NOTE:  DOESN'T WORK YET...   DAMN!

For those of you that can bear my awful layout, you might have noticed a new little gray box on the left.  That's a discussion group completely seperate from the posts on my blog.  Anyone can participate, and anything they write will get autoposted to my sidebar.

Here's the discussion group concept:

We've been talking around a lot of things about Web 2.0, but I'd like to get down to the nuts and bolts.  What's missing in the user experience?  Who has it right?  What is "right"?  Lots of people have been talking theory (including us at USV!) and that is important, too, but this group is about where the rubber meets the road.  Who's in?  Add your name and reply.

Here's my opening post:

"First there was mashing.  Lately, there's been bashing.  While a lot of people believe in the promise of Web 2.0 (even if they can't define what it is) there's definitely been a clamoring for more substance and less theory.  This open discussion, being hosted on the side column of my blog is meant to focus on real applications of Web 2.0 theories, including specific companies, real suggestions for improvements, new ideas for applications that would  work, and how to create a differentiated user experience that drives adoption. 

The first topic is whether or not we flipped the wrong model--whether or not user-centric business models have actually changed the value to the end user and their experience.  Has "Web 2.0" actually changed the value proposition of the web or have we spend too much time building businesses differently and not enough time rethinking the way people actually want/need to use the web?  What specific areas have truly improved and what's lacking?"

If there's anyone preferably in Northern NJ (but NYC possible) who listens to podcasts that would be willing to sit for an interview for a couple of hours, please contact Bill Bartlett at: billb@subassoc.com

Thank you all for my geeky 15 minutes of fame.   Please excuse me if I fawn over this whole thing for a moment.

Fred started me off by sending me some link love, but then it was obvious that much more of the traffic was coming from del.icio.us...  from people who were clicking on both the popular list and the "web 2.0" tag.  Here are the results from my (continuing??) stay near the top end of the del.icio.us popular list from my last top ten post:

I normally get about 500-700 pageviews a day.  In the last 24 hours, I've had 6500.

I received 100 new RSS subscribers.  (Now I have the pressure of holding on to all of you folks.)

I normally don't get much in the way of comments and trackbacks.  That post got 15 and 8 respectively.

MOST importantly, it led to discussions with three interesting  people who share my interests and have great blogs of their own.  I only talked to them for a little bit, but I got great insight into what they think because they all blog.  I IMed with Brian, Keshava and Greg.  Brian and Greg are new and had both linked to my post and Keshava dropped me a comment I think.  I'd e-mailed Keshava before a few times, but we'd never IMed before and it was a good excuse for us to try Google Talk.  We're going to do the Shake Shack next week (hmm...  probably should invite Greg, too...   Brian's a bit far for such a trip, regardless of how good the shakes are). 

Blogs and social tags connect people in a way that wasn't being done just a couple of years ago. 

Imagine the analog:

Let's say there are no blogs or tags.  Just conferences.

1) First off, no one would have invited me to speak anywhere.  So, blogs enable me to invent my own "This is going to be BIG" conference.

2) Even if someone did, after I spoke, my connection with the crowd would have been limited.  There wouldn't have been time for the 15 comments.  Perhaps afterwards, I could subject myself to the post panel crush, but I'll bet most of those people would have been more interested in showing us deals than just having a discussion.  Deals are great, of course, intellectual exchanges are nice, too.

3) Statistically, I probably never would have circulated around the room to these three guys, and besides that, even if I had, without the context of their blogs, links to what they were working on, etc. our conversations would have probably went more like, "Yeah... so... um... good conference, huh?   Did you try the cookies?  The rainbow ones are sweet." 

4) Follow up.  How many business cards to you get/give at a conference.  How many times do these lead to great connections?  Its kind of forced b/c then you have to talk on the phone, or meet, and maybe you don't really have anything to meet about, but you're searching for a connection somehow.  I'd rather passively pay attention to someone's blog, then start a conversation if I see our interests align.

So, that post was invaluable from the perspective that now I have a better connection to people around me that are thinking about the same stuff.  The traffic was nice, but people are better.

Link: Newsday.com: A new Met TV deal.

Elliot Spitzer just won my vote for Governor in 2006, provided he doesn't do anything really stupid between now and then.  Getting the Mets back on TV... that's all it took.  I'm an easy vote.

Is it me, or are there a few people talking about video lately?

And if that's not an enough of an understatement, New York City has a small vermin problem.

Its fascinating to what how many people are trying to play this every which way.

Here's the video technology list of lists... a random collection of small bits loosely joined that I'm putting out there as fodder for discussion:

The goal in figuring out where video is going next is (depending on who you are):

1. To make a lot of money by investing.
2. To not lose a lot of money you've yet to invest.
3. To make more money than you're already making.
4. To not shoot your current business in the face.
5. To figure out what consumers want and make them happy.

The players are/want to be (jeez, this is a big list):

1. Consumers
2. Cable operators
3. Television stations
4. TV producers/publishers
5. Movie producers/publishers
6. Content archive owners
7. Advertisers
8. GYMAAA (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Amazon, Apple)
9. Flickr for video startups
10. These guys?
11. Box and chip companies (Phillips, Intel, etc.)
12. Tivo
13. Netflix, Blockbusters
14. Bittorrent
15. MySpace, Facebook (My friends are watching...)
16. Big Telecom
17. Handset manufacturers
18. Homebuilders
19. Akimbo, Brightcove, etc.

Top ten conflicts/bottlenecks that will cause the consumer to get the short end of the stick:

1. DRM
2. Video on demand cannibalizes recent release DVD sales
3. Royalty streams for actors not setup for content ubiquity (Someone told me this, not sure if its true)
4. Home media server setup expensive and complicated for video
5. The $1.99 price point
6. No way in hell all three four (iPod) screens are going to cooperate enough so that, if I buy episodes of the A-Team once, I'm going to be able to watch them on my laptop, Video IPod, TV, and my cellphone. 
7. No universal video format (can we just lock everyone in a room and fix this)
8. Watching DVDs in your pimped up SUV likely to cause accidents
9. Add your addition here.
10. Ok, so I only came up with 7... so shoot me.

What consumers want:

1. Everything
2. Anywhere
3. Cheaper than we pay for it now, and growing cheaper  everyday, because that's supposedly the reason why we invented technology in the first place.
4. Search, Discovery, Recommendation (because, the new adage is, "You can't have everything... how would you find it.")

So, if anyone wants to piece these things together coherently in an essay or maybe in a little chart or something, feel free.  I haven't come up with a unified theory yet.

Link: TRENDWATCHING.COM Newsletter | Global Consumer and Marketing Trends | April 2005.

Thanks to Liesbeth den Toom for pointing me in the direction of the permalink for Trendwatching.  They've got an interesting site up and this month's newsletter highlighted "Tryvertising".  The idea:  "Give me free stuff and if I like it, I'll keep using it."  Sure, we've gotten little packets of shampoo in the mail, but did you know that there are some hotels that will let you drive around in a Maybach for free?  I hope this catches on, because I'm all about free stuff.  That's how I got hooked on Fresh Direct.  They had this free $50 of groceries offer and I'm all about food, so it was a can't miss.  Now, I don't think I've bought groceries in a regular supermarket more than twice.  The other day, I ordered mangos.  No mangos in Gristides... at least nothing that looked like a mango anyway.  We used to do the same thing at GM when people tried to sell us data services or research.  The message:  Get us hooked!  Not enough companies are doing that.

I first heard Mitch Hedberg on the XM Radio comedy station.  I think the first think I heard him say was that he wanted to be a race car passenger that bugs the driver. 

"Say man, can I turn on the radio? You should slow down. Why do we gotta keep going in circles? Man, you really like Tide ..."

I thought the Tide thing was hilarious and from then on, I was hooked.  I saw him on Comedy Central once... hair in front of his face, just barely audible, deadpan delivery.  Think of what Steven Wright would be if he looked like Kurt Cobain, and he was more random.  That was Mitch Hedberg.  I missed it, but apparently they found him in a hotel room in Minnesota two weeks ago.   I'm really sorry to see this guy go.  I was actually online looking for tickets to shows and they had an announcement on his site.  Here are some other Mitch quotes:

I hope the next time I move I get a real easy phone number. Something like, 222-2222. I would say sweet. People would say, "Mitch, how do I get a hold of you?" I would say, "Press 2 for a while, and when I answer, you will know that you have pressed 2 enough."

I think Pringles' initial intention was to make tennis balls. But on the day that the rubber was supposed to show up, a big truckload of potatoes arrived. But Pringles was a laid-back company. They said "Fuck it. Cut 'em up."

I get the Reese's candy bar. If you read that name Reese's thats an apostrophe S. Reese's apostrophe S at the end of that name. That means the candy bar is his. I didn't know that. Next time you're eating a Reese's candy bar and a guy name Reese comes by and says "let me have that", you better hand it over. "I'm sorry, Reese. I didn't think I'd ever run into you."

I was in a bar, minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, "You're gonna have to move, you're blocking a fire exit." As though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit.

When you go to a restaurant on the weekends and it's busy they start a waiting list. They start calling out names, they say "Dufrane, party of two. Dufrane, party of two." And if no one answers they'll say their name again. "Dufrane, party of two, Dufrane, party of two." But then if no one answers they'll just go right on to the next name. "Bush, party of three." Yeah, but what happened to the Dufranes? No one seems to give a shit. Who can eat at a time like this - people are missing. You fuckers are selfish... the Dufranes are in someone's trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths. And they're hungry! That's a double whammy. We need help. Bush, search party of three! You can eat when you find the Dufranes.

Link: apophenia: impression management: blogs as terrible representations. 

Last week, we got to meet some of my readers, which was very cool.  Now, I'm thinking about, after reading danah's article, what the impression is that I give off.  I don't think I've ever really met anyone through my blog after building up any kind of substantial online relationship anyway.  I wonder what kind of impression I give off here and how that compares to my offline persona.  I think part of the issue is that a lot of people only blog on one topic.  Fred and I are probably very much like we are in person as we are on our blogs.  In fact, Fred is pretty much his walking blog.  As for danah, I'm sure she's probably much more chill in person as she is on her blog, because she tends to get into some heady academic thinking on there.  In fact, as I get into some of the more well known bloggers I met through their blogs first and then in person, like Mena, Jarvis, and Steve Rubel, I think they're pretty much what I expected.  If you keep up with a blog, I think a lot of someone's personality comes out.  Its difficult to write everyday and hide major aspects of your persona... at least for me it is anyway.  So, I think I'm probably much like my blog.

Perhaps someday I can tell you where this picture is from.  Maybe...  hmm..  Valentine's Day?  If you knew, you'd understand how fitting this message is.

I figured I'd take the picture now just for the record before I have to shovel the letters out of the snow....

_________________________________________________________________

Maybe I don't have the coolest tattoo...

Link: Recapping the year for Autoblog - Autoblog - www.autoblog.com.

The guys at Autoblog do a great job satisfying my car fix and its very cool to hear the personal story behind how they flourished in the Blogosphere in 2004.  I hope 2005 is an even bigger year for them.

This is what I see when I walk to the subway from work.

This is just such a visually appealing site, I had to post it...    

Link: Welcome to Avalon Chrystie Place.

I guess when you rent one bedrooms for $3000, you can afford a nice website.

These people are probably too "fru-fru" for a blog.

Too funny...  Clothes and novelty items for bloggers and venture geeks.

Working from home today...., originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Productivity level: Very High

I run this great program for NYC-area students interested in finance called SEMI.  We even started a blog this year.  It gives students the opportunity to get matched up with a professional from the New York Society of Security Analysts, learn about different areas of finance, and also potentially win a sizable scholarship.

One of the goals for improvement in the program next year is to improve the mentor's experience.  Our mentors are very dedicated, but sometimes they feel out of touch with the broader program, or they're not exactly sure what they're suppossed to be telling the students.

I'm looking for feedback on mentoring experiences.  What has worked, what hasn't?  Are the programs you're involved with very structured or do the mentoring pairs work independently?

Also, is anyone who is reading this a member of NYSSA, or knows a NYSSA member who would make a great mentor for students interested in finance? 

This post was written by David Murphy.  He was our shortstop and won our last two games on walkoff hits.  He was also a part of several championship Fordham intramural teams.  They even made a Geocities page about it.

Here's Dave:

The Rams Alumni softball team brought a successful finish to a dismal season last Monday night.  For the second time in as many games, the sons and daughters of Mother Fordham battled back in the final frames to finish the year on a victorious note with a 8-7 win over the vaunted Mizuno machine. 

“Regardless of the final win-loss record, I’m proud of this team,” manager Charlie O’Donnell said after the game.  “I don’t think we’ll ever be accused of having the most talent in the league, but there’s no question that, as a team, we have the heart of a champion.”

Fordham struggled throughout the season with spotty defense and a lack of timely hitting.  It wasn’t until the final stages of the season that Fordham seemed to find their groove.  All told Fordham went 5-8 missing a playoff birth by a significant margin.  Even still, O’Donnell saw seedlings of hope develop in the expansion franchise.

“When we came into the season we didn’t know what to expect,” O’Donnell said.  “There was a big learning curve with this club but I think we definitely came into our own.  You could see that, on both sides of the ball, we definitely began to gel as a unit throughout the last few games.”

Both of the final two contests in 2005 proved dramatic for the Rams.  After a thrilling walk-off home run victory in the previous game, Fordham showed no sign of a let down in the last game of the season.  Fordham went up by three going into the last inning when the same shoddy defense that had haunted them all season began to rear its ugly head.  Pitcher Patty Dickerson, the indisputable team co-MVP after logging countless innings on the mound, saw misplay after misplay result in four unearned runs for Mizhuno. 

That led to one final chance for a comeback by the Jesuit educated bunch. In the bottom of the fifth, the always selective Ron Zapata led off with a single.  He moved into scoring position on a hit by Jason Gianitti.  Two batters later, Pawtucket’s own Ryan St. Germain singled in the tying run and moved the winning run into scoring position for shortstop Dave Murphy.  Murphy, also a Pawtucket native, doubled home the game winner with a line drive to right ending Fordham’s inaugural season on a high note.

“I just got the pitch I was looking for,” Murphy said after the game.  “We’ve battled back before, and the guys just did a great job of getting on base and I was fortunate enough to get a pitch I could handle.”  Murphy’s six hits in his final six at bats for Fordham this season were a big change from his hitherto lack luster performance.  Many Rams’ observers lay the blame of Fordham’s largely unsuccessful campaign squarely on his shoulders.  The captain of two Fordham University intramural softball championships with Team Shame, struggled mightily throughout 2005.  Many believed he simply could not adjust to playing without the teammates that surrounded him from 2000-2004 at Fordham, capturing those two titles. 

For Fordham, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times in 2005.  Although the team chemistry seemed to mix well, particularly by the end of the season, a series of people moving to go along with inconsistent play on both offense and defense resulted in a sub-par performance. 

Second baseman Trevor Freeman seemed to sum up the season best when packing up his locker in the Fordham clubhouse saying, “Maybe it’s because I’m an Oakland fan, but my mentality is, hey – wait till next year!”

And that is just what Fordham plans to do. 

I was looking for a place to keep my photos online and Valarie from CM suggested Snapfish.  I'm trying it now and I'm thoroughly impressed with their upload feature.  I just dumped 57 hi res shots from my San Fran trip in their uploading tool and let it be.  It will take about an hour on the DTUT wifi, but its just sitting in the backround working on its own while I do other stuff.  No browsing for individual photos.  Big fan so far.  I like being able to download the high res version of the pics, too... b/c I was concerned about some of these photo albums scaling my pics down.  I'll probably never need them that detailed, but who knows.  I may go poster crazy one day and decide to wallpaper my apartment with huge reproductions of my prized butterfly pic.