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February 28, 2006

Exclusive: Oracle's hostile moves in open source will fail says Ingres CTO

I've been writing about Oracle's moves to control the open source movement--or at least the database part of it. Dave Dargo, the CTO of Ingres, sent me his view on things. Ingres, BTW is a company to watch--it is likely to completely remake the traditional boundary between open source and enterprise software. And it is recruiting a top tier management team (Tom Berquist the star Wall Street analyst joins Ingres Wednesday March 1 as CFO and Jim Finn, who headed IBM North Americas communications joined recently).

- - -

Tom,

In many respects, you are spot-on. It must have sent a chill down the spine of the open source community to see the following quote in a Business Week story that preceded the acquisition of Sleepycat: "One source close to the talks [the rumored JBoss talks] says these deals may be just the beginning. 'Larry and [Oracle Co-President and CFO] Safra Catz have a clear plan to control the entire open-source [software] stack,' the person says."

I'd bet that anonymous quote did not come from the open-source camp.

Why is Oracle so interested in open-source all of a sudden? I don't think this is about Oracle moving into open-source so much as attempting to consume those open-source users into the larger Oracle machine.

Oracle has made a number of acquisitions in an effort to recapture those customers who had previously chosen to do business with non-Oracle suppliers. I see this as an attempt to force those customers back to the Oracle standard, the Oracle model and the Oracle revenue stream.

For example, many believe that Oracle's acquisition of InnoDB last Fall effectively controls the main transaction engine under MySQL which, in turn, inhibits their ability to move into the enterprise where Oracle makes billions. It looks like Oracle is attempting to widen the moat around their closed-source fortress to lessen the pressure on their pricing structure.

Why hasn't Oracle open-sourced any of their flagship products? I believe it is because the products that have 95 percent operating margins fund the consolidation strategy that Oracle is desperately hoping will revive its listless stock price.

It appears that the technology industry and its outsized egos never learn from history. Microsoft was in denial about Java. Sun was in denial about Linux. Is Oracle similarly in denial about customers' desire for choice? Oracle in its hostile takeover of PeopleSoft drove customers to SAP. There is no reason to think that Oracle's latest acquisition binge won't drive customers, who want more choice not less, to business open-source.

Dave Dargo
Chief Technology Officer
Ingres Corporation

Please join me at New Comm Forum on March 2

I'll be on two panels at the New Comm Forum on March 2 in Palo Alto

There are just a few places left and remember to use our exclusive SVW200 discount code. I'll see you there!

March 2
Boundary Battles: What is a Journalist and Why Does it Matter?
10:15am - 11:15am

As traditional media's role has become challenged by citizen fact checkers offering commentary on events and increasing amounts of original reporting, journalists and editors have often responded by setting up boundaries between who is a "real reporter"and who isn't. This panel will re-visit some of the major battles of this ongoing war, while revealing what the real debates should be about.

Panel Participants
Jen McClure, executive director of the Society for New Communications Research - MODERATOR
Tom Foremski, editor, founder, publisher, Silicon Valley Watcher
Dan Farber, vice president of editorial, CNET, editor-in-chief ZDNet
Tom Abate, MiniMediaGuy
J.D. Lasica, co-founder and executive director, Ourmedia

March 2

New Ad-Supported Online Publishing Models
2:15pm - 3:15pm

With new ways to produce online content come new models for ad-supported publishing. Informed by research in process by the Society for New Communications Research, this panel will highlight some of these new models, and discuss their implications for the advertising industry.
Panel Participants
Giovanni Rodriguez, principal, Eastwick Communications - MODERATOR
Francois Gossieaux, marketing & business development, Corante
Chris Alden, co-founder, CEO, Rojo
Tom Foremski, editor, founder, publisher, Silicon Valley Watcher
Colin Crawford, VP, Online, IDG

Click fraud could be a $1bn racket--Fair Isaac study

Here is an excellent story on the subject of click fraud from the consistently good CIO Today magazine.

Click Fraud Gets Smarter

http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=41828

Does Google and the others have the technology to filter out click fraud? Greg Boser is going to put that to the test:

Web consultant Greg Boser has an ingenious method for sending loads of traffic to clients' Internet sites. Last month he began using a software program known as a clickbot to create the impression that users from around the world were visiting sites by way of ads strategically placed alongside Google search results. The trouble is, all the clicks are fake. And because Google charges advertisers on a per-click basis, the extra traffic could mean sky-high bills for Boser's clients.
But Boser's no fraudster. He cleared the procedure with clients beforehand and plans to reimburse any resulting charges. What's he up to? Boser wants to get to the bottom of a blight that's creating growing concern for online advertisers and threatens to wreak havoc across the Internet: click fraud.

The article makes a good case for the need for an independent third party to monitor this problem.

GOOG forecasts it will run out of people which will slow growth

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Fine is the author of a report issued this morning on GOOG. The report says that Google CFO George Reyes spoke at the Merrill Lynch investor conference and was vague on a lot of questions. However, he did say that " that the law of large numbers will likely start to come into play."

Eric Schmidt described the law of large numbers this way: "But there is something called the law of large numbers. Eventually, you run out of people. It is not possible to know when that will be." (Washington Post story from May 13, 2005)

It's no wonder GOOG is playing nice with China--it needs its people to fuel its growth.

Also from the Merrill Lynch report:

. . .the CFO did say that new products will likely soon contribute more materially to the company's growth. Google Base will soon be fully searchable; Wi-fi projects are simply test cases right now; GOOG did, however, say that a payment processing services is a natural extension of its current payment services with Video Store and advertiser services and the Publication Ads service will see more publishers signed on.
Investments Will Continue
As GOOG has historically said, it will continue to invest in its business. It has been hiring people at 50-60 people per week over the last couple years. Capex is also needed to keep up with capacity demands and as long as revenues continue to growth very well, they will continue to reinvest in the business. Capex is going towards both real estate and its technology infrastructure, of which much will go towards international expansion.

Merrill Lynch is neutral on the stock.

Where is the outrage over open source acquisitions?

By Tom Foremski for ZDNet

I am glad that some of my fellow ZDnet bloggers have caught up with this issue of Oracle buying up the open source movement. George Ou points to my Feb 16 post and references Dana Blankenhorn's Feb 17 and Feb 21 post.

George makes a good point that:"it doesn't seem to getting the kind of outrage that I expected."

There is a great comment left by one of the our wonderfully anonymous but absolutely clued in readers, Sxooter which lays things out quite well, the box of proprietary technology Larry Ellison has drawn around one his most troublesome comeptitors, MySQL.

[BTW, the reason MySQL did not take Larry's offer is that the company recently received financing from SAP and Intel and those companies have a self interest in maintaing an open source movement.]

Most of the comments on this issue continue to say that it is not possible to buy the open source movement. Yes, technically, this is true because development communities can fork off and continue on their merry way.

But this is a psychological battle and Mr Ellison is extremely good at shots across the bow, and "talking down" a competitor. In this case, actions speak louder than words.

Mr Ellison's strategy pours a bucket of cold water over the best efforts of the venture capital community to create more open source projects and companies that could be troublesome to Oracle. And one of those potential thorns in Oracle's side is the extremely well capitalized Ingres, a relational database company bought by investors from Computer Associates and staffed by a first tier management pack.

This is a company that in many ways, is typical of the VC investments being made in this sector. The goal is to recruit or acquire a developer community around an open sourced software product. Then sell services to enterprises below Oracle's costs.

The open source developer community does the development work and the company providing the enterprise services gets revenues and maybe gets sold. (If you are Ingres, you don't attract a hot-shot management team unless you promise a lot of gold...)

(Please continue reading...)

February 27, 2006

Interview with Michael Yang CEO of Become.com--a stealth Google in the making?

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

It was good to catch up with Michael Yang recently, the CEO of Become.com, a comparison shopping search site. This is a stealth Google in the making and that's good--because in this new rules world you don't want to get on someone's radar screen too early.

I first met Mr Yang and his team about a year ago. It was one of those dinner events where my plan was to pop in and stay a short time because of an already full day running around Silicon Valley. I stayed much longer.

I stayed because it is an impressive team, and one that rode through the last bubble with the MySimon comparison shopping site, later sold to Cnet. Now the core of the team is back and this time they know how to play and win, and this time potentially win big.

"We are just at the beginning stages of the online economy," Says Mr Yang. "Online commerce is a small fraction of total sales." And he's right, most analysts predict strong growth over the next five years as online commerce grabs more of the sales pie.

At the heart of Become.com is a search engine technology called AIR (Affinity Index Ranking) that uses a unique algorithm developed by Become.com co-founder Yeogirl Yun, the CTO and a former classmate of the Google boys, Larry and Serge. Become.com says its algorithm is much more difficult to spam and has lots of other superior features.

But the effectiveness of the algorithm will be proved over time--because it needs to learn from the online habits of its users. That's why large beta populations are important to these Internet 2.0 companies.

Become.com hit its target of 10 thousand beta test users within months of launching. And has now exceeded 1.2m users. It will soon announce its next round of financing and it has a strong strategic relationship with a large partner in Japan, and more such deals in the making.

More strategic partnerships are being sought, especially in Europe. And Mr Yang says that shopping is not the only vertical market that Become.com wants to target. Potential sectors are healthcare and travel. "Right now, we pretty much want to be very focused on shopping--it is a very large opportunity."

Focus is paramount in this business because there are so many applications for Internet 2.0 technologies. But I wonder if search is going to still be a fertile ground for other companies, other startups.

"The leaders always change, you remember when search engines came and went," says Mr Yang. I do remember, those names such as Excite, Infoseek, Altavista, Hotbot, Inktomi--they were the fashion of their day--each one was usurped by a better product.

Mr Yang is confident that there is still plenty of room in the search engine market for usurpers, but I have my doubts. It will be difficult for small teams to break into the search engine market because of the scale that is needed to become successful.

First of all you need a large pool of users to start getting your algorithm trained on the search--vertical or not. Then you also need the scale of the revenue network with partners and sales teams. And you are up against some savvy incumbents--of which Become.com is certainly a group member.

However, it is always best to never say never in this business. The incumbents could take their eye off the ball or find it difficult to fight off new challenges.

One of the challenges out there is click fraud. Mr Yang says that his team keeps an eye on this issue, because Become.com also advertises on Google and other networks. "Click fraud isn't a problem, it would need to get much larger."

Become.com gets revenue from ad networks and it also sells its own ads. It is currently offering a free month of advertising to new customers.

What impresses me about the company is how Mr Yang is able to execute so precisely within a sector that is heavily populated with formidable players, and up and coming competitors. This second year will be interesting to watch...

Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I've been telling the PR industry for some time now that things cannot go along as they are . . . business as usual while mainstream media goes to hell in a hand basket. I've been saying this privately and publicly and having some very useful discussions on this topic.

Since I have a disruptive role to play in mainstream PR, here is my demolition of the press release as we know and hate it today:

The press release is a statement announcing a product, service, office opening, financial results, partnership, customer win, and a hundred other types of commercial activities.

Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes. Often they will contain quotes from C-level executives praising their customer focus. They often contain praise from analysts, (who are almost always paid or have a customer relationship.) And so on...

Press releases are created by committees, edited by lawyers, and then sent out at great expense through Businesswire or PRnewswire to reach the digital and physical trash bins of tens of thousands of journalists.

This madness has to end. It is wasted time and effort by hundreds of thousands of professionals.

Here is my proposal:

Deconstruct the press release into special sections and tag the information so that as a publisher, I can pre-assemble some of the news story and make the information useful.

-Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but leave the spin to the journalists. The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why bother? Keep it straightforward rather than spintastic.

-Provide a page of quotes from the CEO or other C-level execs.

-Provide a page of quotes from customers, if applicable.

-Provide a page of quotes from analysts, if applicable.

-Provide financial information in many different formats.

-Provide many links inside the press release copy, and also provide a whole page of relevant links to other news stories or reference sources.

And tag everything so that I can pre-assemble my stories.

Let me explain:

In most news stories, the spin or angle, is set by the journalist in the first couple of paragraphs.

Much of the rest of the news story is factual: what the CEO said, when the company was founded, where it is based, the stock price, the specs of a product, the price, etc, etc, etc.

There is no need for journalists to rewrite this stuff, as they currently do and then for production staff to copy-edit and to put in a whole bunch of links into the copy, etc. It is wasted effort because it duplicates work already done.

The journalists should focus on their spin on the story then assemble the news story from the tagged sections of the press release package.

Of course, journalists can choose which parts of the press release to use, and add other material--as they do today. But by using news tags, a newspaper/news site could pull together larger numbers of news stories and the PR industry would be helping the news publishers to gather the facts and present them in a near-publishable format.

The tags would be things like: recent share price, founders, first quarter revenues, analyst quotes, etc.

The company-provided content can be clearly marked as originating from the company (which it isn't in the news stories in mainstream media today.) And there is less opportunity for errors to creep into published news stories because of rewriting stuff from press releases.

And because we are dealing with tags that are attached to facts--there is no spin so there is no problem in printing the information as it is received.

If we can get the tags to be finely tuned, as a publisher, I could spec out a story and assemble it automatically and then quickly edit it by hand before publishing.

For example, if I am publishing a Google earnings story, I could say to GOOG's pr folk, for this story give me the content with the tags that compare this quarter revenues with a year ago and the prior quarter. And I want the share price tags that show percentage change in last six months, along with the share price graph and a photo of Eric Schmidt. Give me only the analyst quotes of Merrill Lynch, and give me a package of links to related stories in my publication, and also in other publications.

I can then give my two paragraph spin on the news story and assemble much of the rest from the tagged content, which can be edited further. In today's hard-pressed newsrooms, having access to some usable, pre-produced copy would be incredibly useful.

And this way, the PR industry becomes a partner in communicating truthful and factual information. And we save the millions of person-years wasted in producing press releases. We should produce new media communications releases, imho.

Come and help me figure this out, I don't have all the answers, I'm making it up as I go along--but hey somebody has to :-)

I'll be at the New Comms Forum conference this week, come along and chat with me about this and other stuff.

[Use our exclusive savings code SVW200 and save $200.]

February 26, 2006

A mainstream media love note to the blogosphere: Blog off!!!

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Trevor Butterworth writing in the FT Mag recently wrote a very long 4600 word piece about blogging. Same cast of characters and the same mainstream media misconception that blogging is bringing down their empire, it's not. (See answer at end of this post.)

The best part of the article was the the last part (I think that's where I skipped down to...) It discusses whether Karl Marx would have made a good blogger and mentions my former university classmate Francis Wheen...and then leaves us with a wonderful image of the billions of posts in a "virtual tomb."

...journalism was an act of economic necessity that, initially, necessitated Engels doing all the writing. But Marx was a quick learner with a deft wit, and in his brisk biography, Francis Wheen posits that "had he but world enough and time Marx could have. made his name as the sharpest polemical journalist of the 19th century. But at his back he could always hear the nagging voice of conscience whispering, 'c'est magnifique, mais c'est ne pas la guerre." For Marx and Engels, journalism was trivial - an impediment to serious, memorable and above all influential work. "Mere potboiling," wrote Engels of the more than 500 articles he and Marx wrote for The New York Daily Tribune, "It doesn't matter if they are never read again."

And that, in the end, is the dismal fate of blogging: it renders the word even more evanescent than journalism; yoked, as bloggers are, to the unending cycle of news and the need to post four or five times a day, five days a week, 50 weeks of the year, blogging is the closest literary culture has come to instant obsolescence. No Modern Library edition of the great polemicists of the blogosphere to yellow on the shelf; nothing but a virtual tomb for a billion posts - a choric song of the word-weary bloggers, forlorn mariners forever posting on the slumberless seas of news.

It seems as if Mr Butterworth has not worked as a newspaper man because four or five news stories a day, five days a week and 46 weeks out of the year is about typical from my experience as an FT newspaper reporter (we got 6 weeks vacation.)

And the same obsolescence governs the world of newsprint; by tomorrow, it has become fish-wrap.

By the way, the FT set up a blog on Blogger (free account of course...) to discuss the story then closed it down a few days later saying "Blog off, we've had enough" (!!!) Date lined February 14th.

So much animosity directed at the the blogosphere! I guess the mainstream media still doesn't get what's happening so let me spell it out a little more clearly:

It's not blogging that is disrupting the legacy media establishment--it is online advertising that is causing all the damage.

Blogging is going to disrupt the public relations industry.

February 25, 2006

Anti-censorship in China. . . and anti-click fraud prevention?

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher Jason Dunne over at Contos Dunne Communications sent me this information about a technology being developed by Anonymizer to overcome censorship. However, a technology such as this could make it near-impossible to filter out click-fraud, imho. Click-fraud is the practice of employing people to click on online ads to fraudently collect money from advertisers. It is a growing problem and companies such as Google and others try to filter out the fraud by monitoring the IP addresses and any other information that might indicate fraudulent activity.

The software will make a secure (SSL) connection to Anonymizer's anti-censorship servers through a frequently changing set of IP addresses that are not associated with Anonymizer. From there, the user's connection will continue to its destination over the uncensored Internet, and will appear to come from yet another IP address. This system will ensure that the user is protected both from interception and blocking of their Internet traffic when exiting China. It will also protect against monitoring of forums or other Web sites which will try to detect the users IP address within China. Any attempt to monitor this connection from within China will only see ordinary SSL Web connections to uncontroversial domains. Any monitoring of IP addresses accessing forums, Web-mail sites, blogs, or discussion boards will show Anonymizer IP addresses which are impossible to track back to the originating IP address.

Here is the rest of the info on Anonymizer and a statement made by Congressman Chris Smith on the subject of censorship: San Diego, CA-based Anonymizer Inc.'s president, founder and chief scientist, Lance Cottrell, has been fighting for “the people” to uphold basic civil liberties in repressive regimes for more than a decade. He is also the leading advocate of online identity protection and privacy rights. These issues are finally becoming better understood through current affairs (i.e. China censorship by U.S. tech leaders, search engine privacy issues, White House subpoenas, NSA wiretaps, and more). Cottrell and his company are enabling a safe, protected, free and uncensored Internet. In fact, they are currently providing anti-censorship services in Iran, and now (once again) for the people of China (at their own expense, I might add). Below is a statement that was made in last week’s hearing by Congressman Chris Smith, Chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations: “Earlier this month, the technology firm Anonymizer announced that it is developing a new anti-censorship technology that will enable Chinese citizens to safely access the entire Internet filter-free. The solution will provide a regularly changing URL so that users can likely access the uncensored Internet. In addition, users' identities are apparently protected from online monitoring by the Chinese regime. Lance Cottrell of Anonymizer said it ‘is not willing to sit idly by while the freedom of the Internet is slowly crushed. We take pride in the fact that our online privacy and security solutions provide access to global information for those under the thumb of repressive regimes.’” Here is the link to the entire statement: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=February&x=20060215133254TJkcolluB0.2933008&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html ANONYMIZER TO PROVIDE censor-FREE INTERNET TO CHINA Free anti-censorship program scheduled to launch by end of quarter. San Diego, Calif. – February 1, 2006 – Anonymizer® Inc., the leader in online identity protection technology and software solutions, today announced that the company is developing a new anti-censorship solution that will enable Chinese citizens to safely access the entire Internet filter-free, and also free from oppression and fear of persecution or retribution. This new program expands upon Anonymizer’s history of human rights efforts which provide a censor-free Internet experience for those in oppressed nations. Anonymizer’s new anti-censorship solution for Chinese citizens will be available before quarter’s end. The solution will provide a regularly changing URL that users can access to open the doors to unfettered access of the World Wide Web. In addition, users’ identities will be protected from online tracking and monitoring by the Chinese government. “Anonymizer is not willing to sit idly by while the freedom of the Internet is slowly crushed,” commented Lance Cottrell, president and chief scientist, Anonymizer Inc. “We take pride in the fact that our online privacy and security solutions provide access to global information for those under the thumb of repressive regimes.” The communist government has taken a hard line against freedom of the press and access to information on the Internet. Google and others have been forced into a box by the Chinese government’s strict requirements, but Anonymizer stands firm on the issue of protecting civil liberties. The company has been protecting basic liberties for more than a decade. It enabled safe Internet communications for families split on either side of the Kosovo conflict; it was used previously by the Voice of America to ensure that news Web sites were not blocked by the Communist government in China. Anonymizer also works in conjunction with the Voice of America today to bring safe Internet access to Iranian citizens. About Anonymizer Anonymizer is the leading provider of Internet privacy and security solutions for consumers, corporations, organizations and government agencies. The company provides safe and secure Web experiences to millions of global Internet users. Its Web site is home to the world’s most popular Internet privacy service, Anonymous Surfing, which defends users from the most prevalent Internet privacy and security threats. Anonymizer identity protection solutions have been used to protect billions of Web pages since the company’s inception in 1995. Anonymizer is privately held and headquartered in San Diego, California. (http://www.anonymizer.com) ### THE INTERNET IN CHINA: A TOOL FOR FREEDOM OR SUPPRESSION? Testimony before the House Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights & International Operations February 15, 2006 By Lance M. Cottrell, Global Privacy Advocate Founder and Chief Scientist Anonymizer, Inc. Honorable Chairman Christopher Smith, Distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, I am honored to be invited to share my insight on the current state of China’s censorship of their citizens’ Internet usage. I would like to express my gratitude for being able to provide the details of a new solution that Anonymizer is developing to provide the People’s Republic of China with uncensored access to the Internet. I will also briefly explain why Anonymizer has chosen to provide this solution to China for free. Finally, I will comment on Reporters Without Borders proposal and add my perspective on legislative decisions. ANONYMIZER’S ANTI-CENSORSHIP SOLUTION Anonymizer is currently developing a new anti-censorship solution that will enable Chinese citizens to safely access the entire World Wide Web filter-free, while free from oppression and fear of persecution or retribution. This new program expands upon Anonymizer’s history of human rights efforts which provide a censor-free, safe Internet experience for those in oppressed nations. This new anti-censorship solution will be available to Chinese citizens before quarter’s end. The solution will provide a regularly changing access point that enables users to open the unobstructed doors of the World Wide Web. In addition, the users’ identities will be protected from online tracking and monitoring by the Chinese government. Interested Chinese citizens will be able to submit their email address either through a Web page or via dissidents outside of the great firewall of China. Once added to Anonymizer’s mailing list, the recipient will receive a daily email that includes a link to download the anti-censorship software, as well as updated configuration for the program. Both of these items will change daily to stay one step ahead of the Chinese government and to avoid blocking. This email list will be protected within Anonymizer’s secure networks and will not be shared, rented, or sold to any third party. The software will make a secure (SSL) connection to Anonymizer’s anti-censorship servers through a frequently changing set of IP addresses that are not associated with Anonymizer. From there, the user’s connection will continue to its destination over the uncensored Internet, and will appear to come from yet another IP address. This system will ensure that the user is protected both from interception and blocking of their Internet traffic when exiting China. It will also protect against monitoring of forums or other Web sites which will try to detect the users IP address within China. Any attempt to monitor this connection from within China will only see ordinary SSL Web connections to uncontroversial domains. Any monitoring of IP addresses accessing forums, Web-mail sites, blogs, or discussion boards will show Anonymizer IP addresses which are impossible to track back to the originating IP address. Anonymizer’s solutions are all designed to make it impossible to track connections back to identify the user of the system. FREE SERVICE FOR CHINA There are many US companies that do not respect freedom of expression when operating in repressive countries. Unfortunately, companies such as Google, Cisco, Yahoo!, and Microsoft are reaping financial gains at the expense of those under the thumb of repressive regimes. In addition to this, the practices of these U.S.-based companies are tarnishing the image of America abroad. Anonymizer is not willing to sit idly by while the freedom of the Internet is slowly crushed. Because of this, the company decided to provide this anti-censorship solution to the People’s Republic of China for free. Anonymizer is providing this solution in part to prove that the choice of “capitulate or lose” is a false dichotomy. By leveraging the appropriate technology, a company can achieve access without sacrificing its principles. Any of these collaborating companies could use anti-censorship technologies similar to Anonymizer’s to ensure that their content and services would be available within oppressed countries without having to facilitate the oppression in any way. Although there would be some cost in providing this service, as there is to Anonymizer, profits can not be the only factor in driving corporate decision making. LEGISLATION Current anti-bribery laws set a precedent for regulating U.S. companies operating within other countries. Although these laws put American companies at a slight disadvantage in the global economy, they were established to set a standard of conduct by which all U.S. must companies abide. It was simply the right thing to do. The U.S. government also restricts exports of certain munitions to specified countries. Although these countries may still be able to obtain the munitions, it is simply not appropriate for U.S. companies to aid our military opponents. Similarly, it is imperative for U.S. companies to take more responsibility for their actions in repressed countries with filtering and Internet surveillance technologies. I believe that U.S. companies should not aid and abet these repressive regimes in the suppression of their people. While I question whether the details of the Reporters Without Borders proposal are realistic, I strongly endorse the idea and principles behind their request for a code of conduct. Therefore, I recommend that the Committee formally request a code of conduct without mandating the specific logistical details requested by RSF. Let these technology experts determine the right thing to do. In addition, it is practically impossible for a small handful of companies to effectively create a code of conduct that all companies must follow. I would encourage a large panel of companies from several industries to participate, thus ensuring a complete and obtainable code of conduct that all companies will embrace. It takes tremendous strength of will and character for a company to take a principled stand on its own, while its competitors reap the benefits of collaboration with the oppressors. Only with wide spread adoption of a code of conduct, either voluntary or legislated, will we see the individual cost to a company become manageable. It is not enough for only U.S. companies to take this stand. The Internet is far too global, with most major players having presence distributed throughout the world. A unified front is necessary not just in the United States but internationally as well. To ensure success, it is critical to gain the support of our global partners, including the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations. CONCLUSION The communist government in China has taken a hard line against freedom of the press and access to information on the Internet. Google and others have been forced into a box by the Chinese government’s strict requirements, but Anonymizer stands firm on the issue of protecting civil liberties. The company has been protecting these basic rights for more than a decade and we are poised to help the people of China as well. Mr. Chairman, we urge you to formally request the leading technology companies to develop a code of conduct that we can all stand behind. As global leaders, we must take responsibility for our actions, or in this case, transactions. Everyone is worthy of these basic human rights and our companies should not profit at the expense of others less fortunate. The team at Anonymizer is thrilled to be able to develop and provide this new solution to the people of China. We believe we are turning on a light in a world of near-darkness. Help us educated them on democracy, Tiananmen Square, civil rights, and freedom of expression. The Internet has always had the potential to make the world a better place. Lets us ensure that it is able to live up to that potential rather than becoming a tool of oppression and propaganda.

NewComm Forum 2006, March 1 - 3

[SVW readers save $200 using exclusive promo code SVW200] Please join us at NewComm Forum, March 1 - 3 in Palo Alto, CA. We'll bring together thought leaders and decision makers from around the globe to discuss the impact of participatory communications on media, marketing, journalism, PR and advertising. Speakers & instructors will include:

Elizabeth Albrycht, research chair, Society for New Communications Research
Andrew Bernstein, CEO, Cymfony
Rebecca Blood, Rebecca's Pocket
Toby Bloomberg, Bloomberg Marketing
Elisa Camahort, WorkerBees
Anita Campbell, CEO, Small Business Trends
Jory DesJardins, Pause
Dan Farber, vice president of editorial, CNET Networks & editor-in-chief ZDNet
Elizabeth Fletcher, Esq., Blawgzine
Tom Foremski, editor, publisher, founder, Silicon Valley Watcher
Matt Galloway, The Basement
Maurene Grey, founder and principal analyst, Grey Consulting
Neville Hobson, NevOn
Shel Holtz, Holtz Communication + Technology
Steve King, partner of Emergent Research and senior advisor to the Institute for the Future (IFTF)
Max Kalehoff, VP marketing, Buzzmetrics
Kathy Klotz-Guest, CEO, Powerfully Funny
Charlene Li, Forrester Research
Owen Mack, co-founder and lead strategies, coBRANDIT
Jen McClure, editor/publisher, New Communications Blogzine, & Executive Director, Society for New Communications Research
Brian Oberkirch, CEO, Weblogs Work
Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO, KDPaine & Partners, LLC
David Phillips, Internet Reputation Services Ltd.
Bala Pitchindi, Tsunami Help, Katrina Help
Matthew Podboy, founder/client supervisor, Voce Communications
Evelyn Rodriguez, Crossroads Dispatches
Giovanni Rodriguez, vice president Eastwick Communications
Eric Schwartzman, president, Schwartzman & Associates
Bala Pitchindi – Tsunami Help, Katrina Help
Dana VanDen Heuvel, Pheedo
Debbie Weil, BlogWriteforCEOs
Jeremy Wright, Ensight.org
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February 24, 2006

A day in the life of a journalist blogger . . .

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I was a busy bee on Thursday. The day started slowly, I had trouble getting out of bed due to a 5am stop but by 11am I was up and running and heading down to Santa Clara for a meeting with Hong Kong's technology czar Dr Robert Yang.

Boyd Fung, of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office set it up and I'm glad he did, because I got an exclusive interview with one of Asia's top technology thought leaders.

I have to say, I'm amazed that the local mainstream media didn't show up to this event because they missed a great story. Dr Yang, is heading up a $1.5bn technology science park and this is not Xerox Parc, this is an institute headed by someone who knows how to make such things work.

Dr Yang used to head Taiwan's technology research initiatives for many years before being lured to do the same for Hong Kong. This is someone who knows how to make technology transfers viable and productive.

His benchmarks and metrics for measuring success are brutal. This is someone who can put together teams of researchers and have them produce jaw-dropping advanced technologies within seven months to a year.

Hong Kong is very serious about becoming the innovation front-end to the manufacturing behemoth of greater China. Check into SVW next week for an exclusive interview with Dr Yang.

. . .

Then I was off to Palo Alto, for a briefing on a hot new startup with a hot new product from a hotshot development team. Alas, you will have to wait until March 7th, but I have secured an exclusive beta test invite for SVW readers because you are the shakers and makers of the future. Watch this space.

. . .

Since I was in Palo Alto, I wandered over to see if Ross Mayfield. CEO of SocialText was around. Ross, however, was taking a break from evangelizing the corporate wiki. I was told that Ross was celebrating his tenth wedding anniversary and was away in Las Vegas. I hope Ross got lucky -- but I've no idea if he is a gambling man.

. . .

I slipped through the rush hour on 280 back into San Francisco and it was a warm, sunny evening. I constantly catch myself, even after 21 years in Silicon Valley, at how dream-pinchingly gorgeous this part of the world can be.

A popped briefly back home and then back out again for a reception at the British Consultate -General's residence for a British company called Oxonica.

I was late arriving, and the British Consulate-General's residence at Presidio Terrace seemed unusually quiet from the outside. I decided not to ring the bell and pushed open the front door only to find myself walking smack dab into the middle of Martin Uden's introduction to Oxonica.

Martin Uden, the British Consulate-General for San Francisco, being the consummate professional, immediately incorporated my blundering entrance into his introduction. I was a little flushed and flustered by the experience but I could not have wished for a better entrance ;-)

. . .

It was good to catch up with the team over at the British Consulate, and also with Martin's better half Fiona, who admitted to still being a little star struck by the recent visit of Prince Charles. This was an excellent opportunity to mention my lunch with Prince Charles' father, the Duke Of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. It was several years ago when he was visiting Novell, which was an important supporter of his charity work. But that is a story for another time.

. . .

It was also good to meet with Rachel Lawley, one of the vice consuls in the UK Trade and Investment team. Plus, I got to meet some of Melody Haller's Antenna Group team.

Rosalind Jackson, Serena Kwan, and Nathan Tinker--all from the Antenna Group were a delight. Smart, cultured, and tremendously good company. Serena, it turns out, shares my passion for chemistry, and Silicon Valley is ALL about chemistry, the chip industry is all about chemical engineering just ask Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.

Plus, their client, David Browning, CEO of Oxonica, I noticed was a real no nonsense hands-on type of guy who is rare in this part of the world but common in the UK.

. . .

Then I went home and wrote this.

I love my job. And as soon as I can figure out how to pay my family support, landlord, my tailor, my bar keep, taxi drivers, DSL, web hosting, domain-name-buying-addiction (now affecting my son), my gas-guzzling Audi Quattro, and pay for my editorial team . . . and my Trader Joe's bill--I will love my job even more :-)

February 23, 2006

An ode to Slave Girl. . .

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I have completely fallen for Slave Girl (http://www.sandhillslave.com) and I think that every other red-blooded person in this somewhat emasculated region has too. I have had some correspondence with Slave Girl, who admits to sometimes falling into a groupie mode when communicating with SVW--which is something I would not recommend but I'd be hard pressed to discourage.

I've tried to encourage Slave Girl to write a column for SVW and she is considering my generous offer. However, I think it best that no one, not even I, find out who Slave Girl really is.

Because we all need a person such as Slave Girl, a persona that knows us all so well. And we appreciate the attention that she gives to us poor Neanderthal males--studying us in such detail that we learn so much more about how not to meet women.

Therefore, I forbid anybody to reveal the true identity of Slave Girl, and I encourage all that share her sensibilities, to use the alias Slave Girl so that her identity becomes completely lost among many.

We are all Slave Girls, in the same way that we are all Sparticus--a rebelliousness of spirit that communicates across millennia and is part of our core humanity. That is why I feel that Slave Girl should be kept as a mysterious, seductive, and marvelously forbidden fantasy, imho.

A chat with Become.com -- the stealth search engine play

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

About a year ago I was in Palo Alto, trying to get back home but I had promised to stop in early evening to Il Fornio and meet with Become.com--a shopping portal.

I remember that Tim Dyson the CEO of Next Fifteen was going to be there, and I wanted to touch base with him, but I wasn't that interested in meeting with one of many shopping search sites such as Become.com--I was determined to make it a short meeting.

You can tell where this story is headed: I ended up staying for dinner and I was very impressed with the team behind Become.com (and that's when I also met Jason Dowdell(!)) I ended up staying well past my bedtime but it was worthwhile.

Wednesday I got to catch up with Michael Yang, the CEO of Become.com--not that we haven't bumped into each other many times since last year. What continues to impress me about Become.com is the discipline and the focus of the management team.

This is a company that is very single-minded about the ecommerce opportunities that lay in its lap. And this is also, a very experienced management team, having built up My Simon.com, the shopping portal, which was sold to Cnet.

This time, Mr Yang and his partners, know how to avoid the mistakes of their first go around--and that's what makes this company and this team very interesting. They know what to do and they are executing near perfectly on a business plan that they laid out to me more than a year ago.

So stick around, an interview with Michael Yang, CEO of Become.com is on its way.

February 22, 2006

A pitch for good pitches...

Todd Defren over at Shift Communications writes:

Hi Tom - I know you have your doubts about PR's long-term viability, but I also know through some mutual friends (and your own blog) that you'd agree that there are plenty of great PR pros out there, doing good & honest work in the media and blogosphere. I've started a cheerleading section at http://goodpitch.blogspot.com and really encourage you and your colleagues to send me some examples of the PR industry's best pitches. Obviously if you could encourage the PR world to send me submissions as well, at SVW, that would be great too. Basic guidelines and philosophy can be found here. I am happy to promote all agencies' great work and great people, in the hopes that people new to the PR game can eventually look to this blog as a resource...and someday make your job as a journalist a little easier in the bargain! Thanks very much for your support! Hope you're doing well. Best, Todd

Todd, good luck but I wonder how useful this will be... A good pitch is not something that can be written down and read out of context because the best pitch is tailored to the individual and the publication. That's the secret to a good pitch :-)

Sshsh, don't tell anyone, especially all those agencies that use their most junior people to pitch journalists--their most important interface (more important than client because of churn.) But those are the clueless ones. And the clueless ones won't understand this anyway, and continue (and defend) business as usual.

Silicon Valley is back . . . I have the dotcom

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher
[There has been a lot written recently that Silicon Valley is back--here is part of a post I wrote in mid-November 2004.]

I've had lots of chats about Silicon Valley lately and I’m of the Bachman Turner opinion that you ain’t seen nothing yet.

When I arrived here November 8, 1984, Silicon Valley was going through the down cycle following the PC boom. A hundred PC companies wanted just 10 per cent of the market, wanting to strike it rich, as rich as the Apple IPO—the Google celebrity IPO of its day.

Hundreds of Apple staff became millionaires, including secretaries and the guy that ran the parking lot. The media coverage was massive. VCs rushed in like a herd and funded a huge number of PC companies and when the bubble popped, the down cycle was harsh. Stories about Silicon Valley’s death were constant and grinding for several years. I’ve seen several business cycles and the same thing happens in each down cycle, endless speculation about Silicon Valley’s future. What future does Silicon Valley have?

I think I can answer that question very easily—and I’ll accept any size bet on this call: when Silicon Valley comes back, it will be bigger than before. (Actually, it’s been back for a while--hence this venture.)

[I was chatting with Ron Piovesan, from Cisco on this topic recently, and he says has also seen signs of improvement. He laughed when I said I own the dotcom name: SiliconValleyIsBack.com. I said I’m serious, I do own it!]

Silicon Valley is very much like a fairground slurpy -- big chunks of ice with most of the juice at the bottom.

And there is a lot of juice accumulating, the laptops are discretely reappearing in bars and restraunts, and there are many signs of bubbly behavior.

Silicon Valley is going to have a larger impact than before. I’ve been through several business cycles and each time Silicon Valley has come back stronger.

The most recent comeback, the dotcom boom, was the first time Silicon Valley was able to have an immediate worldwide economic impact. It was the first time it became hooked up to world stock markets through the tech IPO flood.

This provided a mechanism for trading in Silicon Valley’s ideas. Remember, many dotcom companies were stories--stories about business concepts--revenue models were not necessary.

I think this time around, Silicon Valley's ideas will have a larger impact and things generally will be done differently. The way Silicon Valley innovates will be different, media will be different, PR will be different.

And this time around, dotcoms will eat the lunch of the established companies. Then they will eat the companies (or at least suck out the soft fatty stuff such as the brand image and leave behind the crunchy legacy infrastructure stuff.)

There will be many companies that won’t be able to reduce their cost base fast enough to meet the efficiencies of new Silicon Valley "new rules" ventures.

I’ve got some views on where I see things heading, and I will write about those trends and I’ll probably check them out myself. That’s because the next phase of the internet is going to be all about . . .

- - -

I didn't finish the sentence in November 2004. (I usually sit on things for six months or more, so that I can try and figure out if I can exploit any insights I have, I'm learning to be a media entrepeneur so I might get better at it :-) But Let me finish the sentence now: it is going to be about media technologies, it is all about publishing.

And now every company is a technology-enabled media company to some degree...and that means every company will be affected by the innovation coming out of Silicon Valley.

A proposal for a volunteer SETI-type approach to combat terrorism

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), and NASA's recent plans to recruit volunteers to examine 1.5 million images of aerogel containing comet dust, gave me an idea.

Why not use a volunteer network of computer users to examine millions of satellite images of the areas where Osama Bin Laden and others accused of terrorist acts are believed to be hiding?

It would be a communal search for gangs that have carried out extreme acts of violence on our populations and vowed to commit further acts of mass violence. And our response against this violence has been yet more violence, with seemingly no end in sight--a perpetual war. This cycle has to stop.

The digital satellite images of suspect areas of the world could be distributed over the internet in a random fashion, they might not need to be identified as to location. Volunteers could be told and trained what to look out for.

Over a period of time volunteers would probably be able to identify suspicious patterns. And that might lead to the arrest of the terrorist gangs and we can get back to finding peaceful solutions to global problems.

Such a project would have appeal across the political spectrum and across many countries because if we can get rid of the terrorist threat, we can get rid of the laws that seek to restrict civil rights, and we can get rid of the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent on military and police measures. Instead, that money could be used to invest in a solving some very major problems we are facing collectively such as avian flu, energy issues, poverty, illiteracy, and hunger.

And we can get back to the business of globalization--the largest redistribution of wealth we have ever seen on this planet. This has lifted billions of people out of poverty.

Let's remember that global trade encourages peace--because wars disrupt trade. Let's have trade and not war.

February 20, 2006

The high res of reality is impressive

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I've been away from the blogosphere, or rather mediasphere for three days, and I noticed that it is still here.

I spent those moments with my kids and I've grown to like spending my time offline. The resolution of offline images is incredible--much better than on a plasma HD.

We went up to Mount Shasta and you could really feel the cold at night, 14 below, and the sensation of the ice crystals from a snowball down the back of the neck was incredibly realistic. I felt the ice slide all the way down my spine . . .

And then when we we were driving up the mountain, we hit an icy patch and slid sideways into a snowbank, that flipped us around like an LP on a turntable. We collected our thoughts, and went back down the hill, but the feeling of crashing into a snowbank was very realistic.

We bought a sled and found an incline and played. And the sensation of being with my kids and goofing around was fantastic, incredibly realistic and three dimensional.

It was a great Presidents Day weekend, I hope yours was too!

February 17, 2006

This and that: VCs swarm open source conference; Consumers can claim Linux code; Wiki enthusiast told to slow down; Sushi shows Sun is back; Edelman is aggregating the top PR bloggers

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

VCs-a-plenty. . .

The place was full of VCs and vendors and I met just one person who described themselves as a potential customer! Everyone was talking deals, obviously happy with Oracle's announced open-source acquisition deals.

But building open-source communities is not something that is done by announcement. And who do you think is going to be volunteering to develop products for free, so that Larry can buy the company?

Claim your rights. . .

I had an interesting chat with a patent attorney from Philips, the huge Dutch-based consumer electronics company. Philips has been using open-source products within its products for many years. It uses Linux and other components in its TVs and other consumer electronics gear which is often resold under oem deals.

"We tell our partners that they have to offer the source code to their customers, " he said. Because that is the stipulation in the open source licensing agreement. So, if you purchase a product that contains Linux (e.g. Tivo) you have to be offered the source code. But over a five year period, not one customer has bothered to read the small print and make such a request.

He also said that the latest version of the GPL license was badly written and probably intentionally so, so as to create debate and involve larger numbers of people.

A reality smack. . .

You can't slow this man down! Well, the police can and did. SocialText founder Ross Mayfield couldn't make it all the way to San Francisco on Tuesday. In his zeal to man the wiki at the Open Source Business conference--reality caught up with him.

A policeman objected to Mr Mayfield's internet fueled frenzy of speeding to the future, and stopped him. And one thing led to another and Mr Mayfield's car was impounded.

I offered to put him up at my humble blogger encampment under the Highway 101 onramp on 4th street--but Mr Mayfield said he would be fine and would take the train back home to Palo Alto.

Sushi barometer. . .

Sun Microsystems sponsored the evening cocktails and food event at the conference on Tuesday. And the quality of the sushi was more than excellent. I guess the good times are coming back for Sun, and it shows Sun is back on a roll (California :-).

Corralling the top bloggers. . .

I had an excellent discussion with Richard Edelman on Tuesday morning and I knew that Steve Rubel, of Micro Persuasion would be joining the Edelman team but I was under embargo. The news is out now...

Phil Gomes, also a top blogger in the PR sector joined Edelman last year.