Hi, I’m Dracula
This is too good to miss…. From Penguin via O’Reilly
… think about all this in the context of remixing (something Katz touches on). The bloggosphere is one big remix paired with a ton of original content.
Small bits of information — links, tags, images, syndicated blog entries — are travelling the internet and being recombined, remixed, into new aggregates. Software is being remixed. Business models are being remixed. O’Reilly used remixes as a theme for their recent Emerging Technology conference, and they give a nice heads-up on Penguin UK’s contest for remixing spoken word samples with homegrown music. Aside from the remix of two different types of audio programming, the contest highlights the combination of three businesses: Audible, iTunes, and Penguin. – Bill Katz
News Blinks & Pointers: May 10, AM ’05
- Lance Knobel’s lecture in Australia – "Nullius in verba: navigating through the new media democracy"
- Jay Rosen – "Each Nation its Own Press"
- Google buys Dodgeball some more great commentary at Corante
- Cellphedia – cool
- James’ Blog – becuase it’s just worth reading…
- … And, support the Blogher conference by attending…
Milbloggers
USA Today reports Milbloggers are typing their way into history…
"The number of Internet Web logs — or "blogs," as online diaries are known —
by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is soaring, giving people
everywhere unprecedented windows into servicemembers’ lives.From 50 or so a year ago, the number of their
online journals is now about 200 and is expected to be near 1,000 by
the year’s end, say the bloggers themselves and experts who track the
Web.The growth means a historic phenomenon is
gaining momentum: Anyone with access to the Internet can read many
first-hand accounts of life in a war zone within seconds after they’re
finished.And the blogs are "full of real substance and
depth," says Jon Peede, director of the National Endowment for the
Arts’ Operation Homecoming program, which helps troops and their
families write about their wartime experiences. "They’re raw, powerful
reflections on the war."
Net-Enabled Bootstrapping
Ross has some terrific thoughts on "net-enabled bootstrapping".
I’ve been doing some of this myself lately and the economics are stunning. Here’s how we’re driving costs through the floor and virtualizing:
- Skype calls account for about 70% of all the calls I make
- Basecamp for project management
- SugarCRM On Demand for media and analyst database
- Freeconference for meetings…
- Flashmeeting for more meetings… (really cool)
- Blogs – conversation engine
- FunctionFox – time tracking
- Quickbooks Online – accounting
- T-Mobile – WiFi
- SocialText – Wiki
So, think real-estate free entrepreneuring – no computing real-estate; everything virtualized and available to teams so no physical real-estate needed, work from anywhere (don’t have to be close to my own server) so no ties to real-estate.
"Real Estate is the leading cause of death for start-ups." – Ross Mayfield
About the only service offering I’ve been disappointed with is Vonage. Lousy sound quality compared to Skype. Expensive compared to Skype. And they want even more money to make it work like Skype.
Ross is right on:
"I am convinced that being virtual is the best way to start a company. The benefits go beyond cost (although the culture of frugality can go a very long way). In our case, it improves the product. But generally it is more productive. When the bandwidth for collaboration is constrained at times, you gain a certain focus. And with wiki, you develop a group memory to draw upon as you go forward."
Shrinking Circ? Shrink the Paper!
The Wall Street Journal Asia and Europe is shrinking… staff and format! From Oct 17, the Asian Wall Street Journal and its European sister will be reduced to a compact size, Dow Jones said. This might, and somewhat inadvertently, be a really smart move based on what happened with The Times whose circ increased once the smaller format was introduced. "It said the decision is in line with trends among leading European broadsheets such as The Times and The Independent in London, which have both successfully moved to a tabloid format." Thanks to Fishbowl for the pointer.
