Citizen-Generated Media (CGM)

Blog Power Summit, San Diego CA, January 27-29

I had the pleasure of attending the Blog Summit of Declan Dunn and Jody Colvard and have been opened up to a large niche affected by CGM.

What I learned is that, beyond the corporate world, blogging is having an equally great – if not greater – impact on the world of small business owners, non-profits, freelancers, elancers and perma-lancers, plus entrepreneurs of every kind.  Blogs offer a low-cost or no-cost way for these organizations to build a compelling global brand, conduct critical market research, expand their networks, manage projects and leverage the knowledge and skills of like-minded professionals from around the world.

Blogs are sprouting up all over the blogosphere to support communities of freelancers, coaches, consultants, information marketers, nonprofit organizations, small business owners and budding entrepreneurs.  In some ways, these blogs are supporting internet-age organizations in the same ways that local chambers of commerce and industry associations have traditionally supported brick and mortar businesses.

Take, for example, the Fun Money Good Blog Network (FMG Network), established in 2005 by my gracious hosts – each an Internet guru in their own right - Declan Dunn and Jody Colvard.  The FMG Network was established to support writers, speakers, consultants, coaches, non-profits and anyone else with a powerful mission or message to quickly and easily build, create, update and automate their blogs and share their content with the world. 

Recognizing that content creators are not always technically inclined, the FMG Network helps them to leverage the power of the Internet to build their businesses.  FMG Network blogs have been used to conduct live surveys, online book signings, weekly motivational podcasts, and to promote public speaking engagements.  Featuring notable speakers like Les Brown and up-and-coming “infopreneurs” like the two stay-at-home-moms of the Momstown Blog, the network is also used as a platform for generating cross-promotional opportunities for all network members.   

Given the success of the FMG model, it is likely we will see more of this type of network popping up in the future.

New Pew Internet Study – The Strength of Internet Ties (1/25/2006)

Has the Internet strengthened the sense of community among users or fragmented already-existing communities into separated personal dialogue cubicles?  How has the growth of the Internet affected how people make crucial life decisions? The Pew study creates some addresses these questions and creates some new conceptual categories, the most oxymoronic of which is “networked individualism.”  But there’s no doubt that the notion of community is subtly changing. 

Communities used to have geographic centers and almost always, their strength was directly proportional to their proximity.  But virtual communities can arise based on criteria other than geography.  People with specialized interests can find one another no matter where they reside.  E-mail is a lot more efficient for maintaining this type of community than a group phone call or a geographical convergence.  And it appears that the ubiquity of e-mail needs to be seen as an add-on to previous modes of communication, not as a substitute for them.  Dedicated e-mailers still use the phone and maintain old-style networks, into which the new-style networks are integrated.  Perhaps significantly, the Pew Study did find that the social network size of Internet users is 20% greater than for non-users. Early adopters apparently have more of the risk-taking gene in them than the trailing masses.   

More detailed breakdowns of the Internet’s effect on community and the methodologies used can be seen in the study itself.

Web 2.0 Panel response posted by Tony Baer on NYSIA.org

Tony Baer of onStrategies writes a pretty interesting assessment of the Web 2.0 Panel discussion at NYSIA on January 23^rd. You can view it here.

Come to think of it, I did ask a question about what effect Web 2.0 “models” might have on Enterprise investment.  Thanks to Tony for reminding me they did not address.

Web 2.0 Panel, New York Software Industry Association - NYC

OK, I did not sit on this NYSIA panel but I did ask a wrap up question at the end (did it get answered? – jury still out as I think they tried).  I did get 2 of 4 panelists to admit that all this Web 2.0 stuff was marketing hype including Bob Wyman, founder of PubSub.com and Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures.  The guys from Del.icio.us (Josh Schachter) and Dodgeball.com (Dennis Crowley) were just bought by Yahoo and Google respectively, so I understand their reluctance to totally crash the bandwagon – although they did buy into the idea of the web as far more of a progression than a specific movement tied to a moniker.

I did get a kick out of Josh, lauding the interactivity of his Citi Online banking application having nearly as high a degree of anything he has used in the “Web 2.0” arena.  I guess if I sold my company to Yahoo, I’d be playing around with my balance again, again, again… (I know it was not that much money, but still it was some)

Overall, Howard Greenstein of NYU did get to my question, and therefore receives extra credit as a great moderator in my book. He’s even giving it a look through for me that is much appreciated. Other interesting contacts were David Teten, co-author of The Virtual Handshake, along with Scott Allen.

Costa Rican Vacation

I’ll be out for some much needed R and R this week so I thought I would at least post a photo for you to remind you of warmth this winter season. I’ll be returning on January 22^nd.

BBC News reports “First Impressions Count for the Web”

This article discusses a new Canadian study that makes me realize how fast we are conditioned by the approximately one million (and increasing) annual ads each of us sees on average. Get it here…

Scoble Now Published “Traditionally”… in Hard Cover

Microsoft blogging poster child, Robert Scoble (along with Shel Israel), have gotten notification that their new book, Naked Conversations, is available via Amazon.  Borders and Barnes & Noble will be along directly.  Congrats to these guys all the way around. I am still chugging away…

Can Bloggers make a living?

In mentioning the likes of Nick Denton, Arianna Huffington, and Jason Calacanis, it is important to understand they represent the vast minority in the blogosphere that are actually making a living. Mark Cuban does not need to blog for his living; he just likes it and is good at it, and his blogged opinions often reflect upon his overall business strategy, whether that be HD-TV or search engines or the simultaneous release of theatrical films and their DVDs. These people have developed their reputation and following, often within the very same MSM with which they are now competing. Writing in general has long been driven by a starving artist factor. In its early form, blogging is certainly no exception to this rule.

The reputation that a blog has will determine its popularity in the market. If a blogger understands not only his or her topic - but the web culture in a particular niche - then success might be just around the corner.

In the past, people considered that individual blogs did not appeal to a broad audience because they are not serious or lacked objectivity or were poorly edited. They were assumed to contain meaningless personal self-indulgent details. A thing once considered its drawback has now been recognized as the core of its appeal.

There are many writers who write compelling and useful and interesting excerpts. Blogs enable new idea entrepreneurs to investigate a niche business concept for profit with very small expenditures. In developing an inviting presence on the web, bloggers need do no more than to target trends. Their online success is assured by delivering very specific and highly sought after information.

Whether the thousands of people blogging their own personal avocations can be called journalists, or whether they can make a living at it, or whether the wide availability of the free blogging tools makes for a hard time filtering the signal from the noise, are all hot discussion topics; but for the people consuming blogs as their premier news service, the arguments are somewhat irrelevant.

AOL Expanding Video Search Capabilities

It was about two years ago when AOL bought the streaming video search firm Singingfish.com, which was a competitive company to my own StreamSearch (operations ended in 2001). This latest move, of purchasing Truveo Inc. for an undisclosed sum, further solidifies AOL’s content play in the wake of the search deal it executed with Google last month.  The deal also called for Google taking a 5% equity position in AOL.

Back to the Root(kit)s

New developments of the Sony rootkit fiasco abound.  The state of Texas and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have both filed lawsuits against Sony.  Customers at Tower Records in NYC have been handed leaflets explaining the perils of buying rootkit-infected music.  T-shirts have begun to appear featuring Sony executive Thomas Hesse’s mindless quote.

Princeton researchers discover that one of the rootkit’s objectives when it ripped off the open source code was to infiltrate Sony music onto iPods without needing to give Apple a cut of the proceeds. The lead singer for the band OK Go pens an editorial for the New York Times denouncing DRM systems as bad for artists.  EFF announces that it has reached a settlement with Sony to stop the installation of rootkits, but anecdotes still abound about stores selling “bad” CDs despite Sony’s prohibition thereof.  The state of Texas has amended their lawsuit to include spyware that accompanied Sony’s “fix” of the rootkit problem.  I presume that Sony heads are going to roll around this horrendously-managed PR disaster.