Happy Holidays from The Drama 2.0 Show

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Drama 2.0’s Predictions for 2008

Last year around this time, unbeknownst to Web 2.0 fanboys and fangirls, Drama 2.0 trolled over to Mashable and developed a new alter ego: Web 2.0 Skeptic. My “amusingly cynical comments” inspired Web celebrity Pete Cashmore to launch the Mashable Insulting Comments Contest, which I won (what the hell did you expect?). The winning comment contained my predictions for 2007:

I’m going to really go out on a limb here and make some off-the-wall predictions that may come as a shock to a lot of people. But I stand by these predictions and think that by this time next year I’ll be hailed as a visionary.

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The Internet, Social Networks and Employee Productivity

News.com posted an article by Eric J. Sinrod, a partner in the San Francisco office of law firm Duane Morris (no known relation to my good friend Philip Morris), in which the question of whether social networks can co-exist with the workplace is addressed.

Eric points out that, according to , 50 percent of businesses using Barracuda Web Filters are blocking social networking services like MySpace and Facebook. Most businesses, however, are more concerned about security (viruses, trojans, etc.) than they are about the fact that their employees are wasting time “poking” during business hours.

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Advice for PR Firms that Shill on Blogs

My post on Canadian startup Capazoo received the following comment from a person identifying himself as “Robert Dobilina”:

Capazoo is more real than you think. Folks are already making money from their content.

I had been suspicious of some of the comments left on other blogs discussing Capazoo and Robert smelled funny so I decided to Google “Robert Dobilinia.” No results. Interesting, but not unexpected.

So I took Robert’s IP address and ran a whois at ARIN. To my absolute amazement, the IP address Robert posted from belongs to a company called 5W Public Relations. And astonishingly, Capazoo.com is (currently) listed on the company’s client list.

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Capazoo or Crapazoo?

I was intrigued when I read a December 10 article on TechCrunch about a Canadian social networking startup named Capazoo. The article mentioned that the company had raised no less than $25 million - all from private investors and not VCs. Quite an accomplishment. The name Capazoo sounded familiar, however, and sure enough, there was a reason - Capazoo had launched a year earlier as a Flash social network that didn’t go anywhere.

Further intrigued, I tried to find out more about Capazoo and the people behind it, especially after reading a TechCrunch comment that made some serious allegations:

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Ross Levinsohn Statement Hints at Growing Bubble

Former Fox Interactive Media president Ross Levinsohn made an interesting statement following his investment firm’s merger with ComVentures to form Velocity Interactive Group. :

Shopping: When I asked if they’re running into companies eager to sell now in case things turn sour, Levinsohn said it was just the opposite. “I’m actually amazed by it. A year ago … there was more desperation to sell.” The Facebook platform initiative and, to some extent, OpenSocial, turned that around, adding distribution to companies that once were only features.” They now have tens of millions of users and are raising money at huge multiples—hundreds of millions of dollars—and they’ll get it.”

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Desperate Days for Digg

Web 2.0 darling Digg has reportedly retained investment bank Allen & Company to find a buyer. Asking price? A cool $300 million. As noted at Mashable, nearly all of the obvious potential buyers have reportedly expressed little to no interest in Kevin Rose’s baby previously and despite the Christmas spirit, nobody seems generous enough to make Kevin a $60 million kid (idiot editors at BusinessWeek notwithstanding).

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DNN: Murder-Suicide Shocks Second Life

Introducing Drama News Network (DNN), your source for all the important news from the world of technology.

December 17, 2007 (DNN) - Second Life inhabitants still are reeling from a murder-suicide that took place on a private Second Life island sometime last week. New details have emerged about what is believed to be the first such incident in the popular virtual world’s short history.

On December 5, Jim McAllister, 45, a florist from Scottsdale, Arizona, purchased a 12 gauge double-barrel shotgun in Second Life for L$50 from an unknown source believed to be associated with the Ansche Chung crime syndicate. Sometime in the following week, he turned the gun on his wife, Heather, 41, and children Timothy, 13, and Rebecca-Anne, 9, before killing himself.

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The Drama 2.0 Show Unveils New Logo

There’s nothing more important than brand image and after deciding that my logo simply wasn’t effectively conveying the Drama 2.0 brand, I turned to one of the most prominent corporate branding agencies in New York to develop a new logo for The Drama 2.0 Show. Dozens of focus groups and $115,000 later, I am pleased to unveil the new Drama 2.0 logo that you see above.

From the agency:

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Duncan Riley: “No I am not scared and neither should you be!”

Blogging Evangelist Duncan Riley has become Web 2.0’s version of the infamous Iraqi Information Minister (aka Baghdad Bob). In response to market research firm eMarketer’s projections that the growth in online ad spending will slow in the coming years, Democracy Duncan issued a statement reassuring Internet supporters everywhere and urging them not to panic. Although I was unable to read his statement because it was issued in a language that a cultural elitist such as myself cannot understand, the following translations were provided to me:

There is no slowdown in the growth of Internet ad spending. Never!

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