.As I'm fond of saying, the more people who make money via bogging, the happier I am.Hugh MacLeod’s been privately urging me to say whether my blog based business model works. It’s time to come clean.
* Yes, I do make money directly from blogging activities. It comes in a variety of forms but I’m not revealing what those forms are or how it works.
* Yes, the amounts I’m earning and the frequency with which they are generated is preferable to the feast and famine of freelance journalism.
* Yes, I do worry about whether the model is sustainable and now I can develop it.
* Yes I do get other, indirect work from my blogging activities and these are more financially rewarding than the direct income.
* No, it’s not a fortune but it’s enough to allow me to live the life I want for myself and my partner Jude. And it’s better than what I was trying to do before because now I’m engaged in conversations throughout the world with people I might never otherwise find.
* Yes, it is a lot of fun, even if at times it can be very tiring and stressful.
* And finally, yes, I regret I didn’t get into this medium a lot earlier.
This commercial agenda makes some people squeamish, but... nobody cares.
we need a new word to replace "luxury"
[115m "Pelorus"]
Luxury, luxury, LUXURY ....aaarrrrghFrom gapingvoid, April 2005:What an over-abused word these days!! We need the marketing genii of the world (no, I am not including myself in that little group) to come up with something a little less obtuse and more interesting to describe our amazing products. Considering it is blantantly used in the yachting industry for anything from 65 feet to 65 metres and upwards, there is an obvious need for a more discerning vocabulary.
One of the most unpleasant jobs I ever had was writing a 10,000 word brochure for a luxury 60-foot yacht.The agency thought because the product was "upscale", the writing style had to be pretentious and fake. "Imagine yourself surrounded in the sumptuous, princely luxury that only the discerning few will have the rare priveledge to experience yak yak yak..."
It was 6 weeks of hell, writing that. Utterly dreadful.
March 28, 2006
how's your strategic vision, fred?
[You really need to read the comments in this post to fully understand the story behind this cartoon. Utterly bizarre.]
[BONUS LINK:] Interesting thought from Ed Byrne:
How to de-commoditise your product.People who work in traditional advertising, please take note.Why do people buy branded premium (eg. Apple) products? Why do people stay as ‘label’ (eg. Apple) customers?
Answer: It’s not the product they buy - it’s the promise of new + exciting products in the future.This is how to de-commoditise your product! This is how to move your business UP the value chain and stop having to compete on price in an un-differentiated market!
Your job is not to sell. Your job is to de-commoditise.
Amen.
"s.a.p. killer"?
Last Thursday Sigurd Rinde gave me a virtual demonstration of Thingamy, his workflow application. I mean business modeling application. Err, database. No, reporting tool. Maybe an “enterprise app”? A web service back-end? No, not that either. And at the same time, all of these.As one of my best friends is one of the top SAP consultants on the planet, I am very reluctant to nail my colors to the "SAP is dead, long live Thingamy" mast [nor am I technically qualified to do so, besides], but it's interesting to see this whole Thingamy conversation evolve.Scalable from a system you would build in 30 minutes (or less, really) to make something silly, such as manage your favorite restaurants, to being a potential SAP killer. And I’m not so much talking about technical scalability as conceptual scalability. As Sig prefers to put it, it’s like Lego (or what Lego used to be before they lost the plot). From the few different building blocks you can build anything from a toy car to a city.
[Disclosure: Sigurd and I work together.]
March 27, 2006
big web 2.0 story
Newsweek cover story: "A new wave of start-ups are cashing in on the next stage of the Internet. And this time, it's all about... you."
Flickr was a good business, too, as many users chose to pay the $25-a-year fee for unlimited photo storage and relief from advertising on the site. But that's not why Yahoo bought it for an estimated $35 million. "With less than 10 people on the payroll, they had millions of users generating content, millions of users organizing that content for them, tens of thousands of users distributing that across the Internet, and thousands of people not on the payroll actually building the thing," says Yahoo exec Bradley Horowitz. "That's a neat trick. If we could do that same thing with Yahoo, and take our half-billion user base and achieve the same kind of effect, we knew we were on to something."
March 26, 2006
all aboard
[More pics of Tom and me on the yacht are here.]
Robert Scoble listed his top ten favorite blogs here.
gapingvoid is on the list. Very cool. Thanks, Robert. That's a serious honor.
I'm still in Antibes, which I love. Yesterday I visited Monte Carlo for the first time, which I didn't care for AT ALL. I found it utterly fake and prententious. Antibes is far more low key.
March 25, 2006
so you can't afford a superyacht...
These superyachts are pretty expensive to buy.
Luckily, if money's a bit tight this month, you can just rent one [known in the trade as "charter"], instead of having to buy it outright.
For example, the "New Century" [pictured above] is a steal at only around €135,000 [US $156,000] per week. Rock on.
billable-hour consultant's hampster wheel of death
Thingamy is almost ready for its next phase of testing. Says Sigurd:
Doing some finishing touches to a works-nicely with-a-little-list-of-missing-features version of the thingamy (you'll never hear me say pre this or that, and no alpha, no beta) that will go out to a few IT consultants and system integrators for some real life playing.Because consultants can build their own, unique stuff with it, they'll have something other than billable hours to sell to their clients. Which should be music to the ears to anyone who's ever spent time on the billable-hour consultant's hampster wheel of death.
[MEANWHILE:] Congrats to Tara for Riyah launching etc. A million pictures uploaded in 24 hours? Intense.
March 24, 2006
still in antibes...
Thomas, his mother and myself were checking out yachts today.
Thanks to Lars and everybody at BCR for showing us around.
Hopefully should have more photos to show you on Flickr this weekend.
[PS: Details of the boat we're standing in front of can be found here. I was particularly impressed with the massive sunroof, for some reason.]
"the more geeked-out your blog, the more frickin' yachts you will sell."
[NB: I'm in Yacht Mode today.]
[Bonus Link:] From James Governor:
Hugh is seemingly shooting to create a 21st century LVMH on steroids, a stable of super-luxury brands with post-ironic vulgarity, or should that be post vulgaric irony as a masthead... If you have to ask - you're not invited. Beyond the blog A-list and into the world of the super-rich. Hughtrain as luxury juggernaut.
March 23, 2006
fenderkicker.com
[NB: A "fender kicker" is a term for people who spend a lot of time shopping for yachts, without ever buying. Not unlike "tyre kicker" in the car business.]
I'm writing this from Antibes, deep in the heart of the French Riviera.
Regular readers will know I've been spending a wee bit of time in Antibes lately [1]. Pourquoi?
Well, besides the obvious reasons- wonderful weather, superb local food and drink, and hanging out with my friend Sigurd- I'm here on business:
Fenderkicker is the company blog of BCR Yachts, a yachting sales and charter company in Antibes, Cote d'Azur, France.
As of today, it seems I'm in the yacht business. Rock on.
[Disclosure: Sig is also involved in this enterprise.]
designer labels
Thomas is in Men's Health [US Edition]... April issue, Page 72. As Dave Parmet, our PR guy explains:
Thomas Mahon is quoted on how to spot a cheap suit in the current issue of Men’s Health. The ‘interview’ such as it was consisted of me pointing a journalist to appropriate quotes on the English Cut blog. There’s yet another reason you should all be encouraging your clients to blog, it saves us all time.
March 22, 2006
March 21, 2006
"top 10 SEO lies told by ad agencies"
1.You really need metatags. …if this was 1999. Now you need social bookmarking, press releases, content syndication, a blog and someone to run it, some viral content as linkbait, and about 500 more good sites linking to yours with your targeted anchor text, but we don’t actually DO any of that yet.2. We shouldn’t have a problem ranking you for “home loans”.
Actually, we could probably buy your way in on PPC if you can afford $5 clicks. Even if you had 100k budget to spend just on ranking for that phrase you’re probably screwed, but you’ll be fine just ranking for “low rate home refinancing loans in detroit” instead right?3. Links aren’t really that important.
Don’t worry, our crappy corporate-speak content should attract them naturally. If it doesn’t we’ll just continue to charge you until we get so fed up with each other that we’ll just outsource your project to someone else.
March 20, 2006
this is utterly appalling:
Kinderstart sues Google over lower page ranking.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 18 (Reuters) - A parental advice Internet site has sued Google Inc., charging it unfairly deprived the company of customers by downgrading its search-result ranking without reason or warning.So people have a constitutional right to Googlejuice? So Googlejuice = Free Speech? That to me seems an insult to the notion of Liberty.The civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, on Friday by KinderStart.com seeks financial damages along with information on how Google ranks Internet sites when users conduct a Web-based search.
KinderStart charges that Google without warning in March 2005 penalized the site in its search rankings, sparking a "cataclysmic" 70 percent fall in its audience- and a resulting 80 percent decline in revenue.
Can somebody more consitution-savvy than me help me out with this? I'm confused.
[From Talkshop:] "That said, I also think it's fair to say that if an 80% revenue decline can be attributed solely to your Google rank, you've pretty much lost control of your business."
triple whammy: tom in the times [and the guardian], hugh in the guardian
Today we had a double whammy in the national press. First, Thomas was quoted in The Times (of London):
“If ever there was a street that deserved an award for exporting then it’s Savile Row,” said Thomas Mahon a Savile Row-trained tailor who now runs English Cut. “If the bespoke businesses were driven out by crappy retail stores selling poor quality clothes, then Savile Row’s name would be irreparably damaged.”I'm quoted in Media Guardian, on a completely different topic:
How big business barged in on the bloggers.Scoble and Rubel are also mentioned in the article. Rock on.Companies once saw them as a nuisance. Now they are trying to get the bloggers onside, realising that they can reach consumers better than any PR company ever could.
...
"The trick is not to try too hard to sell," says Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid.com. "You need to respect the people reading it, they're coming to you. Blogs are a great way to make things happen indirectly. It is different from creating a controlled mechanism that tries to change people's behaviour, which traditional advertising tries to do."
[UPDATE- TRIPLE WHAMMY:] Tom gets another 500 words in Media Guardian:
What I like about the blog is that I get to set the tone of the conversation. I can make the discourse as intelligent as I want, there's no "lowest common denominator" governing the discourse. Unlike most fashion sites, it's not about dressing up models and parading them up and down the catwalk. It's about love of craft. Savile Row suits don't cost as much as they do because of hype and celebrity spin, they cost as much as they do because they're expensive and tricky to make.
"the list"
All Things Web 2.0 - "THE LIST"
AUDIO 2.0Goes on for PAGES.*
Bebop - Compare music calendar against your iTunes catalogue. http://www.bebopular.com/
*
Clickcaster - Record, license, publish & promote your radio show. http://www.clickcaster.com/
*
Difm - Radio community. http://www.di.fm/
*
Dottunes - Share your iTunes. http://www.dottunes.net/
*
Enablr - Transcribe podcasts, Text2Snailmail, ... http://www.enablr.com/
*
Fluctu8 - Create & share your sourcelists. http://fluctu8.com/
March 19, 2006
100 dinners etc etc
We still have a few slots open for the Stormhoek 100 Geek Dinners. If you fancy signing up, click on the picture above and it'll take you where you need to go etc.
rupert murdoch pipes in
Internet means end for media barons, says Murdoch.
· Magnate hails second great age of discoveryRupert Murdoch last night sounded the death knell for the era of the media baron, comparing today's internet pioneers with explorers such as Christopher Columbus and John Cabot and hailing the arrival of a "second great age of discovery".
· Power 'moving from the old elite to bloggers'
The News Corp media magnate nurtures a long-held distaste for "the establishment" but last night confided to one of the few clubs to which he does belong - The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers - that he may be among the last of a dying breed.
montparnasse
Yes, France, you are correct. The 21st Century was indeed invented by the Anglo Saxons for no other reason than to mess with you.
children of the silo
Perhaps the strangest thing I've run into is what I've come to think of as the silo student. Kids keep handing me resumes that look like they were written 20 years ago. They mention the student newspaper, the yearbook and the college literary magazine. But they don't mention Web sites, blogs, email newsletters, podcasts, html skills, citizen journalism projects, video, etc. And when I ask the students about their online experience, I get these weird responses. Lots of them tell me "I only want to work for a newspaper." Lots of them say things like "I'm going to be a writer, not anything else." Some seem genuinely perplexed and ask me if I think "most newspapers have Web sites?" or if "reporters need to do things on the Web?"When I asked teachers what they thought about this, I found that they were as upset as I was by their students' disconnect from the realities of media today.
I have been arguing that people in newsrooms must tear up their business cards, getting rid of their job descriptions as print or broadcast or new media. All media are new today. Conley makes it apparent that the same thing must happen in schools; we have to tear up the tracks.
interesting open source article
As “open-source” models move beyond software into other businesses, their limitations are becoming apparent....
The “open-source” process of creating things is quickly becoming a threat—and an opportunity—to businesses of all kinds. Though the term at first described a model of software development (where the underlying programming code is open to inspection, modification and redistribution), the approach has moved far beyond its origins. From legal research to biotechnology, open-business practices have emerged as a mainstream way for collaboration to happen online. New business models are being built around commercialising open-source wares, by bundling them in other products or services. Though these might not contain any software “source code”, the “open-source” label can now apply more broadly to all sorts of endeavour that amalgamate the contributions of private individuals to create something that, in effect, becomes freely available to all.
if i ever start calling myself "chief brand ambassador"...
Glenfiddich, my least favorite single malt Scotch on the planet, has started a blog (I'm more of a West Coast Highlands & Islands single malt guy, not hip to the Speysides at all. Nothing personal.).
Eh. Like the Guinness blog, nothing to write home about, but at least they're having a go.
podcast etc.
Heather Green interviewed Fred Wilson recently. The end result was this rather good podcast.
Fred explains with great clarity how having just a simple blog has changed his business (Venture Capital) for the better.
March 18, 2006
new rss symbol
Just added a new RSS badge to my sidebar.
If you like it, feel free to use it yourself etc.
[UPDATE:] Sig has added it to his sidebar. Rock on.
suddenly the cancer
"Sig’s killer app needs to get friendly."
David Terrar writes about Thingamy and his recent meeting in London with Sigurd:
Coming face to face with the application is really the only way, at the moment, of coming to grips with Sig’s new view of enterprise software. I’m pleased to report that David agrees with me that Sig has, as they say, a “killer app”. We left the session both very excited about the concept, the potential, but concerned with the way Sig is positioning it. Sig is quite an evangelist for his approach, and he aims to turn the world of software on its head. We think he can do that, but by stealth and in stages, rather than by tackling the old order head on (and anyway, the old order has its place).NB: Yes, the cartoon and Thingamy ARE related. Rock on.
[Disclosure: I'm working with Sig and Thingamy.]
"the intention economy"
Is "The Attention Economy" just another way for advertisers to skewer eyeballs? And why build an economy around Attention, when Intention is where the money comes from?i.e. Attention's point of view "is anchored with sellers, not buyers." A very good read from The Master, as always.
gapingshirts all over the world
Sebastian Keil has a gapingvoid t-shirt. He takes it around the world with him, and publishes the photos on Flickr. Utterly spectacular. Thanks, Sebastian!
[New t-shirt design here. Only available for a week etc.]
March 17, 2006
more 100 dinnery goodness
It looks like the Stormhoek 100 Geek dinners is going along nicely. Looks like we're still on target. Thanks to everybody for supporting this.
Two main thoughts:
1. This still holds true: that the more Jason and I get into making this happen, the more we like the "small is beautiful" angle. Like it says on the orignal post:
A large, multinational alcohol brand covering an internet idustry party is nothing new. But a small, South African winery covering a small, intimate, random event in say, Phoenix, Arizona is much more interesting. Because it's on a more human scale.AND YOU WANT TO REACH PEOPLE ON A HUMAN SCALE. That's what Madison Avenue keeps forgetting. That's what Madison Avenue can't get their head around, because their business model has no credible answer for it.
2. We've added a Frappr map to the equation. If you've signed up to throw a geek dinner, please add your name to it, thanks.
3. OK, so it's going well and all, but yeah, there will always be room for improvement. What sayest thou? Any ideas? Please, let's hear 'em. Thanks Again.
e-mail from rand
Just got an e-mail from Rand. Make of it what you will.
Hey Hugh...As always, this is blogvertising experiment for "A really cool online shop in Venice, CA. run by my old friend, Rand Denny." I'm not being paid for this. Yet.You call that a wee spike...I call that a BIG JUMP.
I'm basically hopeless at deciphering stats but I think our traffic has doubled...
Heaps of hits from feed readers. And also more referrals from people linked or writing about things we wrote about.
We haven't noticed a change in sales yet but what we have noticed is a big change in energy. Lots of questions from potential customers, lots of people snooping around. We're digging it. And appreciate
it immensely.Thanks much.
Rand
i.e Untangled Life. The link just above is to their blog. The link here is to their main homepage.
"are you ready to become one of the most popular bloggers on the planet?"
Weird question. With an even weirder answer.
"saturday shirts"
Got a new t-shirt design up. The blurb reads like this:
Each gapingvoid 'Saturday Shirt' is from a limited edition (never to exceed 200 t-shirts). It will be offered on a Saturday and is available for pre-order for one week only. Place your pre-order by midnight (GMT) on following Friday. Once the deadline has past, that's it, they're gone. I won't be reprinting the design.The idea is to not only keep them limited edition [like we said, we'll never exceed 200 shirts of one design], but to limit the time they're available. A new design will come out on a Saturday, and people will have a week to pre-order one. After a week, the shirt design is taken off the market.
This pre-order allows us to know exactly how many shirts we have to print, saving us the headache of unsold stock. It also allows us to come up with more new designs, more often.
We were going to launch tomorrow, but then we thought, what the heck.
I hope you like the new design. Thanks.
[PS:] The traditional Flickr & Technorati tag for this enterprise is "gapingshirts".
untangled life advertisement
This an ad for "A really cool online shop in Venice, CA. run by my old friend, Rand Denny."
i.e Untangled Life. The link above is to their blog. The link here is to their main homepage.
Here's the deal. Rand is an old friend of mine. We were talking on the phone over the weekend and I thought I might try promoting his store, just for the hell of it.
I'm not being paid for it [not yet, anyway]. My main motivation is seeing what happens with it as a "blogvertising" concept. If what I do has any positive (or negative) effect on sales, I'll let you know. But I do think it's a fascinating opportunity to mess around with the advertising model.
anybody?
David asks me via e-mail:
Do you know any organisation that has turned its back on implementing social software systems internally - blogs, wikis, IM, etc?? I know there are a lot, but I need to find one that has done it consciously and can articulate its reasons.Hmmmm... Apple? That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Though Lord knows what their reasons are, besides control issues.
Any help on this would be most appreciated. Please feel free to leave something in the comments, Thanks.
this ain't no utopia
Although I now make my living helping people understand the world of social computing and evangelise about its potential I am also quick to point out that the technologies in themselves don't bring about utopia. People are people and you get the good, the bad, the confused and the weak in about the same proportions as you do in real life.
March 16, 2006
“decommoditification”
“Decommoditification”.
This is a word I’ve been using a lot recently, especially with my clients.
Most of us don’t work for Apple or Aston Martin. For most of us, the products we make are not that unique, rare, or desired. We’re selling commodities.
And selling commodities is hard. If you don't give the customer exactly what she wants, there's twenty people lined up who can. And some of these people are younger, sexier, smarter and cheaper than you.
This is what I call the "Commodity Feedback Loop". Once you get into it, it's hard to get out. Every time you try to sell something, there is an unrelenting pressure to slice up your wafer-thin margins into salami. Not a job for the faint of heart.
So if this applies to you, then as a marketer, your job is not in the making and selling of something unique, your job as a marketer is making your product seem less of a commodity than it already is. Hence, “Decommoditification”.
And that can be valuable. Look at the Microsoft bloggers. Their company's software is basically a commodity (not unlike the $400 Dell, Sony and Toshiba computers it runs on), but via their blogging they make it seem less so.
I was talking to a Madison Avenue friend the other day. One of his clients is a large retail chain. A commodities business, if ever there was one.
The value his agency provides isn’t selling per se [“Gosh! I think I’ll drop everything I’m doing right now and go shop at the store currently being advertised on the TV!”], but he’s making the store seem less of a commodity than it would be, if he wasn’t doing such a splendid job i.e. bringing passion and authority into the equation.
i.e. He’s not selling products for 10% less than the other guy. What he really is selling, of course, is “Hope”.
And Hope is valuable. Like it says in The Hughtrain, the market for something to believe in is infinite. Rock on.
March 15, 2006
is google the new kryptonite?
From Mobhappy:"Is Google the New Kryptonite?"
I don’t buy the idea that Google are too big and busy to bother about this little gnat of a story buzzing around their head. The Blogosphere has shown that it can blow this kind of thing into a major, major issue in no time at all. Lots of companies take time to comment on stories I write (normally offline) and the one thing all these people share is that they’re busy and short of time. Google might be bigger, but that means that they should have more resources to listen and respond to conversations and concerns.
ms bloggers (cont.)
My list of Microsoft employee blogs has grown to 27. Very cool. Please feel free to keep adding to it. Thanks.
March 14, 2006
March 13, 2006
music i.p. is live
www.musicip.com is now live and the fun is beginning down in Austin. Being in Germany, I’ve raised a beer in toast to the team for an outstanding job getting ready for the show.[Bonus Link:] My favorite poem of all time.If you own a bunch of music on your computer, want to maximize the enjoyment of you collection and discover new music, please down load the application. Let me know what you think.
If you are an artist, you will find that MusicIP is a great way to get your band/music into the system and discovered by more fans.
added another link to the sidebar...
"A really cool online shop in Venice, CA. run by my old friend, Rand Denny.Rock on. This means I can write more about wireless.
[P.S.] Rand's sister, Kalyn has a great little ol' foodblog here.
"getting to meet jason kottke is like getting to meet brad pitt's cousin"
Interesting conversation between Jason Kottke and Heather Armstrong, as transcribed by Rex Hammock:
Heather: (Why she doesn't have the subscription model) "I didn't want the readers to think we're entering a bargain where they feel they can demand (something specific from me)...like when (Kottke) went to Asia (and readers said, "Hey, I didn't give him money to do that.")Yep. The old job job thing. Gets you every time. Hence "The Sex & Cash Theory".
Kottke: I'm not (continuing the subscription model) because I had 1,500 bosses. I (originally) saw it as a magazize subscription. People who subscribe to magazines don't think of themselves as shareholders. (But people who subscribed to his site did.)Heather: Did your relationship with the website change?
Kottke: It became more like a job job. I felt I had to do it a certain way. It couldn't be just whatever the hell I wanted it to be. (To Heather) I thoought your site would do good with a subscription model, because your readers are fans. the people are obsessed with you.
March 12, 2006
i thought so...
OK, so why did everybody's favorite business visionary, Joi Ito pretty much give up blogging, to play video games instead ("World of Warcraft", to be specific)?
The structure and the organization required to complete missions or quests in WoW adds a great deal of focus and complexity to the community compared to a chat room and the communications and management begins to feel much more like collaboration in a work environment. I think that the ever-evolving user interface and communication tools that we are developing might impact the future of management in the real world. My feeling is that what we are doing in WoW represents in many ways the future of real time collaborative teams and leadership in an increasingly ad hoc, always-on, diversity intense and real-time environment.Good ol' Joi. Never a dull moment with him around.
[UPDATE:] Daniel Terdiman from CNET pipes in:
But Ito's point is that employers would do well to see that they can keep employees happy by being respectful to them and encouraging an environment in which people work together and chase common goals without autocratic leaders belligerently laying down arbitrary ground rules.At least, he explained, that method isn't very successful in WoW, where guild leaders trying to organize 30 or 40 people for raids have to recognize that if their charges aren't happy, they'll just leave.
Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0
Seems like Web 2.0 is beginning to catch up with Web 1.0...
We live in interesting times.
[UPDATE:] For someone in the advertising business, this chart is EVEN MORE interesting...
dinner banner
Just put up my "Web 2.0 Geek Dinners" banner on my homepage sidebar.
Please feel free to stick it on your blog, no worries. Just copy & paste the code below. Thanks.
<a href="http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/002236.html"><img border="0" src="http://www.gapingvoid.com/100geek.jpg"></a>
"slivercasts"
As Internet TV Aims at Niche Audiences, the Slivercast Is Born.If that isn't the future of Media, my friends, I don't know what is....
Indeed, the Internet's ability to offer an almost infinite selection is part of what makes it so appealing: people can find things that don't sell well enough to warrant shelf space in a neighborhood music store or video rental shop � think of the obscure books on Amazon.com. The ease of digital video production and the ubiquity of high-speed Internet connections are sending the long tail of video into the living rooms of the world, live and in color.
money is real
[Bonus Link:] Newsweek interviews my favorite blog magnate, Jason Calacanis:
You've been through a boom and a bust. Are we in another bubble now?[NB:] The guy in the cartoon is NOT Jason, or meant to imply anything like that. Just so you know.It's frothy. And I'll tell you the thing that makes me nervous. When I hear entrepreneurs talk about how many more pages they have than another group, or how many more connections per user they have in their social network, that's when I realize that they don't have that strength to go farther. The scoreboard for me is always earnings. When I see people basing the scoreboard on something else, I realize that they're not real entrepreneurs.
nice quote:
Let me say it again: the best way to figure out who the important bloggers are in your sector is to go into the online communities as a participant. It'll become apparent very quickly.
podslam
"Podslam is the first online poetry slam. It's based on the traditional poetry slams where audience members rate poets as they perform their work. PodSlam.org presents each poet's work in a video designed to be viewed in your browser, in iTunes and on a video iPod."Somebody just sent me that blurb. Rock on.
March 11, 2006
more 100 dinnery goodness...
Michael Arrington kindly sent me this pic. Stormhoek bottles being set up at his recent "Techcrunch/Naked Conversations" bash.
And yeah, we're still offering to supply wine to other "Web 2.0" bashes. Sign up here if you haven't already etc. Thanks!
[UPDATE:] Jason from Stormhoek pipes in:
Based upon the emails, there are lots more varieties of geeks out there than we had envisioned. Of course, there are the tech geeks, but it seems that there are wine geeks, food geeks, fashion geeks and hard partying-geeks all wanting to sign up. But, as I discovered last week when I erased multiple entries on the wiki by mistake, only the Tech geeks are actually able to figure out how to use the wiki.[UPDATE:] Another good photo over at Om Malik's.
to annoy or not to annoy
I have a friend who frequently (yesterday) nudges me that I should not annoy big serious big money potential customer corporate types with certain statements and words (management is a waste of time and bollocks?). That's rule #1 he says.Big-company people not wasting time? It's like cows not eating grass.But I cannot help it. Here we say "find your voice", "be true to yourself" and "engage in open conversations" - and I happen to agree.
Stupid or not, being honest (and stupid saying it loud?) is an excellent filter against wasting their time and my time. They don't like it, good, then let's not waste time.
March 10, 2006
if i link to you
"Untangled Life". An online wireless gadget store in the shape of a blog. "Engadget" meets "Sharper Image", as it were.
Oh, and they have a website ordinaire, as well.
One of the founders is an old Leo Burnett colleague of mine, Rand Denny. Great guy.
Old friends not withstanding, I think the idea is brilliant.
i'm not a blogger
The last remaining gapingvoid t-shirt design will be up for another week, after that it will no longer be available.
But what comes next?
john t. unger, artist and global microbrand
One of John T.'s "Firepits".
Chris Carfi points to John T. Unger, an artist and regular gapingvoid commenter who has used his blog and the global microbrand idea to carve out a nice wee career for himself (for more money than his last day job paid him, I hasten to add).
Go read John T's take on it here. Very uplifting.
great cartoonist
Dave Walker. I mentioned him recently, but only in passing. I think his cartoons are wonderful. My favorite cartoon find since Savage Chickens.
March 9, 2006
unhealthy microsoft obssession
I'm putting together a list of Microsoft Bloggers on the wiki.
For personal and professional reasons, I'm starting to watch that company more closely. Methinks the best way to do that is to follow their bloggers.
Ah, but where to start? If you know any, please feel free to add to the list. And if you work for MS, I would really appreciate having your blog up there.
Thank You.
love = 25%
Maybe love does have a place in business after all. Maybe more and more of us will start to have the courage to begin to talk about what really matters to us about work and our relationships with each other and to push back the sterile language of business that we have been trained to accept. Maybe we will realise that accepting love into the workplace reminds us of the original purpose of work - not to maximise shareholder value but to come together to do good things, to help each other and hopefully to make the world a better place.Maybe ....
Oh and by the way if the above is too new age and namby pamby for you I reckon social computing is capable of talking 25% out of the running costs of most businesses - so there!
the 1990's
Thanks to Fred Wilson for the inspiration:
So forgive me if I flip out the next time I see a company bring a huge long term lease to the Board for approval. It's not a good thing to be in the bricks and mortar business. Keep your rents low. Sign short term leases and get clauses that let you out. Don't let your leases bring you down. It's happened to many people, don't let it happen to you.Yep. A lot of people don't think a business is 'Real' till they start owing serious money to the real estate boys etc.
feed lurve
I agree with Scoble. Feeds do make you smarter. I don't have enough. I want more. Lots more.
Ergo, my offer still stands. If you want your feed on my Bloglines, please drop me an e-mail and I'll pop it up, no worries.
npr is blogging
NPR is blogging. Thanks to Rob Patterson for the link.
Good luck to them. Yes, I think it is possible for Big Media to blog, and blog well. Businessweek's Blogspotting is living proof of that.
more church newslettery goodness
More on Jamie's church newsletter; this time from The (London) Times, no less:
TODAY’S restless churchgoers might be amused by a copy of The Hotspur, the parish magazine of St John’s in the north Pennine village of Healey. Get a free concrete poem along with your church service times. Jamie Warde-Aldham maintains a proud Northumbrian tradition of textual embellishment as he creates a fresh — and decidedly eccentric — new format for the sort of leaflet that flops monthly on to village doormats. This month’s edition, to celebrate Chinese new year, is dedicated to the dog and includes anything from the chimerical creatures of Pliny the Elder to a essay on the canine genome.[PDF:] Download the church newsletter here.
[Thanks to Dave Walker for the link.]
March 8, 2006
human beings don't scale
Here's an update of where we are on the "Stormhoek 100 Dinners" idea:
1. According to the wiki, so far we have close to 50 people signed up. Add to that about another 30 who we're taking to, it looks like we're well on our way to making this a success.
2. It's nice when big events get Stormhoek coverage, however both me and Jason prefer taking the "Small Is Beautiful" angle.
A large, multinational alcohol brand covering an internet idustry party is nothing new. But a small, South African winery covering a small, intimate, random event in say, Phoenix, Arizona is much more interesting. Because it's on a more human scale.
AND YOU WANT TO REACH PEOPLE ON A HUMAN SCALE. That's what Madison Avenue keeps forgetting. That's what Madison Avenue can't get their head around, because their business model has no credible answer for it.
3. It's not enough for Stormhoek to be whoring itself to bloggers indiscriminately. We want these events to be interesting in their own right. "We're having this blogger's mashup in the most unlikely locale you could imagine" is interesting to me. "My second cousin, Larry is having a birthday party and yeah, we'd like some free wine" is not.
4. The people signing up are pretty much who'd you expect: gapingvoid readers, bloggers, Web 2.0 people etc. I'm hoping to get more wine bloggers into the mix.
5. You see where this idea could potentially spread? First the bloggers in general, then wine bloggers specifically, then the wine trade press, then... BIG MEDIA [SFX: BOM BOM BOM trumpet noises].
Part of my agenda here is putting ad agencies out of business. Or at least, trying to.
6. Madison Avenue: "Hey, America! Here's why you should buy our stuff."
The Hughtrain: "We love what you're doing and we would like to be part of it, within reason."
The thing is, being on the Hughtrain means keeping it down to a human scale. Because human beings don't scale.
7. To sign up, please go here if you haven't already. Thanks.
8. Anything else?
[Update:] Salient thought from James Governor: "He who supplies the free wine underpins the community buzz, and that's where the action is, and at some point it will drive economic activity."
j.p. is blogging
J.P. Rangaswami, who works on the tech side of investment banking, has started a blog.
I'd pay attention to what he has to say. Seriously.
so, if it can be done with a church newsletter...?
There's a common saw going round the blogosphere, that the ony way to market anything these days is to be remarkable i.e. worth remarking upon i.e. worth talking about.
So what's the most remarkable thing I've seen recently?
That would have to be the new church newsletter designed and edited by my friend, Jamie Warde-Aldham.
To make a long story short, Jamie is joint Creative Director of Craven's, an ad agency in Newcastle. I helped them with their website recently.
Anyway, he's a churchgoer, and being a creative type, he convinced the local vicar to let him give the newsletter a facelift.
Wow. Methinks Jamie hit the ball out of the park with this one.
Sadly, it's not online (yet). That being said, Jamie allowed me to put a pdf document of it onto my server, which you can download here. Please feel free to do so.
Congratulations, Jamie!
[NOTE TO MARKETERS:] So, if it can be done with a church newsletter...?
[WHOOPS!] Page 8 should carry the words: Photograph by Dan Prince. See more at danprince.co.uk.
Page 20 lines 2 and 3, left hand column should read: 'WH Auden would end the argument by slamming the table and saying "I know my cat has a soul."'
March 7, 2006
la france
Not sure if this a good idea or not, but for the next while I'm trying to add everybody who links to me in Technorati onto my Bloglines feed.
OK, most everybody. Within reason.
It may be a great idea, it might be one of those ideas I tire of quickly, and abandon within days. I get lots of those.
But do I need to build up my feed list, and keep better track of people on my radar etc.
Oh, and if you want your blog in my Bloglines feed, please drop me an e-mail. I'll pop it in, no problem.
[UPDATE:] Just added mabelandharry to this list. So there you go.
[Technorati Update:] I'm at Number 11 on the "Favorited" list. Too wierd. Thanks to everybody who helped put me there. Seriously.
do bloggers feel pain
[Bonus Link:] "The Normalization of Blogs". Naked Conversations switches its emphasis from Blogs, to "Web 2.0".
Sounds like a lot of people I know.
ipod killer
From Scoble's comment section:
CROWD: An iPod killer! We’ve found An iPod killer!
VILLAGER #1: We’ve found an iPod killer. May we overhype it?
CROWD: Overhype it! Overhype! Overhype it!
SCOBLE: How do you know it is an iPod killer?
VILLAGER #2: It looks like one.
CROWD: Right! Yeah! Yeah!
SCOBLE: Bring it forward.
ORIGAMI: I’m not an iPod killer! I’m not an iPod killer!
SCOBLE: Uh, but you look like one.
ORIGAMI: They photoshopped me like this.
CROWD: Augh, we didn’t! We didn’t…
ORIGAMI: And that wasn’t my video. It’s a concept piece.
SCOBLE: Well?
VILLAGER #1: Well, we did do the photoshopping.
SCOBLE: And the video?
VILLAGER #1: And the video, but it is an iPod killer!
VILLAGER #2: Yeah!
CROWD: Overhype it! Right! Yeaaah! Yeaah!
SCOBLE: Did you photoshop it up like this?
VILLAGER #1: No!
VILLAGER #2 and 3: No. No.
VILLAGER #2: No.
VILLAGER #1: No.
VILLAGERS #2 and #3: No.
VILLAGER #1: Yes.
VILLAGER #2: Yes.
VILLAGER #1: Yes. Yeah, a bit.
VILLAGER #3: A bit.
VILLAGERS #1 and #2: A bit.
VILLAGER #3: A bit.
VILLAGER #1: It has got Windows Media Player.
RANDOM: *cough*
SCOBLE: What makes you think she is an iPod killer?
VILLAGER #3: Well, it looks like a portable media device.
SCOBLE: A portable media device?
VILLAGER #3: I got better.
VILLAGER #2: Overhype it anyway!
VILLAGER #1: Overhype!
CROWD: Overhype it! Overhype! Overhype it!
SCOBLE: Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether it is an iPod killer.
VILLAGER #1: Are there?
VILLAGER #2: Ah?
VILLAGER #1: What are they?
CROWD: Tell us! Tell us!…
VILLAGER #2: Do they hurt?
SCOBLE: Tell me. What do you do with iPod killers?
VILLAGER #2: Overhype! Overhype!
VILLAGER #1: Overhype!
SCOBLE: And what do you overhype apart from iPod killers?
VILLAGER #1: More iPod killers!
VILLAGER #3: Shh!
VILLAGER #2: PSP killers!
SCOBLE: So, why do PSP killers get overhyped?
VILLAGER #3: Because they’re made of… wood?
SCOBLE: Good!
CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh.
SCOBLE: So, how do we tell whether she is a PSP killer?
VILLAGER #1: See if its made of wood!
SCOBLE: Ah, but did not the original Atari have faux wood-paneled?
VILLAGER #1: Oh, yeah.
RANDOM: Oh, yeah. True. Uhh…
SCOBLE: Did Atari sink when it hit the market?
VILLAGER #1: No. No.
VILLAGER #2: No, it sells! It sells!
VILLAGER #1: Launch the product, launch the product!
CROWD: Launch! Launch the product!
SCOBLE: What also sells well on launch?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Segways!
VILLAGER #1: Pokemon!
VILLAGER #2: Uh, Goo– Google!
VILLAGER #1: YouTube!
VILLAGER #2: MMORGs!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, Flickr! Flickr!
VILLAGER #2: VOIP! VOIP!
BILLG: A duck!
CROWD: Oooh.
SCOBLE: Exactly. So, logically…
VILLAGER #1: If… it… sells as well on launch… as a duck… it’s a PSP killer.
SCOBLE: And therefore?
VILLAGER #2: An iPod killer!
VILLAGER #1: An iPod killer!
CROWD: An iPod killer! An iPod killer!…
change this update
Neat. My "How To Be Creative" pdf is now the Number One Download on ChangeThis.com.
0f course, you can read the whole thing online here on gapingvoid as well, but some people like the pdf format.
March 6, 2006
seth godin at google
Seth Godin gives an amazing talk to Google employees. [Thanks to Rick Segal for the link.]
His big idea to Google: "Your success was down to marketing, not technology."
Tell all your employees to watch the video. If anybody doesn't get it, fire them.
For what it's worth, Seth's most famous book is "Purple Cow". Personally, I think his latest book, "All Marketers Are Liars" is his most important.
microhappiness
Yesterday I posted how I was having trouble with my wifi.
Within a couple of hours I had received a personal e-mail from a Microsoft employee in Texas, a certain Keith Combs. Turns out my post had made it on to the internal Microsoft message boards, and was being passed around.
He called me up last night via Skype, and guided me through everything...
Once we had eliminated all the other possibilities, it turns out there was a problem with the router, which was easily fixed by resetting it and adjusting a few settings on the Tablet.
Et Voila! I'm happy to say, my Tablet PC's wifi now works fine.
I am so happy. Thanks, Keith! Well done, Microsoft!
It wasn't "just talk". Yes, Robert, I am indeed thrilled.
[AFTERTHOUGHT:] Yes, it was a very very different outcome than what Jeff Jarvis experienced with Dell. Or what if I had run into a problem with Apple? Relatively senior Apple employees in another country interrupting their weekend for some frustrated blogger? How likely would that have been?
We live in interesting times.
March 5, 2006
filmloop
Playing around with Guy Kawasaki's Filmloop thingie... Click on the image to see more.
[NB: You need a Filmloop player to use it. But it's easy enough to download.]
london girl geeks
The London Girl Geeks now have their own website.
[Meanwhile:] I'm on Skype at the moment, trying to convince Barry and Sarah to try out Thingamy.
Microtest
Hey, Microsoft, you're about to lose one of your evangelists i.e. me.
Could somebody from Redmond [I know a few of you will be reading this] please help me get my wifi working?
skype: "gapingvoid". e-mail: gapingvoid@gmail.com.
I spent FOUR HOURS last week at the software place trying to get this fixed and it's still taking the piss. I. Am. Not. A. Happy. Camper.
You want to thrill customers? Fine; you can start by thrilling me. Let's see if it's more than just talk.
You guys like to make a big deal about the power of blogs to connect with customers, and transform your image and busines model. Again, fine, let's see if it's more than just talk.
Your move.
[UPDATE: This story has a happy ending. Hurrah!]
March 4, 2006
"going bedouin"
A couple of weeks back, GregO coined the term "Going Bedouin" that got a bit of buzz going with Om Malik and Jackson West, Stowe Boyd, Kevin Burton, the Guardian UK and others around how the current (and future?) crop of technology companies were self-organizing and getting things done with a minimum of infrastructure investment.Interesting...
every day is fricking
All I wanted was to get the wifi on my Tablet PC to work properly. But of course, it doesn't. It can't go 24 hours without something going wrong. And the reason is Microsoft software. Of course it is. It always is.
Robert Scoble likes to say that Job One at Microsoft is to thrill customers. OK, fair enough. Get my wifi to work properly and I might start taking that idea seriously.
Any wifi mavens out there fancy trying to help me out? If so then please skype me at username "gapingvoid".
[Update:] The problem seems to be with Intel. Anybody?
[UPDATE: This story has a happy ending. Hurrah!]
March 3, 2006
"bagelomics"
Bagelomics: Businesses that just concern themselves with altering the "External Conversation" part of the "Porous Membrane" e.g. Advertising, PR etc [i.e. the red bit of the diagram.].
"So you've got a crap product, but somehow you think a hot, $10 million dollar, award-winning campaign will turn your company's fortunes around. That's 'Bagelnomics', Baby."
taken down my blogroll
I have taken down my Blogroll from my sidebar, and instead replaced it with my new Technorati widget. You can get yours here.
lose the "g" in "marketin(g)"
Sig's take on the new marketing:
And that for me is the core of the blog as a commercial "marketin(g)" tool: It allows me much bandwidth for my person-to-person interactions, like opening the door to your office letting all into the conversation and activities.[Disclosure: Sig and I work together.]And I would add the concept of "Extreme Business Modelling": Frequent releases, maximum bandwidth in the conversation, solicit feedback, listen in, adjust, tweak, learn and follow.
Pull instead of push. "Market in" instead of "market to".
Lose the "g" in "marketin(g)" :)
stella mccartney wobbles on the catwalk
Oh, the joys of starting a global fashion brand. From The Times (London):
Pressure increases on the designer to make her label profitable.English Cut was profitable from Day One. Still is. Heh.It is no secret within the fashion industry that Stella McCartney has been given until next year to break even by Gucci Group, the company that owns 50 per cent of her business. So have the other, smaller brands under the Gucci umbrella, including Alexander McQueen and Boucheron, the jeweller.
...
McCartney’s two custom-built shops in New York and London, important showcases for a designer hoping to establish international markets, account for some of the losses, but the six-year odyssey towards profitability underlines how difficult — and expensive — it is for a new brand to gain a foothold in the global consciousness, even a designer with an already famous name.
Secondly, the article cites certain celebrities as customers- Madonna, etc.
Yes, but how much of that is "freebies"? It's well known in the industry that celebs never pay for anything. Typically, the journalist never mentions this.
preston reed video
I'll say it again, if you haven't watched Preston Reed's concert video, you are seriously missing out.
[Preston Reed's blog is here.]
[Preston Reed homepage is here.]
sprint
Jose talks about Sprint (a big U.S. telco) offering bloggers free phones in order to promote its new service:
Each ambassador will receive a free Samsung A920 phone equipped with 6 months free voice and data service. Using the data service, accessed through the Sprint Power VisionSM Network, will allow you to download full length songs, games, ring tones and other premium content free for 6 months.Jose asks me what do I think of it. Well, I'm all for it. I'd much rather see big companies giving their marketing dollars over to people like Jose, than over to Time Warner, Interpublic and CBS.
Do I think it's a particularly original angle? Not really. Sprint is just trying to use bloggers as another form of "push" marketing, same as any other media. They're not becoming bloggers themselves. Unlike Stormhoek, they're not hanging out with bloggers and going to their parties.
That being said, all power to them for having a go. It's an organic process; you learn as you go along. Maybe they're next idea will be more cutting-edge. Rock on.
March 2, 2006
another thingamy
I’ve just spent 90 minutes talking to Sigurd Rinde who was showing me his Thingamy thingamy. The name of the product obviously comes from the fact that it isn’t easy to define, and doesn’t fit in to any current pigeon hole. This is a technology that you could use to build an application, very quickly, to solve a particular problem, or you could use it to create a complete CRM, ERP, and business process management solution for your organisation. This last sentence will be mind boggling for some managers and executives. Why would you develop a new system from scratch yourself and have the hassles of maintaining it, when you can buy standard off the shelf software that does the job? Well, actually because the off the shelf solutions don’t do the whole job, are expensive to modify, and organisations tend to develop ad hoc, manual or Excel based systems around the edges to provide a complete solution, and things can fall down the cracks.[Disclosure: Sigurd and I work together.]
March 1, 2006
fearsome was i
[*Cough*] Please feel free to add me to your Technorati faves here. Thanks!
[NOTE TO SELF: While Thomas is in America, spend this time working more on the Stormhoek "100 Dinners" idea.]
because you can't live in a hammer
Blogs are like hammers. They are tools for building stuff.
When you talk about building a house with a carpenter, you don't mind him talking about his hammer for a while. Nobody minds indulging a craftsman, within reason.
"This hammer is great for this," he'll gush. "This hammer is great for that..."
So you think yes, hammers are good things, and indeed his hammer looks like a particularly fine example.
But eventualy you're going to interrupt his joyous ode to hammers. After a couple of minutes you're going to abruptly change the subject:
"Cool. Now let's talk about the ACTUAL HOUSE you're going to build for me..."
And if the carpenter is any good, he won't have any problem with that.
evil cartoon spree
Hugh's gapingvoid, was, until a few days back a fun site with good marketing/blogging ideas sprinkled with some wonderful dry satire cartoons. Recently, he's been on a cartoon spree, and most of them are dry without his trademark satire, don't have that roughness or rudeness or arrogance or irreverence that he's known for. The spate of cartoons are tamed versions of inane ideas. I don't know what struck him or who he's dating...
more a-listy goodness...
A new hierarchy has emerged: "The Blog 50": The top 50 most influential bloggers. Or something. Updated weekly.
As of now, there is no A-List. There is no B-List. There is only The Blog 50, and only The Blog 50 matters. Tell your friends. Tell your loved ones. Tell Dave Winer, so he can tell everyone else that he invented it. But, for Peter Rojas sake, tell someone — and keep checking back, because you never know when you’ll make The 50.Heh. At least they have a sense of humor about it.
