When I was the Director of Technology at b5media, our staple application (outside of WordPress) was Skype. Don’t ask me why. It was just there when I arrived on the scene a few months after the company launched. I think it had to do with three of the founders being in Australia and long distance calls.
However, since those early days in 2005, voice chat has become a staple of any notable IM client. AIM and Google Talk, both among the most commonly used IM apps in the internet world, both support VoIP and now both offer video chat as well. Meanwhile, Skype has become increasingly unstable and unreliable, in my estimation.
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A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Or at least, a funny thing happened over the weekend with regards to Twitter, spam and phishing (from Chris Pirillo). I really had no plans to outline my thoughts on the scam, because it is already being covered ad nauseum. However, I feel like I have to anyway.
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Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne ?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
Photo of Singapore 2009 Celebration. By Eustaquio Santimano
To my friends and family in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, DC, Florida, California, Colorado, Alaska (Hi, Gov. Palin!), England, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, Dubai, Mumbai, Baghdad, Kandahar, Tokyo, Singapore, Brazil, Moscow, and all around the globe - have a very safe, and happy New Year!
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As we gear up for 2009, there remains many questions about the economy and the growth curve of the technology industry. As a team, we have come up with predictions for 2009. Ray Capece, Venture Files editor for Technosailor.com and I make our predictions.
As always, these are predictions. Last year, we were dangerously accurate with our predictions and would like to think that we have a good understanding of the business and technology marketplace in 2009.
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As this is the end of the year, we are required by some unwritten law to go through certain exercises. Among those are a required “predictions” post, certain holiday-related posts and of course, like last year, a list of words that have been so overused in the past year that we hope they will die a tortured, cruel death in 2009.
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2008 is drawing to a close, a new U.S. Presidential Administration is on the threshold of taking power and the UK is seriously looking to the largest age restriction initiative ever undertaken in the history of the internet.
In the UK, there is a such thing as a Culture Secretary who is responsible for the entertainment of British subjects. I kid you not. This is a Cabinet-level position in charge of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. According to the official website, Culture is responsible to “improve the quality of life for all through cultural and sporting activities, to support the pursuit of excellence and to champion the tourism, creative and leisure industries”.
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As a token of my gratitude for all those who have read the posts here, linked to them or participating with us in the conversations that are increasingly occurring beyond the walls of this blog, we would like to extend our best holiday greetings to all of you. Feliz navidad y prospero año.
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2009 is rapidly approaching, and as a 10 year veteran of CES I’ve seen it from many different angles. I’ve been there as a tiny underfunded startup using a hotel room to do all demos and I’ve taken center stage in a multi-million dollar booth. I’ve attended as press and I’ve pitched the press. From virtually every perspective, CES is an exhilarating and exhausting process. I love it. With the massive surge in blogger registrations at this year’s show, I’ve also noticed more than usual complaints about the pitching process, so as someone who sits on both sides of the fence, I thought I’d share some observations and suggestions.
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Mark your calendars for May 16, 2009. This is the date for the first WordCamp Mid-Atlantic, a regional WordCamp organized for WordPress users in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.
We have locked down the venue as University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center, which has also been the facility for a variety of other events - most notably, SocialDevCampEast. It is in proximity to major transportation hubs, including Amtrak.
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Everyday, I travel the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority - usually on the DC area trains, but occasionally on local buses and commuter rails as well. Increasinly, I am frustrated by the ability of the transit system to handle schedules, broken escalators, delays and weather conditions and a myriad of other challenges that should be met handsomely by the mass transit system of the capital city of the United States.
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This year might be the strangest year ever. It roared in with news of Robert Scoble having his Facebook account suspended for utilizing scripts to sync data between Plaxo and Facebook in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service. Of course, the year ends with Facebook opening up fbConnect in a way to share that same data with anyone who so chose.
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“I love software,” my friend used to say, “But it’s soooo dehumanizing!” Perched 18 feet in the air atop a scissors lift the other day, it occurred to me that variety in work not only makes the experience more enjoyable, it’s essential . . . especially, something physical to contrast and complement time spent at the computer.
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As the economy continues to spiral downward, and more companies are trying to extend their runways for as long as possible, we are hearing about an increasing number of layoffs. When you’re a contractor, you always sort of have it in the back of your mind that your number could be called at any time.
That time for me is now. Lijit has been my primary client since May and it has been a good run. I came into that role to learn the art of business development and I learned a lot. I can’t say it was my favorite role ever, but it added to my experience and gave me an opportunity to look at the web industry from a different side. No regrets.
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Welcome to the many marketing and communications professionals who are visiting this site today. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Invesp.com listed me as the #40 most influential marketing blogger of 2008.
To be clear, while I appreciate the designation, this blog is not about marketing. That said, the internet is a space where communications are changing radically. Folks like me are at the forefront of the digital revolution, and so what we do is in many ways the marketing of tomorrow (and in some cases, the marketing of today).
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