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December 2005 Archives

December 29, 2005

What year is it? I say...1996 (end)

What year is it? It's a fun question I sometimes ask people who have been through the dotcom boom in the 1990s. Some say 1998, others say 1997.

I say, it is 1996...

"God, I hope you are right, that would be great," someone told me recently. Just one more bubble (!) that's what a lot of (older) people are looking for, and I think they'll get it.

Silicon Valley always comes back stronger and bigger after each downturn. At least that's what I've noticed over the past 21 years.

Yes, we are older and wiser (and poorer) following the dotcom dotbomb, but...we know that internet 2.0 will have some of the same characteristics of Internet 1.0. And we know what some of those characteristics were :-)

What year do you think it is?

December 28, 2005

Ten things I learned in 2005. . .

. . .in no particular order of importance.
Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

1-Blogging is the most honest form of self-promotion bar none because if you can't walk the talk you won't get the clicks.

2-Content will be king because all those links have to point to something of value--otherwise they are pointless.

3-Every company is part media company--it is both publisher and publication and tells stories all the time.

4-Every startup company should be able to say what it does in 20 seconds--not 20 minutes.

5-The old media is dying much faster than I expected.

6-Attention deficit disorder is affecting all age groups--especially those that spend more time online.

7-The more that I write the more authentic I become online and offline.

8-Blogging represents the next big thing: the two-way communications media technologies that characterize Internet 2.0.

9-I can communicate more with fewer words.

10-I learned a heck of a lot more than ten things...more to come in 2006 :-)

[Guest Column] PR Perspectives: Blogging--Look, think before you leap

[Here is a guest column/blog post)

By G.A. “Andy” Marken President Marken Communications Inc.

Take a look at the raw numbers and blogs are impressive. Imagine being able to reach, inform and influence millions of people around the globe. It looks like the ultimate in 1:1 corporate and marketing communications opportunity. A public tool tailor made for your organization.

According to Pew/Internet:

· 7% of the 120 million U.S. adults using the Internet have created a blog or web-based diary…8 million people!!

· 27% of the internet users read blogs

· the top 400 blogs reach 50 million people

Now extend those numbers and the current growth projections blog readership’s increase of 58% annually -- across the total global Internet and it is no reason companies are adding this valuable tool to their internal and external stakeholder efforts.

Service providers (especially PR people) are quick to point out that it is important that the company become involved because employees are already there. For example, HP has more than 2,500. Microsoft has more than 3,000. IBM has more than 4,500. Proctor & Gamble…Coca-Cola…Pfizer…Dell…firms large and small have blogs being written by employees.

Taken at face value, all of this is true. But blogging didn’t grow to its current position for business to consumer or business to business communications. And it isn’t its primary application.

Blogging has some potential and it has some pitfalls. It shouldn’t be jumped into just because it is the new communications/marketing tool in town.

Why Blog
Pew Internet has done an outstanding job of researching, documenting and reporting on all aspects of the growing Internet world.

Recent studies by Technorati and AOL’s digital marketing services highlighted the primary reasons people blog:

· establish themselves as authorities

· therapy

· creating a record of one’s thoughts

· keeping in touch with friends, family

A growing number of bloggers are even struggling to establish themselves as “legitimate” media outlets and as true journalists. A few bloggers have been recognized as members of the White House press corps.

Increasingly events and trade shows are trying to evaluate blogs, which bloggers should receive press credentials and which are simply…well bloggers. Some do seriously cover industries and product categories. Other individuals simply want to be recognized as an authority, want to improve their writing skills or hope to generate an income in the blogosphere.

The Silent Club
While we personally disagree with the position that many bloggers take especially the casual blogger that they are true citizen journalists, the truth is that blogging has gone mainstream. It has developed a strong following and a growing list of “victories.”

Political blogs are credited with the fall of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on his laudatory remarks at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond. Blogs noted that Thurmond was a supporter of white supremacy and Lott had a long history of racist remarks. In the end the blog furor was instrumental in Lott’s resignation as Senate Majority Leader.

Blogs were instrumental in soiling the otherwise outstanding 30-year journalism career of CBS newsman Dan Rather. Conservative bloggers built a case around what they asserted were forged memos used in a 60 Minutes segment. The “evidence” was so overwhelming that CBS was forced to deal with the issue and issue an apology regarding the poor research and reporting. Two months later Rather announced he was stepping down as CBS anchor.

As we noted earlier, a growing number of corporate employees are posting official, semi-official and unofficial blogs about their work, their work environment and their company. Some of these efforts have been far from appreciated by management and have lead to reprimands and dismissals.

While most organizations agonize over providing employees the tools to blog about business activities without monitoring, it can be a cause for concern. Conversely it can be an opportunity for management to look at the situation more closely to see if there is in fact substance behind the blogger’s statements and position.

To help bloggers protect themselves from personal and professional action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has established an excellent set of guidelines to help bloggers produce their expressions freely.

Bloggers should study the recommendations www.eff.org/bloggers before they begin their blogging activities. At the same time, corporate management should study the guidelines to gain a better understanding of the pros and cons as well as strengths and weaknesses of employee and management blogs.

Blog Monitoring
While only a few corporate executives have their own blogs, most have said they would probably initiate one in the next two-three years. They noted it was a quick way of communicating ideas and news to corporate stakeholders as well as a more open means of communicating with all interested parties.

One executive at a recent online communications conference noted that management’s hesitation about blog-equipping employees was much like the early discussions of whether or not to equip employees with email accounts. He noted that in today’s Internet environment management can no longer control and “manage” the message because everyone was a spokesperson.

If it exists and can’t be managed then it is vital that management monitor and understand blogs and the blogging activities that are going on today. As you would expect, there are a growing number of analytical services being introduced that have been developed specifically to monitor the blogosphere.

Next Step
While marketing people are eager to step into the next new thing of communications, it is interesting that bloggers rarely hear from corporate management or public relations representatives.

Perhaps this is because they haven’t spent time studying the growth and influence of the blogosphere. Or could it be that as long as the reporting is favorable, they feel it is better to leave the individual blogger alone. Or perhaps when there are negative comments it is best to ignore or play down the importance/influence of the statements.

None of these positions are correct.

If the blogger is supportive of the company, its positions and its products; management should nurture the relationship and feed the blogger releasable news, information and insights.

If the blog is negative about the company, its policies or its procedures the information should be brought to management’s attention. If the facts support the position then corrective actions need to be taken. If they are erroneous then facts should be presented to the blogger offline to at least nullify the situation or at best turn the blog positive.

Remember the statement of Mobutu, a ruler of Zaire\the Congo; "keep your friends close but your enemies closer." Unlike his approach he reportedly lived next to a cemetery once you identify the negative or anti-company/product bloggers you can do something about it.

While it may be uncomfortable, it is best to address the situation head-on and correct the situation to management’s/ the blogger’s satisfaction if at all possible. Keep in mind that the blogger is more credible with blog readers than your barrage of news releases, your corporate blog or our web site.

Information on the Internet never dies…it lives on forever. In many instances hoaxes, legends, scurrilous rumors and negative campaigns go through dormant and hyperactive cycles.

The first step in the process is to know the activity is going on. Then determine if it is in your best interest to directly and aggressively confront the situation, seek out friendly third parties to attack the position or if necessary take legal action.

Each instance requires thorough research, careful analysis and then an action plan. There is no pat answer. No one right way.

Look Before You Leap
The Blogosphere shows tremendous opportunities for organizations of all sizes to reach out and inform, education and persuade business partners and consumers. But it is not for the faint of heart. It is not weak management/companies/products. It is not something that can be tried for a few months and abandon.

There is nothing worse than going to a web site that hasn’t been refreshed with some type of news, information, product or service in the past 2-3 weeks. Worse are the sites that have been neglected for months and years. It is a wasted opportunity and tool.

Blogs that haven’t had an input to them in the past week are just as bad, perhaps worse. Management should look at their blogging activities as a long term communications effort with their stakeholders not something that should be tried for a few months and then abandon when the newness and “fun” wears off.

Corporate blogs internal and external represent an excellent way for management to directly and immediately explain the company’s direction, plans and position on subjects to thousands of individuals on a 1:1 basis.

But this doesn’t mean that you should immediately initiate one or more blogs. Before embarrassing yourself with a lackluster blog should sit on the sideline and monitor blogs for a few weeks and months. Management has to be professional enough and confident enough in his/her company/products to be open to both positive and negative responses. They have to be able honestly address issues.

Corporate blogs can give management unfiltered feedback on the company’s performance based on the customer’s view, not middle managers interpretation. It also provides management with a very inexpensive opportunity to explore new product, new service concepts.

Corporate blogs represent a tremendous opportunity for companies to build and reinforce the close relationship with customers that management and marketing experts have been talking about for years. But in every relationship the key to long term success is dependent upon continual measurement and management against established objectives.

December 23, 2005

The blogosphere is grossly misunderstood and under-valued--Time will tell (. . . and eventually cover :-)

This is from a comment left on AlwaysOn in response to my article about Time's choice of person's of the year.

From Symph402nd | POSTED: 12.23.05 @18:21

This is such a sad thing to post. Rather than waste your time complaining about the moral caliber of Bill Gates, why don't you look into what is really going on in the world with a heart. I never liked the things Gates did but I felt a lot better about him after I found out about his involvement with Bono and all that he has contributed. Whether so wealthy or not, the fact is he doesn't have to give but he choses to give and he gives a lot which is more than you might even be able to say about yourself. You could service the world a lot better by talking about what really matters rather than this kind of idiocy. This is an example of an American Idiot. Bono has great plans, ideas and programs and Gates is smart enough to see that. You dull the enthusiasm of those, like myself, who have worked so hard to actually do something about a real serious health crisis. Why would anyone want to do that? You obviously have a voice in the world, use it to say things you want to be remembered for not this kind of nonsense.

My reply:

My sincerest apologies, I did not mean to sound mean, or to dampen your enthusiasm for doing good things. I encourage you to continue with your mission and disregard my piece.

I applaud the charity work that Time's people of the year winners have accomplished, and I hope they continue to be successful in giving away billions of dollars for many, many years to come.

I, too, want to make a difference in the world, and help the world solve serious problems. I lack material resources but I have no lack of digital ink.

And the judicial application of digital ink can be used to great effect. The power of the pen can now be mightier than the checkbook.

The blogosphere is an important addition to the mediasphere (as long as we can keep some professional media.)
I view the blogger and blogging, as ways that will help our society to "think" our way through some serious problems ahead.

The blogosphere is an aggregation of billions of links--not unlike the neurons in our brains. If you examined just one neuron, or one blog, you would find nothing very remarkable. Yet in aggregation--both are phenomenal.

That is why I say, that the humble blogger, and the not so humble blogger, have made and will make, a much larger contribution to the world than any three rich people that you can fit on the cover of a magazine.

And I am truly shocked that Time magazine did not realize the incredible value that the blogosphere has already provided.

Time's person of the year should have been a blogger

It's easy to give away money easily come by...Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

We wuz robbed! I hope no Redmond gold was used to influence the Time magazine cover of Bill G and Melinda, and bizarrely, standing in-between them, Bono?

I hope Waggoner Edstrom--MSFT's PR firm--wasn't involved in influencing Time magazine. And that the PR company did not create mock-ups of Time magazine covers, (which is its usual practice to focus the minds of the Wag Ed troops on PR goals.)

Philanthropy is wonderful, but it's easy to do when the gold was acquired through illegal monopolistic practices. Isn't that what the courts said MSFT did?

The humble blogger, and the not so humble blogger, probably gave zilch to any charity this year, but, they should have been on the cover of Time. Surely, no other persons have had more effect on the global consciousness?

Blogging is people power at its best, and it should be celebrated, not the largesse of the rich.

Plus, blogging represents the Next Big Thing. It has ALL the characteristics of the Next Big Thing (don't be distracted by the sometimes wacky content.)

Another reason Time should have chosen a blogger: 2005 is the Chinese year of the Rooster. And the Rooster is a perfect metaphor for the blogger.

Last year was the year of the Monkey, and in the Chinese culture there are four monkeys, compared with our Western tradition of three monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The fourth monkey is: do no evil.

Interestingly, Google IPO'd in the Year of the Monkey, GOOG has a motto: do no evil.

We are coming to the end of the year of the Rooster/the year of the blogger. And if I had enough money to influence things, I would have put a blogger on the cover of Time.

2006 is the year of the Dog. What will that represent? Packs of new rules enterprises tearing apart the lumbering old world enterprises, imho.

December 21, 2005

The crown jewels of the AOL-GOOG deal are not where you think they are...

The $1bn deal nets Google a lot more than the ads, (that's just the free stuff that comes with the deal.)

It's about the comms platform and the huge numbers of AIM users versus GTalk's MaryCeleste...imho.

Please see: These are the crown jewels of the AOL deal...

And please excuse the bouncing around--it's a new media :-)

December 20, 2005

The first journalist from a top newspaper to become a full-time blogger

I was the subject of an interview published in PR Week. . .

Interview: Tom Foremski
PR Week USA Dec 12 2005 00:00

In May 2004, Tom Foremski took a huge risk. He left one of the top jobs in tech journalism - Silicon Valley reporter and columnist for the Financial Times - to start a blog about the business and culture of Silicon Valley.

While many journalists blog in addition to their day jobs, Foremski was arguably the first journalist from a major publication to quit to become a full-time blogger. Now, Foremski may be even more influential than when he was with the FT. . .

More influential than the FT would be nice, I'm not there yet :-)

I didn't realize I would become the first full-time journalist blogger. I just saw the handwriting on the walls. And I didn't realize the effect this would have on large Silicon Valley companies.

One of my senior contacts at Intel told me, "When you left the FT to become a blogger, it was a wake up call. We realized we had to take this blogging trend seriously." Others have told me similar stories.

Wow, that's very cool, but I had no idea my online ambitions would have such a broad effect. Or that I would be doing so much public speaking, and be on panels with John Chambers and other highly respected captains of industry, top media execs, VCs, top thoughtleaders etc.

And even share a panel with Joe Trippi, arguably the top political strategist in the US. And, I am often asked to talk about the future of journalism, a very serious subject. Sometimes, it all feels very strange, I'm just a guy with a laptop(!)

Looking over shoulders

For the past 24 years I have worked as a journalist and I would look over people's shoulders and say "that looks interesting, what are you doing? What is that technology? What does it do? How will it change things? How will you grow the business?"

Now, I have journalists looking over my shoulder, and asking those same questions. That is unique place to be, and that is why I always urge my media colleagues to come join me. The sooner the better.

[Seriously, this is a good time to message me if you are ready...]

It has been an incredible year. And over the next few days I will share some of the many (unexpected) things I have learned as a journalist blogger :-)

It's my B'day Wednesday....

I'm going to try to stay away from any interactive screens and spend it with my marvelous kids. If you need to reach me try my cell four one 5 three 36 7five 47.

BTW, I ONLY give out my cell phone number and I keep my land line secret. Otherwise people would be leaving messages on my land line all day long. People think twice about calling my cell phone. Thank you!

Zeitgeist turning against zeitgeist--time for a new term

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Garrett Rogers, over at ZDNet has an interesting post about Google Zeitgeist 2005. It is an end of year report from Google on popular search terms for the year.

Google's year-end report is a very weak and skimpy report, and tells us nothing much. And nothing much that we didn't know already, or could have guessed.

For example, under natural disasters, the tsunami and earthquakes and hurricanes featured in a lot of searches. Wow.

Under movies, the release of the DVD of Star Wars was not as highly trafficked a search term as the release of the movie. Wow.

The release of the Harry Potter book drew as many searches as the release of this year's Harry Potter movie. Wow.

However, Brad Pitt got a lot more action than Jolie or Jen. Well, we knew that.

All in all, Google kept the good stuff to itself: all the billions of queries, the time of them, which region, even which person (name withheld, of course.) That is a database I'd like to mine.

Also, it is a misuse of the term zeitgeist. Here is the definition from Google:

zeit·geist | Pronunciation: 'tsIt-"gIst, 'zIt | Function: noun | Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit) | Date: 1884 | Meaning: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

Zeitgeist is a shifting "feel" of a society, its mood, its psychology, its fickleness; and that can change in a heartbeat. It is not something tangible like a search term. And it is always country/society/region/company specific.

A list of popular search terms is just that: a list of popular search terms. It says nothing about the zeitgeist of our societies.

If Google wants to "re-brand" the term zeitgeist, then we need something else. How about "kultura?"

I've used the term before, in the context of how quickly (or slowly) ideas and culture spread across the planet. It seems to take about 6 months to travel from Silicon Valley to the East coast of the US, and another 6 months to travel to London/Europe.

I call this effect the Foremski universal constant of kultura--for which there is no acronym :-)

December 18, 2005

Announcing the first AJAX banner ad!

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

A little while ago I challenged my readers to come up with something different from advertising banners and marketing messages.

I have asked many people, "What else could you do in the space taken up by a banner ad, or a side-column skyscraper ad? Something that is novel and is useful to the readers rather than flashing and annoying marketing messages. Maybe something which demonstrates your thought-leadership or that of your clients."

Well, I've been collecting some excellent suggestions and we've only just begun.

My favorite so far, is from SVW sponsor Tibco, which is to produce an AJAX based "banner ad." It will showcase Tibco's AJAX prowess, but it could also usher in an entirely different type of media component.

As far as I know this will be the the world's first AJAX banner ad!

And it will be the first banner ad that is also an application!

But what should the content of such a new AJAX banner ad be?

We're working on two ideas, which should be ready by the new year. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and just what do you think would make for great content or application, utilizing this concept.

Also, this is exactly the kind of thing I, and hopefully you, my readers want to be involved in: innovation. This comes from the application of technologies, processes, and insight. And it is a lot more exciting than doing things the old way, imho :-)

- - -
Please see: The new media needs new types of innovation--not more banner ads

December 16, 2005

Weekend wrapper...a collection of tidbits

'm out at meetings all day but here are a few tidbits three-dot style.

. . .

I missed the Syndicate conference in San Francisco this week, but I hear it was vendor-hell. Too many vendors prowling the halls and sessions. And attendance of some of the sessions was so bad that they had to be cancelled.

It is a shame, I attended the Syndicate conference in New York and enjoyed it. But that was because I was chairing some great panels including a lunchtime panel Nooked and I put together with Robert Scoble, Jon Udell, Charlene Li...and others.

. . .

This week was the deadline for a big contract for public relations from one of the largest tech companies. And only a few PR firms were invited to bid on the contract. As soon as I find out who won, I'll let you know.

. . .

I went to Dogster's fun little holiday party on Thursday. This is Friendster for Dogs (and cats--there is Catster too.) It is a great idea and they had a million votes recently for their coolest pets contest.

But, did you know that no one at Dogster owns a dog? How ironic is that? Again, it proves the hand of a Supreme Being is at work (see Ironic Design proves more than Intelligent Design.)

. . .

My buddy Rok Hrastnik from Studio Moderna in Slovenia was in town this week, and he says central and eastern Europe is a happening place these days. Lots of ideas and energy and excitement in the air. Also, the old media the newspapers, are embracing blogging and other technologies at a much faster rate than in the US, and it is working.

. . .

China, China, China is on everyone's lips. And everyone is scrambling to set up offices or show that they have partners/representatives over there. More on this later...

December 15, 2005

Buying newspapers? Give the hacks a raise . . . then fire the executive managers

From Business Week Online:
Newspapers: Buys Among the Battered

You're-Fired.jpg "If prices of newspaper companies continue falling, it's likely that private- equity investors or activist investors will step in as catalysts for change at the newspapers. On Dec. 1, three private- equity firms (The Blackstone Group, Providence Equity Partners, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) announced that they're considering the purchase of Knight Ridder. If a sale of Knight Ridder happens in the near term, Peters believes it could lead to shakeups at other newspaper companies, as managements may realize the need to do more for shareholders."

What about doing something for the long suffering journalists? If I were a buyer, the first thing I would do would be to give the journalists a 30 per cent pay raise--and fire their executive managers.

Without the hacks you have nothing to buy except for a lumbering and antiquated legacy culture and infrastructure.

A rising star at Intel: Meet Senior VP and head of global marketing and sales

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

On Monday I met with Intel's rising star senior vp Anand Chandrasekher, head of worldwide sales and marketing. Mr Chandrasekher has been in the job less than a year, previously, he headed Intel's Centrino group, one of the most successful Intel businesses of all time.

The Centrino mobile chipset business has been a huge cash cow for Intel. It caught the shift from desktop to notebook just at the right time. And Centrino has been instrumental in pushing Intel's gross margins back up into the 62 per cent range.

These are software industry type margins yet they come from a chipmaker which has to juggle billions of dollars in capital costs in predicting future market needs. On top of that, it has to operate the most expensive and most complex industrial factories of our modern age: the chip fab.

In fact, this is the secret to Intel's success. It is not that it is a microprocessor maker (that's just the app) it knows CMOS like nobody else. CMOS is the dominant process for making advanced, highly complex, microprocessors and other types of chips.

And Intel is utilizing nearly every element in in the periodic table to create new materials that enable it to double the complexity of chips every 18 to 24 months.

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

[Mr Chandrasekher is Indian, and during our meeting, one of his aides kept him fed with cricket scores, there was a big game on :-)]

Low-power high-performance

Low electric power consuming chips are a prime focus for Intel, says Mr Chandrasekher. "We did a study about five years ago and found that our customers were already complaining about high electric power costs in their IT data centers, so now, our designs are totally focused on reducing electric power usage and performance per watt of power."

Intel joins Sun Microsystems, Advanced Micro Devices, IBM, HP and smaller competitors such as Transmeta, in the hot market for low-power computing systems. This is especially important since utility computing will likely become the most important IT architecture of the second half of this decade. And this requires data centers with tens-of-thousands of servers.

Mr Chandrasekher says the future of low-power chips lies in multi-core processor designs, getting rid of older design features such as deep pipelines, plus other tricks, and power consumption falls with each tweak.

What interested me the most, was whether Intel would be able to walk away from its strong belief that you have to have a big, powerful general purpose microprocessor on the PC or notebook.

We know that very soon we will have ubiquitous broadband access--wired or wireless--nearly everywhere. [Yes, Silicon Valley will be the last to get ubiquitous broadband, ironically.] That means we can offload general purpose application processing to central servers and use local computer devices to render the user interface and content screens.

Web services and technologies such as AJAX, enable software applications to carry their own processing within their user interface. You can provide users with a strong PC experience using just some of the "basic" PC chipsalong with powerful inexpensive graphics and audio chips..

All that's needed, imho, is a simple PC/notebook type device that is great at rendering and displaying graphics, video and text, and interactive elements--all within a familiar browser interface.

Why pay a couple of hundred dollars for Intel's latest microprocessor designs when all you really need locally is something like an ATI or Nvidia $50 multimedia/graphics chips with some minor bells and whistles. There is far less need for a general purpose, powerful microprocessor when you have easy access to big Iron over broadband.

A balanced client--neither fat nor thin

Mr Chandrasekher says that thin-client or fat server software models are in decline and that things will settle somewhere in between. And this is why:

"When computing was expensive, as in the 1960s, you had to get by with time-share computing. When bandwidth was cheap, it made sense to push the processing power to the clients and edges of the network. When both computing and bandwidth are nearly identical (zero) cost, I think client and server size will stay in the middle," say Mr Chandrasekher.

The $100 notebook computer

I take his point, but I don't buy it. I think you will be able to produce the fabled $100 notebook computer much sooner rather than later.

Mr Chandrasekher doesn't see a heck of a lot of value in a $100 notebook computer, ostensibly designed for the developing world.

"People with a $100 notebook computer will get the computer they deserve," he smiles.

He is convinced that middle-class families in developing regions of the world will pay much more for a computer because they see it as an important investment for their family and education of their kids.

I'm not persuaded. Time and time again, customers of the client-side device favor smaller prices. That's why the digital cell phone is the primary means of accessing the internet in much of Asia.

Mr Chandrasekher also talked about home entertainment markets, targeted with the VIIV architecture. Intel has ambitions to dominate this market--but so do about a dozen other large companies--approaching this market in their own ways.

Defending the margins

Intel has high gross margins to protect and so this makes it difficult to maintain high profitability in home entertainment systems where the margins are traditionally very cut-throat.

That will be the test of Intel's CMOS chip production prowess. Can it maintain the margins while at the same time churning out millions of VIIV based systems. This is a market that can be served well with specialized DSP and other chips--potentially costing much less than an Intel microprocessor.

That is, unless Intel can h cram ever more chips on a single die and come closer to a PC-plus-entertainment-technologies system that we could try out.

December 14, 2005

Journalists in the heart of the Googleplex

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Google hosts an annual party for the media in December. And I popped along, as always. It was nice, small, comfortable, lots of familiar faces, and much of the Silicon Valley press corp was in attendance.

The event is off-the-record, which is a good thing because it relaxes everybody. It is a social occasion, and not a press conference or a publicity event. You don't have to be on your guard. It is a pause in the normal workflow, a chance for the media, the communications teams, and top execs to mingle and get to know each other.

It is also a rare chance to catch up with colleagues at various publications--there are few such events that bring us together. Yes, there were a few missing faces, a few casualties of the media sector disruption.

Which got me thinking about the event itself and the irony of it all:

Here were the remains of the professional media, enjoying the hospitality of a company leading the disruption of the media sector; and potentially endangering their ability to earn a living in the frugal manner of their profession.

There was no Luddite rage expressed against Google. There was no attempt at a rallying cry for a massed storming of the Googleplex data center. Most were content with picking out all the good sushi, drinking cocktails, and chatting politely.

December 13, 2005

Intel to make big content announcement at CES

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Intel says it will make a big content related announcement in early January at the Consumer Electronics Show, as it seeks to push deep into home entertainment systems markets.

"You will be surprised at who it is," said an Intel spokesperson. The company has about 40 smaller content deals in the pipeline.

The world's largest chipmaker is investing a lot of money and resources into its VIIV home entertainment system business. VIIV is a PC architecture-based system that can handle all home entertainment needs and also help families save money on their communications through PC technologies such as VOIP.

VIIV users will be able to consolidate their entertainment and communications pipes. And add wireless entertainment capabilities.

[More coming--I have to shoot off to the Googleplex...it's Eric's turn to play Santa, Wayne did it last year :-)]

- - -

Here is part 1 of my interview on ZDNet with Intel and Silicon Valley rising star: Anand Chandrasekher senior vp.

Who will save Plugged In--computer literacy for East Palo Alto kids?

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
In the center of Silicon Valley, just across the highway, and just minutes from the pristine streets and academic blissfulness of Palo Alto, is East Palo Alto. It is a ghetto in the traditional sense--poor, urban, mostly African American, and unsafe.

Plugged In, a charity that taught East Palo Alto children computer literacy, has had to lay off its entire staff. Here is more on this situation from my pals at IDBNetwork:

Plugged In was forced to lay off all six full-time staff members -- two of whom have kept working without pay. Losing Plugged In would be a terrible blow to East Palo Alto and to Silicon Valley as a whole.
The organization needs $27,000 by December 31 to keep operating into next year, and $108,000 for the entire year.

There's something seriously wrong with our priorities if non-profits like Plugged In that focus on bringing technology into the community -- right here in Silicon Valley, the center of technology innovation -- aren't being supported by the technology giants that live next door. Plugged In needs and deserves our immediate help.

We encourage you to help them in any way you can. Potential donors can contact Michael Levin at 650.322.1134 ext. 13 or at mlevin@pluggedin.org.

Donations may also be sent to EPA.net, c/o Plugged In, 1836B Bay Road, East Palo Alto, CA 94303.

---

To learn more about Plugged In visit:

http://whatcounts.com/t?ctl=1028297:3160203

If this Dream Media Team forms--it's Game Over for the rest

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

I am always pleased to see Bulgaria based Dimitar Vesselinov's smart and pithy comments on SVW...

Here is a recent post from Dimitar's blog: The World 2 Come-My Lifetime Digital Memory. It's about his dream media team (thank you for the inclusion :-)

It's a killer media team and it would be Game Over for all the rest, if you could swing it. But we are talking Jupiter-planet size egos here, which have trouble co-existing in the same solar system, let alone online.

Interesting choice of Sir Richard Branson...
Also, lots of updates, clearly Dimitar has been feeling a bit of heat to add names to the team :-)

[I propose that we add Dimitar Vesselinov to the team as Chief Blogger. Let someone else do it for a change, I want to spend some time with my kids.]

"My Dream Media Team"

President: Richard Branson
CEO: John Battelle
COO: Jason Calacanis
CEB (chief executive blogger): Robert Scoble
CTO/CIO: Max Levchin
CSA (chief software architect): Mark Canter
Editor-in-chief: Chris Anderson
Chief customer representative: Craig Newmark
Pundit: Jeff Jarvis
Pundit: Susan Mernit
Pundit: Steve Gillmor
Pundit: Dana Blankenhorn
Editor: Dan Gillmor
Editor: Tom Foremski
Editor: John C. Dvorak
Analyst: Rafat Ali
Content development: Marshall Brain
Marketing: Seth Godin
PR: Steve Rubel
Business development: Michael Arrington
Search: Philipp Lenssen
Podcasting: Doug Kaye
Podcasting: John Furrier
Telecoms: Om Malik
Blogs: David Sifry
Europe: Loic Le Meur
China: Jack Ma
CSO: John Robb
VC: Fred Wilson
Mobile: Oliver Starr

Update:
Entrepreneur: Mena Trott
Editor: Rebecca MacKinnon
HR: Heather Hamilton
Fashion: Anina
Analyst: Staci D. Kramer
Gossip: Jessica Coen
Politics: Ana Marie Cox

Update 2:
Web 2.0: Richard MacManus
Legal department: Denise Howell
Photos: Caterina Fake
Video: Amanda Congdon
Reporter: Xeni Jardin
Geek: Gina Trapani
Zeitgeist: Anastasia Goodstein

Update 3:
Reporter: Kevin Sites

December 12, 2005

New rules: The reverse ten-bagger is the model for success

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

There's no doubt about it, Google's patina of goodwill is dissolving. I'm hearing a fair amount of anti-GOOG chatter all over the place.

Personally, I still like Google. I still feel that I get a whole lot more out of Google than Google gets out of me as an internet user.

In many ways, Google exemplifies what I call one of the new rules of the new economy.

Old Rule: Success is the ten-bagger company--returning to its VCs/investors more than ten times their investment.

New Rule: Success is the reverse ten-bagger--the company that monetizes ten per cent or less of the business opportunities it has.

Otherwise it is not providing enough value to its customers and it will be considered as trying to fleece its users.

Tibco and the Power to Predict

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

I popped over to Vivek Ranadive's holiday event at the weekend. It seems as though the holiday festivities officially start with Vivek's early December bash at the very regal, black-tie optional party at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.

Vivek is CEO of Tibco, one of the first and most loyal sponsors of SVW. The least I can do is pop over once a year and eat Vivek's food and sample his wines (I offer such services to all of my sponsors and I encourage them to use them often. Sign up now...)

Vivek's book, "The Power to Predict," is due early in the new year It is the sequel to "The Power of Now" which laid out the competitive advantages of being a real-time corporation--having your IT systems run at the speed of your business--rather than in batch mode.

The Power to Predict discusses a concept that Vivek has been talking about for several years. It is the next stage: how corporations can respond in real-time to likely outcomes based on past data.

For example, the technology is being used by Harrah's Casinos to figure out how to improve customer satisfaction in real-time, such as offering free dinner show tickets to customers reaching their spending/losing limits.

Predictive technology is also becoming integral to IT architectures, especially in the brave new world of utility computing. Allocating computer and network resources in real-time is a big challenge.

However, if you can make use of predictive technologies, you can potentially be better prepared to respond to changing demands for IT within your organization..

- - -

BTW, you should visit the Cantor Arts Center, it has stunning art galleries and it is free.

The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents art in 24 galleries plus sculpture gardens, terraces, and courtyard. The Center's diverse collections span 4000 years and the world's cultures and number some 25,000 objects, including the largest collection of Rodin bronzes outside Paris. Nearly 100 contemporary sculptures sited outdoors throughout campus await your discovery. Presenting a wide range of important changing exhibitions, docent tours, lectures, gallery talks, symposia, and classes, the Cantor Arts Center is a cultural hub for the community and a teaching resource for Stanford University. Learn what the Center offers and visit often. ADMISSION IS FREE.

http://ccva.stanford.edu/

December 10, 2005

Mindless legislation

Dennis Howlett writes in response to "The last stand of the disrupteed industries will be on The Hill"

Tom: Ben Hammersley gave a very good talk about the threats to free speech at Les Blogs 2.0 - he talked extensively about the threats of censorship in its many forms. This looks like yet another. Note also that Wikipedia has caved into making restrictions.
There will be cases where restrictions should apply for the common good. Comment monitoring is one such. I use it to ensure there's no profanity, obscenity or other mindless rubbish. To me, that's for the common good and for the benefit of all my readers who prefer a more considered tone. And as site owner, I'm perfectly free to do that, regardless of what anyone else thinks about it. For me, the issue is about reaching your audience at the level it requires in ALL respects.

But when there is equally mindless legislation - of the kind in France where email could technically be illegal as of tomorrow - then you really do have a messed up world.

Big media will try and muscle this as far as it can but can it truly succeed while adsense rules? Especially if Microsoft weighs in with significant monetary incentives for advertising. Imagine that - Google and Microsoft sharing a team of lawyers? Can you really see legislators wanting to step into that space? I can't. Anywhere on the planet.

December 9, 2005

The price of oil and computing power

Power could cost more than servers, Google warns
So writes Cnet News' Stephen Shankland

See my CryptoScoop about the 13th building block :-)

Also: Is it a coincidence that Sun chose "Niagara" as the codename for its latest UltraSparc 72-watt chip?

Ironic Design offers better proof than Intelligent Design

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Blog software creator Mena Trott criticizes BlogoSphere.

BlogoSphere (BS) turns on blogging software creator Mena Trott.

Mena Trott Implodes Onstage. News at 11

Has the BS itself imploded?

It is all marvesouly entertaining, in a cultural sense, don't you think? Not to mention the ironic sense too.

It's at times like this that I think: Ironic Design within the universe, is a far greater proof of the existence of the Supreme Being, than the weak Intelligent Design argument.

Inform.com: Another news aggregator, another beta

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Inform.com, yet another "Google News" and yet much better.

Julian Steinberg, of Inform, emails:

I think you will be especially interested in our new RSS feeds and syndication features. Through Inform you can now create an RSS feed on any person, place, organization, product, topic or combination thereof and read it through whichever RSS reader you currently use.
I don’t think any other RSS feed gives you this kind of precision including video, audio and blogs. The new syndication feature or “News Widget” gives you the same functionality as the RSS feed but allows you to create a news widget on any blog or web site.

Very nice interface. I think it will do well.

How many more automated news sites can we support, and how fickle are the readers? Gabe's tech.memeorandum took off like a rocket in the blogosphere. Inform could do the same in the mainstream sphere.

In the meantime, someone has to write the news stories. Is there anybody left in the newsrooms?

Vid-of-the-week: Dan Farber maps out the Google Galaxy...

Or how to make a big mess on a whiteboard :-)

http://news.zdnet.com/2036-2_22-5977423.html

The last stand of the disrupted industries will be on the Hill

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

It's a snow crash kind of world--it's all about the media wars. Because now, we live totally immersed in a media world. Everything is about content, publishing and delivery.

The content is news, services, games, and it is interactive--it carries its own communications within itself.

The content is published on screens--of four kinds: TV, PC, pocket and paper (static) screens. The device that publishes the content, i.e cell phone, notebook, magazine etc, is less important than the content.

Content is a property that is copyrightable, and content owners have great legal powers to lock it down. The Digital Millennium Act gives content owners substantial control over innovation, what types of devices/software/technology can be developed.

In such a media-centric world, Silicon Valley companies had better get hip to the Hill. Washington D.C is where the disrupted industries will wage their last stand.

- - -

Please also see my post on pugnacious Ed Zander leads Tech CEO policy group.

- - -

Here is a book called Snow Crash:

December 8, 2005

Network Appliance and its strategy for world domination

Wednesday evening I was having dinner with Network Appliance CEO Dan Warmenhoven and co-founder Dave Hitz. It's refreshing to see a company that isn't afraid to expose its top executives to the media.

It was a small gathering, just four business journalists: Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Reuters and SVW. Such small gatherings are excellent, because you get access to top executives, and you get to hear stories that other journalists don't hear. And as a journalist, you need information that few others have; it's the distinction between publications.

Most recently, I had spoken with Dave Hitz, who called me from Washington D.C. He was out on the East coast meeting customers, and also legislators discussing data protection bills.

Dave is also a keen blogger, and he just recently jumped to a PageRank of 6, which is pretty good. Here is some link-love to Dave's blog.

And here is my latest post on ZDNet, about Network Appliance and its crafty positioning in what could be the control point in data centers.

December 7, 2005

Experts discussing Google--come join the conversation (and buy the book)

John Paczkowski of Good Morning Silicon Valley writes:

Hey Tom:
Google, its achievements and ambitions are the subject of a week long interactive roundtable at SiliconValley.com that began yesterday. In a forum, readers can join a panel of industry figures, analysts and journalists in discussing Google's products, strategies and goals. We've got quite a panel lined up: Rich Skrenta, John Battelle, Om Malik, Nick Carr, Doug Edwards (Google's director of brand management from1999 to 2005) and others.

The front door for the event is

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13233755.htm

Your readers are welcome (and encouraged) to join us.

Sounds fun, I plan to visit and I hope you do too. Also, it's a novel way to promote a book :-)

Another reason most IT data centers are on the way out

Here is my most recent blog post on ZDNet:

Another reason most IT data centers are on the way out

It is based on a conversation I had with David Scott, CEO of 3PAR, which has a technology that can dramatically increase data storage capacity. It discusses fine-grained virtualization, which means tricking IT applications into thinking they have a huge amount of data storage space allocated to their needs.

What this also means is that the efficiency of utility computing systems is significantly increased and that raises the bar even higher for internal corporate IT systems versus outside providers. Server huggers beware :-)

It's just one more reason why there will be a booming business in decommissioning corporate IT data centers over the next few years, imho.

Business Week layoffs

Business weakens at Business Week as 60 jobs are cancelled in reorganization.

(Thanks Giovanni.)

December 6, 2005

The latest content versus index wars: European publishers slam the Oodles of Googles

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

It's the latest round in the battle between content creators versus the index creators. Human versus machine-produced content.

"By HELENA SPONGENBERG, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - European publishers warned Tuesday that they cannot keep allowing Internet search engines such as Google Inc. to make money from their content.

"The new models of Google and others reverse the traditional permission-based copyright model of content trading that we have built up over the years," said Francisco Pinto Balsemao, the head of the European Publishers Council, in prepared remarks for a speech at a Brussels conference."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051206/ap_on_hi_te/europe_internet

Google, Yahoo and the Oodles of this world will shrug and say, that's fine, we'll stop indexing you and I guess you don't want all the traffic we send you.

But maybe the traffic isn't that great? The traffic that news sites get from search engines isn't high quality traffic. It is the web surfer, happy-go-lucky, a click here, and one there, then gone.

News is not consumed through a search box. You cannot search for news because you wouldn't know what to search for. It's new. That's why there are products such as Google News, so you can see what is news.

But advertising on news pages is not very efficient. Conversions are the highest on search pages.

So, if Google and others publish headlines and extracts of news content on their pages, it takes away traffic because that is all the content most people need for news. Fewer visitors means it makes it more difficult for the news organizations to pay their journalists--and that must affect the quality of journalism.

Let's also mention the devastating effect Google et al are having on newspaper/ news sites and their classified ads and small business advertising.

This is a double whammy against the professional media sector, imho.

The new media needs new types of innovation--not more banner ads

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

ZDNet, where I now also blog, knows how to monetize my work. I'm useless at it, or perhaps just squeamish: I just can't bring myself to turn on the banner ads, the flashing ads, the ads that burst onto your screen if you accidentally mouse over to an interesting headline.

And then you have to find out where to click to close the annoying advertisements, so that you can see the news story under it.

It's too much work, too many clicks for the reader. I hate it, so why should I subject my readers to it?

You will not see (much of) such crude commercialization here. I'm resisting the ad networks, the Google AdSense, the Yahoo publisher network, and, a plethora of other advertising and RSS networks that are springing up faster than ever. I will work with some of the ad networks but I am picky.

Green Links

You will begin to see more ads on SVW, because my landlord says he needs to eat. I told him he looks a lot better having lost a few pounds, and he says he feels better too and has more energy.

But he says his mortgage banker needs to eat (ah, the tangled monetary web that we weave...)

Innovative Sponsors Needed

When it comes to advertising, I'd rather work with companies that would like to be innovative, try different things, and I've got a ton of ideas and challenges if that sort of thing appeals to you.

For example, let's turn the space occupied by a banner advert into something different, something useful. I don't know what that might be yet, but I have some ideas, and you have some too--that's where the innovation comes into play.

Are you feeling innovative? Call me, my cell is four one 5 33 six 7547.

- - -

Here is my ZDNet blog.

Read Silicon Valley Watcher blogs on CNET's ZDNet and AlwaysOn!

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

I hate to overload my readers here on SVW. I try to spare you from the bit-torrent of writing and posts that I can do, and would do, if I weren't concerned about my readers.

I don't want to stress my readers. If you look in your RSS news reader and see 15 new entries on SVW you might flag it for later reading--and then never make it back.

But two or three posts are welcoming (even if several posts are sometimes disguised as one post), and much less stressful I would think. (I could be wrong, and if I am, please tell me: can you handle more posts or prefer fewer?)

I think I have come up with a partial solution. I will blog here on SVW, and also on ZDNet, joining Dan Farber's squad. [I am also reposting some older SVW entries on Tony Perkin's AlwaysOn.]

I will flag and excerpt my ZDNet posts here on SVW, but, you'll have to go over there to read them. It is all about exclusive content, imho. If you've got it, then you've got a valuable asset.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Foremski/

- - -

My first post on ZDNet is a modest one, it is about the Next Big Thing.

I think I know what it is. You might laugh, maybe even jeer when you find out what it is, but, that is part of the process of the Next Big thing :-)

Here is my first ZDNet post.

- - -

My second post on ZDNet is about Sun Microsystems.

I think Sun might have gotten its mojo back. Alas, HP's is still missing...

Here is my second post on ZDNet.

- - -

Here is the RSS feed for my ZDNet exclusive posts.

December 5, 2005

Talking heads encourage wandering eyes...

Web design guru Jakob Nielsen says :

"Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing."

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/video.html

Foremski"s take: It just shows how challenging it will be to repurpose content from one screen to another. We live in a three-screen world: TV, PC and pocket screen. Each one demands specific characteristics to be compelling, otherwise wandering eyes lead to wondering what else is on...

.

Ever shorter blog posts are the current fashion, here is the shortest post

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Everytime I see His Omness--the omnipotent voice on broadband--he tells me I write too long.

I do write too long sometimes but, I try and keep the reader engaged, pull them through to the next paragraph. And I use sub-heads to let people look ahead...and other things like original illustrations by Chris Dichtel.

A few weeks ago Om told me I should write just one post per day and it should be less than 250 words. I said that would kill me, I have a ton of stuff to write about, news, interviews, columns, and so on. I have so much to give to the world :-)

But I am learning to write shorter posts. And it is certainly the fashion now to write shorter and shorter posts.

Here is the shortest post.

December 2, 2005

This is a better term for blogging and bloggers...but keep the BS

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

This post on AlwaysOn , about the need for a better term than blog or blogging, got me thinking.

I really like readwriting as a term for blogging. A blog is readable from anywhere and it is writable from anywhere. It is readwriting.

We get to play on both sides of the glass display screen. This also gets us away from the constant debates on what blogging is or isn't.

Each blog "document" is unique because it is an interactive publication. In the same way that AJAX applications carry their processing within them, a blog document carries comments, trackbacks and links--it carries its own communications.

Here is an emotionally neutral definition:

Blogging or readwriting is the act of publishing online a document that contains interactive elements such as a comments area, trackbacks, and links to other interactive documents. Most of the content is written by a person.

And the people that do it are readwriters.

readwriting = blogging

readwriters = bloggers

But what do we do with the term BlogoSphere (BS), maybe we could still keep using the BS term as a reminder of our history?

Salon.com's celebration of 10 years of online publishing

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

[I wish I had a week in every day...I'm so far behind]

Thursday evening, Nick Aster, our chief media architect, and our newest editorial contributor Lucaso (Luke) Maroney, and I ventured out into the rain swept streets of San Francisco and headed to Cafe Du Nord for Salon.com's tenth anniversary celebrations.

I had met Joan Walsh, the editor-in-chief, in New York in the summer when I was on a panel with Joe Trippi. Joan and the team have done a great job putting Salon.com back in the black, and they are hiring.

Joan said the San Francisco celebration was a better party than the New York anniversary party Salon threw last week. [She might have been just sparing poor San Francisco's feelings...we can take it :-)]

Lots of stories Thursday about Salon, in the SF Chron and SJ Mercury, thanks to Salon's publicist, New York based Andy Plesser, of Plesser Holland Associates. Andy is a veteran at such things and has specialized in working with media companies, such as Wired, Red Herring, ZDnet and others. He also helped organize the Thursday evening celebration.

It was an interesting crowd, a lot of old San Francisco courtesy of the dynamic Hambrecht family and its chief dynamo Bill Hambrecht. The family was well represented at the event--as they are within Salon.com--as investors and as hands-on managers.

Hardly any geeks in this SF social crowd, although Craig Newmark of Craigslist wandered in from the rain. Craig had recently returned from a trip to Oxford, where he and his CEO Jim Buckmaster spoke at the Oxford Saïd business school.

Charlotte Grimshaw and her colleagues, have done a great job in luring Silicon Valley's leaders to speak at the school. Please see The Silicon Valley comes to Oxford

Craig said he was hoping to pick up a title of nobility while in the UK, viscount, he said, would have been his choice. But he didn't. At least now we know what to get him for Christmas.

Lucaso, Joan Walsh and ...

Some of the watchers...

One of the Hambrechts....

December 1, 2005

[Copy for top panels - Panel 1 - in extract field]

A collection of semi-useful and semi-cryptic bits and bobs

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

-Big sucking sounds may be heard in San Francisco. YHOO and GOOG are hoping to tap into the local SF media and tech community that won't crawl their way to the outskirts of San Jose every day.

I'm hearing downtown, and big facilities over time, which will push up office rents. The two have already pushed up software engineer salaries in Silicon Valley by more than 30 per cent.

. . .

-A giant search company sniffing for a way to monetize individual medical records (HIPAA gasp)? That would certainly provide for an efficient drug delivery system...

. . .

-I recently had dinner with John Dvorak, who is one of the savviest media professionals around. I've been a fan of his work since I started in the business more than two decades ago.

His writing is consistently good, but more importantly, he spots the original angles in stories that thousands have covered. And it is people like John that are going to do well in this new media (yes the term is back and this time it means what it says :-)

It is finally the time of the media engineer--which I define broadly as savvy media professional with (some) knowledge of this new generation of media technologies (blogging, RSS, server-side tracking tools...).

. . .

-Martin Snopek offers a way to claim your mark in the digital ether.

. . .

-Craigslist needs to build out the front part of its online newspaper, imho. That's what I told CEO Jim Buckmaster a few weeks ago. Otherwise Google Base and the searchers and scrapers will eventually triumph over Craigslist.

Founder Craig Newmark has been popping up in various publications, and he says he has figured out how to save newsroom jobs. All will be revealed soon (from under his kimono.) Will it save Craigslist too?

Hopefully Craig and his pals have figured out how to support and reward the media professionals that we need as a society dealing with serious problems.

. . .

-Cryptoscoop: The GOOG is prophetic, rather than superstitious, about its interest in the power in the places associated with the 13th fundamental building block of the Original Design.

December 2005 Archives

December 29, 2005

What year is it? I say...1996 (end)

December 28, 2005

Ten things I learned in 2005. . .

[Guest Column] PR Perspectives: Blogging--Look, think before you leap

December 23, 2005

The blogosphere is grossly misunderstood and under-valued--Time will tell (. . . and eventually cover :-)

Time's person of the year should have been a blogger

December 21, 2005

The crown jewels of the AOL-GOOG deal are not where you think they are...

December 20, 2005

The first journalist from a top newspaper to become a full-time blogger

It's my B'day Wednesday....

Zeitgeist turning against zeitgeist--time for a new term

December 18, 2005

Announcing the first AJAX banner ad!

December 16, 2005

Weekend wrapper...a collection of tidbits

December 15, 2005

Buying newspapers? Give the hacks a raise . . . then fire the executive managers

A rising star at Intel: Meet Senior VP and head of global marketing and sales

December 14, 2005

Journalists in the heart of the Googleplex

December 13, 2005

Intel to make big content announcement at CES

Who will save Plugged In--computer literacy for East Palo Alto kids?

If this Dream Media Team forms--it's Game Over for the rest

December 12, 2005

New rules: The reverse ten-bagger is the model for success

Tibco and the Power to Predict

December 10, 2005

Mindless legislation

December 9, 2005

The price of oil and computing power

Ironic Design offers better proof than Intelligent Design

Inform.com: Another news aggregator, another beta

Vid-of-the-week: Dan Farber maps out the Google Galaxy...

The last stand of the disrupted industries will be on the Hill

December 8, 2005

Network Appliance and its strategy for world domination

December 7, 2005

Experts discussing Google--come join the conversation (and buy the book)

Another reason most IT data centers are on the way out

Business Week layoffs

December 6, 2005

The latest content versus index wars: European publishers slam the Oodles of Googles

The new media needs new types of innovation--not more banner ads

Read Silicon Valley Watcher blogs on CNET's ZDNet and AlwaysOn!

December 5, 2005

Talking heads encourage wandering eyes...

.

Ever shorter blog posts are the current fashion, here is the shortest post

December 2, 2005

This is a better term for blogging and bloggers...but keep the BS

Salon.com's celebration of 10 years of online publishing

December 1, 2005

[Copy for top panels - Panel 1 - in extract field]

A collection of semi-useful and semi-cryptic bits and bobs

- The Less talked about feature in New Xeons.

Comments

Richard Bartlett on Grant Thornton Study: Scary Numbers On The Decline Of US IPOs

artis bugil on Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!

artis bugil on Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!

Tom Foremski on Schmidt: Don't Bet Against Silicon Valley - Or Its Weather

Lars on NYTimes Quarterly Results Show Plunging Print And Online Revenues

Albert on Schmidt: Don't Bet Against Silicon Valley - Or Its Weather

Tom Foremski on Are There New Rules For Embargoes?

Laura Newman on Are There New Rules For Embargoes?

Jason lopez on Retreevo Study Discovers Vacuous iPhone Users

Tom Foremski on GOOG CEO Predicts A Predictable Future Web - Stunning Absence Of Any Real Insights

Tom Foremski on MediaWatch: More About Embargoes...

Meredith Obendorfer on MediaWatch: More About Embargoes...

ktyson on GOOG CEO Predicts A Predictable Future Web - Stunning Absence Of Any Real Insights

pcurve on GOOG CEO Predicts A Predictable Future Web - Stunning Absence Of Any Real Insights

Jimmy N on Are There New Rules For Embargoes?

Tom Foremski on CultureWatch: Should Cafes Become Cheap Office Spaces Or Places For Community Interaction?

Tom Foremski on MediaWatch: Mashable Is On A Tear - Continues To Widen Its Lead Over TechCrunch And Others

Mike McGrath on MediaWatch: Mashable Is On A Tear - Continues To Widen Its Lead Over TechCrunch And Others

Tom Foremski on CultureWatch: Should Cafes Become Cheap Office Spaces Or Places For Community Interaction?