• No Man’s Blog - Facebook Applications Trends Report #1
  Asi Sharabi’s Private Selections
  (tags: applications facebook trends)
• TubeMogul.com - Online Video Distribution and Analytics
  Track online video viewership trends and analytics on YouTube, MySpace, Google, Yahoo!, MetaCafe and Revver with TubeMogul
  (tags: stats videos youtube)
• Private Equity HUB - Another Look at VC-Backed Busts
  Really interesting data...
  (tags: deals vc)

I'm said that Equity Private seems to have abandoned her blog.

Blogged with Flock

I'm just going to update last year's Thanksgiving post, because, thankfully, a lot of the same things I was grateful for last year are still around, but I do have some notable new additions, of course.

In my family, Thanksgiving is pretty much about eating...    but we're Italian, so that's to be expected.  Still, it's nice to actually stop stuffing your face for a second and think about what you're thankful for.   Here's my list.   If you blog a list of what you're thankful for, tag it "thanksgivinglist" on del.icio.us...    I'd love to see what everyone else appreciates...  and when you write the list, don't forget to tell others to tag it as well.

1. Most importantly, I'm thankful for my family...  My parents, my grandmothers (both 90 in February), and my brothers and nieces.  It hasn't been an easy year for everyone, but we're all still here and getting by.



2. I'm thankful that Shri introduced me to Mere (@ptrain)--the needle in the proverbial haystack.  I wish she was closer, but what can ya' do?  I look forward to her entry into the blog world come winter break and her entry into my world at some undetermined point in the future.  :)
   
3. I'm thankful to be working on Path 101-- a project I am incredibly passionate about.  I had no idea this was what I'd be doing a year ago, which shows you how unpredictable life can be, but I'm very fortunate to have the support of enough people who believe in me to help me and Alex get this off the ground.  I'm also very thankful for having convinced found Alex and convinced him to join in the first place--we make a great team.
   
4. I'm thankful for great friends--some really special people in my life.  My schedule is always crazy, but a handful of people have managed to hold on for the ride...   some are new and some are old, and some are old friends that have become new in a way... coming back from college or grad school to continue and strengthen friendships from the past...     To Brian, Suzie, Allison, Deirdre, Pastore, Ryan, Tommy, MaryAnn... thanks for sticking around.  I'm also thankful for my friend Amy and her new little girl.
   




 


5. I'm thankful for my health...  no major softball, kayaking, dodgeball, football, biking, skiing, or driving injuries quite yet...    *knocks on wood*.  Speaking of which, I'm thankful for my various dodgeball and softball teams...  Dodge This! is moving on to its seventh or eight season, I lost count, and although we had a Mets-like slide this year, Four of Us Had Lyme Disease is still together after five seasons of its own.
6. I'm thankful for the Downtown Boathouse... not just the buildings
   or the activities, but for the community.  It's my second home five
   months out of the year and I've made some terriffic friends through
   it.  More importantly, it's given me a new appreciation for the
   conservation of nature in this city and a new perspective on New York.





7. I'm thankful for this city...   the only place I've ever really wanted to live and ever have.  There's no place like it anywhere else, and I couldn't ask for anything more than to always be able to put a roof over my head here and to be happy with my life here.





8. I'm thankful for the success of nextNY....  or rather...  I'm thankful that it's success has enabled me to meet so many fantastic people that I can relate to and who have a vested interested in developing the NYC technology community.  That's really what has been the most fun for me...    the people are great and my new geek friends are too many to name.
   
9. And lastly...  I'm thankful for this blog.  Seriously.  Blogging has led me to three jobs (because I'm pretty sure I'd still be looking for a tech partner if I wasn't a blogger), two relationships (directly or indirectly), an adjunct gig, countless connections with really interesting people, on time furniture delivery and an elementary school reunion.  It's been a great sounding board for my ideas and a lightning rod for people with similar interests.  Thanks for reading... thanks for commenting, thanks for sharing on your own blogs and linking over...    Your attention is much appreciated.

Blogged with Flock

So, first it was Richie Hecker self-marketing his way up to the top spot in Nate's Silicon Alley 100 People's Choice "Most Influential" Award Powered by BricaBox.

Now we can add Hilary Rowland, fashion model and owner of Hilary.com, the current leader with 40+ votes.

It really bothers me when people try to co-opt what could otherwise be a really interesting exercise and conversation for their own purposes.

To counter, I'm actively marketing for who I really think really deserves it, Fred Wilson and Scott Heiferman.  Please do me a favor and vote for them so we knock the self-marketers off the top of the list.

You want to talk influence?  I gotta believe that running the New York Tech Meetup, and actually Meetup.com itself, should count for a lot more than half the votes that Hilary got.  Sure, Scott's no Ford fashion model, but this ain't no beauty contest.  (And if it's just about pure traffic, MY BLOG has more traffic according to Alexa than Hilary.com, and a ton more inbound links according to Technorati... but don't vote for me, b/c others have accomplished a lot more than me.)  You want to talk influential women in the NYC Tech Scene?  How about Ester Dyson or Nancy Peretsman?  Laurel Touby anyone?   Are $23 million exits now chump change?

And Fred Wilson?  This is an influence contest, right?  And he's 11th??  In NYC??  Are we serious?  Ok, anyone who has ever tried to get Fred to link to their blog, use their widget, or invest in their startup, go over there, sign up for BricaBox, and vote for Fred.

I know it doesn't mean anything who wins, but there are just too many self interested people trying to grab the community spotlight lately.  We need to recognize the achievements of people who have long track records of real impact.  One thing that I think the younger folks in NYC need to realize is that there was a New York tech community way before Web 2.0, nextNY, Founder's Club, or any of this other stuff.  Part of me feels like campaigning to run yourself up past the likes of Fred, Scott, Ester, Nancy, David Rose, Kevin Ryan, etc. is a real disrespect to the groundwork that lots of other people laid while we were still in junior high school.

Go to BricaBox and turn in an informed vote!

Blogged with Flock

We're working with a UI/Design expert for Path 101 and we've been having an interesting little debate about putting a search box on the front page.

Here are some reasons you'd typically want a search box on the front page:

- People understand what to do with a search box.  You see a box, you type something in it, you get back what you asked for. 
- Cuts down clicks--gets people right to what they want.
- It has a high chance of engaging users.  Like moths to a light, users will type something in a search box if you put one on the page.
- It gives you data on what people are looking for.
- It is neat and uncluttered, versus trying to put up links to every possible thing the user could have asked for.

However, there are some things you need to think about before following conventional wisdom.

First, what are your chances of getting the user what they want as a result of that search?

Search relevance isn't easy.  You have a lot working against you.  First, no matter what you ask for in that search box, people will undoubtedly type in all sorts of random, irrelevant crap--i.e. stuff you don't have results for on your site.  Search is chaos. 

If your site is about selling a specific product, like a 3/4'' inch bolt, no other size bolt will do.  However, if you're searcher is just looking for "stuff that holds something in place" and wouldn't mind browsing bolts, clamps, glue and other various fasteners, your search is going to have to be pretty intelligent to understand the relationships between those items.  No open source free text search is going to figure that out.  Search promises to answer your question, but don't underestimate how complicated (or simple) the question may be.

So, if you can't provide relevant search results to your users, what's the point of having it?  Let's say 50% of the time you find something relevant for a user.  What do you think happens the other 50% of the time?  I'll bet you that you lose most of those people, because they're assuming that search is pretty comprehensive and that a search that comes up empty means you can't help them.  However, if you had something closer to a site map or directory on the front page, a la Craigslist, not finding something relevant there, in all likelihood, does mean that you just don't have what they're looking for.  However, at least then you have a chance at guiding that user to something else--a higher chance than you would after you get a "Your search turned up 0 results" message.

Does search=a quickie?

What do you want users doing on your site?  Coming in and taking out just what they want with surgical precision or do you want them to sit and stay a while?  What kind of behavior does search encourage?  Sure, you don't want to make it difficult to get people want they want, but I also think you want more than just a millisecond to show someone what else they can do on the site. 

The well informed click

The power of search is that it gives you information about what the user is looking for.  What it doesn't give you is any idea about who the user is--the context for the search.  That would give you significantly more relevant results.  Consider this example...  You go to a healthcare site and the first thing it asks you is if you are a doctor or a patient.  One click later, you have an enormous about of context and information about what kinds of results you should be showing your users.  Imagine if you had typed in "flu" in just a plain old search box, because you had it, but
all the results you got where "What to prescribe your patients when they have the flu?" and "What to charge for a flu shot?"  You'd think the site was just for doctors and probably move on.  I've been thinking a lot about the "well informed click"--the idea that you can setup your UI in such a way that each click tells you something about your user and what they're looking for. 

The real searchers go to Google: SEO as a replacement for your own search box

Particularly at the beginning of your site's existence, most people looking for something specific on your site won't start out at your home page--they'll start out at Google.  Even when I know that IMDB is the most likely destination when I type in the name of a movie, I still don't go to IMDB first, I start at Google.  So that begs the question...  who winds up at your front door.  My theory is that it's two types of users--people who came in via a recommendation and people who typed something general about what your site does. 

People who came in on a recommendation often come through a well informed click.  Path101.com visitors will come from a link in TechCrunch telling them that Path 101 is the site to go to if you're not sure what you want to do with your life.  When those people click, they're raising their hand and saying, "Yes, that general concept sounds good.. take me to that."  They know a little something about what's being offered and are willing to have you tell them what the site is all about.  They're not "on a mission" to get in and out as quickly as possible with a specific nugget of info or a price or song, etc. 

Similarly, anyone who winds up at Path 101's front door will most likely be typing things into Google like, "How do I figure out what I want to do?" and "Picking a career".  Hopefully, if our SEO is worth a damn, anything more specific like, "Picking a career in finance" would take them to a more specific page within the site.   It will be a while before someone goes to their computer and says, "I want to find a career in finance" , automatically thinks to go to the homepage of Path 101 first, and THEN looks to do a specific search for finance careers.  Basically, we're saying that people either search for specific things at Google or go to your site's homepage because the general concept of what you have interests them, and they're willing to put you in the driver's seat.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: search, design, ui, interface

We moved to another spot in the office, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

....and I now have a window seat. This is 23rd/Park. Yay Return Path incubator!

I went to TechCrunch 11 last night in Boston.  It was great to catch up with some people I didn't expect to see there as well as some east coast scene regulars. 

However, the one thing that struck me about it was how little value sponsors seemed to really be getting out of this thing.  A few weeks ago, Phillip from Snooth, the wine recommendation service, told me that he doesn't go to tech events... he goes to wine events.  That just made so much sense to me and it really put all these big splashy launches and attempts to get on the big tech blogs just seem kind of a waste of time from a marketing perspective.

Take IDG for example.  I met those guys a few years ago when they pitched their fund to GM and I think they're smart.  But, I couldn't help but think that, if they just held this party on their own, just as many people would have come.  Do VCs really need more inbound traffic?  Isn't the promise that a VC is going to be somewhere enough to make a startup want to show up to an event?  What did they really need TechCrunch for?  If anything, I think the TechCrunch association brings with it a lot of fanboy traffic and noise.  I think they would have been better off throwing some kind of "open house" or some kind of innovative session showing a live VC pitch, their reaction, etc., with follow up drinks.  That seems like a much better place to get the word out that you're an entrepreneur-friendly, approachable, value-adding VC, versus just paying for everyone's drinks.

Even if it did bring in a bunch of entrepreneurs, the crowded bar scene wasn't exactly that conducive to conversation, nor would it have been particularly easy to find the right people you want to talk to anyway.  Maybe it helps elevate their name in the community to associate themselves with TechCrunch, but I gotta figure they shouldn't have any trouble doing that on their own by sponsoring a BarCamp or something.

For the sponsor companies, it seemed even less valuable.  Mzinga "launched" last night, right in the middle of the little demo mosh pit they had going at this place.  It looks like they've build some kind of Web 2.0 intranet--certainly not a direct to consumer product.  Who could they have possibly met in this crowd that would have made the money they spent to be there worth it?  Wouldn't they have been better off going to some Enterprise 2.0 conference, or, even better, hosting a thoughtful discussion on Web 2.0 in the Enterprise with a number of companies in that space, along with some high profile CEO's.

That's one seriously underused method of publicity as far as I'm concerned--smaller, focused public conversations with and for your customers.  I'm going to be working with some people in the NYC area community to do something in January around Web 2.0 and the education market and I'm sure make some great Path 101 connections through it.  That would be a lot more efficient use of our time (and more cost efficient) than to spend a lot of money sponsoring some big party. 

I almost kinda felt bad for some of the companies there last night.  It felt like they spent a lot of money to be there, and the ROI of randomly handing out buttons and flyers and stickers to an audience that probably wasn't even relevant to what they were doing seemed sort of desperate. 

Buzz doesn't make a company...not in the long term.  Putting good products in front of a relevant audience does--and the Web 2.0 blogger/TechCrunch fanboy world just isn't a relevant audience for so many of these startups.  More so than not, it just feels like a good place to get knocked for not using enough AJAX or not being as technologically sophisticated as your competitor, even if that's not what that market is asking for at all.  If Path 101 gets ripped apart or praised by TechCrunch, it's really not going to make a difference in the long term viability of the company, but burning all our cash on splashy event sponsorships definitely would, and not in a good way.

I could be wrong, of course, and I'd love to hear about all the really valuable connections people made last night to justify the expense--there were some good people and good companies there and I'd love to hear that their efforts were successful.

Blogged with Flock

Major League Rule 3 (b) (5), which states no contract shall be approved "if it contains a bonus for playing, pitching or batting skill or if it provides for the payment of a bonus contingent on the standing of the signing club at the end of the championship season."

Blogged with Flock

As always, I'll be the bald guy.  Come find me and say hello.

Blogged with Flock

• RealClearPolitics - Articles - 1968: The Long Goodbye
  (tags: 1968 election politics)

Until you start working in a corporate environment, it's unlikely that, if you're a teen, you'll ever need to send an attachment.  Most of the files you have are media files, and you share with friends through various social media sharing sites, services, etc.

That works... until you have to send your resume to someone or negotiate a legal contract.  Yeah, I don't think Facebook has "Track Changes". 

So, while the kids, with their rock and roll and their ripped jeans and hacky sacks... err..  chrome spinners, may not have a need for e-mail now, it's not going away anytime soon.  Plus, most alternative methods, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, require both the sender and the recipient to both be on the same social network.  E-mail is a least common denominator.  We all have one and it requires no additional signup/login to send someone a message.

It's not going away.

You know, if you're going to write a story about what the kids are doing, talking to the kids is great, but I think there's something to be said for looking at your adult life, with adult responsibilities, and be realistic about where these trends are going.

I mean, I don't see ConEd, Citibank, or Sprint sending me e-bill notifications on Twitter or Facebook anytime soon, so I'd better login to my e-mail once in a while if I expect to have a reasonable credit rating.

Blogged with Flock

You just need to see this site.  It needs no further advertising from me...

Blogged with Flock

IMG_1903, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Monday night, Dodge This! won it's second dodgeball championship. We swept the semi-finals and the finals winning eight straight to capture the title.

That's great, because New York entrepreneurs, developers, and designers need you.  Maybe you have an idea and need a developer or you're a contract developer looking to dive into your own thing, but need a business person to join you.  Contract work is great, but why settle for working on O.P.P. (other people's projects)? 

nextNY is doing an event all around getting people who want to join startups together.  Best part is, you won't get hounded by recruiters or "venture vultures" looking to sell things to you.  Here, you'll just meet other people thinking about the entrepreneurial path.

Here's the info:

MatchupCamp – matchmaking for startups – is all about startup networking, creating a place for ideas and talent to meet. There are many events matching professional services to startups – this one will focus on those looking to get their hands dirty and build something new. MatchupCamp has the sole objective of bringing together people looking to start, expend, or join a startup in New York (and the tri-state area).

MatchupCamp is for those looking for others to work together building exciting ventures in New York. There is no requirement for full time commitment – anyone who wants to take part is welcomed, even if they only have a few hours a week. The important thing is that you are interested in taking part. If you got ideas or skills, come find others to share them with:

• People with ideas looking for others to develop it into a real product
• Anyone with some free time thinking about jumping into the startup world looking to see what’s out there
• Developers looking for cool part-time or full-time projects
• Startup founders looking for employees or co-founders
• Students looking for internships

Details:

Wednesday, November 28 @ 7PM

For Your Imagination
22 West 27th Street
6th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Blogged with Flock

• For School Districts - College Summit
  (tags: alumni colleges path101)

Here's one way that online networking is kind of like a kidnapping. If you can't find a reason to work together with someone and follow up on a networking connection in the first 48 hours after a LinkedIn connection, I'd bet your chances of ever making that connection productive significantly drop off. I know a lot of bloggers and other random online connections that I got really excited about at first, chatted for a bit, connected with on LinkedIn, and then never really did anything with.

LinkedIn needs a way to build in not only more specific follow up, but also drop a few hints. If I'm looking for a front end developer, and I connect to you, if your best friend does exactly what I need, it should alert the two of us that there's a connection to be made. Similarly, a "things I can do for other people" page would be nice. It's not enough to float job requests around that say "Do you know anyone for this?" LinkedIn already knows the answer to that. How about you tell me who I know for that job and save me the trouble!?

The other thing that would be interesting would be some kind of reciprocity score. The same way it gives me a score on how complete a profile I have, it should tell me the +/- of how often I ask for something from the system versus how often I provide something to it. Perhaps I don't make enough recommendations, but shouldn't I get credit for the number of nodes I've added to the system?

I don't really watch that much television at all.  I've not been a regular follower of the Soprano's, Entourage, Lost, 24, Grey's Anatomy, etc...   even though they're all probably really good shows, to me, there's just not enough time in the day.  

So this writers strike isn't really affecting me at all.

But it got me thinking...

What would happen if both sides dug in, and they just never went back to work?

What if the big media companies said, "Fine, screw it, we'll just put reruns for the next year or two"?

Would people stop watching television?  What would they do with their time?  Would they go and read books?  Would online traffic start to go up?  Maybe we'd emerge from our houses and start to discover the outside world in a big way.  Has attendance at Meetup's gone up since the strike?  Are people in NYC apartments desperately knocking on the doors of neighbors they've lived next door to for years and never talked to before? 

"Please...  entertain me... I'm desperate!  Charades!  Jenga!  Anything!"

How many seasons of reruns and reality television could they put on before they shake loose every last viewer?

I have to be honest, I was surprised that TV writers get royalties.  I thought of it more like a salaried job.

Aren't there tons of creative people dying to be writers anyway?  I could never figure out how workforces get away with striking when there's probably 2x their number waiting to get into that job.  I'm surprised there aren't more hobby writers that wouldn't cross the picket line.  I'd write for one of these shows.  How hard could it be to write for Grey's Anatomy, seriously?

Blogged with Flock

Does the web ever make you feel really disconnected?

I was going through the contact list in my phone before.  It was a huge repository of little reminders of all the people I don't really talk to anymore.  Social networks get like that, too... they go stale... you keep adding, but there's no pruning. 

Someone should create a social network that is just about 100 people.  That's it... you can only have 100 friends, and when you add someone, you have to boot someone off. 

I love IM, but how many times do you have the following conversation with people?

"What's up?" 

"Not much... how are you?"

"Good... and you?"

"Yeah... good."

And then...  nothing...   AIM is like an ICU, with all these friendships on life support that would otherwise die if not hooked up to the digital feeding tube.

When I die, please donate my screenname to some little kid that needs it more than I do. 

What is it about social networking online that makes it so unlike how I interact with real people in the real world?

Blogged with Flock