The Web is a River?

David Sifry of Technorati made a very interesting remark about what the web is. He said that we need to stop thinking of the web as a series of pages and indices and begin to think of it as a river or an Event Stream.

My first thought (as I typed this concept mindlessly) was “oh boy, here we go with the pretentious, vacuous metaphors.

As I was typing I noticed that the really cool guy I was sitting next too was diligently blogging the event and snapping photos (his name is Jeremiah Owyang and his blog can be found at http://jeremiahthewebprophet.blogspot.com). Next, I noticed that he had linked to my blog. I glanced in front of me and noticecd that Frank Gruber of Somewhat Frank.com was tracking Jeremiah’s coverage of the conference on Technorati.

Each event spurred another, just like actions in a social network where. People link to people who link to ideas and so forth.

I guess I should get myself a rowboat as, I think Sifry was right!

Save us Craig!

The first session of Supernova is over and, although I will summarize my thoughts later in the day, I would like to highlight a few things.

In a room full of fast talking technorati, Craig Newmark (Customer Service Rep and Founder of Craigslist.org) managed to steal the show with his one unique point of differentiation; Trust.

Craig said something to this effect when commenting on User Generated Media, Content and Communities

“People are very trustworthy, people are very good. As long as you help out the good guys, they will help you police the site”.

In his usual simple manner, Craig managed to effect people with his loyalty and devotion to the goodness in us all. Try feeding that strategy to the CEO’s of the world!

The Magical Disappearing Desktop

I went to the first cocktail party tonight and, I had about four light beers (I am watching the ole’ waistline) followed by a Martini. Needless to say, I have a nice buzz but, what I love about blogging is that it is real. I will not edit this post too much. I will just try to share what it is I am thinking and feeling (and hope you chalk the typos up to alcoholic mistakes).

As I sipped my reduced calorie libations I walked around and witnessed the heart and soul of the second coming of the web. Guys and girls around my age (29) pitched their hearts out about products they designed and have taken to market.

Was their a common thread in the room? You bet there was!

The most prevalent topic was not social media (although that was overwhelmingly present) it was not RSS, not User Generated Content. The main takeaway that I left the room with was the seemingly inevitable dissipation of the desktop.

Product after product (e.g. Sharpcast, Soonr) was aimed at providing consumers with ubiquitous access to information. The pitch was “we are blurring the lines between the internet and mobile and providing you with a hosted solution for all you digital media, and not only that, we are allowing you to share your information with your friends”.

I left thinking, “this is great but, how will all these companies, with little differentiation survive? Is the desktop doomed? Should I have another drink?”

Billboards and Convergence in San Fran

I just got to San Fran. Was here once when I was thirteen and have not been here since.
As we were driving to the hotel I noticed to billboard; one for Blinkx.tv and the other for Meevee.com.

Now, I am very familiar with these two companies but, I would be hard pressed to find someone outside of my office that was also familiar with them.

If you do not know these companies I recommend looking them up.

Convergence is on its way in San Fran!

First Blog Post in a LONG time!!!!

So, this is the first blog post that I have made in about a year. You will have to forgive my boring page and lack of experience but, in order to practice what I preach, I need to be blogging.

I am sitting in the lobby of the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs. I had a meeting with one of my client’s today and I am gearing up to head to San Fransico for the uber-geeky Supernova conference “Making Connections in a Complex World “(so excited)!!!

I will try to post as much as possible over the next three days in order to engage/inform all the folks in my immediate circle (as well some potential new people) who could not make it out for the conference.

What am I most excited about you ask:

I am excited to hear from David Sifry of Technorati
As well as Philip Rosedale of Linden Labs (Second Life is blowing my mind)
There will also be folks from Brightcove, MySpace, Om Malik, Craig Newmark and a host of people from cool new Start Ups.

I welcome comments and email about information that you would like me to seek out. So, for all of my co-workers and friends (and friends to be), keep the comments coming!

Gucci cleans website with AJAX

I recently picked this up from and thought that this would be a great thing to start my new theme surrounding adding value through emerging media.

Adverblog seemed to really like the fact that Gucci decided to shelve flash in favor of however, other than improved , was not used in a Web 2.0 fashion at all. In fact, the use of here adds no value to the end user as, the functionality is reminiscent of a flash app.

I am not saying that Gucci needs to pull out all the Web 2.0 bells and whistles. In fact, I am getting sick of saying web 2.0, I JUST WANT VALUE DAMMIT!

Let people tag items so friends can search what their friends are searching. Give people a Gucci locker to save items, do something to add value to the user experience.

I have decided to give value grades and this one gets a D+. Two things were done right:

1. The sheer fact that the agency decided to use  is a plus but the fact that they think they are redefining user experience is a big bad minus!

2. realized that they were producing an e-commerce site and recognized the importance of searchability.

Overall, this seems to be a display a tricks but, I am hoping that the effort was in the name of search!

Link to Gucci

Transcendesktopism

I believe it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Most Men Lead Lives Of Silent Desperation” (a word or two may be off here but, I don’t have time at the moment to go digging through my library…I guess I could Google it…why doesn’t someone do that and send it to me).

Anyhow, many of my co-workers can tell you that this last week I led a life of very audible desperation.

My Dell died after only 8 months!

I know I know, Dell is an awful company and I should always use Mac but, that is a different story (by the way, I want to enter yet another post into the Blogosphere stating that Dell’s consumer experience is amongst the worst I have ever encountered, email me for details). For search ranking reasons I shall do the following:

I hate Dell, Dell does not care about its customers. Dell is evil. Never buy a dell. Michael Dell, if you are listening, take some of those wasteful TV ad dollars and spend it on your products and your CRM because, Michael Dell, your company is doing an awful job! Dell, Dell, Dell, Dell and Dell, you suck!

Anyhow, although the crash was awful and I lost a lot of data and time, it reminded me of the works of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph “where’s” Waldo Emerson. I knew that I need not be tied to desktop data. I knew there was a better way, a more transcendent way to own data.

Enter WEB OS!!!

Google was my first stop. All of the salvageable contact and calendar items were uploaded to Gmail and Gcal and I was on my way!

Never again will I be shackled to the tyrannical ways of the local desktop. No, the centralized desktop is the way for me!

…and did I mention I hate Dell!!!