20
January
2006
|
01:30 AM
America/Los_Angeles

This and that: Email or posts?. . .Larry skips Fusion event . . .Forrester Mag is no more . . .Fast search . . . I'll be moderating a panel with Scott McNealy on sharing

My apologies, but I am horribly backed-up on my emails. My first focus is always on reporting/blogging/writing which means I have to hold email blackout periods of several hours at a time, otherwise I'd spend several hours on my emails.


I try and get out and about Silicon Valley everyday, which eats up a lot of time. I try to get those top exec interviews, scoops, news, tidbits of gossip for the locals, and always, always, focus on original and exclusive content--two key newspaper principles that will continue to be important in the new media world.


And that means that in during some busy weeks my email gets terribly jammed up--but please be assured it is not personal--everyone gets mashed up into my Gmail inbox. Also, we had a bounce-back email problem but that should be solved. (We just have a problem with our archive permalinks to sort out...)


. . .


There was no Larry Ellison at the big Oracle customer event about its Fusion IT enterprise push. Mr Ellison had the flu and couldn't attend the San Francisco City Hall red carpet event.


I popped in on my way home from an earlier meeting, thinking I would grab a bite or two at the Oracle event, treat it as a blogger soup kitchen of sorts, and also catch up with some of my media colleagues.


I was very late but the event still had 45 minutes to go--and the drinks and eats were all under wraps. I almost quit but Dan Fost from the SF Chronicle wandered by and we entertained ourselves and made the time pass more quickly until the eat and schmooze-time.


Customer events such as these are dire for any journalists trapped inside the halls of presentations. It seems IT customers are hardened to four hours of jargon and buzz-word filled presentations, and can maintain a steady alert level.


Most journalists at such events feel as if they have landed in pergatory and must endure the suffering, obviously a karmic punishment for something--until the media Q&A at the end with the top execs.


That's why I prefer to go to the evening events where the journalists with day jobs have gone home for the night. And I prefer my purgatory to be in its proper place--in the after-life.


. . .


If you haven't heard yet, Forrester Magazine is no more. It was an interesting attempt at representing Forrester's thought-leadership. Although it didn't quite jell, I think Forrester were onto something. And it might have worked if the format were changed a bit.


. . .


Take a look at Rock-n-Go for some interesting perspectives on the media. Also, you might want to take a look at this post on Rock-n-go about Antonio Gramsci, whose work influences a lot of my thinking. http://www.antoniogramsci.com/


. . .


The new batch of Internet scandals begins? Fast, the Norwegian search company and Europe's answer to Google is in a bit of trouble due to allegations of accounting scandals and other nefarious activities. . . Here is a Computer Business Review article.


. . .


This will be a fun event: February 21 at Stanford University at 10am, I'll be moderating a panel on "The Economics of Sharing" with Scott McNealy, ceo of Sun Microsystems, along with a few other top bods of interest. More details to follow...