TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

Scoble and Twitter in the Borneo Bulletin: the future of news?

Wow - a funny occurence, in light of my growing interest in Twitter of late. I was flipping through the Borneo Bulletin at a cafe in Brunei, and amidst the coverage of the catastrophic earthquake in China, stumbled across coverage of none other than the tech blogosphere’s two darlings: Robert “Andrew” Scoble and Twitter. It looks like a wire excerpt, but still fascinating to see in a tabloid format local Borneo paper…

“Twitters Beat Media in Reporting China Quake (Sanfrancisco, AFP): The world had real-time new about China’s massive earthquake as victim’s dashed out Twitter text messages while it took place, in what was being touted Tuesday as microblogging outshining mainstream news. As the earth shook with tragic consequences, people in parts of China that felt the quake used their mobiles to send terse messages provided by the San Fransisco-based Twitter Inc. News of the deadly catastrophe reached Twitter devotees such as blogger Andrew Scoble in San Francisco even before the massive tremblor, which killed more than 12,000 people in Szechuan province, was reported by news organizations and the earthquake-tracking US Geological Survey. “Several people in China reported to me they felt the quake while it was going on!” Scoble wrote in his popular Scobleizer blog. Twitters are abbreviated text messages that can be instantly posted on online bulletin boards and personal websites and sent to the mobile phones of selected friends.

For me, this post, found in this paper in this place highlights the parallelism rapidly emerging between the blogosphere and mainstream media: for breaking news and on the ground reporting, blogs and micro-blogging services are rapidly becoming the global-standard destination. Connecting web users and mobile users, first world and third, journalism with ad-hoc/off-the-cuff/street-cred reporting, the net is the first place more and more are turning - in the developing world, its setting a precedent that will shape the evolution of nascent news/communications/entertainment industries. The mainstream media is assuming a new shape as well: in depth coverage, background research, and historical context are services that are more easily provided by a news organization…

Anyway, in a nutshell: blogs/microblogging provides instant, unfiltered news; MSM provides a longer term perspective on a given story. Both have a place, neither is mutually exclusive. Its late, I’m tired, I hope this point is coming across - more on this later.

scoble twitter

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I’m in better shape than PodTech…

Sorry for the drought in posting - I imagine there will be a bunch of people wondering what this suddenly active feed in their RSS reader is - well, hello! I’m back from another blogger-hiatus.

That being said: let’s talk about PodTech, the struggling vlog content production/distribution company noteable mainly for its hiring of Robert Scoble away from Microsoft. Word on the street is that PodTech is “restructuring/refocusing/etc.” - initially reported as a coming closure by Daniel Lyons, gleefully repeated by TC, and finally responded to via tweet and vitriolic hyperbolic scoble-post.

What is it that makes the Scoble / PodTech trainwreck so compelling to watch? Perhaps is the rumour-carried ego battles that have defined PodTech’s leadership; perhaps the questionable investment (7.5M according to TC) in a company with a sketchy, ill-defined “build-it-and-maybe-they’ll-come” business model; perhaps Robert’s overly-honest stories of salary and million-dollar real estate acquisitions.

Face it: we all gloat a little when we see a company that sold little more than buzz-word hype crash and burn. It would be like seeing Steve Rubel get hired by Second Life as VP of PR, and then having Second Life fold up six months later - talk about poetic justice.

Anyway, none of this is intended to say that I bear PodTech, Robert, or Steve R. any ill-will - its just an interesting self-exam as to why this story of any has popped me out of my hiatus. I have no doubt that Scoble will land on his feet, and for the sake of the other hard working people at PodTech, I hope the rest of the company can too.

Gawker and Sugar Did it Right

On PodTech’s ability to bounce back: I have my doubts. PodTech seemingly jumped into vlogging with a lot of enthusiasm and little planning… the breadth of subject matter covered and distribution execution suggests that the company is wanted to be a self-contained content network - a new-school MSM network-equivalent.

Compare this to the experiences of other New Networks, like the Pop Sugar or Gawker families: focused verticals are launched independently, building their own high-quality audiences. The parent organization provides network connections, business management, and ad sales. The network can grow in controlled fashion with organic growth of individual properties into their segments, or the addition of new properties when deemed appropriate.

IMHO, PodTech bit off too much - even their squiggly devoid-of-meaning logo speaks of lack of focus. Why didn’t they take a smaller investment and choose a vertical (scoble’s tech scene, for instance) to focus on? I’m all for dreaming big/shooting for the stars/etc. but there are good models of growth to following. Going down the “video” road provided an element of innovation; attempting to launch an entire network at the same time just added risk.

podtech, scoble vlogging

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

You Have the Choice

The granddaddies of the tech blogosphere are lamenting both the pressure of their success, and that of the whole 2.0 scene - both Michael A. and the Scobleizer have disillusioned navel-gazing posts up this AM, wishing for the simple, post-dot-com-boom days of 2001 and 2002 when Web2.0 was a valley cafe phenomenon and the bust had cleansed the valley of much of the Type-A ambitious personalities that make the current boom feel corrosive.

To Michael and Robert, I’d offer simple advice: Success (or failure) are what you make it; each day you live is a choice.

1. Don’t be afraid to let go: I wouldn’t want to be in Michael’s shoes, having the power of life or death over startups, and getting despondent phonecalls from people desperate for coverage. Talk about pressure. Its not a fair position to be put in by startups, and I can’t imagine dealing with those calls - but it goes with the territory when you reach a certain size. So - they (Michael, Robert) have a choice: embrace the challenge, and look to traditional and innovative ways to manage these relationships, or walk away: there is no shame in saying “this is no longer for me” and moving on to something new. I envy the professionals in music, acting, and sports that know when they’ve had enough and exit the mainstream: its classy and respectable.
2. Find the Next Cafe Scene: Web2.0 is not the terminal endpoint for the technology world, the web-tech is only one facet anyway. The next iteration is brewing right now in a cafe somewhere, or a University lecture hall, or a computer-strewn basement. Is it the “semantic web?” Is it some type of biotech? Is it GMO crops? Or some type of new economics, like micro-lending, that can change the world? If you want a break from the mainstream, find the fringe again and be there.
3. Change It: Robert and Michael have the collective power to influence the valley environment; if its pernicious and poisoned, perhaps they should be asking again how to bring it back? You’re both awash in choices: finances, influence, relationships, and audiences - how can you use all of that to either change the valley environment back to “friendly,” or create your own friendly microclimate in the next silicon valley? Can you “wag the dog” so to speak?
4. Embrace It: Frantic Industries points out that the valley is a little pocket universe all to itself, which doesn’t extend very far beyond its walls. Remember this fact: the garbage that you may be exposed to there, however disheartening it may be, is only the tiniest slice of the wider internet and technology world. Any community that you are a part of will have its ups and downs as it grows and changes over time; the most dedicated members of that community will maintain their poise through-out and enrichen it the whole way through, taking the good with the bad, and paying attention to the best. OMC suggests that the real 2.0 movement is bypassing the valley craziness anyway.

There’s a good parallel in music: Whenever a new genre gets “hot” - Rock & Roll, Hip Hop, Techno, whatever, there are the pioneers that founded it, and then the whole crazy scene that follows with glam, bling, money, whatever. There are pioneers that choose to walk away - that’s cool (Cat Stevens?). There are pioneers that just keep doing their thing without worrying about the scene - that’s cool too (Bob Dylan?). There are also those that get caught up in it and go nuts (Elvis?) - that’s cool too, if that’s what you want (hopefully without a lame, self-destructive finish).

So - at the end of the day, Robert and Michael, however dreary your poisitions may feel, you’ve got nothing but great options to choose from - so chin up, and make the most of it.

advice, arrington, boom, bust, michaelarrington, robertscoble, scoble, scobleizer, techcrunch valley

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Hey Scobleizer: Here’s a Solution for Web Stats

Scoble blogs tonite on how stats services generally seem to suck: they don’t agree with each other, they don’t agree with server logs, they don’t match up with experience.

The same frustration drove me to posting weeks ago when I proposed a unique solution: Google should let web masters make a subset of their Analytics data public. Of course, this doesn’t address Scoble’s questions about the conceptual thinking about stats - i.e.: are pageviews still relevant?

The original post is here. The gist of it, quoting myself:

Adding a “Sharing” option to Google Analytics and surfacing stats in “site:” searches (for those site owners who have elected the sharing option in their Analytics account) would do the job nicely. Let site owners control the degree of information shared, keep everything opt-in, and rock and roll. I know I’d share my high-level views & visits stats in a second. In addition to providing all of the value Alexa does, it would also add a layer of transparency to making ad-buys - something else I would appreciate.

I still think this would be a great idea, and would be more than happy to share my stats this way. What about you?

alexa, analytics, compete, google, scoble, scobleizer stats

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!