Tag Archives: social networking

The Law of Social Networks and Virtual Worlds

I am very interested in the emerging social infrastructure (Facebook, Ning, …) and virtual world (Second Life, …) platforms because I expect to see more and more startups leveraging these not just for viral distribution but at the core of their businesses. … Continue reading

Posted in startups, VC, Venture Capital, virtual worlds | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Emerging Ecosystems & Platforms

I’m at David Kirkpatrick’s iMeme conference in SF. It’s likely going to be a treat. The speakers and the attendees are of great caliber. As an ex-platform guy who’s recently spent a lot of time thinking about social infrastructure, I’m … Continue reading

Posted in Digital Media, Google, Microsoft, SaaS, startups, virtual worlds, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Art of Viral Distribution is Becoming a Science

Viral marketing and viral distribution are sometimes confused. Viral marketing is about the messaging/positioning first and foremost; the call to action is in second place. Viral distribution is about the packaging of discovering, learning about / evaluating and, hopefully, using … Continue reading

Posted in Social Commerce, startups, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Rise of Social Infrastructure

I wrote this piece on social infrastructure last fall for the inaugural issue of Social Computing Magazine. As most startups, SCM was a little late to launch and hence some of the data and references in the article are dated. … Continue reading

Posted in Digital Media, MySpace, Social Commerce, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Widgets, Widgets, Everywhere

Widgets are the new cool. Everyone agrees they are a big phenomenon that’s here to stay. No, widgets are not new. They’ve been around for a very long time in multiple technology implementations. Some prior examples are in Brad Feld’s … Continue reading

Posted in Digital Media, Mobile, MySpace, startups, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

MySpace Doesn’t Want You to Make Money

In the continuing saga of MySpace vs. third-parties-who-want-to-make-a-buck, MySpace recently blocked Revver. TechCrunch got MySpace PR to explain why it happened. If a widget violates our TOS, we block them. Breaches would include any person, widget or software that violates … Continue reading

Posted in Digital Media, MySpace, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

Flipping the Ad Model: Consumer Choice == More Money

Talk to a grizzled broadcast TV exec and he’ll lament consumer choice: the choice of many cable/sat channels, the choice of spending time online or in front of the TV, the choice of whether to watch ads or fast-forward through them, … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Digital Media, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Attention Battle

Many virtual worlds, from Club Penguin to Second Life, combine the best of social networking and immersive gaming to create a great user experience. One of the most interesting aspects of the result is that it requires focus (a fact, … Continue reading

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Social Commerce

I finally did it. Earlier in the week I noticed that Wikipedia didn’t have a page for social commerce, so I tried to create one. 30+mins into it, IE 7.0.5730.11 crashed (too many tabs open) and I lost my work. … Continue reading

Posted in Social Commerce, startups, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Monetizing Social Networks

The MIT VC Conference is tomorrow. I’m taking part in a panel on monetizing social networking businesses. It promises to be a very interesting discussion, judging by the emails that have been flying between the panelists and the caliber of … Continue reading

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