URLFANning the flames; where the VCs is at?; Apponomics; Cloud buzzwording; glyphs done right; anonymity…wither?

“://URLFAN is an evolving experiment designed to discover how popular websites are in the blogosphere, all in real time. It does this by cultivating the content of millions of RSS feeds and parsing billions of pieces of information to make a transparent ranking based on the numbers. In this way you can discover who’s a fan of your URL.”

 

I’m suggesting that the explosion of social media metrics mashups is actually fanning the flames of a popularity race; popularity for the purpose of climbing some ladder or another. This has always been the case in “new” media as they emerge, but the growth of the metrics and measurements themselves is what is fascinating.
In the future, everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame at the top of one sparkline or another.

 

“VCs are still investing but only in high quality companies, with proven revenue models, focused on a growing market segment.”
(tags: vc funding)

 

This is what Venture Capitalists should be doing on a daily basis, as a matter of course. Investing in a purely speculative manner, on any wow-new-shiny! idea that comes along has another name. Gambling. Now, I’m not a VC: so I won’t pretend to know how they think. But if I were an investor in a VC’s fund, I’d want them to read this post and then add a note, in their weekly update, addressing the discussion points. Then again, I’d also have to have money in a VC’s fund, wouldn’t I?

 

After 4 startups, two of my own, I’m not so sure I even want to work for one again. The typical structure, in Australia, lacks fully-integrated vision backed with PostIts-on-the-desk goals, a second line of strategy, and daily-moving-target tactics.

 

“In 2008 we saw the Semantic Web gain traction, giving us plenty of choice when selecting the 10 best Semantic Web products of 2008.”

 

Will a, not “the”, semantic web be a catalyst for change: or will it be the embodiment of change itself?

 

“Daily unit sales jumped substantially around 22nd Nov, which coincided with an outbreak of extreme storms on parts of Australia’s east coast. There were a lot of great radar images to look at! Of course this also increased app usage and demand on the server, as a result of which I had to upgrade the server capacity. I guess that is one of the problems of success.”

 

A good example, with real data, of how Apple virtually came from nowhere to create a full marketplace that actually makes real people, real money.

 

“[…] ‘Cloud Computing’ – the phenomenon that currently has as many definitions as there are squares on a chess-board.”

 

Consider each definition a square on a buzzword-bingo card. 2009 will bring the “Trough of Disillusionment” in the industry with regard to the hype of “TEH CLOWDS”.

 

“Use this convertor if you wish to type your mac shortcut in classic form.”

 

Dmitry, a talented developer with a typographical eye, made this one trick pony. I’ve already used it twice, so it was worth the admission fee.

 

“On tomorrow’s web, we’re no longer going to be anonymous. In fact, one can argue that we’re no longer anonymous today, but that’s not entirely true.”

 

And, the internet never forgets. At least you tend to lose my lameness from a decade ago, amongst the confusion of some chef and some architect/designer with the same name. Phew.

links for 2008-12-01