06/2004 - 07/2004 - Recorders - Consumer Video Electronics

Sunday, June 20, 2004

writes about three Bay area writers/bloggers: , and . All writing books, all using social media to help edit the books. Loved seeing their names mentioned in print, and urge interested parties to check out their sites, respectively , and .

, SilverLake Ventures: "Harvard Business School graduates scare me." They scare me, too. (Via Paul )
story on evangelizing blogging PR (w/report on mini-conference--and Steve's own ).

web gospel:"If you can't do it simply, with a simple text-editor, a web server and a standard browser, it's broken."--The others are just as wise. (Via )

Lost, but now found

I have two pieces of jewelry that belonged to my mother that I wear often--a gold bracelet and a diamond/ruby pave ring. She never took the ring off, and she wore the bracelet often, so they remind me of her.
For a while, I wore the ring constantly, but then, a few months ago, I lost it.

It was during a time I was traveling a lot, and I didn't know if I'd left it somewhere (unlikely but possible), dropped it in a pocket, or put it away in one of those safe places tired, jet-lagged people don't really remember.
Whatever.
I felt terrible that it was gone, and angry at myself for losing it.

Tonight when I got home, the ring was sitting next to my computer in my office.
I tore downstairs to my husband. "Where did you find the ring?

"
"In the bedroom," he replied.
Apparently, the ring was at the bottom of a bowl he keeps beside his bed for keys, pens, clips,etc.
Did I put it there, or did someone pick it up off the floor and drop it in?

We don't know.
But hey, it feels so good to have that special ring again.

When is the blogosphere (not) like a dog park?

Almost every morning, I take my dog to a dog park about 30 blocks from my house. There's a set of regulars who come by, and it's kinda the pet equivalent of hanging at the sandbox--dogs run and play as their owners watch and chat, poised to jump in if anyone starts to tussle.

One day this past week, there were two huge furry dogs loose on the Big Dog side of the park--with no owner in sight. A knot of pets and their owners clustered in the Small Dog area--apparently, one had gone in there with her Lab pup and fled when one of the furry dogs barked. Discussion kicked in about the dogs: who had left them there, was the owner around somewhere, what was going on, anyway?

After about 30 minutes, a guy dressed in full military camouflage strolled up--they were his dogs--and he'd been sitting in his truck down the road.
The dog owners fell on him with comments: Didn't he know it was unsafe to leave the dogs alone without water? And what if his dogs had gotten into a fight with another dog--who would pull them back?

And didn't he know it was against the rules to drop your dogs off and split?
The park users were amazingly clear about the community rules--and were very clear about communicating them to this potential new member of the group of people who brought their dogs to the park. It was obvious to me that it would be difficult for someone who didn't follow the rules--or whose dog didn't get along with (most of) the dogs--to return on a regular basis.

It struck me as well that these kinds of clear community rules are what the blogosphere doesn't have. Or if they exist, they are not clearly posted--instead we have seismic waves of posts and comments on hot topics. People express outrage, there are discussions, and then things settle down.

Or not.
Would the blogosphere benefit from being more like my dog park community? Or is the chaos a healthy part of things?

What is the right balance between freedom and social rules?

Chris Schroeder: Will pay for performance ads take over web advertising?

Mediapost today by Chris Schroeder, vice president, strategy for . Schroeder writes: "Online search has let a genie forever out of the bottle-pay-for-performance (PFP) is cheap, it works, and it is perfectly attuned to the measurability of the Internet.
.

..Will the rise of PFP success do to the cost-per-thousand (CPM) what TiVo and personal video recorders (PVRs) are doing to the 30-second spot?

"
Schroeder also asks: "What it the potential for a branding, emotive experience on what is fundamentally a transaction-oriented medium? "

Mernit thoughts: There's no question but that text ads and pay for performance are the new--and probably a better--paradigm for web pages. However, in a broadband universe, floating ads, towers, mini-movies, etc.

have huge potential for brand and image advertising, so let's not write them off, let's just agree that the value--and impact--of banners and buttons is diminishing, quickly--not only because of cost/ROI but because of consumer fatigue and page clutter.
Another interesting question--will big online sites retain their ad viabiity as advertising networks for blogs and hyperlocal sites mature? The growth of may do more to reshape the current online ad market than text ads.

Does CNET have an in at Google?

by John Battelle on the internal Google memo reportedly discussing support for RSS:
"It is noteworthy is that an internal email on any subject made its way into the hands of a reporter during the quiet period.

(snip)
...

So that means something else - that someone at Google is going around company policy to give this to CNET, or, that CNET has an in that Google can't stop. For a company that is notoriously good at keeping its cards close to the vest, it's something of a new development."

Orkut: 500,000 and growing

Orkut's announced yesterday that they moved their servers(that's why they were down), and that they are about to hit 500,000 members.
According to the , only 35% are from the US; 24% are from Brazil(!)
Given that Orkut launched the end of February, and that the site is invite only, what do you make of this rate of growth?

Seems pretty good to moi.

Does The Internet Economy Need a Voice Again?

: No, thank you very much

: Does The Internet Economy Need a Voice Again?: No, thank you very much: "..

.the internet/connected economy voice is not these revival attempts, but aggregation/analysis sites like mine, , and most important aggregation efforts of all: the which allow users to put together their own voice, and whatever voice they want to hear."

Who is Rance? Sleuthing continues..

Lots of fun with , the blogger who claims to be an anonymous Hollywood star--and a damn good writer.
The claims to have who Rance really is and explains how they arrived at these conclusions.

Basically, they figured out that both Rance and illustrator Keith Thomson were each marketed, at different times, by the same anonymous poster. Maybe they are all the same guy? Hmmnn.

Theory one: It's
Theory two: It's his agent and friend Nick Reed of ICM.
(Via Xeni at )

Bazima: 36, but who's counting?

got a list of people she's slept with (note I did not say banged.)
"Number of people I?ve slept with: 36
Number of one-night stands: 11
How many were women: 1
How many I regret: 4
Number of times I had sex with one person while thinking about another: 2
Number of guys I slept with who were musicians: 9
Number of lead singers: 3"
More .

P.S. She balled 1 blogger and 9 blokes she met on .

(Via )

Keywords: My Dog, Voice Again, Internet Economy Need, Internet Economy, Chris Schroeder, Economy Need

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