Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Fred Wilson seconds The Guradian’s Web picks for 2008. No surprise, of course, given that two of author Bobbie Johnson’s “hits” are Wilson funded companies, via his Union Square Ventures: Etsy and Twitter.

Wilson’s A VC blog is a promo fest for his portfoilio companies.

Wilson wants his A VC readers to buy a $30 oil spot vase, a $88 retro camera and a $500, 15 inch wire Harley-Davidson, all via his Etsy storefront.

Wilson wants his A VC readers to “Get a Voiki now!,” the latest animated product of his portfolio company, Oddcast.

Wilson wants all to “follow” him at Twitter.

A VC masterfully uses his “personal” blog to showcase his own USV portfolio companies. The A VC treatment, though, is not a guranteed win for funded companies. Wesabe, for example. Wilson on the runner-up Wesabe case:

Our portfolio company Wesabe was the first company to market in the web-based personal finance sector, which has gotten quite hot lately with the launch of competitors Mint and Geezeo. Wesabe’s taken a bit of a backseat on the visibility front in light of its competitor’s launches…

Wilson nevertheless is (publicly) upbeat: “This is a very big market opportunity and we think there is room for more than one large company in this category.”

But what about the “what are you doing category?,” aka Twitter? When Jaiku went to Google, the blogosphere was ablaze wondering “Why not Twitter?”

Why did Twitter miss out on Google acqusition love? How could a U.S. brand, adored by the tech blogosphere and founded by the founder of Google acquired Blogger be passed over for Finnish Jaiku?

We will most likely never know. We do know, however, that Twitter continues to frustrate its most ardent Tweeters. Dave Winer, for example. In September, he increduously annoited Twitter, a free consumer service, “mission critical.” 

I pointed out to Winer, however: Is it really prudent, though, for any professional or business to abdicate control over “misssion critical” operations to a new, unproven, consumer facing, free Web 2.0 tool that is offered on an “as is” basis to be used “at your own risk.”

The Twitter non-performance “guarantee”:

We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Twitter.com service for any reason, without notice at any time.

Winer has since had his fill of Twitter’s non-performance,” lamenting now: “What other basic form of communication goes down for 12 hours at a time?”

Winer is so perturbed that his no-cost “mission critical” Twitter is not performing up to his non-paid expectations that he has put out specs for the Twitter clone he would like produced:

It’s fairly amazing that there isn’t a viable Twitter clone out there yet, one that does exactly what Twitter oes, and runs all its applications. I’d also like to see something much more decentralized, based on static files, available to any Twitter-like system. It doesn’t seem that far out of reach. With all the scaling troubles Twitter has had it’s surprising that there haven’t yet been any entrepreneurs willing to enter the space to compete with Twitter.

Despite Winer’s belief that there are no Twitter-worthy alternatives already on the Web, Jaiku and Pownce are indeed deemed by many to be Twitter competitors.

Pownce is a Kevin Rose co-production. Pownce is not open to the public and Rose’s Digg is being buried alive by its once greatest booster: Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch.

What about Twitter? Will it also soon be deemed a has-been by the very crowd that put it on a pedestal?

Twitter is massively used by the tech blogosphere for self-promotion, same as Digg. The Twitter team includes a geek celebrity, same as Digg. Twitter is hard-pressed to realize its crossover dreams, same as Digg.

Are Twitter’s tech glory days numbered?

ALSO: Mint CEO on Web 2.0 Nonsense AND Who Needs Wesabe: INTERVIEW and Wesabe USV: YOUR Financial Data Belongs on the Web!

AND: Digg: TechCrunch Bails on Arrington Web 2.0 Fave and Twitter and Facebook: The BIG Illusions of Friendship and Influence and Mahalo: Will Calacanis Win the Billion Dollar Startup Lottery in 2008?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Mark Cuban’s “friendship” is no longer available for the asking.

It is a banner day for incestuous blogger navel gazing and “A-List” link-love swapping.

Forbes Magazine leads the way in annointing the same old crew once more. David Ewalts aparently took the very easy way out in compiling the “Web Celeb 25.” He leads his brown nosing “piece” by declaring “Things change fast on the internet –and fame is no exception.” BUT, then goes on to simply regurgitate “everyone’s favorite bloggers,” FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS!

Michael Arrington, Robert Scoble, Jeff Jarvis, Steve Rubel, Seth Godin, Matt Drudge…WHAT CHANGE??? Ewalts incredulously advises, “competition was steep for this year’s list.” How so? The canned “list” can be created by anyone who follows the blogosphere.

Ewalts nevertheless confirms with a straight face: “The list of 25 names shows how the Web has leveled the playing field –so that now, even the unlikeliest character can become a star.”

Jeremiah Owyang cheerleads once more for how the playing field is being leveled, by instructing “how to be popular on Twitter,” just like him!:

I realize that folks are concerned about another leaderboard as a gaming mechanism, and while it stroked my ego for a while, I’m equalizing the field by giving away what I’ve learned. I realize I need to give and stay humble, and focus on community, so this is the right thing to do.

I ran into the tweeterboard yesterday, and found it valuable, when I first saw it, I was in 8th place, then moved to 1st. Now I’m going to relinquish control to the community, I’m going to give away my secrets in how I was able to attract a large following, in the spirit of sharing because it’s the right thing to do.

Thanks for giving back, Jeremiah! In your humble quest for humility and sincere desire to “give back,” though, unlocking your “secret” Web popularity tricks rings hollow, very.

YAY? Bloggers’ New Year’s resolutions should be to strive for number one Tweet honors? And to be the biggest, fattest Facebook whale?

True holiday giving spirit ought to invoke pro-bono donations of business development time to non-profit organizations, NOT self-serving self-promos.

Leave it to Mark Cuban to pierce the benevolent facade of social networking “friendship”:

I heard there was a 5k friend limit on Facebook. I just didn’t take it to heart. Until I reached 5k and tried to add 5001, at which point FB reminded of the limit. It was a weird moment ,but actually one that I have come to respect and appreciate. Facebook went from being a way to broadcast information to 5k people, probably 4k of which I didn’t know or even have a business link to…

What I had not accounted for was that there were a lot of people who I had never met or had any connection to, who took the concept of FB “friending” literally. They wanted to interact as if we were long time friends. I was getting FB emails asking me how i was doing. What I was up to tonight. What did i think of X, Y, Z. Stuff that I was not going to tell a total stranger, even if they were my FB “friend.”

Cuban’s solution? Milk Facebook for all he can get out of it for his own business interests, aka, “The FB Power Level”:

These are people who in whatever industry they are in , retain some level of power. Having them as FB friends, although very simple and non committal, gives me some level of access to them, and them to me. These are people that if they sent me a FB mail, i would certainly read and respond to , and I think they would do the same.

Pioneering whale Robert Scoble, however, has gone (in a rapid-fire about-face) from unofficial Facebook ambassador to Facebook, WTF! He shares with newfound fellow whale Cuban:

Cool, glad to have someone else hit that limit. I hit it months ago and now have 1,200 people waiting to have me as a Facebook friend. I’ve just given up on managing this stuff. Which is just as well cause now I’m getting more work done.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! The big, bad illusions of friendship and influence, Web 2.0 style. SEE: YAY? Weblo Cheapens Facebook ‘Friendship,’ Whales Rejoice!

PLUS: Why Facebook Will NEVER Kill LinkedIn

ALSO: Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn About Face (book) and  Facebook: Bloggers Kick Zuckerberg Off Throne, What Were They ‘Smoking’?” and Beacon Privacy Solution: STOP USING FACEBOOK!

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Is it a “sad time for the Web” as Steve Rubel laments?

NO! Irrationally exuberant? OFTEN!

The original “micro-persusasion” announces he doesn’t have the heart for propping up “ridiculous BS press releases” that fly into his Gmail box” anymore. (As SVP at Edelman, “the largest global PR firm,” Rubel presumably helps assure a no ”ridiculous BS PR”  policy there!)

Press releases are not the only problem: a “tech blogosphere getting drunk on its own kool-aid” and heralding every shiny new object as the next Google (Jes.usR.com) may soon send all Web 2.0 co-conspirators fleeing for the safety of “Betty Ford Clinic 2.0,” Rubel warns.

“No one’s casting a cynical eye anymore. No one’s looking at valuations and reality—or at least very few people are,” Rubel underscores.

Here at Insider Chatter, the Kool-Aid recipe is indeed given the critical eye, with an ongoing piercing look at the hard-nosed business world reality behind “the next big things,” or not.

I am a strong proponent of business plans, despite them being deemed unfashionable by the very tech blogosphere Rubel portrays. Case in big who needs business plans point, Twitter, signaled out by Rubel as a Web 2.0 startup that “gets it” because it is presumably about “changing the Web, not making a quick buck.”

Rubel may be right about Twitter not being worried about “the almighty dollar,” after all the venture capital firm that put big bucks behind it, Union Square Ventures, proudly hailed “we’ll have plenty of time to figure out the business model.”

BUT, can Twitter really be a best Web 2.0 practices model if it portrays a business model/plan optional approach to doing “business”? NO!

LinkedIn is a solid Web 2.0 play with a real business model. Earlier this month, I used the LinkedIn “Answers” feature to find out: “STARTUP BUSINESS PLANS, MUST-HAVE OR OVERRATED?”

While Web 2.0 startup circles today happily “diss” business planning and even business models, here is some of the real-world advice I got, thanks to Web 2.0 LinkedIn:

Raymond Luk: My Bubble 2.0 sense is tingling right now! Only Bubble 2.0 entrepreneurs could “diss” business models and business planning. But wait, that might be perfectly consistent because many don’t actually have businesses. There is a difference between building a [insert non-Ajax product] using Ajax (now it’s available *online*!) and creating something people will use *and* pay for.

Anyone who disses business planning is really a speculator, not an entrepreneur. You don’t need a business plan to start a pyramid scheme either. Business plans are not just for venture capitalists. They can take many forms (from quick and dirty to long and complex) but they represent the thinking behind the business. Who are we? What market do we serve? What makes us different? What is our exit strategy

If you don’t need to answer those questions then, sure, you don’t need a business plan. But then you really don’t have a business do you? You’re just building Ajax apps for fun…

David Lorenzo: One of the common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs is that they set goals and objectives for their business and they have a plan to achieve those goals. In some instances this is a formal document that includes financial projections and is shared with potential sources of financing; and in other cases this is an informal document that is folded up and reflected upon during moments of despair.

The bottom line is that a good business plan is a living, breathing document that should be changed and updated as the business grows – and the leadership team learns more about the market. The best business plans are like a roadmap that helps chart the course toward success.

Too many people think of them as academic exercises that are used only for the launch of the business or to obtain financing. I suspect these are the folks who believe that they are overrated.

BOTTOM KOOL-AID LINE? Any lamenting of a Web 2.0 bubble ought to lament the current ill-advised dissing of business plans!

MORE: Startups: Who Needs Business Plans? Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mayfield, Sequoia… and DayJet CEO: Business Models Drive Disruption, NOT Technology

PLUS: CED Tech 2007: 30 Cool Startups, But NO Facebook Apps and paidContent Disrupts Business Media, Today in Silicon Alley!

NEED HELP IN DEVELOPING A BUSINESS PLAN? CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

MORE: YAY! Facebook Junk Now Open Social Web Free For All

Robert Scoble on the virtues of a Techmeme fueled (mini) traffic boost: “I don’t want a big audience, I want a smart audience. If I wanted a big audience, I’d go write a Paris Hilton blog.”

OR WAGE A FACEBOOK FRIENDS MAX-OUT CAMPAIGN?

The Scobleizer’s argument for quality over quantity re TechMeme does not quite jibe with his more is better Twitter + Facebook = Scoble 10,900 (4 seconds per friend) track record, and counting.

A principal difference is a directional one. Facebook and Twitter are often being used by Scoble as ”push” media platforms, while Techmeme runs the opposite way, pulling people into the Scobleizer.

Scoble is keen on building up his touch points at Facebook and Twitter to build-out and support his own distribution network. After all, “Robert Scoble is media” we learned over the summer. As such, Scoble can proactively use Facebook and Twitter to implement his own media strategy, and drive it.

The Techmeme “effect,” on the other hand is a passive, reactive one. After all, Scoble, as all other writers, theoretically have no control whatsoever about how, when or why their writings may or may not be “in” Techmeme.

Nevertheless, if Scoble is evaluating incoming traffic to his blog more in terms of who is visiting rather than how many visit, it is surprising that he has solicited for anyone and everyone to be his friend and follower.

If quality trumps quantity at Techmeme for Scoble, it stands to reason that the same ought to apply for him at Facebook and Twitter.

Will we soon see the Scobleizer “prune” his Facebook and Twitter “friends, fans and enemies”?

PS: Insider Chatter is proudly a “real blog”! 

PLUS:  Is a Facebook vs. LinkedIn Showdown Near?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN