Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: DEMO 2006 (Page 3 of 7)

Full Disclosure: My Blog Coverage

February 10, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Did you see this article yesterday in the Wall Steet Journal’s Marketplace section: “How Tech Start-Ups Tap Blogs as Cheerleaders”? It’s worth a read. [I’d give you the link, but it requires a paid subscription.] After reading this, and in the spirit of good, common-sense ethical practice, I’m declaring here and now that I am not paid by any of the companies mentioned in my “Demo 2006” conference coverage. Nor am I for any of the other companies I have mentioned to date in my blog. [And, if I ever do mention a company with which I have a consultant/client relationship or advisory board relationship, I will disclose that within the blog post.]

I know bloggers Dan Gillmor and David Weinberger (mentioned in the article), and they are both highly ethical individuals who enjoy a great level of deserved trust. So, it only makes sense they would disclose their respective relationships with Spanish Internet startup FON Technology early on in their postings about them, as the WSJ article states. It’s good to have them taking a leadership position on this very important issue.

I’m afraid the topic of how bloggers can “monetize” what they do (if you’ll excuse my use of that awful word) is one that won’t be going away anytime soon. Traditional journalism pays awfully, except for an elite few; but blogging is a whole lot worse. So, it will be interesting to see what kind of a compensation model emerges for this growing medium, beyond Google AdSense Ads, Amazon commissions, and other nickel-and-dime stuff (see the “Tip Jar” feature I added at the bottom of my sidebar to the right!). Again, these only make a difference for an elite few that get monthly traffic in the hundreds of thousand or millions. The vast majority of independent bloggers rely on consulting or freelance project work to survive, and in most cases are going to be doing that in whatever industry, sector, or topic area they blog about. (Unless maybe it’s a totally personal/hobbie/avocational kind of a blog.) No question, then, that disclosure by bloggers is an issue that cannot be ignored.

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‘Demo God’ Winners: Is There a God?

February 9, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Just saw the story pop up on CNet about last night’s DEMO 2006 recap dinner, at which the show’s producer, Chris Shipley, gave out the event’s legendary “Demo God” awards. [I was on a plane home at the time, writing another blog post.] Demograemesview No surprise that Krugle was one winner, for their game-changing open-source code search engine. They were definitely a pick of mine (see previous post from early this morning), as was the “Pleo” robotic toy (how could that miss?). But, wow, the fact that enterprise software and services companies dominated the list so much — that shocks me! I liked some of these winners, but the buzz just wasn’t there, IMHO. The fact that none of the consumer-services companies — zip! — made the list leaves me wondering: huh? That category was the dominant one. So much for Web 2.0/social networking at Demo, I guess (well, for their CEOs being top-notch presenters, anyway). I thought some did great pitches, and I blogged about several of these consumer services companies in previous posts from the event (scroll down to see): Vizrea, SmileBox, Tiny Pictures, Kaboodle, LocaModa, TagWorld, Blurb, GarageBand.com, EQO Communications. Hey, we wuz robbed… 🙂

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Krugle: “Off the Charts”

February 9, 2006 / / 0 Comments

That’s what Don Thorson of Krugle Inc. told me when I asked how the Demo 2006 event went for his company. I stopped to chat late yesterday just before I had to bolt out of the pavilion tent to head for the airport. “We have 7,000 signups on our web site just this week,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier about how the event went for us.” Demopavilion020806 Krugle announced “the search engine for developers” at the Demo 2006 conference, and simultaneously at the Evans Data Developer Conference in San Francisco. Which appears to have been a stroke of genius, because I learned on their blog that they were talked about all over the web these last few days, including being number two on Technorati yesterday.

I had a post back on January 11 about Krugle’s launch marketing strategy, linking to a post by Shel Israel. I’d say Krugle is writing a lesson here on how to have a coming-out party in today’s Web 2.0 world…

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Some of The Great People I Met at Demo 2006

February 9, 2006 / / 0 Comments

I need something to do on the plane home, so thought I’d write a different sort of post….with all the names from all the business cards I collected at the conference! (Apologies to those I met that I didn’t get cards from.) Here’s the list, roughly in order from when I got there Monday afternoon through Wednesday at about 5:45 pm when I had to split for the airport (sadly, before the final dinner). Note: these are not necessarily people I met for the first time — some I already knew and just renewed friendships with.

Robert Wray, CEO, StreetDeck.com (MP3Car.com)…Steve Larsen, CEO, Krugle…Mitch Musgrove, VP Sales and Bus Dev, SimpleFeed…Brian Jacobs, General Partner, Emergence Capital Partners…Don Thorson, VP Marketing, Krugle…Bill Tam, CEO, EQO Communications…Melody Haller, President, Antenna Group PR (for EQO)…Azhar Khan, VP Engineering, Riya…Danny Yang, Senior Researcher, Riya…Shel Israel, co-author, “Naked Conversations,” and blogger for Conferenza…Gordon Ritter, General Partner, Emergence Capital Partners…Stephanie Houser, President, Launch…Colin Crook, Account Supervisor, Voce Communications (for Blurb)…Erica Lee, President of Strategiclee…Fred Krueger, CEO, TagWorld…D.K. Kim, CEO, ZIngee…Tim English, Marketing Manager, Digislide (Adelaide, Australia)…John Schultheiss, Founder, Grass Roots Software…Gail Bronson, Founder, InternetAssist…John Mitchell, Chief Architect, Krugle…Emily Melton, Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson…Ali Partovi, CEO, GarageBand.com…Burak Gokturk, CTO and Co-Founder, Riya…Jim Tybur, Trinity Ventures…Jeff Steeves, Associate, Prism Venture Partners…Scott Danish, VP Global Marketing, CNet Channel…Dan Summa, Venture Partner, Genesys Partners…Jim Kollegger, Chairman/CEO, Genesys Partners…Maryse Thomas, Co-Founder, Pokeware.com (Minneapolis)…Amy Wohl, Editor, Amy Wohl’s Opinions…Sean Captain, freelance journalist for NY Times, Wired, CNet, PC World…John Barnabas, Reporter, KFNN (Tempe, AZ), Bloomberg News Radio…Renee Blodgett, President, Blodgett Communications…Mark Carlson, CEO, SimpleFeed…Mike Toutonghi, CEO, Vizrea…Steve Toutonghi, VP Product Management, Vizrea…Manish Chandra, CEO, Kaboodle…Julie O’Grady, President, O’Grady Communications (for Kaboodle)…Dana Kibler, VP, GRP Partners…Jill Ratkevic, PR Director, Accomplice Software…Jason Feinsmith, CEO, Accomplice Software…Herminio De Faria, Head of US Office, Bouygues Telecom (France)…Will Aldrich, presenter for Yahoo!

Wish I had time to email every one! But if any of you drop into my blog, say hi. It was a pleasure meeting every one of you… What a great conference, huh?

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[Written at 41,000 feet, somewhere over Nebraska?]

Who’s Blogging Demo 2006?

February 9, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a list of some of the Demo 2006 bloggers, those who wrote about it or blogged from the event (at least a partial list). Great company to be in. I was so busy covering the fire-hose of content that was Demo, keeping up with its very tight agenda, and trying to blog on-site that I only had an opportunity to chat with three of the folks on this list in person: Shel, Amy, and Renee. Heck, I only got to the press room once, when I checked in — but it was really out of the main traffic flow. And the last thing I needed was more paper press kits to haul around. I wonder how many press folk were filing their stories from the press room? With ubiquitous Wi-Fi, I saw reporters like Dan Farber working online all over the place.

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