I got back to my hotel room after a long and enjoyable day – my first day back from a glorious week off – and did a quick Techmeme check before watching 24. The top item was a long, graphic, and upsetting story from Kathy Sierra . I don’t know Kathy, but I think her blog is great and it almost always prompts me to think of something new. Scoble summarized my feelings well in his post – “I’m physically ill after reading what happened to Kathy Sierra .” ...
Given that it’s getting a little cooler out and I’ve been wearing more long sleeve t-shirts, I decided to update the look and feel of my blog . My friend Kevin Menzie – the CEO of Slice of Lime – who has been doing some amazing work for a number of our portfolio companies – did much of the work. We’re still shaking out a few things, so be patient if you notice a problem. I’m interested in any feedback – good or bad – as I’ve got a new blog in the works with a similar look and feel. Please comment freely on my new wardrobe. Of course, if you run into any bugs, please tell me.
Anil Dash – who I only know through his blog – has an awesome post up this morning titled “Making Something Meaningful.” If you are a blogger, it’s definitely worth reading.
I got the following email from service@cinemanow.com today. Brad, Thanks for posting comments regarding CinemaNow on https://feld.com/archives/2006/03/cinemanow_is_ou.html . With regards to the comments about pricing/Netflix towards the end of the review; just wanted to take the time to let you know that we are working as hard as we can to provide our customers with the best experience possible. We are working to try to convince the studios that there IS a market out there for this kind of consumption of video, but ultimately they own the rights to their libraries, and dictate how/when/where/why regarding the distribution of their titles. Your review, and the comments of more consumers helps us greatly in this cause! ...
We did a brainjam at our office today with about 30 people. Five minute overviews of what you are up to (plenty of real time demos) and then active discussion. It was a fun and intellectually vigorous day – plenty of stuff you’d expect along with a couple of bizarrely intriguing things. Near then end of the brainjam, Jim Turner tossed up the site for his “business blogging conference cruise.” I hate boats so I won’t be joining him, but if you like cruising and blogging take a look.
I love stats (also know to serious people as “analytics.”) In the past, I’ve written about the variety of stats packages I use and track regularly (e.g. at least daily.) Today, FeedBurner came out with an upgrade to its stats that add a number of new things, including uncommon uses, the concept of “reach”, and item popularity. Mike Arrington at Techcrunch has a comprehensive post up with screen shots – rather than repeat this here, I’ll simply point you there to take a look . ...
If you are in Boulder on February 21st and interested in blogging and RSS, the Boulder Software Club is putting on an event at Cooley Godward’s offices at 380 Interlocken Crescent, Suite 900 in Broomfield. The panelists are Howard Kaushansky (Umbria CEO), Greg Reinacker (NewsGator CTO), and Seth Levine (Mobius Venture Capital). Paul Gross from Cooley Godward is moderating. They’ll be covering the following topics: How can a company use the blogosphere to measure the buzz about itself and its competitors? Why RSS instead of e-mail – isn’t it just the same thing? Isn’t this just for bloggers? How have other companies used the blogosphere effectively? What are typical use-cases of RSS applied to the enterprise, what types of products are available to facilitate these use-cases and how do I get started? RSS sounds like another bubble – lots of companies getting funded that do something with RSS. Is there a business model in RSS and has there been too much investment here? Should my company have a blog? If you are interested, RSVP to sms@dimensional.com or call 303–642–7168.
NPR had a priceless piece on blogging and marriage last night by Julie Zickefoose . “I’m trying to figure out when these slim white machines took over our lives.” Julie covers heroin, reader comments, and daily postings. “This is weird, scary, and strangely satisfying at the same time. Where did they find me? Why do they care?” Lots of good advice about marital blogging and topic swiping.
Jeff Jarvis took some shots (well deserved) at VC bloggers and Ben Casnocha followed up with his own commentary . It motivated me to clean up my blogroll (sorry – no top 10 blogger list today) and dump bloggers that hadn’t posted anything in at least a month. Kind of like “ring out the old, ring in the new.”
I regularly get asked the question “why do you bother writing things like the Term Sheet series or the Letter of Intent series.” (yeah – I also get the “why do you bother blogging” question.) While writing things like the Term Sheet series is fun, gives Jason and I chance to collaborate on something different, gets us connected to lots of new and interesting people, and occasionally forces us to think about something and/or express an opinion on something where we previously would hedge about, we don’t learn that much. ...