David Galbraith points out that Evan Williams is an investor in EVDB…even more impressive though, Chuck Norris is the CTO…don’t mess with EVDB.
And while we’re mentioning David Galbraith, founder of Wists.com, here’s a prediction. Given the connection between him and Nick Denton, what’s the bet that Fleshbot rolls out an “Adult” social booking marking service built on the wists system.
I’ve been noticing a growing number of ‘blog consultancies’ popping up, and to be frank it just seems a bit like selling snake oil.
Blogs, as content management systems, are not exactly rocket science, so you don’t need a blog consultant, just a web dude.
Blogging, as a communications practice, is a bit different to traditional business communications, but still, all you really need is some simple advice…
If you are a small biz and want to communicate better with your market, just start by listening and you’ll soon get the swing of things.
If you’re a large corporate and your communications department doesn’t grok blogging then you should buy them a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto, because real blogging does require some new perpectives. Once you’ve got that ‘markets are conversations’ culture going on then you should start listening, and after that you can start blogging. Sure, you might want to create a charter for internal bloggers so they know what the boundaries are, but you hardly need a Blog Consultant for that.
UPDATE: What big companies will need is actual bloggers. Committing to the conversation means writing, and commenting, and responding, and being part of the conversation. In my experience this will be one of the biggest hurdles for corporates with traditional sales and marketing functions…no one will have the time to maintain a blog. To which I would ask why they don’t have time to engage customers! Still, that’s the reality. To get past that inertia and make blogging part of the ‘way we do things around here’ it will require dedicated resource.
Someone should do something with the Upcoming API and Google Maps…that would be cool. Pick a date on the calendar and search by metro to see what’s going on in town tonight. It’s all there.
Bob Wyman has made a great post articulating the business implications of structured blogging, and prospective search.
I have been digesting this one for a few days now, and there’s a lot to grasp, but the potential is tantalizing. A couple of thoughts spring to mind…
- Where does FOAF fit in?
- I’ve said before that I think Ping-O-Matic is valuable as a central clearing house for prospective search engines. I wonder if this takes on new significance in the context of commerce and prospective search.
- To call it ‘structured blogging’ is a bit misleading, cause it isn’t about blogging per se…it sits well with blogs, but its more about structured data regardless of blogs (as CMSs) or blogging (as a communications channel). eg. No reason why the news web site couldn’t get in on the act by structuring their online classified listings in this way.
Anyway, this stuff is going to be important, although it is fair to say we’re a ways from standards at this time. Phil Pearson has a good summary of the various nascent efforts (via).
I’ll be in Amsterdam next month so will try to catch the Flickr Peep Show if I can get some time to myself.
I have been spending a bit of time thinking about Flickr recently…which will be apparent when I launch the new site later this week…wink wink ;)
I was pondering all the half baked web site ideas I have had over the past few years and realized that I have launched a bunch of websites, some which worked and some which didn’t…here’s a quick list (as much for my own reference), roughly in order of their appearance…
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Whoa! Ben Hammersley just posted this news about the BBC opening itself up via API. Check it out at backstage.bbc.co.uk
I can’t wait to see what coolness comes out of this.
Tonight I am blogging from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (it’s hot).
Been up here all week participating in an enterprise workshop…all business processes and change management. After a couple of Gin & Tonics (strictly to keep the mosquitos at bay) I am feeling alittle philosophical…so here’s my thought of the day:
Business is an art, not a science.
But it is an art in the execution, not the conception.
Discuss!
Loic Le Meur blogs about how cheap broadband internet access is in Hong Kong…US$16/month for 10Mbps both ways.
I’ve blogged before about the outlandish broadband pricing here in New Zealand…so this just winds me up big time. I pay equivalent of US$37/mth for 2Mbps down (only 128kps up)!!
Clearly Hong Kong is a different market, characterised by super high density and thus lower physical infrastructure costs. And I certainly don’t begrudge companies taking a profit, because at the end of the day pricing is always driven by the market, ie. its worth what people will pay…
I am just grumbling about the effect of the virtual monopoly Telecom has in New Zealand (underpinned by control over the physical assets), and the impact the this has on the opportunity for real competition.
Pretty much all we can do is wait patiently for the the ready availability of low cost wireless infrastructure so that real competition can emerge, not the kind of competition where the biggest competitor is also the supplier to the industry.
Bring on the WiMax or the UWB or anything that makes it easy for wireless ISPs to route around Telecom.
UPDATE: In case you’re wondering, my ISP is Slingshot, and they have the best value broadband plans of any provider I have come across in New Zealand. I have literally just signed up, so I need to give it a few months before I’ll give them an unqualified recommendation (takes a while to make sure the customer service is up to snuff), but so far it has been a smooth ride.
Blogarama seems to be having some trouble (at the time of writing). Hope it’s OK…
I launched Blogarama many moons ago, although I ultimately sold it, so I would really like to see it continue to prosper…that, and Colins a good bloke.
UPDATE: Blogarama is back with a new improved look…what a week they’ve had!
Bugger…no sooner do we leave Melbourne and I miss out on seeing Joi Ito and Lawrence Lessig do a lecture on the Creative Commons. Hopefully it is recorded and made available for download pour mon ipod.
