Today asset manager James Altucher writes in Wall Street Journal that The Internet is Dead (As An Investment). There has already been a solid response, most notably from venture capital investor Fred Wilson, writing The Internet is Alive and Well (As An Investment), as well as posts from HipMojo, Stephen Arnold, and Elias Bizannes.
The nub of Altucher’s argument?
1. “Internet companies now should be treated, at best, like utility companies” such as electricity.
2. “Nobody can figure out a business model.”
Given a six-month timeframe, which Altucher seems to be taking, these arguments could be valid. However moving beyond that, it is delusional to think that the Internet will not:
a) continue to transform existing industries, as it has for more than a decade;
b) create value both in current forms and new ways.
There is no question that most investors would prefer to invest where there are clearly understood, long-established business models. However just because business models are rapidly evolving and changing in a new space doesn’t mean that there won’t be massive value creation. In fact, given that an increasing proportion of economic activity is shifting into ‘virtual’ activities, we have every reason to believe that that’s where a large proportion of long-term economic growth will be centered.
It will be a hairy ride for those on board, no question about it. In return I expect we will get what in economic jargon is known as ‘supernormal returns’. Either way, I know where I’d prefer to play.
SAP webinar on the US stimulus package and how to benefit from it
By Ross DawsonOn July 29 at 2pm ET SAP is running a webinar on the US economic stimulus package and ways to be able to take advantage of it. Full details here and below.
Tap Into a “Hidden” Stimulus for Your Business:
Understand Its impact. Discover another “Hidden Stimulus”
The current $787 billion Stimulus will surely help a lot of small and midsize businesses. For everyone else, however, there’s another even bigger “Stimulus” that isn’t in the news.
On July 29th, a panel of leading business experts will examine both:
• What the current Stimulus means to businesses like yours: find out exactly where the Stimulus will help businesses like yours and where it will not, and more importantly, what you need to do to best leverage the Stimulus package for your own benefits
• How to uncover the “Hidden Stimulus” in your own business: for businesses that don’t build bridges or solar panels, experts will share strategies, tools and examples to help find the other “hidden stimulus”—the one that saves you money year after year by purging inefficient business processes.
Click here to register
[DISCLOSURE:] I am being paid to participate in this webinar. That said, it promises to be extremely interesting :-)
Insights from Social Media Strategies event
By Ross DawsonToday The Insight Exchange ran its Social Media Strategies event. It was an excellent session, with some great case studies. Below are the rough notes that I took during the event – hopefully a reasonable representation of what we heard.
Aisha Hilary, Communications Specialist, New Media and Brand, SBS
Social media is the use of electronic & internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with others.
It’s not niche any more – there are 5.1 million Australians on social networks, 7 million sharing photos, 3.6 million sharing video, 4.5 million reading blogs and 1.5 million with their own blogs.
So why engage? To each out and connect to customers and audience, building awareness, providing unique and relevant content, and building loyalty.
Read more →
Launch of Social Media Strategy Framework
By Ross DawsonToday we launch our Social Media Strategy Framework. This provides guidance and a frame on how organizations can approach engaging with social media, following in the tradition of our highly popular frameworks such as Web 2.0 Framework, Future of the Media Lifecycle, and Influence Landscape.
Click on the image to download pdf
[UPDATE:] The image and file above is of the updated Beta version 2 of the Social Media Strategy diagram – see here for a brief explanation. Click here to download the Beta version 1 diagram.
[UPDATE 2:]
The Social Media Strategy Framework has being translated into:
Social Media Strategy Framework in Chinese – ????????
Social Media Strategy Framework in Dutch – Sociale Media Strategie Kader
Social Media Strategy Framework in French – Plan Stratégique des médias sociaux
Social Media Strategy Framework in German – Social Media strategische Rahmenrichtlinien
Social Media Strategy Framework in Italian – Schema della strategia relativa ai mezzi di comunicazione sociale
Social Media Strategy Framework in Japanese – ?????????????
Social Media Strategy Framework in Korean – ????? ?? ?????
Social Media Strategy Framework in Portuguese – Modelo Estratégico dos Meios de Comunicação Social
Social Media Strategy Framework in Russian – ????????? ????????? ? ?????????? ?????
Social Media Strategy Framework in Spanish – Encuadre de Estrategia de Medios Sociales
Social Media Strategy Framework in Turkish – Sosyal Medya Strateji Çerçevesi
This is a Beta version, pulled together to release before The Insight Exchange’s Social Media Strategy event today. I can already see some improvements to be made, but I would love to get your thoughts on what’s wrong (and right) for this to be taken into account for the next version.
The Framework begins with LEARN, follows two streams of ENGAGEMENT and STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT, and comes together in the ongoing imperative to DEVELOP CAPABILITIES.
The five key points for each element are also written below.
LEARN
Use social media yourself
Study relevant case studies
Educate senior executives
Hear from practitioners
Explore the latest trends
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Where do you want to play? Where the economy used to be or where the economy is going?
By Ross DawsonToday asset manager James Altucher writes in Wall Street Journal that The Internet is Dead (As An Investment). There has already been a solid response, most notably from venture capital investor Fred Wilson, writing The Internet is Alive and Well (As An Investment), as well as posts from HipMojo, Stephen Arnold, and Elias Bizannes.
The nub of Altucher’s argument?
1. “Internet companies now should be treated, at best, like utility companies” such as electricity.
2. “Nobody can figure out a business model.”
Given a six-month timeframe, which Altucher seems to be taking, these arguments could be valid. However moving beyond that, it is delusional to think that the Internet will not:
a) continue to transform existing industries, as it has for more than a decade;
b) create value both in current forms and new ways.
There is no question that most investors would prefer to invest where there are clearly understood, long-established business models. However just because business models are rapidly evolving and changing in a new space doesn’t mean that there won’t be massive value creation. In fact, given that an increasing proportion of economic activity is shifting into ‘virtual’ activities, we have every reason to believe that that’s where a large proportion of long-term economic growth will be centered.
It will be a hairy ride for those on board, no question about it. In return I expect we will get what in economic jargon is known as ‘supernormal returns’. Either way, I know where I’d prefer to play.
The overlap between tech and porn: an overlooked element in search optimization
By Ross DawsonIf you search for “multiplayer sex game” (and a number of variations on these words) on Google, this blog comes up #1.
In April 2006 I wrote a blog post Massively multi-player sex games, which discussed the launch of Naughty America: The Game, an MMORPG involving sex. As far as I can tell my predictions of great success for the game were wrong, though other similar players such as Red Light Center, which is essentially SecondLife involving graphic sex, powered by Utherverse, seems to be doing very well.
Partly due to my blog’s prominence, and I gather due to some links from Chinese websites, this blog post, three years later, is still deemed by Google to the most authoritative source on the topic, and the post consistently gets more traffic than many of my other long-term hits such as our Web 2.0 Framework and Extinction Timeline (though most of those visitors to these latter posts tend to stay and browse a lot longer).
For a long time I thought this was nuisance traffic. If someone is searching for multiplayer sex games, they are unlikely to be the audience I want for my blog. A couple of years ago when I was speaking on a panel I used the story to make the point that not all visitors to a blog are equally desirable.
However I then noticed that a significant proportion of visitors – in fact close to 20% – were staying to read more of my blog, sometimes spending over 10 minutes browsing around. It turned out that (some of) the sex game-seeking visitors were not single-minded, but could be distracted by insights into strategy and technology.
Further light on this has now been shed by Sam Niccolls of SEOMoz in a post on TechCrunch Upskirt: Why Michael Arrington Blogs about Porn.
Image source: SEOMoz
Read more →
Going on holidays! Conclusion: we need multi-factor travel search…
By Ross DawsonJust one month after the birth of our beautiful daughter Phoebe, we are going on a week’s holiday in Fiji. Both Victoria and I have busy schedules coming up, so it’s a good time to get away, rest, and enjoy being a family together.
Victoria did the bulk of the holiday searching, probably spending a few days in all, given we were comparing different destinations, pulling together resort and airline schedules, and finding many places booked in what is now peak season (particularly now most people are feeling less worried than a few months ago).
In short, current travel search is crap. One of our key requirements was a kids club for Leda who’s turning three. There is no way to find resorts that have a kids club, let alone by what ages they accept, so every possible destination has to be checked out individually.
Most people have a number of criteria in what they are looking for in a holiday, yet current travel search is very poor, particularly if you are looking at more than one possible location. I’m almost tempted to set up a service to do this better, though our companies already have enough on for this year. Certainly I think we are very early in where travel search capabilities will eventually get to. I look forward to this becoming far more efficient.
It’s a holiday from blogging too! Back soon.
A list of business applications for blogging in the enterprise
By Ross DawsonWe’re getting a great response to our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report. We’ll get up a discussion space on the site soon.
In the meantime I’d thought I’d share a brief excerpt from the book, in chapter 10 on Blogs in the enterprise. You can download four other chapters from the website, including our Social networking in the enterprise chapter.
Selected applications of blogs in the enterprise
INTERNAL BLOGS
Executive communication
Blogs are increasingly used as a tool for CEOs and other senior executives to communicate within the organization. This provides a more informal communication mechanism that is a valuable complement to existing channels.
Read more →
A fundamental question: Are we evolving faster?
By Ross DawsonRecent research suggests that ‘microevolution’ – that within species – happens faster in warmer climates – their DNA changes faster. This leads to the extraordinary tropical diversity of our planet.
Susan Kraemer asks: what happens if the planet’s climate gets warmer? Will we all evolve faster?
Which leads me to the bigger question: are we evolving faster? And if so, what is driving that?
We only occasionally think about human evolution, but now well into the 21st century it would be worth knowing if we were indeed evolving at a faster rate, and what that means.
That’s a good research challenge: determine whether and by how much the pace of human evolution is changing :-)
The extropians would of course say it’s accelerating, and I’d have to say I agree.
Once we start to determine our own DNA, as we are beginning to do, we are playing a hand ourselves in our evolution.
We are shaping ourselves, at an increasing pace.
The story of my life: reflections on how my interests were shaped
By Ross DawsonI just discovered that an extended profile piece on me that appeared in Inside Knowledge magazine in October 2006 is now available online under the title The Knowledge: Ross Dawson.
It is fascinating to me to read it a few years later and consider what has and hasn’t changed. It provides an extremely good overview of my life story and how my work interests have been shaped. It also picked up on my personal interests such as improvisational music and recording as well as my family.
Please have a read of the full article if you’re interested – it’s a good story. Below are a few quotes from me taken from the article.
“The network approach to open innovation is very powerful, especially when you can uncover the nodes, find out how these domains are connected and how you can link people more usefully,” he says. “Some people don’t understand the idea of open innovation. They had better get it soon as you haven’t a hope if you rely solely on your own internal innovation capabilities.”
…
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Influence in launching start-ups – who do you go to?
By Ross DawsonOne of the most important applications of influence is in launching start-ups. This is often a make or break situation – you have a great opportunity to get attention (and on the back of that revenue) when you launch a new company. If it doesn’t work and you don’t get much attention at that point, it doesn’t mean you never get another chance, but it’s going to be a lot harder when you’re yesterday’s news.
The New York Times has a long feature today about PR in Silicon Valley, which has brought an extended response from Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, bringing into focus the question of who the REAL influencers are when it comes to getting word out on start-ups.
The New York Times piece, describing the formation of the PR strategy for word-focused start-up Wordnik, says:
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