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"...delivering business geekery at its best"

Draft presentations on business model design for web services and "social media" principles, economics and technologies.
The opinions published here are mine and not necessarily my employer's.

Jan 08

Ironic Journalism 101

From Fortune: “Eric Schmidt wishes he could rescue newspapers”

Eric Schmidt: I think the solution is tighter integration [with newspapers]. In other words, we can do this without making an acquisition. The term I’ve been using is ‘merge without merging.’ The Web allows you to do that, where you can get the Web systems of both organizations fairly well integrated, and you don’t have to do it on exclusive basis.

Adam Lashinsky: If not buy, how about just pump some cash into them, the way Microsoft famously once did with Apple?

Do we all understand why this is exactly the wrong follow-up question?

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Jan 07

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard (via TheOnion)

Of course this is hilarious, but I’m really curious about the production costs here. If they’re getting those sets and software mockups done super cheap…it could be such an eye opener for Hollywood-types.

I am reminded of a two-part tweet from Clay Shirky:

(1/2) Just gave a talk @ a TV conf. Talked about new economics of production. Not *one* question was “How can we lower our costs?”
(2/2) The econ questions were versions of “How can we raise enough revenue on the web to pay for our pre-web cost structures?

Exactly.

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“

The Viable Systems Model, or VSM is a model of the organisational structure of any viable or autonomous system.

A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment.

One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are adaptable.

The VSM expresses a model for a viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic description that is applicable to any organisation that is a viable system and capable of autonomy.

—

Viable System Model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Man, THAT is interesting. Can’t wait to read up on this further.

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Jan 06

» Social Media Monitoring and Engagement in the Corporation/Enterprise: Centralized or De-Centralized?

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“ I believe social interaction could have rule engines. Etiquette is programmable.

—

Justin Kistner - The Lord Matt Borg attempts to automate social interaction

Q: How futuristic is this?

A: Not very.

Justin has said something to the effect of: “Whoever makes the etiquette API will get rich.” I agree.

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Adverse Selection, Incentive, and Idiocracy

What happens if we take the idea of incentives being exchanged for EVERYTHING we do to the extreme (non-likely) conclusion?

What happens when we’ve all given away information and gotten burned?

What happens if we have ALL been scammed, hacked or phished?

Originally posted as a comment by Taylor Davidson on Ethan Bauley Dot Com using Disqus.

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Jan 04

» Foodie at Fifteen (now 16)

File under “amazing blog written by a teenager”. Here’s a really good restaurant/meal review.

Anyone care to get media-tech philosophical about this?

What happens when 10 year olds write blogs?

(via @ethank)

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“

Sweepery makes it easy for businesses to create online giveaways.

Incentives work. Over 82% of people are happy to provide information about themselves in exchange for a chance to win something.

—

Sweepery – About

File under “Is this VRM?”

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Jan 03

Square One Dining - Los Angeles, CA, 90029 - Citysearch

Just used Facebook Connect for the first time on the new Beta version of Citysearch (yes, very 2005 of me). Works great, very exciting, can’t wait for everything to be piped together like this.

Also: the brioche french toast at Square One will blow your mind ;-)

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» VRM in 2009

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Jan 02

“

The early investors came in with a zero pre-money valuation, but the founders got warrants at two times, three times, and five times valuations.

Once the stock price doubled, the initial investors would be diluted. Once they had tripled their money, they would get diluted again. They would be diluted one more time when they had received five times their money.

[Founder] had created a contingent valuation. The effective initial valuation ultimately depended on how well [Company] did.

—

First correct guess as to what company this is wins a special prize…

(If I emailed you this quote beforehand, you’re disqualified ;-)

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“ we have two locations at CES this year, and 4 of us are going to the show. but we could use some help and thought it may be best to have two users come with us to the show and help us tell people about boxee.

—

boxee blog » last-minute opportunity for boxee users at CES

Great idea…

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adamiss:

Friday Funnies: The Madoff scandal widens - Reason Magazine

poortaste:onemoretimewithfeeling:jeffmiller:

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» Attention: Controlling Your Attention is the New Work Ethic

I just discovered this about 6 months ago but am still learning the ropes…

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“

[Facebook] has one big dig against it. It’s not profitable and self sustaining.

And so it taints the whole social media/social networking sector to some degree.

—

Things I Wish For In The New Year

This is exactly why I constantly criticize Facebook. It’s for the greater good! ;-)

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