Saturday, May 13, 2006

Platform Wars on Web 2.0. 

SquatCrunch: What I can do with OPML. 

Mark Cuban: "99 percent of blogs are about what someone has to say. 99 percent of traditional media is about making money." Bing! 

Four years ago: "Perhaps monoculture has run its course. Maybe what's happening now, but it's hard to see, is that each of us is taking more responsibility for getting our own information, for creating our own entertainment, and not giving that power to the centralized entertainment and information industries." 

Scott Mace: "Google Co-Op seems similar to Share Your OPML, only it's not open and interoperable with other such concepts, but gives Google users one more reason never to leave the Google site." 

An imaginary conversation between Bill Gates and Mike Arrington. 

Bill Gates plotted against Mike Arrington. Looks like Mike has some catching up to do.  

Over 25 years after his death, John Lennon is generally more trendy than Paul McCartney.  

The 53,651 Debate 

I wanted to add a comment to the discussion about whether 10,000 or 25,000 or 53,651 are a significant number of users for a web service.

It depends on how you look at it. Most bloggers would be very happy to have 10,000 readers, no matter how they got there. Mike Arrington is a great guy, but he can only introduce an idea to people. If you capture the imagination of 10,000 people enough to get them to use your service, I think you've done something important. A venture capitalist might not think so, but they're not the only people whose opinions matter.

VCs may have a good perspective on what makes money, but they weren't around the blogging world when the total size of the blogosphere was measured in double digits (i.e. less than 100). In hindsight, you'd have to agree that 25 users was a significant number in 1997 and 1998, when they were busy courting couch potatoes and their eyeballs.

Now, I'm starting to invest myself; maybe I'll lose my shirt, but I'm going to bet on startup-size ideas, and help nurture them into big ones that shape our culture. If you can't get a VC interested in an idea that has attracted 10,000 users (or less) don't give up, they aren't the last word on whether an idea has potential.