Mumbai and Social Media: Data is Not News
The flurry of tweets on Twitter following the terrible events that developed last Thursday in Mumbai have many New Media proponents once again promulgating the notion that Twitter and other social media services are not only changing the face of news media but are dramatically improving it.
One of my favorite New Media news hypesters, Michael Arrington, provided perhaps the best demonstration of the rift that exists between those who understand what news is all about and those who don’t.
In his post, “First Hand Accounts Of Terrorist Attacks In India On Twitter, Flickr,” Arrington writes:
Happy Thanksgiving
Since I know most of my readers are in the United States, The Drama 2.0 Show wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving.
What am I thankful for this year?
- The fact that I haven’t been incarcerated.
- A global economic crisis that has created many profitable trades (and fools like Howard Lindzon who make those those trades possible).
- Patrón Gran Burdeos and Cohiba Esplendidos.
- Young impressionable models from Europe who spend their winters in Punta del Este.
- All of the “entrepreneurs” focused on Web 2.0 and not on the real money-making opportunities.
Best. Invite. Ever.
Earlier today, a reader of The Drama 2.0 Show forwarded me an invite sent to her by the founder of a new startup whose service apparently just came out of private beta. The two paragraphs that had me smiling:
I am asking all of you to go to [URL removed] , sign up and deposit $10 into your account. Even if you don’t play games on a regular basis or at all, it will really help me and the growth of my company. Hey if you do it next time I see you I owe you a beer! I also ask that you forward this on to your email list. It will only take a second, but if everyone does it would really mean a lot to me.
Wall Street Journal: Google To Lay Off Contractors
Google may still be the Internet’s 400-lb. gorilla but the global economic crisis has given the company an ass-beating that it and its employees won’t soon forget.
Despite its ability to hold up quite well thus far in a tough environment, the company isn’t nearly as recession-proof as top executives believed: after hitting a high of $714.87 in December 2007, shares of Google stock closed yesterday at $257.44. The rally that has seen the Dow swing up 1,000 points in two days hasn’t done much for the company that was once was of Wall Street’s favorites – GOOG actually lost $5 while the rest of the market was rallying.
What the Fuck is Wrong with People?
I received a curious comment today on an old post I wrote last year:
Just so that no other semi-professional media types make the same mistake that Linux Insider did, this article is A *joke*. A *spoof*. A *parody*. Second Life has lots of weapons, but they can’t be used to “kill” other residents except in consensual combat zones, and death is very temporary. Second Life is also divided into a Teen Grid for kids from 13 to 17. and the main grid, for people 18 and up. So “Rebecca-Anne” couldn’t have been in SL at all, and “Timothy” would have been on the Teen Grid, where the two adults would not have been able to go.
Sponsor Shout-Out
Thanks to my sponsors for helping support my recent travels.
LookupPage “helps you create a personal web page, always visible on the first page of the leading search engines’ results when someone searches your name.”
My home away from home, E-consultancy.com, is “the UK’s leading online publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research and how-to guides.” If you’re in London this December, be sure to attend the Lemon Studios Christmas party with the E-consultancy.com crew. I, unfortunately, will be spending December at home in sunny South America but with over 400 people already RSVP’d, you ladies are sure to find a few suitable alternatives for some mistletoe fun.
P&G Marketer Questions Social Media Scientology, Asks “Is Social Media Really Media?”
Ted McConnell is general manager of interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble and he has a simple question for social media folks: “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”
Telling the audience at a talk hosted by Cincinnati’s Digital Hub Initiative that he “really [doesn't] want to buy any more banner ads on Facebook,” McConnell provided some interesting perspectives that all social media proponents might want to mull over.
One of those perspectives might be considered heresy; McConnell essentially asked if social media is even media at all:
Tim O’Reilly’s O’Reilly Media = Spammer
I’ve criticized Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media fame quite a bit recently. I’ve referred to him a bourgeois hippie and called “bullshit” on his attempts to turn Web 2.0 into something more than it is, masking, of course, the fact that the hype train is rolling off the tracks.
Given O’Reilly’s utopian ideals and his status as an upstanding netizen, I was surprised to log into my email this morning to find that O’Reilly Media had spammed me.
For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or interview with the
author, contact:
[Contact info removed]
Checking in on Social Stock Pickers
With today’s 427 point drop in the Dow Jones basically putting us in perfect position for a retest of the October 10 intraday low, I thought it’d be a fitting time to look at how some of my favorite “social stock pickers” are doing.
Starting off with Cake Financial’s Cakedex, which is an index of the selections of its “top” members, we see that the innovative concept of social stock picking is a great way to lose money. The Cakedex is down nearly 22% so far this month. That follows declines of approximately 19%, 18%, .15%, 8% and 10% over the previous 5 months. Apparently, social investing is a lot like socialism: what wealth you have is spread around quite well.
The Secret to Raising Money from VCs
I generally don’t like VCs. Most of them are clueless. And most of the time, if you need a few million dollars that you don’t have to get your idea off the ground and can’t raise it from people you know, you are probably wasting your time.
That said, I’ve read enough bullshit advice about VCs and have decided that it’s time to clear things up.
Everything you need to know about raising money from a VC you can tell from the car he drives.
Mercedes-Benz SL65
