The Scoble Experiment: Day 13 Report
The Scoble Experiment is proving to be quite fruitful. Less than two weeks in, despite the increasingly debilitating physical impacts, important findings are already being made.
The latest: confirmation of my hypothesis that Twitter users are stupid.
Yesterday’s bloody Monday in the financial markets was the talk of Twitter. And true to form, the twats demonstrated that they didn’t have a clue.
Here are some of the gems I managed to catch.
Robert Scoble himself is concerned about the impact of the crisis on the working class:
Introducing LookupPage: The Drama 2.0 Show’s Newest Sponsor
I’m pleased to announce that The Drama 2.0 Show has added a new company to its roster of sponsors - LookupPage.
LookupPage is owned and operated by Cyclicom, a company that operates a number of online services.
Disclosures
- The information used in this review was obtained via several email exchanges I had with LookupPage’s Udi Drezner.
- I have not signed a non-disclosure agreement with LookupPage/Cyclicom.
- After writing this review, I provided Udi with excerpts containing material facts that he disclosed in our exchanges and requested that he check them for accuracy. None of my analysis was provided to him for review and thus, he and Cyclicom are reading my opinions for the first time here.
Digital Prophet Jason Calacanis Predicts Economic Troubles
Perhaps one of the more amusing aspects of the ongoing economic clusterfuck is the fact that some of the startup world’s most prominent personalities are suddenly realizing that this “crisis” is going to have a big impact on startups.
Not only have I been discussing the fact that the economic system of the United States was little more than a ponzi scheme for some time, I noted, of course, that Silicon Valley is not a “walled garden” separated from the economy at large.
But apparently my ability to read the writing on the wall put me ahead of the curve.
Note to BusinessWeek: Henry Blodget is NOT a Wall Street Internet Analyst
No sooner than I gave BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange a fairly positive review did I come across an advertisement for it that reminds me just how dumb BusinessWeek can often be.
As you can see above, one of BusinessWeek’s ads for Business Exchange features a photo of Henry Blodget with a smile only a mother could love alongside the caption “Voted the No. 1 Internet Analyst on Wall Street.”
My question: by who exactly? The Disgraced Former Wall Street Analyst Alumni Association?
Web Meets World: Tim O’Reilly’s Bullshit Keynote
I recently called Tim O’Reilly out for the comments he made during his keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo which were in direct conflict with his past hype promulgation.
I took the time to watch O’Reilly’s keynote earlier and had to cover my nose - it’s a mix of revisionist history, backtracking, fearmongering, greenwashing and political propaganda.
From calling Dell’s just-in-time inventory strategy an example of the “collective intelligence” concept he thinks Web 2.0 stands for to discussing all of the problems that exist in the world today, O’Reilly covers a lot of ground as he tries to add substance to a conference that has historically been about fluff.
eBay: Once You’re Dumb, Twice You’re Dumber
In “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good,” Sarah Lacy of BusinessWeek, SXSW and tech|ticker infamy describes the “rise” of Web 2.0.
But now that even Tim O’Reilly recognizes that the hole in the hull of the Titanic is pretty damn bad, he’s jumping ship.
So I have a suggestion for Lacy’s next book: “Once You’re Dumb, Twice You’re Dumber: How eBay Wasted Billions on Web 2.0.”
eBay’s desire to sell peer-to-peer VOIP company Skype, which it purchased for $2.6 billion in 2005, is well-known. It has already written off more than $1 billion of that purchase as Skype has failed to live up to expectations.
The Scoble Experiment: Day 5 Report
I have developed a slight rash on my back. My doctors tell me that this reaction is typical within the first week of exposure to the Twitter toxin.
The rash is well worth it, however, as I have already made an important discovery via Twitter: the reason why Web 2.0 doesn’t make any money.
The vast majority of the people involved with Web 2.0 on Twitter who I am “following” seem to be spending more time at conferences and other such useless events than they do actually working. I have seen no shortage of tweets from “industry folk” discussing conferences and events that I never even knew existed and could not imagine anyone would ever find it necessary to attend.
Web 2.0 Is Too Big to Fail: Drama 2.0 Announces Web 2.0 Bailout Plan
Now that the United States government has proven that it’s the greatest fool and Americans would have to be dumb, deaf and blind to not recognize that they officially live in a socialist economy, I thought it’d be worthwhile to ensure that Web 2.0 throws its hat into the bailout ring.
My Web 2.0 bailout plan is designed to ensure that the Web 2.0 industry remains fundamentally sound for years to come.
Here are the three components:
Tim O’Reilly Sees the End of Web 2.0, Tries to Change His Stripes
When Tim O’Reilly decided that the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco in November was not going to be about Web 2.0, I stated:
The obvious truth is that even the organizers of the Web 2.0 Summit have realized how marginal Web 2.0 is and ostensibly didn’t feel confident that they could find enough fluff for 2008’s Web 2.0 Summit to deliver the type of hype paying attendees deserve to receive.
I noted that O’Reilly’s blog post explaining the Web 2.0-free Web 2.0 Summit essentially stated “the people involved with Web 2.0 have rediscovered the real world” and that “Web 2.0 is old news and the ’smart stupid money’ has moved on.”
Sponsor Shout-Out
Last month I decided to buy my daily driver some new shoes in preparation for the upcoming summer - Lorenzo WL13 22″ chrome rims with Pirelli PZero Nero tires. Thanks to my fine sponsors, only ~50% of the cost was out-of-pocket.
Finnish startup MySites bills itself as a “single place for all your online needs” where “you can create and customize a website, save and share any media, decide who can view it, embed anywhere, and use any device.” The company has been throwing back-to-school parties that appear to have copious amounts of alcohol involved.
keep looking »Sponsors
About
Drama 2.0 spikes the Web 2.0 kool aid by providing critical analyses of Web 2.0, its people, its startups and its impact on the world of media. Other topics are explored when Drama 2.0 has been drinking too much 1975 Dom Perignon. Read more about the Internet's version of Keyser Söze and find out what people are saying.
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