The Internet Advertising Boom

Keywords: internet, advertising, boom

The Age of Engagement - Morgan Stanley
Mary Meeker's presentation at AdTech
Link

Mo Money From Online Ads - John Battelle's Searchblog
"The industry is posting record numbers, quarter after quarter."
Link

Ten--No, Eleven--Years of Internet Advertising - O'Reilly Radar
"A few weeks ago, DoubleClick published a report entitled Ten Years of Online Advertising(PDF). It has some interesting stats on the growth of internet advertising over the past decade, and some keen observations about the current internet advertising landscape."
Link

Google the rampant ad machine - what’s a publisher to do..? - SimonWaldman.net
"But the really striking thing here is the pace of it all. Blistering. Fuelled of course by an arms race with Yahoo! that seems to be bringing out the best in both players."
Link

News:
Advertising - Topix.net

Blog:
Advertising Archives - PaidContent.org
Ad-Tech Blog

Discuss:
Internet ad sales better than ever - AO
WebmasterWorld

Bookmarks:
del.icio.us/tag/marketing
del.icio.us/tag/advertising

Learn:
How Web Advertising Works - HowStuffWorks

The Skype Phenomenon

Skype
Originally uploaded by divedi.

Keywords: VoIP, Skype

John C. Dvorak likes Skype:
"No real marketing. No ballyhoo. No hubbub. No serious coverage by the major media. The result? Thirty million registered users -- so far. This is in a period of less than two years. It's from Sweden and it's called Skype. It's free. It's a phenomenon."
Link
Source: AlwaysOn

Discuss:
John Dvorak Hypes Skype - Slashdot

Presentation:
Niklas Zennstrom's presentation at VON Canada
Niklas Zennstrom's PowerPoint from VON Canada 2005

Question:
Who is going to buy Skype? - Strategic Board Blog

News:
Telecom - Topix.net

Blogs:
Skype - Technorati
Skype Journal
Om Malik's Broadband Blog
EuroTelcoblog
The Jeff Pulver Blog
IP Telephony
Fractals of Change
The VoIP Weblog
The VoIP Weblog - Creative Weblogging

Bookmarks:
del.icio.us/tag/skype
del.icio.us/tag/voip

Audio:
Niklas Zennstrom - IT Conversations
Telecom Transformation - IT Conversations

Learn:
How VoIP Works - HowStuffWorks

Les Blogs in Paris

Les Blogs in Paris
Originally uploaded by divedi.

Keywords: blog

Location: Paris

Organizer:
Loic Le Meur

News:
Vive les Blogs! - Wired

Blogs:
Les Blogs - Technorati
The big blog company

Tags:
Technorati

Photos:
Flickr

Wiki:
LoicLeMeur Wiki - Internet 2.0
LoicLeMeur Wiki - LesBlogsCoverage

See also:
The Age of Blogs

Interview:
Joi Ito In Conversation with R.U. Sirius - NeoFiles

Books:
The Red Couch

Conferences:
Loic Le Meur

Discuss:
Bloggers - tribe.net

The Age of Blogs

The Age of Blogs
Originally uploaded by divedi.

Keywords: blog

"How big are blogs? Try Johannes Gutenberg out for size. His printing press, unveiled in 1440, sparked a publishing boom and an information revolution. Some say it led to the Protestant Reformation and Western democracy."

"In a world chock-full of citizen publishers, we mainstream types control an ever-smaller chunk of human knowledge. Some of us will work to draw in more of what the bloggers know, vetting it, editing it, and packaging it into our closed productions. But here's betting that we also forge ahead in the open world. The measure of success in that world is not a finished product. The winners will be those who host the very best conversations."
Link
Source: Business Week

Discuss:
Blogs Matter, and So Does Smart Online Advertising - AlwaysOn

News:
Blog News - Topix.net

Blogs - Europe:
Vive les Blogs! - Wired

Blogosphere:
Technorati
The Blog Herald
BlogPulse Highlights
Blogcount.com

Entrepreneur:
Jason Calacanis & Brian Alvey, Weblogs, Inc., blog
Nick Denton, Gawker Media
Hylton Jolliffe & Stowe Boyd, Corante
Torsten Jacobi, Creative Weblogging
Advertising, editorial lines blur as bloggers' salaries tied to traffic - OJR

Events:
Les Blogs

Books:
We the Media

Blog Glossary:
Samizdata.net

Speech:
Rupert Murdoch

Special Report:
Abandoning the News - Carnegie Reporter

Audio:
Bloggercon III - IT Conversations

The Personal Fabrication Revolution

Keywords: Neil Gershenfeld

"What if you could design and produce your own products, in your own home, with a machine that can be used to make almost anything? Imagine if you didn't have to wait for a company to sell the product you wanted but could use your own personal fabricator to create it instead.

Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, believes that personal fabricators will allow us to do just that and revolutionize our world just as personal computers did a generation ago. He highlights the need for a micro-VC investment model in order to encourage the adoption of Fab Lab type initiatives and promote the concept of personal fabrication."
Link
Source: IT Conversations

Video:
Personal Fabrication Future Salon - Internet Archive

News:
Desktop manufacturing - Economist

Blogs:
Second Life Future Salon
Neil Gershenfeld - Technorati

Books:
Desktop Factories - Business Week

Learn:
How to Make (Almost) Anything - MIT OCW
How Printable Computers Will Work - HowStuffWorks

China's Great Depression

Keywords: China, Great Depression, recession

"Having recently completed Rothbard’s 'America’s Great Depression', I couldn’t help draw the parallels between America’s roaring 20’s and China’s roaring economy today, and I couldn’t help conclude that China will inevitably fall in a depression just like America did during the 1930s. The objective of this article is to present an Austrian argument as to why this must happen; to substantiate my arguments, I will be quoting Rothbard’s Fifth Edition where relevant."

"In order to establish our parallel, we need some historical perspective of the relationship between a world superpower and a rising economic giant. In the 1920s, Great Britain was the superpower of the world, and the United States was the rising giant. As such, Great Britain ran its economic policies independently, and the U.S. adapted its own policies in a somewhat subordinated manner. Today, The United States is the hegemonic superpower of the world, and China is the rising economic giant. Not surprisingly, the U.S. runs its policy independently, while China adjusts its own accordingly."

"Finally, the bust may be triggered by a worldwide crisis in crude oil supplies. Peak oil supply is around the corner, if not already behind us, and Middle East or Caspian instability could sharply cut oil supplies. Historically, oil shortages and their concomitant rise of oil prices have always induced a recession. China’s growing dependence on oil ensures that should an oil crisis occur, it will slip into recession.

To summarize, the likely candidates for a trigger to the Chinese depression are (1) a worldwide currency, banking, or derivatives crisis, (2) a U.S. recession, (3) the containment of runaway inflation, (4) the disappearance of Chinese trade surpluses, and (5) an oil supply crisis.

Whatever the trigger of the bust in China, there is little doubt that this will provide the onset of a worldwide depression. Just like the U.S. emerged from the Great Depression as the unrivalled superpower of the world, so it is likely that China will emerge as the next."
Link
Source: Financial Sense

Discuss:
AlwaysOn

Scenarios:
China's Stresses, Goals, Military Buildups... and Futures - Winds of Change.NET

See also:
The Coming Energy Crisis or Peak Oil
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Sinking Globalization

News:
China - Topix.net
China - Google News
China - Yahoo News

Blogs:
China - Technorati
The China Finance Resource Page
Bubble Blog
China Bubble

Google's Magic and Challenges

Keywords: Google

"Over the last five years, the world has witnessed the rise of Google from one search engine among many to the undisputed leader of the pack. Googling is now a global phenomenon. Our Read My Lips feature takes a look at Google’s recent successes — and explores what lies on the horizon for the California-based company."
Link
Source: Globalist

Discuss:
AlwaysOn
Google Finance and Business Operations - WebmasterWorld
Google - Slashdot

News:
Google - Google News
Google - Yahoo News
Google - Topix.net

Blogs:
Google - Technorati
Google Blogoscoped
John Battelle's Searchblog
Inside Google
Search Engine Watch Blog
The Unofficial Google Weblog
Google Blog

Lunch with Mikhail Gorbachev

Keywords: Mikhail Gorbachev, Ray Kurzweil

"With only 53,000 engineering graduates a year compared to Russia's 200,000, the U.S. needs to 'communicate the importance of science in today's world,' Mikhail Gorbachev told Ray Kurzweil in a luncheon discussion that ranged from blogs to nuclear disarmament and longevity."
Link
Source: KurzweilAI.net

News:
Mikhail Gorbachev - Google News
Mikhail Gorbachev - Yahoo News
Mikhail Gorbachev - Topix.net

Blogs:
Dobro Pozhalovat, Mr. President - Google Blog
Mikhail Gorbachev - Technorati

Marc Benioff, Microsoft and Web 2.0

Keywords: Marc Benioff, Microsoft, Web 2.0, application service provider (ASP)

Marc Benioff talks about Microsoft:
"Q: This summer you're coming out with what you've described as an operating system for these on-demand applications. Doesn't this put you in the sights of Bill Gates, who's now calling you a rival?

A: Yeah, that's true. But we haven't really seen Microsoft take the leadership position in moving the software model forward. In fact, they recently announced that their competing product would be delayed until the end of this year and maybe even the first quarter of next year. That is just unreal.

Q: So you're saying that Microsoft is top-heavy and sluggish?

A: We've seen that with the BlackBerry, we've seen that with the iPod, we've seen that even with Firefox in the browser. Microsoft's models are breaking down in many areas."
Link
Source: Newsweek

Salesforce.com: The vision gets grander
"Salesforce.com started off as a simple thing. It was software running on the company's own computers that customers could use to manage their sales forces. By subscribing to Salesforce.com, customers avoided the cost and trouble of buying their own software and computers, setting up a system, and keeping it running. Over the years, Benioff added more capabilities, including tools that clients could use to customize their service and that independent software outfits could use to build related applications. That helped Salesforce.com round up over 13,900 customers with 227,000 individual subscribers.

Multiforce takes things a big step further. The technology, which is to be introduced in June, turns Salesforce.com into a platform upon which customers can run any number of on-demand applications--all of which run on its farm of computers and tap into one gigantic database. Computer users can essentially live their professional lives in the Salesforce.com interface and click back and forth between their most-used programs. This positions Salesforce.com as the counterpart in the online world to the role Microsoft plays in the PC world.

Benioff is so cock-sure about Multiforce's prospects that he violates one of the basic tenants of computerdom: Don't poke Microsoft in the eye. Microsoft entered the customer-relations management realm with traditional packaged software two years ago, but hasn't yet racked up the millions of users it needs for a business to register as a success for the software giant. 'Who's afraid of Microsoft? They’re not able to perform,' scoffs Benioff."
Link
Source: Business Week

Discuss:
Open Source Everything, and Sell Your Services - AlwaysOn

News:
Salesforce.com - Topix.net
Marc Benioff - Google News
Marc Benioff - Yahoo News

Blogs:
Salesforce’s Operating System - Emergic.org
Marc Benioff - Technorati
SalesForceWatch.com

Audio:
Marc Benioff - Web 2.0 - IT Conversations
Web 2.0 - IT Conversations
Ray Lane - Software: To Infinity and Beyond - IT Conversations

Opinion:
The end of an era - The Desktop PC - Mark Cuban

Conferences:
Web 2.0
Software as a Service - The CIO Weblog

Special Report:
Beyond Blue - Business Week

Learn:
How ASPs Work - HowStuffWorks

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Keywords: Thomas L. Friedman, globalization, outsourcing, 21st century

Thomas Friedman asks:
"Globalization has collapsed time and distance and raised the notion that someone anywhere on earth can do your job, more cheaply. Can Americans rise to the challenge on this leveled playing field?"

"Globalization 1.0 (1492 to 1800) shrank the world from a size large to a size medium, and the dynamic force in that era was countries globalizing for resources and imperial conquest.

Globalization 2.0 (1800 to 2000) shrank the world from a size medium to a size small, and it was spearheaded by companies globalizing for markets and labor. Globalization 3.0 (which started around 2000) is shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time. And while the dynamic force in Globalization 1.0 was countries globalizing and the dynamic force in Globalization 2.0 was companies globalizing, the dynamic force in Globalization 3.0 -- the thing that gives it its unique character -- is individuals and small groups globalizing.

Individuals must, and can, now ask: where do I fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how can I, on my own, collaborate with others globally? "
Link
Source: NY Times Magazine

Interview:
Why the World Is Flat - Wired

Discuss:
AlwaysOn

Reviews:
Getting Flat, Part 1 - Linux Journal
Getting Flat, Part 2 - Linux Journal

News:
Thomas L. Friedman - Google News
Thomas L. Friedman - Yahoo News
Thomas L. Friedman - Topix.net

Blogs:
Thomas L. Friedman - Technorati
enduring Friedman

Opinion:
The Transcontinental Railroad - Singularity Watch
Revenge of the Right Brain - Wired
Sinking Globalization
Moore's Lore - Corante
Thomas P.M. Barnett
Global Guerrillas

Globalization:
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Policy
Globalist
Center For Strategic & International Studies
RAND
Globalization - About.com
Yale Global
Open Source Diplomacy

Outsourcing:
Six Blind Men and the Offshoring Elephant - Part 1 of 18 - Viewpoint of an Entrepreneur
Outsourcing - Topix.net
Outsourcing news - Moreover
The Outsourcing Weblog
Outsourcing Times
Workplace - CNET News
Offshoring Digest
Offshore Outsourcing World

Scenarios:
Existential Risks

Audio:
Thomas Barnett - IT Conversations

Learn:
Sloan School of Management - MIT OpenCourseWare
How ASPs Work - HowStuffWorks

Time not only for a new Pope, but for a strong 21st century leader

Keywords: Pope John Paul II, pope, Roman Catholic Church

The pope has died.

News:
Pope John Paul II - Google News
Pope John Paul II - Yahoo News
Pope John Paul II - Topix.net

Blogs:
The Pope Blog
Pope Watch
Catholic Insider
Catholic Church - Religion News Blog
Pope John Paul II - Technorati

Rodrigo A. Sepъlveda Schulz writes:

"Rather discouraging state of the world, don't you think ? I was watching the news tonight, following the last moments of John-Paul II. It seemed to me I could have been watching the last episode of American Pop Idol, or Survivor, or whatever Reality show on TV. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking unrespectfully about the last moments of an old man. But I find it to be really sad times that we should have to watch live on TV the last breaths of a man, as mighty he could be.

In Europe, we are also awaiting news about the death of Rainier Grimaldi, ruler of Monaco. His son Albert has assumed the regency of the country yesterday while we wait for his father to pass away. Rather indecent to listen to updates every 15' on the radio.

Odd that is should affect the rulers of two micro-states of less than 2 kmІ on the European continent: Monaco and Vatican City. Another examples of our historical heritage, as these countries don't make much sense today.

I have great concerns with churches in general (again, not with religion, nor with moderately religious people, but with the church apparatus), and the Catholic Church in particular. I believe that the Catholic Church should really modernize itself and reflect the modern world in its modus operandi. Therefore it should recognize
- that AIDS is a major catastrophe for the African continent and promote condoms aggressively
- that it is antiquated to forbid priests to marry or have sex (couldn't we decrease all these cases of paedophilia by priests ?)
- that it is obnoxious to display such wealth in churches while catholic folks live in absolute poverty in parts of Latin America (I still can't believe the religious fervour on display on that continent).
- apologize again for the atrocities of its history: the Inquisition, the slaughtering of Indian Americans, the Crusades, the Renaissance religious wars, etc. Clear and final apology of wrong-doing.
- recognize that 87% of Catholics live in the Southern hemisphere, not in Italy (hey Karol was the first non Italian Pope in over 450 years)
- that the upper ranks of the Catholic church be open to WOMEN (hey boys, girls are more than 50% of the world population!)

You might say that I have no right to have an opinion on the inner workings of something I don't share (faith in a Catholic god), and that I have no thorough understanding of (the Catholic Church institution and theology). Well it's like saying that by not knowing how to cook, one is unable to appreciate a meal at a good restaurant. I have been reading about the Church for many years, and I still don't understand their positions on the above mentionned issues.

I mind about the Catholic Church because more than a ONE billion people claim they are Catholics. Hence that more than 1/6 of the world population will also follow the recommendations of the Pope.

In the next few days, 117 cardinal electors will go to Rome and perform an old ritual (although modernized by JP2) to select a new leader. The Vatican is not a democracy, as Catholics don't vote. Cardinals are appointed by the Pope, himself appointed by cardinals. Reminds me of the Old Regime in France under the Bourbons... It's not a transparent process as papal electors are sworn to absolute secrecy, unless a cardinal wishes to get automatically excommunicated (a temporal sanction for temporal men...).

I would really like the following in the nexts few weeks:

- that candidates for the Papal throne would publish their political, spiritual and social programme for their reign (I believe I won't see this in my lifetime...)
- that the next Pope will come from the Southern Hemisphere: Asian, Latin American or African.
- that the next Pope will be an energetic man (hey no women are made Cardinals these days...) below 70 years old (would you elect your next president to be over 70? not on his first term right ?)
- that the next Pope will change the Vatican system, so that Popes are obliged to step down once they reach 80 years old, and that he introduces more democratic principles to govern the Church.

I looked at the list of cardinals and electors (from www.catholic-pages.com): not many are under 70. Even less are from countries other than Europe + USA. Only ONE is below 60 years old.

Lуpez Trujillo, Alfonso (Colombia) - Aged 69
Lуpez Rodriguez, Nicolбs de Jesъs (Dominican Republic) - Aged 68
Pengo, Polycarp (Tanzania) - Aged 60
Rivera Carrera, Norberto (Mexico) - Aged 62
Dias, Ivan (India) - Aged 68
Terrazas Sandoval, Julio (Bolivia) - Aged 69
Napier, Wilfrid Fox (South Africa) - Aged 64
Rodrнguez Maradiaga, Oscar Andrйs (Honduras) - Aged 62
Cipriani Thorne, Juan Luis (Peru) - Aged 61
Bergoglio, Jorge Mario (Argentina) - Aged 68
Okogie, Anthony Olubumni (Nigeria) - Aged 68
Zubeir Wako, Gabriel (Sudan) - Aged 64
Toppo, Telesphore Placidus (India) - Aged 65
Pell, George (Australia) - Aged 63

Turkson, Peter Kodwo Appiah (Ghana) - Aged 56

I can't choose a good candidate from this crowd. I can't read their program like in a normal election. Good luck gentlemen; be wise in your choice. Only history will be your judge. I look forward to the 'Papam Habemus' and the next 'Urbi et Orbi'.

PS: A good movie of the papal election (+ some real bad propaganda during the Cold War) was shot by Anthony Quinn: The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)"
Link
Source: Rodrigo A. Sepъlveda Schulz

Opinion:
The Reformation - Buzz Machine

Special Report:
An influential pontiff dies - CNN

Images:
Pope - Flickr

Discuss:
One of the true heroes of the twentieth century - kuro5hin.org
John Paul II, a popular pope, not a great one - kuro5hin.org

Learn:
How the Papacy Works - HowStuffWorks

Auduo:
Religious War In Light of the Infinite Game - The Long Now Foundation