Battle of the Conferences Set to Begin
Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 2 Comments
Next week is a big week for the world of technology startups. From September 8 to 10, approximately 50 startups will launch at TechCrunch50. In San Diego, the incumbent startup launch conference, Demo, will run from September 7 to 9.
The timing, of course, is not coincidental. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has Demo on the list of industries, companies and events he thinks need to be killed.
While I’m pleased to report that I will be in Patagonia skiing and smoking Cohiba cigars while the bloodbath ensues, next week is a stressful one for technology fiends who have to make a choice - TechCrunch50 or Demo? That’s a tough one.
Google Chrome for Dummies - Cartoons Included
Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 4 Comments
There’s a lot of confusion about Google’s new browser, Chrome, and a lot of questions are being asked.
Is it a web browser? Is it better than Firefox? Is it an operating system? Is it going to kill Windows? Can it help you lose weight? Will it make your penis larger? Can it be used as a vibrator?
Whether you’re an average consumer looking to browse the Internets in the most efficient way possible or a former securities analyst who thinks the “technology stack” refers to pancakes, this post should clear things up for you.
The Chrome Stupidity Continues
Posted on September 2, 2008
Filed Under Unjournalism | 15 Comments
The Google Chrome hype train is chugging along at full speed.
Although I’ve ditched , a reader of The Drama 2.0 Show this morning sent me an email imploring me to look at tech|ticker commentator .
Like TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, Blodget thinks Chrome is big. Real big.
Certainly it’s a browser. It’s going to sit beside the other icons. It sounds like it has a bunch of cool features. It’s totally designed for web applications and things.
Chrome Hype: When Non-Techies Blog About Technology
Posted on September 2, 2008
Filed Under Unjournalism | 9 Comments
One of the things that has amused me about the technology blogosphere is the fact that some of its most popular A-listers and B-listers aren’t even legitimate “techies.”
From the misuse of terminology to downright mischaracterizations and misinterpretations, the technology blogosphere has no shortage of technology enthusiasts masquerading as technology experts.
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington is the perfect example of this.
Arrington has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree from Stanford. He was a corporate attorney in Silicon Valley at O’Melveny & Myers and Wilson Sonsini where he was primarily involved in financing and securities-related tasks for technology startups.
Sponsor Shout-Out
Posted on September 1, 2008
Filed Under Commercial Interruptions | Leave a Comment
With gas prices hovering at the US dollar equivalent of around $4.70 where I live, filling up a car that gets around 41 liters per gallon city (approximately 11 miles per gallon) is not fun. But thanks to the sponsors of The Drama 2.0 Show, I’ve got a little fuel subsidy.
My lead sponsor, Finnish startup , which is designed to serve as “a single place for all your online needs,” has been busy implementing user feedback and working on some launches that it considers very important to its future, including the launch of a new design and its open development framework and developer platform. It has also been busy sponsoring events in Finland as part of its efforts to introduce MySites to prospective users.
Digital Bill of Rights or Digital Bill of Bullshit?
Posted on September 1, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid | 5 Comments
I understand that TechCrunch and other technology blogs like it are out of touch with mainstream reality. But a post last week really pushed the boundaries of absurdity.
On the heels of the Democratic National Convention, TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld decided the time was right to call for a “comprehensive national technology policy for the Internet Age.”
Why? Because “many laws and policies governing the Internet and digital property are inadequate attempts to transplant rules from a different era.”
Posted on August 29, 2008
Filed Under Web 2.0 Kool Aid |
You have to hand it Web 2.0’s digital socialists - they’re very quick on the uptake.
One of my favorite kool aid drinkers, Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins over at Mashable, earlier this week announced that he had discovered offshore hosting.
According to Hopkins, OpenTape, the open source answer to the RIAA’s smackdown of the popular Muxtape online “mixtape” service, could thrive if enough people get hip to the possibility of acquiring offshore hosting accounts out of the reach of the RIAA:
Wall Street Applied to Technology Entrepreneurship
Posted on August 28, 2008
Filed Under BS-Free Advice | 3 Comments
Just what does Drama 2.0 do? One of activities I’m most heavily involved with is the trading of financial instruments (primarily option contracts).
Trading is a wonderful exercise not only because there’s a lot of money to be made (and lost, of course) but because the most powerful human emotions - fear and greed - are grappled with an on almost daily basis.
There are a lot of life lessons to be learned and many of the “rules” of trading can be applied to the world of technology entrepreneurship, especially in a day and age where startups are built to be “flipped” and entrepreneurial employees jump from one startup to another in search of the “big hit.”
Scoble: The Idiots vs. the Non-Idiots
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under Culture & Technology | 7 Comments
I was sent another classic Robert Scoble post from a reader in which Scoble coins another Web 2.0 euphemism - “passionates.”
Who are passionates? Early adopters. Which means, of course, that there are non-passionates, or late adopters.
Scoble discusses passionates and non-passionates in the context of a post by Dare Obasanjo, who points out that Web 2.0 companies should consider that building products that appeal specifically to early adopters can be problematic because early adopters don’t represent the mass market consumer.
Obasanjo concludes with a pragmatic piece of advice:
Are These Charts Worth $8 Million?
Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under VC Insanity | 8 Comments
Investors have funded the startup that runs the website whose traffic is displayed in the charts below to the tune of $8 million.
Ask yourself: would you invest $8 million in this startup? Would you be pleased with the results thus far if you had invested $8 million in this startup?
Any reader who can guess the startup behind this website by August 25, 2008 will win a decommissioned Soviet Projektu-613 submarine. Pick up at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk only.
Note: I recognize that traffic statistics from Compete and Alexa are imperfect but they’re reliably trend-indicative.
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Drama 2.0 spikes the Web 2.0 kool aid by providing critical analyses of Web 2.0, its people, its startups and its impact on the world of media. Other topics are explored when Drama 2.0 has been drinking too much 1975 Dom Perignon. Read more about the Internet's version of Keyser Söze here.
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