In the end, it works out.  Boy, Toby, Donna, and I sure didn't think so a few months ago.  DeliciousDestinations is the blog for GourmetStation  mail-to-you gourmet food service.

 

As a quick side-note.  I'm not unbiased here.  Toby is a dear friend.  We talk a lot and collaborate on a few things together.  I also did some small tweaks on her blog and DeliciousDestinations.  And, since I am in California this week, took the opportunity to try a gourmet meal from GourmetStation.  Wow.  We had the 4-course Tuscan dinner.  It came, still all nice and frozen, in a insulated, nicely-packaged box via UPS.  I'm pretty handy in the kitchen, but for those who are pressed for time (or skill or both) this is a nice, nice treat.  Pretty much all you'd have to do is to pick up a bottle of wine to match (Toby, actually, took care of that for me ... thank you again).  If you are a single guy and wanted to be sneaky you could seriously impress your date with this meal, hot out of the oven (from soup to dessert, even a candle, it's all there), nicely plated.  Regardless it was a great meal.  The Italian Wedding Soup is something I have to look for a recipe for.

 

Back to the matter at hand ... I'm glad to see that my friends and colleagues (and BusinessWeek's Blogspotting) gave theInc. article and GourmetStation some space and positive words.  Toby and Donna certainly did work the blogosphere as the storm was whirling above them.  A lot of the discussion was far less than flattering (or polite for that matter), but they stuck to their guns.  We should all be thankful that they did too.  They pushed the boundaries.  They did it with style and panache.  Now, I think a well done character blog (can I still lay claim to coining that?) is certainly an acceptable thing.  Whew, 'cause I certainly have some characters begging to get out of me!

 

Thanks Toby and Donna.

 

Technorati Tags : GourmetStation, DeliciousDestinations, Character+blogs

I think he's really got it.  I can sit here and think about all the easy, easy ways for companies to reach customers.  And as all the Browsers get better at this ... well we're not even going to notice are we?

There is an ongoing discussion about whether Flickr (and related sites) should "give back to its users".  Give them a little bonus, a little slice of the ad revenue.  It comes down to controlling your content and being able to leverage your creativity to your benefit, not Yahoo's or Google's.  Qumana has been driven, almost from the beginning of what is now Qumana the application, by blogging and professional blogging (yours truly).  I have no idea how many hundreds (thousands?) of posts I've cranked out through this baby.  We've gone through several potential business models for Qumana.  As you know, now, that we are going to earn our revenue through our ad network AdGenta .  What is it all about?  This quote below sums it up:

Yeah, we're sharing with the bloggers.  We don't make money unless you do so we're pretty darn driven for you to make money.  I think this is why Qumana is already moving to Web 2.5 from 2.0.  We're developing the platform and the model for all of us to make money, together.

 

On this note, there has been a little confusion about this whole money making thing, AdGenta, and Qumana.  Let me try to clarify this (and if I don't comment, and I'll try again).  Qumana, the application, is free.  Period.  It always will be.  Like Skype we're giving you the tool, no strings, no spyware, no nothing.  Okay you'll get all the support you need.  Regardless, you don't have to insert ads with Qumana if you don't want to.  Yes, really.  As much as we'd really like you to use AdGenta, we also know that a lot of people don't want ads on their blog.  Heck, I don't put ads in all my posts.  Sometimes, it just isn't the right thing to do.  So, there it is.  Download Qumana.  Blog yourself silly with it, with our compliments.  Now, if you'd like to insert a key-word driven ad, please sign up at AdGenta.com for an account.

 

Questions?  You in the back?  No?  Okay.  My office hours will be ... oh wait, that was a different career. ;-).

 

Technorati Tags : Qumana, Adgenta

Mark Evans e-mailed me yesterday with a link to some really cool thoughts about Web 2.0.  I think this is a continuation of my thinking on Web 2.0 is too abstract.  Michael McDerment has some great thinking here (oh and here as PDF:PDF of the Web 2.0 Chronicles - Volume One).  One thing that struck me, like right between the eyes, was the connection with the Microsoft news of this week.  Then I moved into the meat of the document (yeah I printed it ... but two pages per side and reused paper) and really got into it.  For me, and maybe not others, one of the key points is that "Web 2.0" isn't really anything new.  The same business rules apply, a square wheel is still a square wheel with a .com or a blog ... it still won't work.

 

So is Web 2.0 any different?  Well, yes it is.  I think it is the enabling technologies that are making the difference.  Things like RSS, blogs, AJAX, .Net.  Things that allow people to make fast, light apps.  Things that let you create and extension to something larger.  So this the second important difference.  Apps are built to be extended.  Look at Mozilla, Flickr, Google's many tools.  These are apps almost built to be taken further by others.  Now, business models.  I think the ad-supported model is the one people are getting more used to.  We still watch TV, even though there are ads.  Even "commercial free" TV like PBS has to "advertise" (pledge drives) to get money.  Personally, I have a mix of apps that I use that are open-source, GPL, commercial, and ad-supported.  I don't mind, okay I mind, paying for apps.

 

I look at Qumana.  We're a Web 2.0 company by leveraging blogging and advertising.  I think it's pretty innovative.  Innovative or not ... new businesses need cash to start and revenue to keep going.  Maybe Web 2.0 will just be something after all.

 

Technorati Tags : Web+2.0

Okay, I've had it.  TypePad has been sluggish/down all morning (Pacific time) for me and I think their grace period is over.  I know that they've been having infrastructure problems.  I know they have plans in place.  But it doesn't look like things are falling into place for them.  Look, I think the TypePad model is great.  I think MT is a super platform and this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that this blog and several of my other blogs are run on Blogware.  But, man, TypePad is just blowing it today.  This is further strengthening my case for true "business class" blog hosting.

 

I have something like 4 articles I wanted to publish to Business Blog Consulting but I can't even get into the TypePad web interface to enter the posts in manually (lets not even talk about Qumana posting remotely).  Our discussions over at BBC are getting pretty serious about jumping ship.  Sorry Anil and Mena ... hey we might even use MT for the new site, but I've had it.  We can't run businesses like this.  I know that at least one colleague was due to train a client on TP today.  Hmm, that's not going to happen.  Worse, many less tech savvy clients don't really distinguish between a hosted system not in the consultant's control and something the consultant has a hand in.  Not to mention the fact that the consultant recommended the system in the first place.

 

Look, I get just as frustrated at Blogware too.  Blogware, though, I know, is making real efforts to make things better.  How about you Six Apart?  Speaking of which, both Blogware and SquareSpace folks left comments on my post ... guys? 

 

Technorati Tags : TypePad, WordPress, Blogware, MoveableType, blog+hosting

 

Hat tip to Renee for this .... FeedBurner, according to ClickZ, is launching an RSS network where advertisers can buy space in niche categories (tech, electronics, current affairs, etc) and FeedBurner already has some A-list blogs (Corante, Ars Technica, and Gawker) signed up to accept ads.

 

Nice.  In the same vein as our AdGenta network, FeedBurner is seeing the value of niche blogs and popular blogs.  I read recently on someone's blog that ads will be effective eventually because we still have to buy things and ads are how we often find things to buy.  Personally, though, as much as I love FeedBurner's service, I think RSS-based ads aren't going to work well.  It's the medium.  RSS, to me, is a skimming medium.  Scan, scan, click, scan, scan ...  Sure I read a few feeds in my reader, but the ones I'm most interested in I fire right off to my browser for later reading (and blogging in many cases).

 

Now, newspapers ... they have been pretty slow to jump on the RSS bandwagon, but the Houston Chronicle has and thanks to FeedBurner.  Newspapers are perfect for RSS.  Newspapers are also a scan, skim, and read kind of information source.  Catch a headline, the first intro paragraph, move on.  Hence RSS and newspapers should do really well.  Okay once RSS becomes more mainstream.

 

Technorati Tags : FeedBurner, online+advertising, newspapers, rss

Dare Obasanjo announced at Gnomedex that MSN Spaces would be working on supporting remote posting APIs ... and now it's in beta testing!  We got the ping last night and we're testing implementation within Qumana now.

 

This is a huge deal for MSN Spaces users, and bloggers, and Qumana.  See there are now 30 million MSN Spaces blogs (source).  Sure some are going to drop off, heck I have blogs that are dying a slow and painful death, but the potential here is amazing.  Imagine linkages among your blog and your everyday work.  I see Qumana and Lektora as being major pieces in the puzzle and MSN Spaces as another (key) destination.

 

This kind of leverage, 30 million blogs.  Imagine if each one had just one AdGenta-powered ad ... imagine the wake up call to advertisers.  Imagine.

 

Technorati Tags : MSN+Spaces, Qumana, AdGenta

I love it when a few articles come together for me into something that makes me go wow! I'm going to start with the recent article that started the tumble into the connection.

 

Steve commented on a SearchEngineWatch article about companies needing to include search engine monitoring in their PR programs (especially watching blogs).  Steve cited the statistic that 39% of the top 20 results on the top 100 brands were from "consumer generated media".  Okay, cool.  The SEW article goes a little deeper, talking about how blogs can, and will, steer the commentary on your brand.  They cited WalMart and unions as an example.  Me?  I look to my friend Toby.

 

Toby and her clients at GourmetStation were recently profiled in Inc. Magazine (here's the link to Toby's post, the blog Delicious Destinations and a PDF of the article: Download: inc_magazine_november_2005_blog_gs_article.pdf) on the whole T. Alexander character blog saga.  What Toby didn't mention was that she (and I helped a little) used PubSub, Feedster, and other search tools to track the conversation and ride it out.  This, I think, is better than the cited WalMart approach of building a site to push other sites down.  Work with those who are already talking about you, leave comments, start a blog and link to them.  Become part of the discussion and conversation, not a giant trying to squash it.

 

See, this is how you monitor search for your brand and how effective it can be at working with (let's not try to say "change") public opinion.  So hats off to Toby and Donna.  And thanks Steve for putting the ideas together ... even if you didn't mean to!

 

Technorati Tags : GormetStation, Delicious+Destinations, PR, search, Google

 

I think this is a sign of both things to come and that the blogosphere has gotten huge.  PubSub has started grouping sites and feeds into affinity lists. 

Mentions:

What does this mean?  Let's look at the bigger picture.  Blogs have in the last six months really become the influencers of popular thought and wisdom.  A good thing, IMHO.  They've gotten so big that now the way to keep up is to read the top echelon of sites to catch what's going on.  Hmm, wait.  Is this really a good thing?  Yes, and no.  Yes in that great writers/minds are going to get the attention they deserve (note, I'm not on any of the lists ... oh well).  No in that this could limit the range of discussion.

 

I've noticed that news has been a tad less interesting on Memeorandum of late.  I've also noticed that, boy I have to cull my feeds.  800 is way too much.  My reaction has been to focus on the folks who I know and then skip the rest.  Whoops.

 

End result.  I haven't been blogging lately.  I haven't even felt like blogging lately.  How does this tie into PubSub lists?  Simple.  If you're in law, fashion, pr, or library science ... here is the cream of the crop to read.  Start there and work out.  Start with the people who shake things up, write awesome stuff, follow the links to the source articles, then present your take.  Maybe, with this approach all of us will start to see more and more cool stuff.  Maybe we'll be less likely to re-write and re-report what the rest of the crowd is doing.

 

I hope so.  I certainly need some inspiration right now.

 

Technorati Tags : PubSub

 

Yep, Panasonic doesn't get it.  Hey, don't get me wrong I love my Panasonic 5.8 GHz phone.  It doesn't mess with my WiFi and has great features.  But man, they aren't getting the blogosphere.

 

Amy pinged my today on Skype to let me know that Panasonic e-mailed her.  And she forwarded the e-mails to me.  I just rolled my eyes when I read it.  And asked (begged?) that she blog it.  True to form ... she did (in true Amy style).

 

Here are the two e-mails, in their entirety ...

Hi Amy,

This Blog is a point of communication with a group ofpeople within Panasonic Broadcast. It is unfortunate that you find theneed to be contentious. From here it is a tool to communicate withcustomers that wish to learn about the AG-HVX200, DVCPRO HD and P2.This may not be your cup of tea, and that is fine, but think over thelong haul it will be a very viable way of working with many customersthat have questions about the camera, and its potential.

As far as who is Tosh, he is a voice and a connection tothe right answers. Certainly you must realize that there are hundredsof questions that are asked about the HVX200 every day, and someanswers are absolutely wrong, some are totally made up and others, welllet’s just say, they must have been posted by our competitors.

So perhaps you can just give it a little grace as it is astart-up and it is something that has not been tried before by anylarge video company. Why not just let us give a shot before you justwrite us off.

Best regards,

Jan Crittenden Livingston
(E-mail given: toshbilowski@gmail.com)

---

Hi Amy,

The reason we are not posting your commentary is becausewe do not have to. This is a site that is provided to learn about HighDef, the HVX200 and P2. Since your questions have nothing to do withany of those subjects, nor do they contribute to the learning potentialof the site, we have elected not to post your contribution.

If you wish to find the story about Tosh then you shouldnavigate to the page about Tosh. It is still there. Please be awarethat what matters here is that there is a direct link to Panasonic andto technical members of a team that can and will answer questions aboutthe HVX, should Tosh not know the answer himself.

And as far as the money being spent, we will be patientand see if it is viable. We are hoping that it can turn into a nicesite where people can come and learn about all things Hi Def. We do nothave to run it like any Blog or Website that you have seen before, itwill be run the way we choose to run it, and we will always chose tokeep it to the positive side of its intention.

Best regards,
Jan Crittenden Livingston
(E-mail given: toshbilowski@gmail.com)

Okay ... So Panasonic is trying to deflect criticism and they "admit" that Tosh doesn't really exist.  The problem is that Panasonic expects us to cut them some slack because they are a big company.  Sorry it doesn't work that way.  Again, I think character blogs can be cool (I just saw a little alert pop up from Google that Dilbert is blogging .... haven't read it, but Scott Adams writing as Dilbert would be awesome), the problem here, as I said before, is that Panasonic created a "person" and tried to make him "real".  Look I understand, they want to have multiple authors blogging.  Maybe the "Tosh" character "fits" their demographics better, but it still would be better for the real folks at Panasonic to write a short post a couple times a week then to expend energy trying to post as someone else.

 

 

Technorati Tags : Panasonic, character+blogs, Tosh+Bilowski, Amy+Gahran