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: The Web & Web 2.0 (Page 40 of 41)

A Great MN Name, Freeze.com, Goes Bye-Bye?

January 25, 2007 / / 2 Comments

One of the most successful yet little known Internet startups in Minnesota (little known perhaps because it’s not in the Twin Cities), is Freeze.com, of St. Cloud. Can you say screensaver world domination? Freezecomlogojog_1

Well, guess what? The Star-Tribune reported this morning [what, actual breaking news first on dead trees?] that Freeze has changed its name to….are you ready?….W3i. Catchy, huh?

What’s really weird is that I can find no link on Freeze’s site to that effect, and in fact had to drill down into W3i’s site to learn that, apparently, W3i is an affiliated company. I’m left to assume that Freeze is taking that moniker now for the whole shootin’ match.

Anybody know anything more on this?

Some of the Great People I Met at BlogHaus and CES

January 17, 2007 / / 6 Comments

As a final wrapup of my experience last week in networking of the face-to-face kind — in and around the largest trade show in the country, CES — I thought I’d do what I often do after these things: list the people I met. Most of the these were due to BlogHaus, which is the main reason I made the trip, and where I spent most of my time Sunday through Wednesday noon. Bloghaussign_1 I also attended an event called Storage Visions over the weekend, a press event called Showstoppers on Monday evening, and a party on Tuesday evening sponsored by Blog Business Summit. (See all my previous BlogHaus and CES posts. And my Flickr set, such as it is, you can find here. My friend Doc Searls’ set is sooo much better, and I actually show up in one of his shots. Also see Thomas Hawk’s great photo-documentary of the event on his very own photo-sharing site, Zooomr — and I’d encourage you to sign up for the service.)

Anyway, back to all the people I met — at least the ones I remember (apologies to those for whom I didn’t get a card to remind me!):
• From PodTech:
– John Furrier
– Linda Furrier
– Robert Scoble
– Maryam Scoble
– Valerie Cunningham
– Jeremiah Owyang
– Chris Coulter

• From Seagate:
– Bill Watkins, CEO
– Julie Still
– Brian Ziel
– Woody Monroy

And these others, in no particular order:
– Gabe Rivera, Founder, Techmeme
– Andru Edwards, CEO, GearLive
– Lionel Menchaca, chief blogger, Dell
– Thomas Hawk, Founder, Zooomr
– James Courtney, Skype Journal
– David Berkowitz, 360i.com
– Nicholas Butterworth, Diversion Media & Travelistic
– Oluf Nissen, HP and GeekTieGuy.com
– Betsy Weber, evangelist, TechSmith
– Paul Loeffler, PR, Palm
– Mark Plungy, PR, Yahoo!
– Mike Terpin, CEO, Terpin Communications
– Jennifer Fader, Terpin Communications
– Teresa Valdez Klein, Blog Business Summit
– Sam Abadir, CEO, Broadclip
– Al Carlton, Coolest-Gadgets.com
– Sal Cangeloso, XYZcomputing.com
– Sarah Browne, TheDailyBee blog
– Sandira Calviac, TechAgnostic.com blog
– Rick Calvert, CEO, BlogWorldExpo.com
– Kristian Rauhala, CEO, H2Oaudio
– Dave Botherway, President, Melbourne PC User Group
– Susan Fitzpatrick, CEO, Dateline Media
– Ron Nissen, investor, Bluebox Devices (Melbourne)
– Robert Yearsley, CEO, Bluebox Devices
– Benno Rice, Chief Architect, Bluebox Devices
– Angus Robinson, CEO, AEEMA (Australia)
– Barbara Adams, Australian Trade Commission
– Annette Ahern, US Consulate, Melbourne

At the Storage Visions event:
– Lee Gomes, Wall Street Journal
– Mark Walker, Seagate
– John Freeman, Strategic Marketing Decisions
– Tom Coughlin, producer of the event
(whom I already knew)
– Jim Porter, Disk/Trend (ditto)

Others I also knew but ran into again:
– Doc Searls
– Buzz Bruggeman
– Keith Shaw, NetworkWorld and DEMO
– also met Jason Meserve of NetworkWorld

Whew! I met a lot of great people on this trip. And I look forward to staying in touch with them. I know I’ll be seeing some again very soon at the DEMO ’07 event — for example, PodTech, the developers of the wonderful BlogHaus concept! What a super idea they had, and what a great client they have in Seagate who agreed to be lead sponsor. It was indeed a marketing and PR coup for them! Thanks again to both organizations.

Tags: , , , ,

MEETUP! Before Guy Kawasaki’s Talk This Friday…

January 15, 2007 / / 9 Comments

To everyone I know or anyone who reads this blog: meet me at the University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center at 11:30 am this Friday, January 19th. Let’s get to the Guy Kawasaki talk early and schmooooze!!! I blogged about the event earlier here. (It starts at 1:00 pm.) The event quickly sold-out, but I’m sure many of you already have tickets. Even if you don’t, show up anyway! You can always try for standing-room-only space, or maybe you can nab somebody’s no-show ticket. Hey, Guy’s worth it! He packs ’em in everywhere he goes. Guykawasakistanleycup

We can talk about all kinds of stuff in advance of the talk: why Guy would come from California when we’re freezin’ our asses off here right now (it’s to play in the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis)….what his topic is (it’s his classic “Art of the Start” talk)….or anything else you want to talk about, including my BlogHaus experience in Vegas last week. And getting there early should help us get locked-in for the best seats, or maybe those of you who need tickets can get on the list early for the no-shows.

Should be plenty of room to gather in the lobby area that’s closest to the auditorium where Guy will speak. (Check the signage on the way in.) And maybe we can even get coffee there…

Please spread the word to your lists and communities!
Let’s show Guy we’re one great startup community here in Minnesota!!! Indicate your interest here on my blog by adding a comment, and I’ll forward the whole thing to Guy beforehand. One of my VC friends tried to get me into a special lunch being held for Guy prior to the talk, with the local U of M muckety-mucks, etc, but I missed the cut. Who cares! This meetup will be lots more fun for me — and you! And maybe we can even continue the blog comments afterwards to tell Guy what we thought of his talk… See ya Friday!

Tags: Guy Kawasaki, , , , ,

Why I’m Going to CES

January 6, 2007 / / 1 Comment

Unless you just returned from a desert island somewhere, perhaps you’ve heard there’s a big trade show coming up in Las Vegas? Though I was a frequent attendee of what many consider its predecessor event, Comdex, I’ve largely ignored CES — never attended it. The most I ever even paid attention to it was in January 2000, when I was part of the team that conceived and planned the brand-new Best Buy web site, which our fearless leader of the then-subsidiary, BestBuy.com (John Walden), presented in prototype form to analysts and press. I did watch a live webcast of that from BBY headquarters in Eden Prairie, MN, which was a very big deal for us.

A few weeks ago, however, I thought maybe it would be interesting to at least experience all the hoopla — so I could say I’ve seen it at least once. But, since then, I’ve really been on the fence trying to decide if I should go. Well, I am hopping on a plane today. Here’s why:

Not because I like Las Vegas or gambling. (I really, really don’t.) Not because I pretend to cover consumer electronics very well (it’s not a major focus of my blog). Not because I like gadgets. (Well, it’s not really about liking — it’s much more about not having the time or money to invest in all that stuff.) And certainly not because I like TV — in fact, I mostly hate it. So, it’s also not because I like home theater, or large-screen HDTVs, or set top boxes, or even high-end audio, either. And, I’m certainly not going because I like gaming.

Now, CES does hype itself this year by saying it’s where “content meets technology,” or something like that. Hey, content I like! But what they mean is largely digital content that plays on TVs, gaming consoles, and all those gadgets that I don’t get to play with all day long like Walt Mossberg does. But, okay, I do like cell phones and wireless and certain online or wireless consumer services categories, I guess, which are also covered somewhat at CES.

But, after all the considerations and the wondering if I really should take the time out, why I’m going to Las Vegas for a few days is simply this: “BlogHaus.” It’s an event/happening that Robert Scoble has been telling us about for the last month. (See more about it here on the PodTech site.) Bloghaus At last count, some 150 of us bloggers will be converging there to hang out in an upper-floor suite at the Bellagio, on Seagate’s dime. It’s a 24 x7 press room-slash-hangout-slash-party for bloggers of every stripe! Hey, who needs the show floor and all the sore feet that go along with it! Someone recently called this event “probably the best, and longest, blogger meetup ever”! I’m really looking forward to it, to seeing old friends and meeting new ones, and will certainly do some live blogging from there.

If you’ll be there, too, and would like to hook up, email me at graeme (at) thickins (dot) com. And if you can’t be, but have any questions or suggestions for me, let me know that, too — by email, or in a comment. Vegas, here I come!

Tags: , , , , ,

Web Keeps Changing Newspaper Biz

December 27, 2006 / / 1 Comment

If you needed more confirmation the newspaper industry is undergoing fundamental change, you got it today. First, the surprising news about the Minneapolis Star-Tribune getting unloaded by a company that the WSJ.com says had been considered until now "a big newspaper believer."  Reason?  Apparently, they’re bigger believers in something else. The headline on the WSJ article tells it all: McClatchy’s Minneapolis Sale Aids Web Efforts. [This story may be behind a paywall if you aren’t a subscriber, or aren’t taking advantage right now of their free 1-month trial.]  Sure, McClatchy claims they did it for a tax benefit, and says the Strib has been profitable.  But drill a little further: print circulation has definitely been declining there.  And one wonders if their online businesses are picking up enough slack yet. I think we can assume no.  [Ed.: I’m curious what you think of their latest web efforts: Buzz.MN and Vita.MN.]

Yet all is not bad everywhere in newspaperland. On the positive side of the coin, this statement from the Wall Street Journal’s publisher earlier in the month shows that at least one property is livin’ high:

We hope to build on our recent increases in the number of individuals subscribing to the Journal, which grew more than 10% in the most recent circulation period — the fastest rate since 1980 — at a time when most newspapers and magazines experienced declines.

This quote comes from a piece explaining all the changes coming to the Wall Street Journal and its market-leading online site, WSJ.com, starting January 2.

Also, if you think newspaper readership is declining across the board, think again. Here’s one audience advertisers are hardly ignoring: Newspapers Are the Preferred Medium for Affluent Empty Nesters.

But for some great insight into the world of online journalism, and how it’s impacting the print side of the newspaper business, check out this interview Mark Glaser just did with the managing editor of the WSJ.com on his PBS.org blog, MediaShift: WSJ Gets Comfortable with Blogs, Wants to Boost Community.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Graeme Thickins on Tech

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑