The Jeff Jarvis Effect?
hmmmm……….. causation or correlation?
TECHNOLOGY ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal.
Oct. 31, 2005
Dell warned that its quarterly results will be at the low end of its forecast, dragged down by its U.S. and U.K. operations. The company will also take a $450 million charge, mainly related to a computer repair issue.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, see:
http://online.wsj.com/article
New Design
Thanks to Mike for hooking me up with my slick new design. He writes about it here.
P.S. - Anyone tries to offer Mike a job and you’ll wind up in the East River with a new pair of Gucci cement shoes.
3,000 Square foot loft downtown
I’m looking for a blogger chill out location downtown… like LES, SOHO, Nolita, Canal, etc.
2-4k square feet… raw loft space or a least kind of open.
anyone got any leads ping me at jason at calacanis.com.
another day, another AOL office visit…
I’ll be at AOL’s Santa Monica office today checking out our new office space (we got an office and a cube to start… whoa!!!!). We’re not an office-based company, but as we’re growing we’ve got folks telling us they want to work out of an office, so we need to have that option to get the folks we want to get on the team.
Heck, I think I’d like to have a nice blown out show office… like one of those ones with a office outside the office for an assistant, and a huge flat panel TV so I can watch Knicks games at 5PM PST… maybe even a sofa and small conference room table in the office itself. A boy can dream right?
Switch On one year old!
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One of my favorite columns in the network, Switched On, is a year old!
http://www.engadget.com/search/?sourceid=Mozilla-search&…
Here’s a bunch of links to the column… highly recommend it.
best j
1.Switched On turns one: The Maven
Posted by Ryan Block on 10/26/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment. Today’s Switched On’s first birthday, so as a present we gave
2.Switched On: Longhorn hardware advances could give
PDAs a one-two punch
Posted by Peter Rojas on 5/11/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: When comparisons were initially made between the Apple
3.Switched On: Fixed Fees and Diminishing
Returns
Posted by Peter Rojas on 9/14/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: Several weeks ago, Switched On discussed the delights
4.Switched On: The Ambient Dashboard moves the
needles
Posted by Peter Rojas on 4/13/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: The first Switched On that discussed Ambient Devices
5.Switched On: Change in the air for thin
data
Posted by Peter Rojas on 11/3/2004
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column that covers everything related to digital convergence,
the connected home, and all those other multimedia buzzwords that marketers are
6.Switched On: Cheapest laptop boasts rich
innovation
Posted by Peter Rojas on 10/5/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: It’s premature to gauge how successful One Laptop per Child
7.Switched On: Musician, Heal Thyself
Posted by Peter Rojas on 8/24/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: Six months ago, Napster launched Napster To Go, the first
8.Switched On: Mighty Mouse has some wrongs to
right
Posted by Peter Rojas on 8/3/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: In the early days of Mac versus Windows flame wars, the
9.Switched On: Causing a Change of Heart
Posted by Peter Rojas on 7/6/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: Matt wasn’t breathing. His unsustainable thin body revealed a
10.Switched On: The “i” behind iPod ” innovation,
integration, or inertia?
Posted by Peter Rojas on 3/2/2005
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital
entertainment: More than two decades after the debut of the Macintosh, Apple
11.Switched On: Mac mini, the best media center that
isn’t
Posted by Peter Rojas on 1/19/2005
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital
entertainment: Apple creates consumer solutions that reflect deep insight
12.Switched On: The Slight Before
Christmas
Posted by Ryan Block on 12/29/2004
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital
entertainment. Last week he gave us an in depth look at the MSN TV 2, and where
13.Review of the UTStarcom F1000, Vonage’s first
WiFi phone
Posted by Peter Rojas on 4/15/2005
It’s been almost a year and a half since we heard the first rumblings about this, but we finally got to spend a few
days with the UTStarcom F1000, Vonage’s long-awaited WiFi phone. Is it everything
14.Switched On: Philips PSS110, The Little Boombox
That Can’t
Posted by Peter Rojas on 5/4/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: The giants of the consumer electronics industry
15.Dell’s new Inspiron XPS Gen 2
Posted by Ryan Block on 2/25/2005
If you’re the mobile gaming or the mobile media type”you know who you are”then Dell’s got your ticket (again). Their
new second gen version of the Inspiron XPS keeps with the out of this world
16.Fujitsu N-3500 laptop with “CRT-quality”
display
Posted by Marc Perton on 2/11/2005
Despite the fact that pretty much the whole world has switched from CRTs to LCD displays, if you’re a purist about
color, you’ve probably got at least one CRT around, and chances are it’s a midrange
Posted by Peter Rojas on 1/23/2005
In case you missed any of them, here are some highlights from the past seven days of Engadget: Features iPod shuffle +
sunglasses = DIY Oakley Thump HOW-TO: Use your CDMA cellphone as a USB
18.Switched On: The camcorder’s disposable, but the
memories aren’t
Posted by Ryan Block on 10/19/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: It’s small, white and plays video, but it costs only
19.Switched On: The Peerflix challenge: Rip. Flix.
Churn.
Posted by Ryan Block on 7/20/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: DVD collectors have always been a bit of a mystery to
20.Switched On: Audio companies should plant seeds,
not pick Apples
Posted by Peter Rojas on 12/1/2004
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column that covers everything related to digital convergence,
the connected home, and all those other multimedia buzzwords that marketers are
Posted by Peter Rojas on 10/16/2005
The big highlight of my week was narrowly escaping death at the hands of a giant Robosapien, but in case you missed any
of ‘em here are some highlights from the past seven days of Engadget:
Posted by Peter Rojas on 5/29/2005
In case you missed any of them, some highlights from the past seven days of Engadget: Features The Pipeline: LifeDrive
reviews, ads in games, Big Brother in your e-mail The Engadget
Posted by Peter Rojas on 12/26/2004
We know you’re probably too busy playing with your new toys, but in case you missed any of them, here are some
highlights from the past seven days of Engadget: Features Sony PlayStation
24.Switched On: Microsoft refreshes WebTV for a
curious comeback
Posted by Ryan Block on 12/22/2004
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital
entertainment. Last week he asked TiVo to take a long, hard look in the mirror
25.Switched On: A Case of “He Said, HP
Said”
Posted by Peter Rojas on 8/31/2005
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and
digital entertainment: With pioneer Rio being the latest casualty of the MP3 wars
Andy Heyward packs it in (or why does 60 Minutes have to be 60 minutes?)
Last month I moderated a panel at the We Media conference. Andy Heyward was on the panel, and I think from the pre-panel banter we had that he was a little tired of being the traditional media whipping boy.
Today he stepped down as president of CBS News. He must be feeling greatcongrats big guy!
At the panel I asked him point blank if he would rather produce a 60 Minutes type show online where he didn’t have to worry about how long or short it was, and he didn’t have to answer to the higher ups. He said something to the effect that he thought that it was a pretty good idea.
Some big Internet company should hire him and give him a moderate budget to produce news. Like quality news with quality journalists (citizen or traditional), not talking heads who are obsessed with ratings.
How amazing would it be if 60 Minutes didn’t have to be, well, 60 Minutes? What if a segment could run over six weeksor months, or yearsin various segment sizes (five minutes to 50 minutes)?
Clearly broadcast TV’s obsession with the bottom line just doesn’t work for news any more. Heck, even cable TV news sees to be so competitive that 95% of the reporting is vapid. Every now and again I see someone on cable TV who I know is a complete fool presented as an expert and I think “how the heck did these people get duped into putting this guy on TV??!?!” Then I realize that when you’re trying to fill 24 hours a day you gotta get bodies into the studio, and almost anyone can sound smart if you limit their contribution to 3-5 minutes of air time.
OK, that’s my rant for the day back to work.
I’m in a big building — a very big building.
Today feels like the first day of high school. At this very moment I’m sitting in the cafetera at AOL’s Dulles headquarters having some oatmeal and coffee. Brian, Shawn, and maybe Judith are all on their way here too.
To say it’s strange to go from a 10 person (plus 130 blogger) company to a unit of a company with multiple campuses and huge shopping-mall style parking lots would be an understatement.
Other fun experiences have included filling out a massive employment folder (I left the last three employers section blank-I haven’t worked for someone since 1995) and writing job descriptions for the next half dozen team members (as opposed to hiring folks two weeks after systems have broken down).
Today I’ll be presenting what we do at Weblogs, Inc. to a cross-section of my new AOL peeps in order to see if/how we can work together. Oh snap, that reminds me… I should probably do a Powerpoint or something! Ahhh…. corporate life. 
Ask Jason part two
Running a CEO blog saves me a ton of time because people know where I stand on various issues (ethics, ad networks, partnerships, etc).
Recently I went to lunch with another CEO who doesn’t blog. He spent half the time explaining his business to me. I asked him if he had any questions for me and he rattled off like 20 facts about our business-really inside stuff. I asked him how he knew all that information and he said he read my blog. It was as if we had five meetings already. I could save my breath, he knew all about us.
When I asked him why he didn’t blog he said he didn’t have the time. Ironic considering he had just proved how much time a blog can save for a CEO!
One of the best features on the blog has been “Ask Jason” because it helps me answer questions I might not have thought of. So, feel free to post your questions in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them as quickly and honestly as possible. Look forward to your questions.
Question One: How has your buyout by AOL affected the Blogsmith software? What are your plans for Blogsmith particulalry with non-profits and individuals in mind? Would you consider a typepad-esque turnkey solution or partnering with someone who wants to offer such a solution?
Blogsmith LLC was not part of the AOL-WIN deal. Blogsmith does however power WIN’s blogs, and Blogsmith does have a marketing arangement with AOL in relation to WIN’s blogs (i.e. the “Powered by…” button).
Brian and I are making plans for Blogsmith now, but it’s too soon to make those public. We are certainly going to offer it to the public, and in fact Paper Magazine and now defunct Razor Magazine are using the platform. Good question.
Question: Do you have any plans to create your own ad network? Something that other blogs can use outside the WIN network?
That was the origional idea for WIN-to rep blogs. To be the outsourced solution for blogs. We tried it and it really didn’t work because two years ago there were so few blogs to represent. So we because the outsourced solution for bloggers as opposed to blogs. There are many more bloggers looking to make a living and not many blog owners who have a blog large enough to represent (i.e. over 50-100k pages). If you have less than 100k pages a month you’ll be lucky to make $1-2k a month or $10-20k a year. Your better off with Google Adsense or AdBrite in that case.
Today the idea is a little more workable and two different bloggers told me John Battelle has been pitching Federated Media as a “better Weblogs, Inc.” That’s pretty darn flattering since Battelle is such a superstar. There are also dozens and dozens of WIN-style blog network out there (9rules, Weblog Empire, B5Media, etc) and they will rep your blog too. Not sure if any of them have a dedicated sales force yet, but I’m sure over the next year or two they will.
So, would we get into that business now that the market has changed? Hard to say. Since we own a blog platform (Blogsmith) and since we have a great sales force we could certainly do a good job. So, I’d kick it back to you and say “What would you be looking for in a blog rep firm?”
