Loïc Le Meur blog

Google for "Call Girls Blog" leads to me...

Hey, I discovered in my referrer this morning that if you Google for Call Girls Blog, I am #2 on more than 400 000 pages...



Mmm not sure I want that kind of Goodle searches but it is funny !

Shame on The Enola Gay presented at the Aviation museum in Washington

The Enola Gay bombed Hiroshima in 1945. It has just been displayed close to the Concorde at the Washington aviation museum.



Just saw an interview on TV of Japanese families of victims who flew specially to Washington to tell the museum to take it out of display or at least explain to people what it did to Japan.



There was an interview of a stupid person at the museum's organization who said "it is normal that we display this plane even if it bumbed Hiroshima. It is part of our past, part of us, Americans".



There is apparently no explanation about the drama in the exhibition, just the airplane.



This is like if the Germans where displaying in museums Nazi weapons without explaining the tragedy (which is not the case...).

The Meatrix

Excellent, Joi, thanks for sharing that funny parody with us.

Their site is quite impressive for an association against factory farms. Now they need a blog...

The Meatrix. A parody flash animation with a political message. Nice.

[Joi Ito's Web]

The Meatrix

Playing with your kids and your isight

I love my isight, it saves me a lot of money.



Now Mathieu Nouzareth from Boonty, pointed me to a set of toys to play with it and the kids, Toy Sight.



Looks cool, I will try tonight with my boys. Thanks Mathieu.

Citizen to Citizen Software to let ideas emerge

via [Ant's Eye View].

I love the idea to see people's ideas come bottom up to change a bit from politicians saying their ideas are that of the people. Would definitely like to see these tools appear and to adapt them in Europe.

Over at JOHO, David Weinberger is floating some interesting ideas about what he is calling "C2C" (citizen-to-citizen) software -- tools to connect people to each other on issues that they care about, and let their ideas bubble up to their representatives.

Very nice winter sun in Brussels

I know I am not a good photographer, but really the view from my office in my house in Brussels looks incredible this morning.



Too bad my wife wants us to go back and live in a flat in Paris... Not soon, fortunately there is some time left.

New politics campaign rules

Another excellent to say the least article from Jay Rosen. I am trying to spread this word here in France but it is slow.



As I am lazy, I also took some of Doc's comment about it:

Jay Rosen's latest is Nine Story Lines in a New Campaign Narrative. Here's the list:

1. The Control Revolution
2. Donating Talent
3. Distributed Ownership
4. The Inactive Switch Sides
5. Campaign as Curriculum
6. The New Sociability in Politics
7. The Discovery of Voice
8. The Self Informing Citzenry
9. It's a Two Way World

the thrill to be a serial entrepreneur

Excellent comment and article, TJ.

Very often people question the fact of creating companies for the long run versus selling them an do another one... I will come back with a longer post on that one. Thanks for sharing this with us.

The NYT has a rather interesting article about.

" Sometimes repeat entrepreneurs have to be shoved out before they learn that their talents apply to start-ups, not to running bigger companies. That is why some venture capital firms include in their term sheets the stipulation that if the board deems it necessary, the chief executive must start a process to find a successor.

At other times, the company simply fails. But, for the serial entrepreneur, that is generally an incentive to try something else. "

Posted by TJ at 10:26 PM

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Comments: (post your comment)

[TJ's Weblog "Technology, Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship"]

the thrill to be a serial entrepreneur

10 must do's for a politician on the Internet to help his campaign

I had dinner and email exchanges with Steven Clift from the US and John Gotze from Denmark.



Very exciting talks about edemocracy, "the voice of the other guy finally being heard" and political blogging.



Thanks Steve and John for your help, my turn to help the european politicians now.



Here are Steven's 10 (there are only 9 actually ;=) key simple must dos for a politician:



The key is to share what is most important rather than flood him/her
with ideas.



1. Build your opt-in e-mail announcement list for your supporters.



2. Use that e-mail list to send out regular (no more than once a week
until the final few weeks of the campaign) updates on the campaign.
Keep it brief, but include some first person personality.



3. You could also create a weblog with the same content or integrate
the two. Do not over estimate the level of repeat traffic your
weblog will generate without an "e-mail hook" option.



4. Build a basic website and announce new content on the e-list.
Don't say "Coming Soon" or "Under Construction" anywhere. Register
as short and simple a domain as possible and put that on all your
campaign literature and signs.



5. Use an internal e-mail list for communication among those on your
campaign committee. A great way for people to report in and discuss
strategy between campaign meetings.



6. Limit your expectations about undecided voters, but do something
special online the last two weeks of the elections for undecided
voters.



7. Along the way consider a Q and A section where you would answer
one or two voter questions a week.



8. Change the site on the election day to include last minute links
to polling place information and update it with a couple hours when
you know the results of the election.



9. Promise to have as good a website/online presence in governance as
you do when asking for the support of voters.



Here are some links that might be of interest:



http://campaignsonline.typepad.com/

http://www.ipdi.org/primer2002.html

http:/www.politicalweb.info

http://www.voxpolitics.com/primer.shtml (UK)

http://www.campaignadvantage.com/bookchap.html

http://www.netpolitique.net




More:
http://www.publicus.net/articles/edemresources.html



And now some links from John:



Blog of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, former Danish Prime Minister:
http://www.nyrup.dk/weblog/weblog.htm



A simple, but good introduction to blogging:
http://www.37signals.com/blogprez/



Various stuff about blogging:
http://slashdemocracy.org/links/Blogging/

"Online and Offline Meet Up to Change Politics"

There has been so many blog and off-line discussions about Dean's campaign that I am promoting the on-line and blogging campaigns in France too now. I should meet my first French politician candidate for next year's elections (not presidential) and may start helping him.

Here is what Jay Rosen says about "Online and Offline Meet Up to Change Politics"

Ed Cone explains exactly why Howard Dean's "open style" of politics is a big deal--and a big story--whether he or not he wins. This will scramble the mind of the press if the press retains its master narrative: winning. [PressThink (Jay Rosen)]

A Public Editor for an Internet Public

Another great article discussing Journalism and blogging from Jay.

For the majority of readers, the New York Times is now an online newspaper with a print edition. Suppose the new public editor began with that fact. Something surprising--even radical--could emerge. Of course it's all speculation... [PressThink (Jay Rosen)]

Good food for thought for the panel.

A Public Editor for an Internet Public

Special to PressThink: Interview With Rodney Benson on Journalism, French and American Style

Via Jay Rosen, an excellent article comparing the French and the US press.

"Rodney Benson: American journalists who work in Paris have told me they see the French press as much more openly opinionated"
"After looking at how the French talk about their press, what stands out for me is how so much seems off limits for debate here." A scholar immersed in a comparative study of the French and American press unfolds some of the key differences. [PressThink (Jay Rosen)]

Special to PressThink: Interview With Rodney Benson on Journalism, French and American Style

"Open Source is everywhere, software is just the beginning"

Reading the below post "Hurts So Good" by Jason Lefkowitz in Ant's Eye view
makes me think that I wanted to blog for weeks about the great article in November's Wired: "Open Source Everywhere", by Thomas Goetz.



If you have not read it, I would definitely recommend you to read it.


"Get ready for the era when collaboration replaces the corporation"


Inspiring, isn't it ? Here are some abstracts for those of you not taking the time to read it:

"The Ideals of Open Source

SHARE THE GOAL

Open source projects succeed when a broad group of contributors recognize the same need and agree on how to meet it. Linux gave programmers a way to build a better, leaner operating system; Woochi gives wine lovers an encyclopedia as refined as they are.



SHARE THE WORK

Projects can be broken down into smaller tasks and distributed among armies of volunteers for execution. Tim O’Reilly, whose namesake company runs the Open Source Convention, calls this the “architecture of participation,” and it is the irresistible genius of open source, a tool that no corporate model can match for the sheer brainpower it yokes. But architecture demands structure: a review process that screens for the best contributions and avoids the “fork” – that horrible prospect that a project will split into a multitude of side projects.



SHARE THE RESULT

Open source etiquette mandates that the code be available for anyone to tweak and that improvements to the code be shared with all. Substitute creation for code and the same goes outside of software. Think of it as the triumph of participation by the many over ownership by the few. – T.G."

The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia has reached an audience superior to Britannica on-line.

"So what motivates Wikipedia contributors? Pretty much the same things behind any open source project: a dash of altruism, a dose of obsessive compulsiveness, and a good chunk of egotism. It lets users have a hand not just in shaping the debate, but in designing the product. Some are genuinely motivated by the greater good, or find it satisfying to apply their professional knowledge to a broader audience, pro-bono style. And some get to prove how smart they are."

Now WikiTravel and other initiatives start and have great success.



Do people get paid to do that ? no. Can a normal company compete against an open source project ?

Open source offers biotech companies a cheaper way to do research. "The corporations have been locked in a zero-sum game," Jefferson says. "It costs them a fortune to buy and lock up a product or a technology. And if they don't, a competitor will get it and they'll have no access to it. So it's a real change in the status quo we're proposing. We're reducing the obstacles for everybody so big companies won't view this as antithetical to their own progress."

"It forces industry to reckon with openness rather than hide behind intellectual property."

Here is what [Ant's Eye View] adds.

John Dvorak has an interesting take on why people participate in open-source software projects...

I've always sensed that programmers are masochists by nature. The better the coder the more masochistic. Think about it: Writing good code is a tormenting, thankless chore. Many CEOs know how to berate coders to get them to work harder. Somehow the best coders come under some delusion that they are in control and free-spirited because they can work whatever hours they want. And this looks true when seen from afar. In fact, most smart organizations quickly learn that the "freedom" usually means programmers working 12 to 16 hours a day, sleeping under their desks, and staying alert with caffeine-laced soft drinks and starches.

I'm starting to think, therefore, that open-source has to be the ultimate freedom trip for these folks—voluntary servitude.

I must say that being a business background type of person, it is risky for me to comment this. However, when I see WikiTravel for example, this is really made by non technical people for non technical people, anybody can take part.

"Open source isn't just about better software. It's about better everything."

People join an "open source" project for free. Do they not make any money ?

"It forces industry to reckon with openness rather than hide behind intellectual property. In driving down the cost of software or encyclopedias or biotechnology, open source is unleashing billions in capital otherwise put to woefully inefficient ends. Just because it's not about making money first doesn't mean it won't make money second (just ask the folks who bought their mansions with Red Hat shares)."

I am totally puzzled. I run Ublog, a european weblogs generator and host. So should I open source everything and wait for hundreds of people to come and help me ? Mmmm may be not yet...




Can you provide me with some advise ?


Doc ?

Saddam captured

Great news from CNN

Updating your network... Manually ?

Each time I use a social software tool like linked in or plaxo, I realize how many contacts I have who changed their email address, changed position.



I would be ready to pay a manual service for somebody actually calling some of my old contacts companies to find out what are the new right contact information of people not using these tools.



I guess this is the kind of small business that would work if completely outsourced to a country like India for example.



Here is an idea for entrepreneurs looking for ideas ;=)



Do you know of any company providing this type of services ? Or should I just stop talking to anybody that does not use Plaxo or Linked In ;=) ?

Just joined linkedin here are my first thoughts about it

Under heavy pressure from friends (just joking) I finally joined linkedin.



So if you are in, start linking into me ! If you are not, you can experiment it too.



I am sorry for having sent this to my contacts who consider it as spam, as I did that with Plaxo too some time ago (which I cannot use anymore and I'd like too, as I now have a mac).



So here are my first feelings:



-the profile form to build your cv is well done
-I like very much the endorsements capability, giving credibility to what you have done in your past business experience
-enlarging your own network by the network of your friends is good
-I was impressed by the customer service, I had troubles importing my adress book and tech support answered me within an hour on a Sunday !



I regret:



-not being able to map the network visually, with people connected to one another, and possibly pictures of them, links to their weblogs
-the form and process to send invitations was incredibly slow, with 1200 contacts.
-linkedin should adopt the great update function of Plaxo or work with them



Have any of you already used it for some time and happy with it ?

Italy and Europe (very funny)

I just love it. If you have 2 minutes to lose, have a look at this flash animation about Italy and Europe.



We could easily replace Italy by France on many aspects, though...



Thanks Joi for the link.

Blogging will have the same effects to journalism as Napster & P2P to the music industry

I am extremely happy and honoured to get a role at an interactive session that will be held in Davos in January 2004 at the World Economic Forum, with Joi. Both of us as well as other people will debate with the participants about traditional media and blogs.



Here are the details about the session:


"Traditional media sources are no longer the primary source of information.

Internet news sources, especially non-mainstream sources like "blogs", are

challenging the traditional rules of journalism.

1) How is the media landscape evolving?

2) What are the implications of this revolution for traditional media

suppliers, producers and viewers?

3) How should the mainstream media respond if it is to remain competitive
in the future?"



So I wanted to prepare this session on my blog and will be grateful to get any comments and suggestions about it from you.



I know many people disagree with me. The written paper press will stay and yes, the web is just another media.



However, I had a very interesting discussion with Henry Copeland who started blogads yesterday and we share the same view.



When I read the press, I often try to remember the journalists names if they are quoted and find the ones I like the best. I will then look at what they wrote first and their name becomes to me more important than where their content is.



I still read a lot of print press, just because it is generally high quality and goes well with my breakfast in written form. Doc says "I still read a lot of press, the only difference is that now I cut many articles out so that I can blog about them later".



In the long run, these journalists will start their blogs and publish good content on it. In parallel, excellent bloggers keep appearing and their blogs get high audience, very focused and loyal audience.



Henry and others will provide good revenues to these bloggers and they will be able to blog & research 4-5 hours a day and live on it as their blogs (few though) will get millions of page views a month (some already do) and the highly focused advertising (and possibly paid subscriptions like the WSJ ?) will get them between 2 or 3 to 10 to 20 thousand of $ a month.



What will happen ? Well, some journalists or photographs will leave their current job and make a living from their blog. It is going to decentralize content as P2P has already decentralized music content, with much fewer copyright problems though as bloggers agree sharing it and comments and references to this content will be linked to the author's sites.



So yes, Henry and I think that mainstream media will enter turbulent time on the long run, 3 to 5 years. They will see their audience decline and their subscribers decline. Of course, they will stay as it will take time and a lot of people will only read paper and watch TV.



People will get used to read, listen, and view great content made directly for them without the help of a mainstream medium.



Radio & TV ? Let's think about it for one minute.



I was listenning yesterday to one of the top audience French radio which had a broadcast about floods we had in South of France this week. This broadcast claimed to be very special because it gave many people the occasion to express themselves about the events on radio. Well, that is what we do daily on blogs.



Blogging is only at its very first stages. Audio blogging and video blogging will also get very easy to do. It is already very easy to use a simple digital camera to produce good video content and publish it on a blog.



Some people will start heavy video blogging and we will be able to RSS subscribe to them, search the posts, link them and comment them.



This will take even more time of course. But with sharing text, audio and video content becoming easier and easier, I see long term decline for TV&radio in the form of "we select what you should read, listen to and watch".



So what would I do if I was the editor of a major press title ?

-put all my content and articles in a permalink, blogging form in addition to print

-make it available in RSS, at least short transcripts

-give authors (journalists) credit under their name

-integrate advertising in feeds

-get my cost structure as low as possible and redistribute earnings to the authors according to the audience they get from what they write. The blogs help us know by the audience measurement and the number and quality of links they generate select content much better, thanks to the efforts of tools such as Technorati



What would I do if I was a radio editor ?

-sort all the broadcasts and affect them a written title, topic, keywords, author credits, people interviewed, categories etc so that search engines can reference them

-of course keep and archive all the content as permalinks

-publish them all individually in short sequences as blog posts

-make them RSS capable

-do the same as for the written press in terms of revenue model



What would I do if I was a TV editor ?

-same as radio, but in video form

-same business model

It is so easy now to do good quality video blogging. Just a cheap DV cam and a mac will do.

I do not see it jeopardize right now their current model as most people will still want their standard media editions. But the new form of content will see its audience get higher and higher and revenues will follow, even though it will take years.

I believe if they do not react, several startups will appear and just do that. (Do you know any already ?)

Journalists will stay with their employer in that model because they will get the credits and the revenues they deserve. Good journalists will get big audiences, bad ones will not. Highly targetted journalists, on a narrow audience subject, will find their audience more easily and will have all the space they need to publish their thoughts, no more fighting to get some space in a journal or a TV station.

Current and future bloggers who are not journalists but get a high audience for the quality of their content will be interested to join these new forms of media and brands.

Do you agree ? Do you know any attempt to follow that model ? Any other suggestion ?

References I already blogged about that topic;

-Some thoughts about the NY Times and blogging here, "the NY Times has more readers online than in print".

-Excellent article from Jay Rosen comparing blogging and journalism

A survey on blogging

Based on 610 respondents. Here are the results



Thanks, Richard.

Nifty CEO Blog

Nifty's CEO, the #1 Japanese Internet provider, started blogging himself.

Too bad it is in Japanese.

I would like to see more key companies CEOs in Europe start blogging too.

Anybody in Europe know if some of them got it already ?

Here is what Markka says about it:

While I have not really figured out too many of the secrets of blogging, it is taking off like mad around the world. In Japan MT / Sixpart has licensed it's technology to Nifty, Japan's number 1 internet provider. Cocolog - the service is called and looks pretty much like MT / Typepad except obviously you sign up through Nifty. Nifty's CEO, Furukawa Tatsuzumi has also started up a blog of his own (in Japanese). In his first post, Mr. Furukawa talks about how fast the whole blogging thing hit Nifty and that it all got started by two t-shirt wearing Nifty personel suggesting that they start a blog service. Simultaniously someone in the US sent out a report outlining how blogs are a boom in the US. Supposedly it was a matter of like 4 months for Nifty to get this service up and running. I am positively surpriced at how fast they have done this and that the CEO himself is communicating. Mr. Furukawa's blog will definately be a new read for me. I am more and more facinated about the bloging space and little by little figuring it out.... [M A R K K A]

Nifty CEO Blog

Canadian Government Launches RSS Newsroom

Thanks for the info, Ant.

Another area where Europe is again getting late...

Another step forward for syndication -- Canada has become the first national government to offer news in the RSS format, via its new Newsroom site. 35 feeds are provided, organized geographically (both nationally and by province) and by subject matter. It'll be interesting to see how quickly other governments start picking up on this sort of thing! [Seen on RSS in Government]

[Ant's Eye View]

Canadian Government Launches RSS Newsroom

Le Spam Francais

I totally agree Halley

I actually started getting some spam emails through my blog looks like some people do it manually. This is really bad.

However France does not have exclusivity for spamming ;=)

Le Spam Francais

Okay, guys, which one of you signed me up for a nice helping of French spam ... or maybe you call it pate?

Découvrez la solution Mobile Data qui donne des ailes à votre PC portable ...
Où que vous soyez, la Vodaphone Mobile Connect Card glissée dans votre PC portable vous permet d’accéder sans fil et via le réseau GPRS de SFR à des applications aussi importantes que ...

L’envoi/réception de vos emails.
Vous envoyez et recevez facilement vos e-mails et restez en contact permanent avec interlocuteurs.

L’accès à Internet.
Vous pouvez accéder à tout moment à une information vitale pour votre activité et à tous les services de l’Internet. etc, etc, etc.

I don't think I want anything or anybody to "glisse dans mon PC portable" without asking me first. [Halley's Comment]

Le Spam Francais

entrepreneurship figures in US

Thanks TJ.

Most European countries appear in the bottom of the ranking for number of entrepreneurs per citizen, with Japan.

This is a disaster. Rather than moving to the US we should try and change the culture about entrepreneurship in Europe.

Jeffrey R. Cornwall presents findings of a recent survey of entrepreneurship.
Most astonishing:

• 10% of Americans already own their own business
• 56% of Americans dream of starting their own business

You can find the whole presentation of the Fedex survey here. Posted by TJ at 03:25 PM

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Comments: (post your comment)

Anita Campbell @ December 4, 2003 11:42 PM:

Everyone over here in the US of A is start-up crazy. It's big business to serve all the entrepreneurs who are (a) starting a business, (b) dreaming about starting a business, or (c) wishing they had the guts to start a business.

[TJ's Weblog "Technology, Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship"]

entrepreneurship figures in US

Wine.com and Chateau Online

Thanks for the info, TJ.

Two days ago I had lunch with Christophe Poupinel, CEO of ChateauOnline, the #1 european site for wine I believe.

Having raised lots of funds now, they are also cash flow positive and see a nice growth.

Christophe did a great job to make his company profitable.

I buy wine regularly on-line.

Wine.com has received $8 million in what must be a down round. Wine.com has taken in respectable $ 59 million before. Nearly all online retailers have become cash flow positive through mighty Google and increased trust in online shopping. So there have been only few rounds for e-tailers this year. I hope wine.com will be flavorsome for its new investors.

Posted by TJ at 09:00 PM

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Comments: (post your comment)

[TJ's Weblog "Technology, Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship"]

Executive blogging issues.

Good post, Phil. I experience the same, I would like to see more and more people in my network to blog.
Their answer is always the same: "no time".
What I answer is: "did you think you would have taken that much time answering and reading emails today, five years ago ?"
I think blogging will take time to become a standard part of our daily time a way of communication.
What is really new and not natural for most people is to share knowledge with others, in written form.
When I have business lunches usually 90% of what we say is not confidential and
-could be shared with others
-would enrich the conversation if it was

I think it is going to take some time but for sure the time taken to share discussions and thoughts on blogs is definitely worth it for me.
I am more and more frustrated that I do not blog much more (and it already takes some of my daily time), so audio blogging and blogging from smartphones is probably the answer.
I believe that executives who will not take the time to start do some blogging will be left outside of a very rich world and a new way of networking, exactly like the executives who came late to email were not as efficient as others (I still know many top French executives of large companies that do not use email actually).
I try to be willing to blog anything that is not confidential in my business life, and that is 90% of it. The fact that I only blog few things is lack of time.
Do you think we will someday hire executive assistants that will blog things for us ? I think it will appear soon...
Doc says email is "blogging for one" and most emails are not confidential so why keep them "for one" ?

Robert Scoble wrote:

I keep asking executives "when you gonna start a weblog?" But, quite consistently get an answer of "way too busy." I asked Sanjay and Dan'l that about a week ago. They both ran down what their schedules look like. Nearly every minute of every day is scheduled. Dan'l told me he often is traveling and already rarely gets to see his family.

It's a tough problem. Since I don't think executives will get the time to weblog (at least not until it's so important that they are forced to by market conditions -- and we're several years away from that, if ever since they can get more leverage simply by calling up the Wall Street Journal or USA Today and asking for a chat) then internal bloggers will need to build better ties to execs and PR and marketing so that we can help solve the problem. I'm trying to do just that, and I've had some success, but my time is limited too. So, we need to figure out how to get some scale. One guy can't do it all.

The blogdev community has an opportunity to treat this as a challenge, an opportunity. What behavior, what facilities, will let someone as harried as a Microsoft executive or a single mom working two jobs squeeze blog writing, reading, and discovery into their lives?

Is it audblogging on the run? A quick speed dial on your cell for a note. Maybe audio or sms blogfodder? Great if it can be transcribed into searchable text. Blog as stream of experience.

Or do you make 200 phone calls a week? Maybe your phone bill as RSS becomes blog fodder. Basic analysis can show who has your attention (frequency, average length, total time). Further analysis could detect patterns among your network (Bob on Tuesday mornings; talks with Mary seem to follow Tim most of the time). Blog as phone pad.

Do you live in Outlook? Maybe you can default that all your outbound mail is cc'd as a draft to your weblog. That might cut blogging time to picking and choosing from the queue. Blogging as backup brain.

Maybe you live in your calendar, all meetings, all the time. Turn your calendar into blogfodder, provoking the posts before, during, and after meetings. Reverse chronology should come naturally here. Blogging as technography.

Before performance, executive culture is about trust. Execs limit conversation to trusted cliques, chains of command, and other social circles. LiveJournal-style control of who gets to read specific posts may overcome inhibitions about using the blog interface to capture your thoughts. Socially informed blogspace.

You also mentioned the role of PR. Here's a new role: beat journalist. Be the Dan Gillmor of the Microsoft marketing veeps, a development programme, of M&A. Get on their calendars for 10-15 minutes a week, ask routine and provocative questions, transcribe and post to internal blogs. Canvas internal blognets for related posts and tie the threads together. Blogs as reportage.

Are we getting closer?

[a klog apart]

Executive blogging issues.

Good and fun Durex advertising

If you are patient enough to wait for a 3Mo file, this one is fun

Blogging in the phone

This looks cool, Victor I'll have a try too !

On MobileWack I discover Kablog, which is a blogging tool for posting through a Symbian-powered cellphone, like my Nokia 3650. Time to upload some interesting software (not libre ;) [Blogging in the wind]

Blogging in the phone

News: Blogging For Politicians, Iranian Style

But where are the European political leaders blogs ? I think we will have to wait long... Or wait until Howard Dean wins.

Thanks, loose wire.

If you need convincing that blogging is not some nerdy fringe activity, here's some: Iranian vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi is a blogger.

It's in Persian, iranFilter (a collective news blog) says, and is the first blog by a major Iranian politician. It's personal rather than political, but has some nice surprises, such as secret photos of Eduard Shevardnadze, and accounts of personal and unofficial conversations with government ministers.

[loose wire]

News: Blogging For Politicians, Iranian Style

News: Segway's First Hit And Run

Here we are I knew it would happen, thanks loose wire. I would still like to get one and try not to hit anybody.

Anybody know how many Segways were sold up to now ?

A Segway rider in San Francisco hit a 3-year-old girl while riding -- illegally -- on one of the city's sidewalks, ABC reports. The man fled the scene (on his Segway).

The police says it expects to be able to quickly track down the suspect by contacting Segway, and obtaining a list of San Francisco Segway owners. Apparently there aren't that many.

[loose wire]

News: Segway's First Hit And Run

The call girls start blogging !

Evhead, I hesitated to blog this one, but I would do it under my humor category, I guess it is ok... !

Here is Belle de Jour's blog

She's quite a good writer, isn't she? [evhead]

The call girls start blogging !

Hierarchies, webs and emergence

Very interesting Kevin, thanks for sharing that with us. With Ublog I definitely feel the need to categorize blog postings too as an emergency and will definitely adopt new standards that will emerge.

Last week Dave Sifry and I met up with Dave Winer and Steve Gillmor at Technorati to share ideas. We talked about the public resource that Dave W created in weblogs.com, about Technorati, and about Dave's new idea to help people categorize blog postings and the things they link to.
Dave W said: I feel we're at a turning point in the weblog world, either we're going to be like every other hierarchy that's ever been, with secret deals, lots of impediments to progress, eventual stagnation; or we're going to overcome that.

Dave thinks in hierarchies; whether this is because he invented outlining, or why he invented outlining I'm not sure. Along the way he added links into the picture, so his hierarchies can link to other nodes, or other hierarchies to get as complex as you like.

The conventional wisdom is that links beat out hierarchies - Google's link-centric approach beat out Yahoo's hierarchy-centric approach (the HO in Yahoo stood for Hierarchically Oriented).

However, another way of looking at it is top-down versus bottom-up - central design versus emergence.

Dave W wants to build a bottom-up emergent taxonomy, using open debate and open standards.

Steve Gillmor is saying something similar about how we can grow new things.

I have a couple of ideas that I need to write up as spec proposals to try to start such discussions - one about 'vote links', one a new bit of metadata for feeds saying whether they are complete or not. [Kevin Marks]

Hierarchies, webs and emergence

Link and Think World AIDS DAY

I lost my sister Yannick a short time ago from both Aids and Cancer. Difficult for me to talk about it as Link and Think suggests we should do on our blogs. But linking into it and encouraging all of you to do the same is a small and easy thing to do... !



Thanks JLR again for sharing that with us

the multi billion dollar idea

Remember when Tim Drapers launched this ideas contest "to launch a company" on his blog ?
Here are some results. Hundreds of people have blogged their ideas and it generated many comments.
This all what blogging is about: sharing more and more, even ideas to create a company. Shhhhht somebody could steal it and do it faster than you ;=)

I was always wondering why VCs do so little for their marketing and sales. Sure they can build paper towers with incoming business plans every day, but the point is getting the best entrepreneurs. Also entrepreneurs sending out business plans do so to reach many VCs in parallel. So it might get better leads with less competition before the big road show goes on. It's much less common nowadays, although it's so easy to screen universities and entrepreneur networks for good deals.

I was reporting a couple of weeks back about Tim Drapers pitch at AlwaysOn. Cnet now tells us about the outcome.

"I'm amazed. I was just expecting I'd have an interesting afternoon. But we got five ideas that we'll take a closer look at," said Draper, who noted he was surprised to find more than just one idea worth pursuing."

"Craig Elias, founder of InnerSell in Canada, captured strong interest from Draper. InnerSell signs up online sales referral agents, who provide sales leads to suppliers that subscribe to its service. For example, if an agent's company cannot provide a product or service to a potential customer, that sales agent can tap into InnerSell's list of vendors and forward the lead on. If a sale is made, InnerSell keeps 30 percent of the vendor's commission and the remainder goes to the agent."

"Draper, who noted that the contest idea began after an angry reader of his blog characterized venture capitalists as a clubby group when choosing investments to fund, said his firm will likely hold similar contests every quarter via videoconferencing."

Welcome to the power of blogging!

Posted by TJ at 09:09 PM

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[TJ's Weblog "Technology, Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship"]

the multi billion dollar idea