Hope to see you at BlogHer. I’ll be there on Saturday, mostly at the FilmLoop table. By the way, FilmLoop is going to give away autographed copies of Sweet Swan of Avon in the gazebo presentation theatre at 1:10 pm. You will be amazed at how Robin autographed the books. I should be easy to [...]
When I posted my entry about the speakers at TED, I did not highlight any of them. Now I’d like to specifically suggest that you watch the video of Majora Carter because there’s a lot we can all learn from this magnificent performance. You can watch it online here or download it here. Again, kudos [...]
A few weeks ago I covered the topic of laying people off. In a sense, this is an easier process because it usually happens in bad times, and it doesn’t single a person out. A firing, by contrast, can occur in good times as well as bad times, and it’s highly personal. I’ve fired people [...]
About a week ago the design of my blog changed, and I wanted to thank the people who did this for me: Javier Cabrera designed the new pages. He is a designer in Argentina. You can learn about his company here. Neil Patel and Cameron Olthuis of Pronet Advertising implemented Javier’s design. You can learn [...]
This is a collection of presentations at the annual TED conference. To TED’s credit, it is making this available to the “rest of us.” (Many thanks to Thomas Wenzl for bringing this to my attention.) Each year, TED hosts some of the world’s most fascinating people: Trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses. The [...]
I’m moderating the Churchill Club’s Startup 2006 panel. We will discuss and debate the challenges and critical success factors to landing funding, proving long-term viability to customers, building a team, and leading a startup to the promised land. The panel members are: Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and CEO, LinkedIn Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot Roman [...]
From Matthew Stibbe, I found out about this article in Salon about bloggers. The source document is a callback survey by Pew Internet that’s located here (how’s that for spreading link love?). The Blogger Callback Survey, sponsored by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (PIAL), obtained telephone interviews with 233 self-identified bloggers from previous [...]
The Speaking Channel provides an analysis of well-known speakers alongside video recordings of those speakers in action. The list of speakers includes: Rudy Giuliani Bill Clinton Arnold Schwarzenegger John Edwards This video analysis is helpful to learn about the craft of public speaking, so check it out if you’re interested in the subject. Also, I’m [...]
1. Make everything available. 2. Help me find it. Chris Anderson, The Long Tail I love authors like Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Anderson. They’re writer’s writers: digging through mounds of research, conducting interviews with famous people, crafting their text, and then publishing tomes with cool titles like The Tipping Point and The Long Tail. And [...]
Last week I made a speech in Des Moines, Iowa for my friends at Channel Bio Corporation. This company sells four brands of corn and soybean seeds: Crow’s, Midwest Seed Genetics, Wilson Seeds, and NC+. Rather interesting stuff...lots of technology to what the company does. In preparation for the speech, the company sent me a [...]
The July/August issue of Stanford Magazine contains a marvelous collection of articles about “Kids Today.” If you have a kid(s), you must read it. If you know people with a kid(s), you should send it to them. Certainly every mommy blogger should link to it! Here is a partial list of the articles: “Growing Concerns” [...]
Make the doors upon a woman’s wit, and it will out at the casement; shut that, and ’twill out at the key-hold; stop that, ’twill fly with the smoke out the chimney. —As You Like It To tell you the truth, I never cared whether William Shakespeare wrote the literature that is attributed to him. [...]
Update August, 2008: If you want to see the world's most complete collection of mommy blogs, go to Moms.alltop. While poking around the BlogHer site, I found what must be the definitive list of blogs for moms. I provide it below. If you know a mom, please forward this list to her. I’m pretty sure [...]
Here is an interview with David Sifry, the founder and CEO of Technorati. In this interview he explains what Technorati does as well as the practices of good blogging. Here are his Favorites Ironically, he doesn't post to his blog too often! But, there are several interesting charts there. Question: How many blogs does Technorati [...]
I came across a very interesting study about word of mouth advertising while reading the NYU PR graduate school blog. Here’s a paragraph to give you a flavor of the article: Surprisingly, the study found that less than 40% of consumers use e-mail to make recommendations to others, including via personal e-mail (37%), by e-mail [...]
Harold Keables taught me how to write. He was my English high-school teacher in the early seventies (1970s, not 1870s). I wasn’t that great a student, so he’s probably having a good laugh in heaven watching me write books and blogs. Mr. Keables used Good Writing: An Informal Manual of Style when I was in [...]
This is a list of the top ten postings as measured by links. It can always be at the top of the blog as a navigation tool. Please vote below. 419 The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint 250 The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs 155 The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists 135 The Art of [...]
We’re in a bubble again. It’s not as frothy as last time, but hallelujah, this time we know what to do, right? One good thing about the dotcom implosion in 2000 is that we got lots of practice laying people off, and I’m afraid that this valuable knowledge may get lost. If you are scoffing [...]
In the spirit of the 4th of July, here is a great fireworks screensaver called Skyrocket. Mac version. Windows version. You can see a video of the screensaver here. The fireworks are rendered in 3D with all sorts of customization. Macintosh users: Be sure to turn on the sound (and tweak other features) by clicking [...]
Here are three interesting essays about how social networks work. Highly relevant reading for anyone in a social networking company—or investing in one. 5 reasons why social networks fail 5 reasons why social networks can succeed Situational Relevance in Social Networking Websites