John Furrier

Long Tail - New Business Model for the Web

Chris Anderson "nails it".  This is a great post for all in the business of innovating the new environment where the Long Tail is involved. 

I've personally been involved in the long tail world since my days involved in search going back to 1996 to now with blogging and podcasting.  Chris hit it on the mark on his graphs.  A must read to all newbies trying to figure out what the Long Tail means and how to commercialize new media formats and content.

Pictures are worth a thousand words... I will do a podcast on this on PodTech.Net in June

Winer Curry Podcasting Mud fight

The Boston Globe has the story in print on Dave and Adams "who deserves the credit" debate.

Podcasting is not about one individual it's about a community of new content producers so I'm amused by the drama between two good guys.  Quite frankly I think it's getting old.   

In a previous post I've said before that Dave should get the credit for the work done to get podcasting in motion.  I need to add more to that post to be fair to Adam.  But Dave give me a break and leave Adam alone.  Adam deserves the credit for the 'real breakthrough' ...taking the lead on putting podcasting the on the commercial path.  Without Adam I believe that podcasting would not be where it is today.  Dave: it's a relay race and Adam sprinted from where you left off.  He rocked face it.

Dave: you both had a role so just lighten up will you.   Let's see who does what from here?  So far Adam is kicking ass. 

Next Generation Advertising Agency

This is very cool.  This is the kind of trend that speaks volumes to where marketing online is going.  Blogs, Podcasting, VideoBlogs, and new channels of rich media will change the landscape of advertising and media buying.  I don't know who Richard Pollack is but now I want to meet him. 

Clickz reports:

A new agency has opened its doors in D.C. to offer online creative and media services around public policy issues. Next Generation Advertising's head is Richard Pollock, a former EVP for Shandwick Public Affairs and producer for ABC's "Good Morning America".

Next Generation Advertising launches with a focus on rich media, in particular video. Executives declined to name specific clients, but said the firm's current work includes video campaigns on environmental issues and foreign policy.

Pollock is pitching Next Generation as a way for policy organizations to employ video without the constraints of the :30 spot, or the bloated budgets of broadcast advertising. The agency's media services include advertising on blogs via the BlogAds network. Eyeblaster provides rich media ad creation and trafficking. "The whole notion of viral campaigns, of using blogs and bloggers to talk about your issues... all of those strategies are what we want to get people to appreciate," Pollock said.

He said the agency, which employs 10 people, would avoid working on electoral campaigns, and would not affiliate itself with a particular party or agenda. The firm's target clients are non-profits, corporations and associations. In addition to policy work, Next Generation is developing a sideline focus on hotels and hospitality.

Finally Apple Goes Podcasting

Apple Computer will support and organize podcasts in the next version of its iTunes and iPod software, the company said Monday.

Podcasts, which are sound files and audio content such as radio shows, have surged in popularity. They do not require an iPod to listen to them on the go. Any digital MP3 player will work.

"With the next version of iTunes, due within 60 days, there will now be an easy way for everyone to find and subscribe to" podcasts, the company said in a statement.

Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive demonstrated on Sunday evening how Apple's podcasting organization and downloading process would work at a Wall Street Journal technology conference, said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategy, a market research company.

"From the demo, we saw you could put podcasts under categories," Bajarin said. "It makes it much easier to have, access, organize and sync podcasts to an iPod."

The updated digital music jukebox software, which Bajarin said Jobs said was version 4.9, "organizes the podcasts within the iTunes store."

First Ever Podcasts from inside Yahoo

I believe that my podcasts topic 1 and topic 2 with Amr Awadallah is the first ever podcasts from inside Yahoo's corporate headquarters...

Podcasting Show PodTech InfoTalk Series

I'm putting up my podcasting site called PodTech.net - it's a podcasting InfoTalk series dedicated to being a timeshifted radio program about Silicon Valley in the new syndicated world of timeshifted media.

Some people say that Silicon Valley is losing its influence.  My take is that Silicon Valley is just changing.  My show is designed to produce Information about Silicon Valley via podcasting and blogs and push it to the world and then recycle a community back to Silicon Valley.

Yes Silicon Valley is changing ...but it's increasing its' influence because it's now virtual and syndicated!

PodTech.net - Preview for bloggers who visit this site

I will be launching PodTech.net a podcasting site tomorrow.  I wanted to give the folks who read this blog a chance to look at it first. 

The site is staged at www.PodTech.net

I have a series underway with Barracuda Networks.  I've also completed the first podcast from inside the Yahoo corp headquarters last thursday with Amr Awadallah a Yahoo sw/product engineer, enterpreneur, and PhD canidate.

Upcoming Silicon Valley series:

Top Tier VCs - experiences in the valley

CTO who just sold his company after months of due dilligence - his series on open source community as it relates to doing business deals before and after using open source software - its a what to expect when coding in open source series. 

more lined up behind that....

I've focused my attention and money on getting good content and not providing the best visually appealing site ... so all feedback is appreciated -- email me at [email protected]

Fresh Voices and Companies in Silicon Valley

As part of my podcasting work lately I've been looking at the "Fresh Voices of Silicon Valley...the emerging voices that are "Above the Noice".  People, companies and trends doing interesting and relevant work here is Silicon Valley.

Barracuda Networks - CEO Dean Drako and CTO Zach Levow

Yahoo - A great company that has it's bite back!  Quietly changing the game of search and media.

Amr Awadallah  - Yahoo Sr Engineer and PhD Candidate at Stanford working with Mendel Rosenblaum

John Markoff - New book "What the Dormouse Said - How the 60's counterculture shaped the personal computer industry"

More coming soon ...

Video Games increases academic performance

I have this debate with folks including my wife all the time.  Is video gaming good for kids?  When I was a kid I loved baseball and ice hockey and when video games hit the scene I was all over it.  Hence got a degree in computer science.  Hell if gaming promotes computer science I'm all for it and if it increases overall academic performance then damn it's a good move.  Much better than my kids watching rug rats and the crap on TV.

Here is a story that I ran into today .. proof is coming in that says gaming is good for kids.

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2005/05/your_gpa_and_sa.html

Google a one trick poney?

Here in Palo Alto last week Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls Google a "One Trick Poney"

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2005/tc20050513_3634_tc024.htm