Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media: Tom Watch Archives

Tom Watch: Fun with a Treo—the “Frisco Wave”

or how to flag down a taxi cab from three blocks away on a busy Friday evening.

I was running late and needed a taxi, but there were few to be seen along Geary Street, and with six lanes of traffic, it was difficult to be seen. Then, I spotted a taxi three, maybe four blocks away, but it was in a far lane, and likely unable to see me until closer, and by then it would be difficult for it to pull across two lanes of traffic to pick me up. But, pulling out my trusty Treo 600, I...

Continue reading "Tom Watch: Fun with a Treo—the “Frisco Wave”" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on September 26, 2004 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tom Watch: I ran out of bandwidth Tuesday morning…

I am learning a lot about the daily travails of “blogging” or being a “stand-alone journalist,” as Chris Nolan puts it. You also have to be a stand alone IT expert sometimes, a stand-alone publisher, and a stand alone anything-else-that-needs to be done. That’s at least four jobs rolled into one.

Continue reading "Tom Watch: I ran out of bandwidth Tuesday morning…" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on September 29, 2004 12:09 AM | Permalink

Tom Watch: I earned my first dollar today as a blogger!

This is an exciting day, because I just earned my first dollar blogging. It’s $1.45 to be exact and on just my second day with advertisements on my site. And my traffic has soared by 600 per cent since yesterday. At this rate of growth SiliconValleyWatcher.com, will be the world’s largest within just a couple of months…

Continue reading "Tom Watch: I earned my first dollar today as a blogger!" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on September 29, 2004 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tom Watch: Self-obsession in the blogosphere

The other day, my ex- said I was self-obsessed because I had created a category on this site, called “Tom Watch.” I tried to explain that this had nothing to do with my ego, or that I was developing an unappealing personal characteristic. It was all to do with “blogging.”

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Posted by Tom Foremski on October 4, 2004 7:14 PM | Permalink

Tom Watch:I have rarely met a thought I didn’t like at 3am in the morning…Perils of Blogging #1

I have a problem and an opportunity in that I can publish at any time of the day or night.

I’m sure everyone has had the experience of sending an email to someone when on further reflection you would rather have not. My fear is that I will publish something I would rather have not.

Continue reading "Tom Watch:I have rarely met a thought I didn’t like at 3am in the morning…Perils of Blogging #1" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on October 11, 2004 3:15 AM | Permalink

Tom Watch: Lost in the world of server side software, php, css, templates, and MT modules

Watchers of the Silicon Valley Watcher site might have seen some (momentary) strange displays of our entries, sidebars, ads and other unusual things, over the past couple of days.

I’d like to say we were experimenting with innovative publishing formats, but that was not the case.

Continue reading "Tom Watch: Lost in the world of server side software, php, css, templates, and MT modules" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on October 13, 2004 11:52 PM | Permalink

A new look for Silicon Valley Watcher

by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

I’ve been nursing a bad cold but I wanted to take the opportunity of introducing a new look for Silicon Valley Watcher and to praise the work of my colleague Dida Kutz. The creation of a three column layout using Movable Type, or for that matter any other server-side web publishing application, is not an easy task.

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Posted by Tom Foremski on November 9, 2004 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SiliconValleyWatcher named as one of the most influential blogs by Bacon’s -- the media watcher bible

by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher.com
(Our good buddy Tom Abate at the SF Chronicle brought this one to our attention.)

This is fantastic news because Bacon’s is the gold standard in the media industry. And we are barely three months old!

Check out the third paragraph in this story from Media Post’s Media Daily News (I added the bold type):

Bacon's To Track Blogs By Gavin O’Malley Monday, December 27, 2004
Bacon's Information, the provider of media research, distribution, monitoring, and evaluation services for public relations and corporate communications professionals, has endeavored to light the depths of the Blogosphere. In January, Bacon's MediaSource will begin sharing with its clients the names of what it considers to be the 250 most reputable blogs, the messages they contain, and the frequency with which client-relevant information appears on them.

Ruth McFarland, senior vice president and publisher for Bacon's, said she vacillated about the significance of blogs, but was sufficiently convinced this year to assign three of her 56 editors to monitor the Blogosphere. "We're adjusting our network because no one is accurately monitoring these guys as their influence continues to grow."

Bacon's is keeping tight raps on its blog list, which covers technology, politics, business, travel, and religion. The racy Wonkette, the Miami Herald's Dave Barry, and the Silicon Valley Watcher are three well-known blogs run by "reputable, credible professionals" that McFarland said will be on the list.

Full story is here.

Posted by Tom Foremski on January 4, 2005 5:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Self-Promotion: Marketing Shift on SVW

By Richard Koman for SiliconValleyWatcher.com
Jason Dowdell at Marketing Shift posted a lovely appreciation of Tom and this site. Can't buy publicity like that, right?

"I began reading [SVW] a few weeks ago and kind of got hooked. Not sure how it happened but it's now a daily read, probably cause it's chocked full of good content and Tom's a former journalist."

The phrase "former journalist" is interesting; as if you can't do journalism online only on paper. Ah well, not to quibble.

Tom here: Jason, you are making me blush, thank you for your kind words.
(I had an excellent time last week when I ran into Jason at the launch of Become.com...which is a very interesting company, I'll tell you more about them v.soon.)

If we were in Pulp Fiction, I know what Mr Wolf would be saying ;-)

And yes, Richard is right, I'm not a former journalist. I'm a former journalist at the Financial Times. I'm doing more journalism now than ever before...this blogging stuff is a heck of a thing!

Posted by Richard Koman on February 17, 2005 12:58 AM | Permalink

Carol Dukes, one of the savviest business leaders on this planet...plus find out what triggered the dotcom bust

by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher
I have been making a pest of myself lately, haranguing my long-time friend Carol Dukes in London. It was her fault anyway.

In early December she innocently sent me a note asking for my new address and telling me what she had been up to over the past four years since we’d last met.

As I wrote a reply and told her about my media venture plans, it suddenly struck me that Carol would be the perfect person to help me build these ventures! Because Carol is one of the savviest business executives I’ve ever met--and I’ve met a lot--and is one of Europe’s top media executives. And that’s before you count the many gender-related accolades she has received.

Continue reading "Carol Dukes, one of the savviest business leaders on this planet...plus find out what triggered the dotcom bust" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on February 22, 2005 6:16 AM | Permalink

Was the Tibco post a puff piece for an advertiser?

By Richard Koman for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

On his blog today, Dan Gillmor suggests that the post about our first sponsor is "advertising, and should be explicitly labeled that way." He compares the situation to a newspaper running a front-page story announcing that a new company is now advertising with the paper. We can all agree this would be unseemly pandering and on the face of it the posting amounts to the same thing.

UPDATE: Tom Murphy at PR Opinions first questioned the post in his entry Blogging for Cash. He follows up on this post, noting that I neglected to link to him in the first place, with A storm in a teacup?

But here is the difference. SVW is both blog and publication. We reserve the right to act like a blog at times. Landing a serious company as a founding sponsor is a very big deal to us; in the context of what most any other blog is earning on the basis of editorial content, it's a big deal.

So we'll take a page from Hunter S. Thompson and put ourselves in the story when we're a story. I really think this is a story about our success and about the kind of sponsors we are seeking, and to call it advertising is less honest than writing it up the way it is.

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Posted by Richard Koman on February 24, 2005 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Who is a journalist? Who is a blogger? We have the answer...

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

The Apple trade secrets case has hit squarely on one of the most vexing questions that our society currently ponders: who is a journalist? It is an answer that established media might prefer to print on page 92, if they had the pages.

The French Revolution defined the press as the fourth estate, as important as the monarchy, church and government. That’s quite a responsibility, yet this is a private sector that has no legal requirement to act as society’s guardian.

However, most journalists, and most readers, believe that there is an underlying responsibility of a high order, which shapes their work. There is a sense of contributing to a common good.

Defining who is a journalist is easy; here is my definition:

Continue reading "Who is a journalist? Who is a blogger? We have the answer..." »

Posted by Tom Foremski on April 11, 2005 7:05 AM | Permalink

Not much Fear or Loathing on the road to NAB2005...

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I wanted do a parody/homage on Hunter S. Thomson’s seminal book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” But, my co-driver Jochen Siegle from Der Spiegel, pulled out at the last minute.

The plan was to drive a convertible to Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters show (world’s largest electronic media show!), where I was speaking Monday, as part of a panel of top media execs from Sony, Electronic Arts, CinemaNow, Disney Interactive, moderated by Cisco Systems’ head of M&A, Dan Scheinman.

I tried to get a replacement co-driver but it was too late. I resolved to drive anyway, it would be about 8 or 9 hours and I’d been hankering for a road trip for some time. I picked up a blue Mitsubishi Spyder from Fox Rentals, almost brand new, just 66 miles on it, and headed south. But I was late getting out of the house, I was finishing up a piece on the future of journalism, for Jennifer McClure at New Communications Forum until about midnight Saturday. Then I fell asleep on the couch and didn’t leave for Las Vegas until 5.30am Sunday.

I did find a co-driver along the way, and the day was pleasantly spent playing music loudly, and stopping at greasy spoons for snacks. Not much more to report than that. Blogo-journalism is clearly not quite so exciting as Hunter’s Gonzo-journalism :-)

Posted by Tom Foremski on April 18, 2005 9:16 PM | Permalink

Journalist blogger discovers Gmail and his world is rocked

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I wake up early, it's nearly 10am, but I can't sleep anymore. I flip on the TV and catch a few minutes of the excellent Deutsche Welle news in English on channel 32. I wander over towards the shower, but make the mistake of popping into my office and checking email for any changes to my meetings that day.

I recently started using Gmail and it rocks. It really rocks. It is by far the best user experience I have had with a software application in a long time. It is well thought out, and as a committed tag-o-nista, I love the fact that you can tag anyway you want. And it is fast. And it is all server-based!

But I must make a plea:

Continue reading "Journalist blogger discovers Gmail and his world is rocked" »

Posted by Mike Faden on May 12, 2005 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A week in the life of a blogger journalist: Blogger swagger in the heart of New York city...

Part One: Friday May 20
By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Is that Barry Diller over there, someone asks? I look around and see some people walking past our table in Michael's, one of the power centers for the media elite in Manhattan. I don't think I could recognize the media mogul anyway...

It is Friday and I'm having lunch as the guest of Andy Plesser of the PR firm Plesser Holland Associates and his long time friend Nancy Smith, the sharp and savvy managing editor of Smart Money magazine.

It has been an exhausting but fulfilling week. I moderated two panels at the Syndicate conference and made a ton of interesting contacts, gave a presentation at Financial Dynamics, caught up with buddies and now I'm telling Andy and Nancy about my first SiliconValleyWatcher sponsors, that we launched our sister site ionRSS.com, and our plans for the future. “So that's why you walked in with a swagger,” Nancy teases.

Continue reading "A week in the life of a blogger journalist: Blogger swagger in the heart of New York city..." »

Posted by Tom Foremski on May 23, 2005 12:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

A bleary-eyed blogger on Wall Street: more thoughts from a week in NYC and the Syndicate conference

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

The second installment of a journalist-blogger's somewhat patchy recollections of a hectic week in New York.

Bleary Blogger.gif The trouble with Thursday last week was that my Wednesday was still going strong. The Syndicate conference finished Wednesday, and somehow afterwards I got caught up with a motley crew of RSS company execs and an investment banker or two.

I seem to remember it was all Bill Flitter's fault. Bill is the chief marketing officer of Pheedo, which serves ads on RSS feeds and also offers behavioral marketing services and analytics. Bill is a big fan of SiliconValleyWatcher and so is his friend, Tom O'Neill, managing director at Summit Private Capital Group. Bill invited me to join his merry band for a meal and a drink. Little did I know it would be 5am before my head hit the pillow.

A fun time was had by all - thanks Bill! Also, I must mention Rok Hrastnik, who by midnight had been dubbed “The Rok of Slovenia.” Rok, just 23 years old, is an astounding character and already a seasoned entrepreneur. He is an expert in online marketing techniques as E-commerce Manager at Studio Moderna in Slovenia.

Continue reading "A bleary-eyed blogger on Wall Street: more thoughts from a week in NYC and the Syndicate conference" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on May 24, 2005 1:02 AM | Permalink

Tales from Syndicate conference - Tuesday: Sneaking out to catch the Star Wars geeks .......and dinner with the in-crowd

...the final prequel to the climactic pre-finale of the series recounting a week's epic adventures at the Syndicate conference in New York...

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Time Out journalists and Star Wars geeks

It's Tuesday in New York city, the first day of the Syndicate conference, and it's almost lunch time. I run into my buddy Dave Galbraith, a co-author of RSS 1.0, co-founder of Moreover and now, the founder of the flickriscious Wists.com (is that enough plugs Dave?). With Dave is Buck Smith, channel dev manager from Moreover.

Buck suggests we skip out and visit the geeks lining up for the opening of the latest Star Wars prequel. We walk about six blocks to where the movie is scheduled but there are no geeks, just a few tents with British flags. There is a guy in a stormtrooper uniform on the corner, but it turns out to be a bunch of journalists from Time Out magazine raising money for charity and charging $5 per Polaroid pose with the stormtrooper.

Continue reading "Tales from Syndicate conference - Tuesday: Sneaking out to catch the Star Wars geeks .......and dinner with the in-crowd" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on May 31, 2005 1:07 AM | Permalink

Mercora—a good evening spoiled by endless presentations...[updated]

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I went along to a dinner hosted by Mercora Wednesday. The event sounded interesting - it promised to discuss the impending MGM versus Grokster court case on file sharing.

Mercora, which offers music search and sharing services, lined up a good collection of music industry lawyers and others to discuss and promote the issue of legal file sharing.

Unfortunately, Mercora did not know when to stop. An attentive group of key journalists dutifully listened and scribbled notes. Then the salad arrived, and we listened and scribbled notes. Then the entree arrived and was dispatched, then it was time for desert and coffee, but the CEO stood up and said, now, let me show you the demo...

Continue reading "Mercora—a good evening spoiled by endless presentations...[updated]" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on June 22, 2005 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Running out of bandwidth...the good, the bad and the ugly (support)

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Running out of bandwidth is something I have to watch out for, since our traffic continues to jump higher - especially when we have scoops and exclusive stories.

But running out of bandwidth can be a frustrating experience, as we found recently with our web hosting service TotalChoice Hosting. There was no phone number to call, just a "live" chat channel and the opportunity to email support "tickets."

SiliconValleyWatcher was off line for about 6 hours as traffic surged above our monthly quota. And I couldn't open up the pipes because there was no way to buy more bandwidth online. I found that I would have to wait until the next morning and email the sales department!!!

Nobody to call in times of trouble, plus hours spent sorting out problems. That's why I will be changing hosting providers. When your business is offline, you had better get somebody on the line pronto.

Fanatical support sounds fine to me

Continue reading "Running out of bandwidth...the good, the bad and the ugly (support)" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on June 27, 2005 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Comments is broken...

My apologies but our comments section is not working and I'm trying to fix things. I speak a little bit of Geek so I might be able to put things right very soon.

Our media architect Nick Aster is out in Alaska, up in the Arctic circle, bringing blogging to the most extreme boundaries of human civilization. Not even the Mormons have made it to the remote Eskimo village where Nick is staying.

Actually, Nick is in this remote region of Alaska with a small group of business eco activists hoping to argue for the economics of not drilling for oil. And a documentary film crew, of course, is gawking their travails.

In the meantime, I have to pull long days at the server farm, on top of my many other daily duties. Such is the unglamorous life of a (sometimes) standalone journalist.

Posted by Tom Foremski on June 28, 2005 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our comments section is now working

Posted by Tom Foremski on July 12, 2005 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Another day another panel another conversation about my two favorite subjects: Silicon Valley and disruptive media

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

As media and communications and marketing professionals, we are all taking part in something very interesting: the birth of a new media landscape.

We will never again, in our lifetimes, experience/witness/participate in anything of such scale and importance as what is now developing in our industry sectors. imho.

That's one of the things I said Wednesday lunchtime to a very interesting group attending the monthly meeting of the San Francisco Publicity Club.

Was I being too dramatic? I don't think so, I'm certain it will be seen that way by historians :-)

It's another day and I'm on another panel, and I like taking part in things like this. But what's not to like about being in the Waterfront Restaurant at Pier 7 on a gorgeous day, talking with a smart and ambitious group about my favorite subjects: Silicon Valley and disruptive media technologies?!

My fellow panelists were interesting picks. Event organizer Ellisa Feinstein and colleagues picked Don Clark, deputy bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal; Mark Robinson, a senior editor at Wired magazine, and Lindsey Turrentine, an editor at Cnet's gadgets review section. The panel was a nice spectrum representing old to new media organizations.

The Q&A part of such events is the best part, because that's when talk turns to conversation. And I get to hear stories, concerns and issues.

Continue reading "Another day another panel another conversation about my two favorite subjects: Silicon Valley and disruptive media" »

Posted by Tom Foremski on July 14, 2005 4:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been taking a little time off with my daughter Sarah and son Matthew ...see you around Monterey

Here is Sarah, in the blue shirt, just recently 11 years old, with her best friend Lilly, now also 11 years old--(happy birthday Lilly!):

Sarah Foremski (11yrs) and Lilly

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here is my 17 year old son Matthew, who is cultivating a reclusive spider-like persona ;-) [he has editing rights so this image might not last long...]

Posted by Tom Foremski on August 5, 2005 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The monetization of ironic incidents...

. . . rare insight into blogging #64

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

mindstates conference poster small.jpeg Wednesday I was due to meet with a consultant to some of the most senior Silicon Valley executives.

His advice spans business and lifestyle. He helps our harried elite find balance in their lives. Yoga, etc.

However, I was up until 5am trying to import my contacts file into Gmail and missed the meeting. This puzzle of why I couldn't import my contacts file took up most of my day (and night). I knew that it was all totally unnecessary but I couldn't let it go and that's why I missed the meeting and I apologize.

My life is out of balance but (it is Always On [Tony, you are dead right...!]) what can you do?

One of these days my life will be in balance and I will be able to visit with him. That's my goal, maybe even next week if I can reschedule.

Posted by Tom Foremski on August 18, 2005 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

[Publisher's Note] Mea Culpa: Lost syndication feeds...the comments problem (fixed!) ...I'm way backed up on my emails (sorry!) ...and I'm moving apartments

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

My apologies for the loss of some RSS feeds...I thought I'd do some legacy axing now instead of later... :-)

So, if you've been complaining that I haven't been posting anything lately it's probably because I'm trying to whittle things down to just RSS 2.0, (sorry...it wasn't personal.)

Comments problem

The good news is that I've traced the source of the problem we've been having with our comments section--which sometimes seems to work. I traced the problem to me, unfortunately.

I've been geeking around the past couple of days and tinkering with our Movable Type templates and scripts and CSS file. Once I get stuck into it the hours just whiz by and I haven't posted any entries.

Except that I can post about it as I am right now, therefore I'm always covered, it's always research :-)

Outside in world

But what a strangely interesting inside out world this has become.

I can write about the changing media/technology landscape; the emerging media technologies; and write about the new rules enterprises emerging--while at the same time be it.

And the strangeness of this situation makes me think that we will probably never again in our lifetimes witness this kind of massively significant intersection of trends.

It's interesting, don't you think?

Posted by Tom Foremski on August 24, 2005 6:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hate nearly all my stuff...

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I had forgotten how very painful moving apartments can be. That is what I've been doing for the past 10 days or so. And it is why I haven't been blogging or checking my email.

Unwiring and rewiring my life has been my preoccupation, and I'm fed up with the whole process. If I were better organized I would have thrown most of my stuff into a truck and sent it off on a one-way journey to somewhere else. But instead, I was forced to carry my stuff up and down and across and up and down for days, as were the people who helped me.

I don't even like most of my stuff, yet I ended up with boxes of it all over my new apartment. I finally understood that saying (was it George Carlin?) that when you own stuff, your stuff owns you.

Continue reading "I hate nearly all my stuff..." »

Posted by Tom Foremski on September 8, 2005 5:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Email problem...

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

My apologies for being so very far behind in my email correspondence. A combination of moving apartments/office and family obligations forced me to be off-line for much of a two week period and now I have close to 10,000 emails to work my way through.

And because I'm travelling to New York city this week to be a panelist at the Impact 2005 conference, it could be a while before I get through all the emails.

If you have sent me something that is urgent please give me a call on my cell (4 one 5 three three 6 seven 5 4 seven) or resend it and I will try to get to it and get back to you. Thanks!

Posted by Tom Foremski on September 12, 2005 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hitting the road to Portland...I might road-blog, or not :-)

I love road trips and in a few minutes I'm hitting the road to Portland to meet with Mike Faden, our editor, and also Lucaso, our contributing editor. I'm driving up with my 17 yr old son Matt so it's a special time for me (and hopefully for him too :-)

See you in a few days or maybe even earlier if I get the hankering for some key poking...

Posted by Tom Foremski on November 3, 2005 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Out and about in the valley...think tanks, SocialText and Louise Kehoe

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

I spent most of Monday in the valley. First in Palo Alto with the Society for New Communications Research, a recently formed think tank. Dan Farber of ZDNet, and Tom Abate of the SF Chronicle, and I are among the members. It's looking at the societal implications of these media technologies that we work with.

Jen McClure put the think tank together and is keeping everyone on track--it should be interesting to see what we come up with.

I also managed to briefly catch up with Mike Manuel, the Media Guerrilla, at Voce Communications. Mike was one of my very first blog reads, and I discovered him because he was writing about me :-)

It was over a year ago, June 2004, I had just left the Financial Times was preparing for my blogging debut (which didn't happen until September.) But Mike, being very perceptive, started asking questions on his blog about what I might be up to. He even ran a survey on his blog, asking his readers to vote on which prominent journalist would become the first one to leave their newspaper and become a full time blogger. I thought that this was very perceptive of Mike, he had connected a bunch of dots and connected them in the right way too, very much as a journalist looks for clues.

His survey said that Dan Gillmor would be the first to leave, but his readers chose the wrong horse. It was myself, a full 7 months before Dan, and....where are the others?

Come on in, the water is a bit chilly but it'll warm up, I know it'll get better. where you are (in a crumbling business model) it isn't going to get better...

- - -

After all the thinking in the think tank meeting Jen McClure, Dan Forbush of ProfNet and I took a languid stroll through the clean, dappled-sunny streets of Palo Alto, which felt like a very pleasant village.

It has always struck me as bizarre that just a couple of miles away, on the other side of highway 101 is East Palo Alto, a tough, poor and unpleasant neighborhood where a much faster pace of strolling is encouraged, if you find yourself there.

American metropolitan areas have always surprised me with their stark and abrupt changes in neighborhoods. The demarcation lines between neighborhoods safe and unsafe often is just the width of a city street, as if a fence separated the two communities. In my home town of London, there is usually a several block buffer zone where thing steadily worsen or improve.

- - -

After lunch we stopped in on Ross Mayfield, head of wiki company SocialText. Ross recently received $4m in Series B funding from SAP, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Omidyar Network.

Ross put some of the money into a new office on the High Street (where Dan Gillmor is renting a cubicle).

I spoke with Ross about the Rooster Club and he is putting together a wiki that we can use to organize the club (more on that v.soon!)

---

Then I stopped into visit with my former FT colleague Louise Kehoe, who recently returned from the UK helping her mom recover from hip surgery. I'm always hoping Louise could join with me in becoming a journalist blogger, I think she would do well.

As usual, we ran through all the industry stuff happening, caught up on moves among our former colleagues at the FT. Obviously, the pushing out of the FT's editor Andrew Gowers was a brief topic of conversation.

It seems as if the writing is on the wall that the FT might become a a non-Pearson company. . .I think Rupert Murdoch might be the best owner, he understands newspaper brands very well, imho.

- - -

I'm heading back into the valley Tuesday for meetings and a reception in advance of the IDB Under the Radar event, whcih I'll be moderating...I hope to see you there!

Posted by Tom Foremski on November 15, 2005 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Intelligent design: Devilish or Divine?

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
The religous discussions around intelligent design cropped up during my recent dinner with Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's chief strategist on Linux and all things open-source/industry standard.

I mentioned I had seen that day, a headline that said the Vatican had spoken up against intelligent design, but I did not know on what basis, I hadn't read the article.

We chatted about intelligent design, and the premise that an entity called God, would interfere in the universe in order to create the earth, and mankind. I commented how absurd this is, whether you are religious, believe in God, or not.

In fact, the premise is nothing less than blasphemous. It assumes that God needs to intervene in creation, at various points, to create humanity and the planet's abundance of life.

Intelligent design assumes that God could not get it right the first time: the creation of a universe in which the natural qualities of matter, energy and time result in the emergence of life and ourselves--a perfect manifestation of the original design.

Intervention in the original design could be viewed as devilish rather than divine.

- - -

Posted by Tom Foremski on November 21, 2005 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

A Martin Luther King day weekend: The connection between Rap music culture and blogging.

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I didn't do much work this Martin Luther King three-day weekend. My 18-year old son Matthew was staying with me for a few days so it was good just to hang out together while being able to do things seperately too.

Hang out is one of the great American cultural gifts to the world, especially for someone who grew up in London. It means being there and not being there, it means being in the vicinity of another person; a comfortable space (except, of course sometimes when it's not :-).

Matt and I did a few things together. We went to see King Kong (v.good), and visited our favorite Punjabi restaurant twice [and loaded up on to-gos.] I'd tell you where the restaurant is located but I'd rather not--I'd hate to have to line up for a table because it got crowded...

Therese Poletti from the SJ Merc plus Paul Hrisko, and Tom Abate from the SF Chron joined us one of the evenings at the Punjab restaurant--but we had to confuse them along the way, with many false turns and double-backs, so please don't pester them about the location of the restaurant :-)

Matt and I also managed to find room for some culture. We caught an astonishing performance by local SF pianist Allison Lovejoy in Pacifica.

Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media

Former Financial Times journalist Tom Foremski and team reporting on the business of technology and media . Silicon Valley is becoming a Tech Media Valley.

Tom Watch Archives

September 26, 2004

Tom Watch: Fun with a Treo—the “Frisco Wave”

September 29, 2004

Tom Watch: I ran out of bandwidth Tuesday morning…

Tom Watch: I earned my first dollar today as a blogger!

October 4, 2004

Tom Watch: Self-obsession in the blogosphere

October 11, 2004

Tom Watch:I have rarely met a thought I didn’t like at 3am in the morning…Perils of Blogging #1

October 13, 2004

Tom Watch: Lost in the world of server side software, php, css, templates, and MT modules

November 9, 2004

A new look for Silicon Valley Watcher

January 4, 2005

SiliconValleyWatcher named as one of the most influential blogs by Bacon’s -- the media watcher bible

February 17, 2005

Self-Promotion: Marketing Shift on SVW

February 22, 2005

Carol Dukes, one of the savviest business leaders on this planet...plus find out what triggered the dotcom bust

February 24, 2005

Was the Tibco post a puff piece for an advertiser?

April 11, 2005

Who is a journalist? Who is a blogger? We have the answer...

April 18, 2005

Not much Fear or Loathing on the road to NAB2005...

May 12, 2005

Journalist blogger discovers Gmail and his world is rocked

May 23, 2005

A week in the life of a blogger journalist: Blogger swagger in the heart of New York city...

May 24, 2005

A bleary-eyed blogger on Wall Street: more thoughts from a week in NYC and the Syndicate conference

May 31, 2005

Tales from Syndicate conference - Tuesday: Sneaking out to catch the Star Wars geeks .......and dinner with the in-crowd

June 22, 2005

Mercora—a good evening spoiled by endless presentations...[updated]

June 27, 2005

Running out of bandwidth...the good, the bad and the ugly (support)

June 28, 2005

Comments is broken...

July 12, 2005

Our comments section is now working

July 14, 2005

Another day another panel another conversation about my two favorite subjects: Silicon Valley and disruptive media

August 5, 2005

I've been taking a little time off with my daughter Sarah and son Matthew ...see you around Monterey

August 18, 2005

The monetization of ironic incidents...

August 24, 2005

[Publisher's Note] Mea Culpa: Lost syndication feeds...the comments problem (fixed!) ...I'm way backed up on my emails (sorry!) ...and I'm moving apartments

September 8, 2005

I hate nearly all my stuff...

September 12, 2005

Email problem...

November 3, 2005

Hitting the road to Portland...I might road-blog, or not :-)

November 15, 2005

Out and about in the valley...think tanks, SocialText and Louise Kehoe

November 21, 2005

Intelligent design: Devilish or Divine?

January 17, 2006

A Martin Luther King day weekend: The connection between Rap music culture and blogging.