Had a great trip to Dulles last week. Got to meet over 50 amazing folks. We shared a half dozen demos and discussed a lot of products and ideas. We’ve got an amazing culture here (despite what the NYT said today–I’ll have a LOT more to say about that shortly.. just getting my thoughts together).

We agreed that what happens at open office hours stays at open office hours, so that’s all I’ll say about it.

Looking forward to meeting folks tomorrow in New York City!

New York City Office Hours Location, Date & Time:
Monday, May 1st, 12PM-2PM.
RSVP for New York Office Hours in the comments on this post.
Location: 4AO1-C (better known as the training room on the fourth floor) at 75 Rock.

In Dulles today for meetings… open office hours have started. We’ve got a bunch of WIN folks in CC1 room 12D:J10 (which is the conference room all the way in the back)… lots of cool folks hanging out showing new stuff.

My phone is 310-456-4900 if you need to reach me here (or email me at jason at calacanis dot com).

BloggingStocks did 40k pages on the first day and got a ton of attention in the press and blogosphere.

Some links: CNN, BusinessWeek, WSJ, Performancing, eWeek, PR on BusinessWire, WebPronews, and IFN.

… and some more:

TheStreet.com is trying to figure out the big picture–is there a big picture?!
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/tech/internet/10282243.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

This guy thinks we’re not providing enough value:
http://www.thestalwart.com/the_stalwart/2006/04/bloggingstocks_.html

Steve thinks we’re going to change the world:
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/04/aols_stock_blog.html

This guy thinks we suck:
http://pardonmyfrench.typepad.com/pardonmyfrench/2006/04/bloggin_stocks.html

More…
http://investorial.com/blogs/aol-blogging-stocks/
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/new_media/stocklogs_inc_first_weblogs_launch_under_aol_regime_36091.asp?c=rss

The press release:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060427005560&newsLang=en

I love this one “Jason.. may have hit one out of the park with this one”
http://kevin.lexblog.com/advantages-of-lawyer-blogs-2052-stock-blogs-launch-will-lead-to-increase-in-corporate-blogs.html

if you see any other press please post it in the comments.

I love the features we’ve been doing across the network… this one is great!

Update: Seems like the issue of can bloggers hold stocks is generating some buzz. This is blogging, so of course the bloggers can hold stocks *provided* they disclose what they are doing, obey all the SEC rules, and don’t trade on inside information/tips. Of course, that should be obvious to everyone right? Like… don’t break the law! Hello!??! Here is the code of conduct. (Note: We do cover Insider Bloggers of course.
Update2: In terms of traffic it seems the AOL integration and the WIN promotion is going to push this to a 30k page a day blog from the start. It used to take us six to 12 months to get to that level. You can watch the traffic at the site meter.
Update3: You can see the bloggingstocks integration on AOL pages when you do a search for a ticker that we have a blog on. Now we just have to get our posts listed on Google and Yahoo finance.
Update4: Some press on BloggingStocks from CNN, BusinessWeek, WSJ, Performancing, eWeek, PR on BusinessWire, WebPronews, and IFN. (if you see any other press please post it in the comments).

We’ve wanted to do a finance-related blog since the day we started Weblogs, Inc.

The AOL Money & Finance team has been dying to get into blogs.

So, we decided to launch the BloggingStocks Network together. Today we launch the top eight most widely held stocks by AOL members (i.e. what they have in their portfolios), and we plan on launch a couple more in the coming months.
Two things you’ll notice about this:

1. It’s branded AOL.
2. It’s highly integrated into AOL’s stock quotes (the integration lights up sometime tomorrow).

This is the most exciting and integrated product we’ve done to date. Having our bloggers plugged into the AOL traffic and advertising machine is gonna be huge. In fact, my guess is bloggingstocks will become our largest and most profitable blog over the next year (finance is the best advertising category on the web). Any questions/ideas/thoughts/comments? Like everything we do, it’s a work progress.

The first eight blogs are:
http://goog.bloggingstocks.com/
http://aapl.bloggingstocks.com/
http://ge.bloggingstocks.com/
http://wmt.bloggingstocks.com/
http://ebay.bloggingstocks.com/
http://twx.bloggingstocks.com/ ( <– a really great company
http://yhoo.bloggingstocks.com/
http://msft.bloggingstocks.com/

You can also have these rolled up into one big blog at www.bloggingstocks.com of course.

Love the Joystiq tshirtcontest winner… all 200 shirts sold out instantly!

great job Vlad & team Joystiq! (oh yeah, the finalists: http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/05/joystiq-t-shirt-contest-finalists/)

I’m gettinga little excited about video… our www.bloggingmilken.com event coverage is50% video…. take a look.

Inspiredby Meckler v. Calacanis round 1, Caterina.net want toget in the ring. She has time for one argument and anyone cantake her on.

I’m seeing the start of a “Web 2.0 FightClub.”

We should take it up a notch… we should have in person debatesbetween the blogerati. Two podiums, 3-4 rounds, and the audiencevotes who won the debate.

Quick update on “Jason’s office hours.”

Press Coverage of Office Hours:
The press is picking up the event and spinning it into some sort of rebelproject. Everyone here knows the truth is that I’ve got the support and backingof the top folks at AOL. I spent quality time with Jon Miller and Jim Bankoffyesterday and they love what we’re doing at WIN, as well as the energy we’rebringing into the organization. So, it’s all good. There is no controversy, andBankoff even RSVPed for the event!

Dulles Office Hours Location, Date & Time:
Friday, April 28th, 9AM-12PM.
RSVP for Dulles in the comments here.
Location: Conference room 12D:J10 in building CC1 on Friday, April 28th.

New York City Office Hours Location, Date & Time:
Monday, May 1st, 12PM-2PM.
RSVP for New York Office Hours in the comments on this post.
Location: 4AO1-C (better known as the training room on the fourthfloor) at 75 Rock.

Who can attend:
Any AOL employee who RSVPs (sorry, no one outside of AOL can attend–right now!)

Agenda:
Product, product, product: We want to talk about our products,our competitors products, and startups who have cool products.

Demo: Anyone can demo at the event for at least five minutes… we’ll puta list on the wall at 15 minutes before “Office Hours” start and you can putyour name down to demo. What should you demo? Here are some idea.. but frankly,surprise us with your *product-centric* ideas (again, don’t bring things likeHR or organizational issues–I’ve got no pull in that department):

1. Show what you’re working on and ask for feedback.
2. Show the ten best features in a category (i.e. email clients, instantmessaging, search, etc) and where AOL sits in that analysis.
3. Show us the five things about products that suck and that we should changeimmediately

Looking forward to meeting everyone and if you’ve got any questions,comments or concerns hit me on AIM: jasoncalacanis or email me at jason atcalacanis dot com.

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I’ve been trying to tell this to folks for over two years–here’s the quoteI’ve been waiting for:

” Amateur is not below professional. It’sjust another way of doing [media]. The root of the word amateur islove, and someone who does something for love is an amateur. Someone who doessomething to pay the bills is a professional. The amateurs have [more integritythan] the professionals. If you’re an amateur you have less conflict ofinterest and less reason not to tell your truth than if you have to pay thebills and please somebody else.” Dave Winer–A brilliant guy.

[ ViaPoynter]