Just as I was blogging about the disruptive wave that will hit broadcast media, I read on Rafat’s blog about Vongo (although I can not see it, because I am not in the US!! 😦  I don’t understand the geographic requirement – probably has to do with Starz’s licensing deals.)  There will be many more early signs of change in 2006.

In an open and honest personal appeal, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia explains why we all need to donate to Wikipedia.  I, personally, can not think of many causes more worthwhile.

Joseph O’Connell has a good post about the community aspect that the newspapers are lacking, inspired by a blog post by Scott Anderson.  It points to the drastic difference in the  level of activity on (and hence the utility provided by) Craigslist vs. Newsday, during the disastrous MTA strike in NYC in December.  The point is that newspapers, built principally on a legacy business model based on one-way communication, lack the community that’s enjoyed by the newer media players built on a networked platform.  Joseph and Jeff Jarvis discuss some underlying reasons for this phenomenon.

I think the newspapers are lucky and have stronger inherent defenses against new media, relative to broadcast.  This inherent barriers are related to the medium itself.  Newspapers are paper – and not just standard paper, but newsprint broadsheets.  If you have come across the PDF versions of the NY Times they give out at some hotels and resorts, you know that the online version is not an exact substitute for a real copy of the Times on your lap.

Not so for CNN or Fox.  The video clip on my 15′ laptop is an extremely good substitute for what’s on TV.  If I were a TV executive, I would be paying very close attention to the dynamics in print media in its battle with what’s going on online – websites, blogs, etc.  The disruptive wave that broadcast media will face, as the pieces fall into place in infrastructure (broadband penetration) and hardware & software (consumer electronics), will be much greater than what the print media has been dealing with.

In this post, I will be linking to (thus advertising) an advertising venture:

The Million Dollar Homepage

This venture was the topic of some "here’s the bubble again" and "the return of kooky business models" type rambling a few months ago. Here they are, down to their last 1,000 pixels – which they are auctioning on eBay!  Brilliant… 🙂  Means that they have booked $999,000 in revenues.

Kooky, opportunistic, fluffy… Whatever you would like to call it, they mark a new milestone in online advertising.  Is there still a debate on when online advertising is going to mature?

Guy Kawasaki has another post on effective presentations.  I have never seen Guy present but he’s known to be very effective.  Presentation Zen, a blog on effective professional presentation design, had discussed Guy’s way.

I love Coldplay.  So it is with some sadness that I have to dedicate my first post of the new year to how they don’t understand the forces in play in media today.

A few months ago, I bought their CD X&Y.  (It’s a great album.)  The first thing I typically do when I buy a CD is to rip it to my laptop, so that I can (i) easily listen to music while I work, and (ii) have the album on my iPod.  With X&Y, I could not do this.

Because, the DRM software on the CD does not allow you to copy it to a hard drive. They also let you know that this is "so that you can enjoy high quality music"…  and, they only let you know about this once you’ve bought the CD (as BoingBoing points out).  How can they be so short-sighted?

I got curious.  Coldplay’s label is Capitol, who’s got a horrible flash website (a possible sign that they don’t get it either).  Browsing their website, my eyes lit up:  a link labeled "Downloads".  I rush to see which songs of which artists are published…  Hehe, the downloads are stupid e-cards, banners and wallpapers.  Not a byte of sound!

On to Coldplay’s own website…  They have a free members area, but with only samples of their music.

Now here’s the problem.  I can not put this CD on my iPod, but someone (actually, many people) has and it’s easily available on the web.  So what Coldplay has done is piss off a fan and force him to go and steal(!) when he’s already purchased the right to listen to this album.

Fred Wilson had ranted about the same issue, regarding Dave Matthews, so I know I am not alone in being pissed off.

The winners will be the content providers (read: artists) who understand how the consumers (read: fans) will increasingly control the mode of consumption.

Scott Maxwell of Insight Partners has a couple of good blog posts; one suggesting new year’s resolutions for young company CEOs, and the other discussing  strategy advantages young companies can exploit.

The first one very explicitly displays what I had always found difficult in my tenure as the CEO of a young company.  Scott instructs picking a maximum of three of the focus areas he lists.  While it’s true that most companies could prioritize the topics and find which ones need the most attention, the list under TOP PRIORITY – CRITICAL heading is almost always longer than three. That was where having partners/co-founders proved invaluable.  The fact that we were a team of founders meant that each member cared equally about each task, and that afforded each of us the peace of mind that’s otherwise tough to attain.

As a part of his resolutions list, Scott points to his strategy post, and suggest picking up to three of these items.  I disagree with Scott in the other direction on this point.  I think capitalizing on only one of these strategy examples is often sufficient.

Brad Feld thinks #10 in the first list is the most important. I agree.

In general, I think online recruiting is a sector that has lagged behind other online marketplaces in innovation.  The leaders, like Monster, are still offering a classified advertising service.

There have been exceptions. One is Marc Cenedella‘s company The Ladders.  They stepped into the online recruiting world by going against industry conventions: They allow companies to post their $100K+ jobs for free, and get their revenues from job seekers who’d like privileged access to those jobs.  Over about two years, they created a very successful company.

This week they are launching "Opal", where they introduce new functionality to their service.  Until now, unlike traditional career services websites, The Ladders had no profiles of their job seeker members, for recruiters to search and browse.  Opal changes that.  In addition, Opal allows the recruiters to create profiles, as well!  Marc thinks this is not dissimilar to the online dating model.  The recruiters become the pretty girls. 😉

The key here will be protecting the recruiters from excess attention, as well as careful filtering to ensure the recruiters are real.  Once those two steps are in place, The Ladders will once again have innovated in an area that has largely missed key internet learnings so far.

Nick Denton of the Gawker has a post on the tools he finds useful in a start-up environment.  When we founded SelectMinds in 2000, most of these tools were not around.  We used AIM and Webex as tools, outsourced HR management and web design.  Most importantly, we went to a friend and had ourselves "incubated" – as in housed in the excess office space they had and hooked on to their LAN and phone system – in exchange for some equity.  This saved us tons in rent, telecom, IT support, and other overhead.  In addition, it provided us with a friendly, stimulating environment and bright people, instead of just the four of us (the founders).

I’d definitely consider a similar incubation model if I were starting a company, again.

As for additional tools, I’d list Bugzilla for bug tracking and Kwiki for knowledge management.

Lately, in most of my business-related conversations, the term Web2.0 pops up.  Generally, there’s an implicit understanding of what I mean by using the term.  Sometimes, however, I find myself grappling with nouns and adjectives trying to convey what I am trying to say.  These words tend to include:

del.icio.us
flickr
tagging
peer produced content
indeed
blogs
AdWords

Finally, Paul Graham to the rescue: He has a thoughtful blog post on Web2.0.