Web 2.0: A Culture of Frugality?

Posted on January 26, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 6 Comments

Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch wrote a post arguing that the gloomy outlook for corporate IT spending in 2008 is a good thing for Web 2.0 (well, at least the “Enterprise 2.0″ portion of it). I wasn’t really intrigued by the topic of the post (probably because I disagreed with its premise the minute I read it), but Erick did make a comment that jumped out at me:

The culture of frugality that is still worn as a badge of honor at many Web 2.0 startups will serve them well if (when) an IT-spending slowdown hits.

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Mark Zuckerberg: I Apologize for Global Warming

Posted on January 25, 2008
Filed Under Letters from Mark Zuckerberg | 3 Comments

In my new parody column, Letters from Mark Zuckerberg, a Fake MZ will apologize for all the trouble he’s causing as he experiments and tries to make the world a better place.

About three years ago, Facebook started trying to help poor people without access to adequate heat by pumping large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. We succeeded in warming the globe but now scientists have agreed that global warming poses a major threat to the human race and it’s clear that we made a mistake by encouraging too much global warming. While I am disappointed with our mistakes, we appreciate all the feedback we have received from the human population. I’d like to discuss what we have learned.

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Duncan Riley: I Think We Found Your Brother from Another Mother

Posted on January 25, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 10 Comments

Apparently one of the TechCrunch commenters whose asinine comments were featured in my post about the death of “real journalism” fell in love with The Drama 2.0 Show and has subsequently . It might be the most delicious Kool Aid I’ve tasted thus far. In fact, I almost pictured Duncan Riley while reading it and therefore I change my recommendation regarding TechCrunch’s free 23andMe Kit: we need to find out if the author is Duncan Riley’s brother from another mother.

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Rupert Murdoch Gets It

Posted on January 25, 2008
Filed Under OMG! Old Media is Dying! | Leave a Comment

I like Rupert Murdoch. You simply can’t argue with success. The way he expanded News Corp. into a global media powerhouse is nothing short of remarkable and even if you don’t agree with his beliefs, I think any reasonable person has to respect what he’s done. Most recently, he’s continued to impress. The expansion of his empire into the digital space has seen a number of shrewd moves, most notably his acquisition of MySpace for $580 million. He went on to ink a $900 million MySpace advertising deal with Google and given that Facebook, which still lags MySpace by a considerable margin in terms of registered users, traffic and revenues, has been raising money at a $15 billion valuation, it’s safe to say that Murdoch scored a coup d’état with MySpace.

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Discussion on the Death of “Real Journalism” Filled with Kool Aid

Posted on January 25, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 8 Comments

I thought that the geniuses at Davos were supposed to be saving the world, but apparently this includes finding a way to “save” journalism. If you are one of the few people who is reading the newspaper instead of the blogosphere, you never hear the news: “real journalism” is dying and Craigslist and blogs like TechCrunch are to blame.

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Advertisers Starting to Demand Results?

Posted on January 24, 2008
Filed Under Marketing 2.0 | 3 Comments

While going through the closets at my new home away from home, , I noticed that discusses some recent comments by one of Proctor & Gamble’s marketing executives. Emma Jenkins, Head of Interactive Marketing for the consumer goods conglomerate, the following comments about online advertising and agencies:

We absolutely do want big ideas, but in the end the creative needs to deliver. Business objectives need to be embraced all the way through the creative agency from the account manager onwards.

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Drama’s Roundup - January 23, 2008

Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under Drama's Roundup | Leave a Comment

Publicis’s Levy: Too Many Companies Chasing Too Few Dollars Online
Why It’s Interesting: Even though this was published in early November 2007, I just came across it and found it to be even more relevant now given the economic landscape has worsened considerably. When the CEO of one of the most important advertising companies in the world (and one of the most tech-friendly) says that far too many companies are chasing too few dollars, makes reference to the first .com bust and calls Facebook’s valuation “insane” because it’s “unbalanced relative to the potential advertising value” of the service, it’s worth taking note.

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Free 23andMe!

Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under Culture & Technology | 1 Comment

I was amused to see that 23andMe, the “web-based service that helps you read and understand your DNA” that I named one of the Dumbest Startups of 2007, is giving away 1,000 of its kits to attendees. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is in Davos, but he had already purchased a 23andMe kit so he has decided to give it away to the most deserving TechCrunch reader.

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Drama 2.0 Looks to Bring Rap Music to Web 2.0

Posted on January 22, 2008
Filed Under Commercial Interruptions | 6 Comments

Rap music has a special place in my heart. As a kid, I grew up bumping Run-D.M.C. and my love for the beats (and sometimes the lyrics) has remained. While rap music’s evolution has often sadly mirrored the increasing materialism in society, I must admit that I still listen to it and am often entertained by some of its absurdities.

As most of my readers know, I love parody so I figured it was time to write a Web 2.0 rap song. I decided to do it using one of my recent favorites, the Make it Rain Remix by Fat Joe featuring R. Kelly, Birdman, Lil Wayne, T.I., Ace Mack and Rick Ross.

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Why Are These People Invited to Conferences?

Posted on January 22, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 4 Comments

The Digital Life Design conference in Munich hosted a session “Humans Disrupting Algorithms” and featured Jimmy Wales of Wikia and Jason Calacanis of Mahalo. According to TechCrunch:

Jimmy and Jason each gave a brief overview of their human powered search engines. Jason railed on Google and other big engines, saying algorithms have failed to control spam and SEO gaming, and that humans must be involved to get good results. Jimmy was more circumspect, and spent most of his time arguing that large numbers of people will be willing to spend time helping Wikia Search develop good results.

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