Tag Archive

Robert Steele is the craziest keynote speaker I have ever seen. I can describe him as a combination of the following
• Steve Ballmer (jumping up and down on-stage)
• Jack Bauer: he is apparently an ex-CIA spy
• Chloe O’Brian: ok, another “24″ reference, but he did start the first Hacker conference in NYC in 1994
• Oh there are so many more references…but this guy is speaking at a mile a minute

Open Source is the New Black
Robert takes the traditional “open source” notion to a new level. At first glance you must think this is regarding software: Microsoft Vs. Linux. Instead we have an inside-out view of the world…

Robert is calling for transparency in worldwide governments via technology empowered denizens. This is a pretty provocative story. He is basically telling us what we have already been doing, most in part supported by blogging technology….The citizens of the world are now able to be the Anderson Coopers and of course, Stephen Colberts of the world. It seems we have not been taking enough advantage of our newfound power to enact change.

Blogging itself wont allow the spread of information…we need supercharged broadcasting platforms. Amir Hirsh’s Collactive is one such company. Having figured out how to crack the Digg/del.ico.us/etc news ranking model, the average online user can now make his/her voice heard without having to be the Om Malik’s and Michael Arrington’s of the world.

You can view this exciting presentation here. 

Chris and Ponzi Pirillo and the rest of the Gnomedex team have prepared quite a conference for all of us here in Seattle.  I am sitting right now in the main conference room in a comfy leather chair, nice wooden desk, power points for my Thinkpad, and free WIFI (albeit a little slow…).  Kudos to the entire team for giving us the required creature comforts necessary to have a great day.

The Media Age/DeParis Redinger squad is here today to look for the next up and coming content creators and technologists.  I was very pleased to see some aggressive self-promotional behavior last night at the pre-conference mixer (thanks for the sponsorship HP). 

While in line to get a drink at the bar we met a really great guy, Todd Martini who runs Alex’s Coupons.  He started his site to help raise money to help his daughter, Alex, battle Leukemia.  I am very happy to report that she is doing just fine now.  The website was such a hit that it has turned into a full-time business for Alex.

The next person we met was Bryan Starbuck, CEO of Talent Spring.  With the rise of social networking and all of its rich promise, some entrepreneurs have been trying to create the next CareerBuilder/Monster.com.  Talent Spring will allow users to rank each other’s resumes while submitting their own to create the first peer-reviewed superstar list of exceptional job candidates for any given industry.  Will this work?  It all depends on the seriousness of the community.  The unique thing about Talent Spring is that they are already up and running.  Keep an eye on them, and in the future when they launch their beta site, PeopleAhead. 

In short, Chris threw a great party and an even better beginning to a crazy conference.  Enjoy the rest of the show.

MySpace will launch it’s News page on Thursday.

Facebook is adding classifieds.

The more traffic you have the more sense it makes to include other features that smaller, less trafficked sites have, like…

My predictions for MySpace and FaceBook for the next year:

1. Facebook will launch a job posting/resume submission feature (done already).
2. MySpace will enter the classifieds market.
3. Facebook will create some sort of viral/user promoted marketing ability for advertisers. You have to hire me to explain that one .

Yesterday, I watched the information unfold about the horror at Virginia Tech.  Today, the NYT reports that 32 people died and 15 were injured.  I attended Virginia Tech for some time and I am speechless as to what happened today.

Sometimes evil hits so close to home that you can’t really make sense of it.  From all of us at The Media Age, we are deeply disturbed and have those people involved in the incident in our hearts and prayers.

Stanford published a study with interesting findings. They are:

The more people spend time using the internet:

• the more they lose contact with their social environment.
• the more they turn their back on traditional media.
• the more time they spend working.

While the study ignored the magnitude of these impacts, I’d wager that a lot of what people do online is socialize…. so, with that being said are there any studies that try to explain the shift from offline socializing to online socializing?