Unless you are just returning from Spring Break in Siberia you have probably heard about Guy Kawasaki’s latest venture Alltop.
Launched on March 11, Alltop is an aggregator along the lines of PopUrls, that was created for an audience that would never use an RSS reader or create a custom news page.
The OnDemand Beat was recently added to the social media section of Alltop. (Look for us all the way at the bottom of the social media page) The OnDemand Beat is in an A-List neighborhood, right next to GigaOm.:-)
The launch of Alltop has not been without its share of “controversy” as Jeremiah Owyang and Web Worker Daily articles give a hint of the wildy divergent opinions of the site.
Although I understand and use RSS daily I find Alltop to be very useful once you get the hang of the interface. I like the convenience of being able to have a quick look at the latest articles (preview of articles are available via mouseover) of interest in one place. For its core audience Alltop should serve as a gateway to the Blogs they are interested in and should not intimidate the typical user.
The Economist article equates social networks to free email such as Hotmail or Google mail and predicts that social networks have quickly come to be an expected and free part of any internet portal. In this context social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook should not be a destination in themselves, but the components of the social networking sites should be part of a users everyday internet experience.
I agree in that in these trying economic times the advertising model that most if not all of these social networks are built upon is not a sustaining business model. Advertising revenue for established media companies is and has always been cyclical in nature and even with the lower cash burn rates that today’s Web 2.0 companies have compared to their Web 1.0 predecessors, wont provide enough recurring revenue to stay in business after the venture funds runs out.
Venture funding in itself is a bit faddish and indications are that Social Networks/Web 2.0 are no longer the VC flavor of the month as VC’s move to investing in Green/Clean Energy and Renewable Technologies.
Will be interesting to see if some of the venture funding that was wildly invested in Consumer Social Networks/Web 2.0 will now invest in Enterprise and Enterprise 2.0 Software firms. Most of these firms actually have a real revenue producing business model and are; in the case of Enterprise 2.0 software firms, in the process of rearchitecting packaged solutions to Software as A Service.
More Companies Ban Social Networks and Web 2.0 sites
CIO magazine reports that a UK based security vendor has found that over 20% of companies are now blocking Web 2.0 and Social Network content citing security concerns.
Public Sector Use of Social Networking is Growing
Meanwhile the benefits of Social Networking in the Public Sector is beginning to become evident to government CIO’s. Citing messages from vendors and younger staff who are replacing retiring government workers; many Public Sector IT officials are drafting plans to introduce wiki’s, mash-ups and other Web 2.0 tools into their traditionally staid environments.
Not Your Fathers User Conference
Dan Fost’s take on how Social Networking has changed the dynamics of oftentimes dull user conferences. He also opines on why Sarah Lacy was set upon by hostile South by Southwest Interactive Conference attendees last week during her catastrophic interview with Mark Zuckerberg.
Registration Site Up for Google I/O Event
Google has launched the registration site for its upcoming May 2008 Developer gathering at Moscone. Conference attendees can learn how to create Web/Enterprise 2.0 apps by attending session topics ranging from AJAX & JavaScript, Maps & Geo, Social applications, APIs & Tools and Mobile. As a bonus many of the sessions will be taught by Google engineers via the popular Fireside Chats and Tech Talk formats.
2008 TED Prize winner David Eggers wish at the recent TED 2008 conference in Monterey was to ask anyone in a position to help “to find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area” and then share the story of their involvement with the public school on the OnceUponASchool.org website.
826 National, TED & Hot Studio stepped up and helped make the first part of David’s wish come true by creating the Once Upon A School website.
In the 2 weeks that the website has been live there have been a number of potential project ideas created where technology companies could pledge to help. Once Upon A School is seeking 1000 pledges nationwide from individuals and or companies ready to help their local public school.
A few of the recently listed project ideas that would make excellent pledge projects for Enterprise 2.0/Web2.0 companies include:
Scaling up the OnceUponASchool.org website site so that it includes social networking functionality.
Building out a robust tracking system for projects/ideas/stories.
Institute an internship program that actively recruits from the nearest struggling public school.
Help a school develop a useful website presence.
At Applation we are discussing making a pledge to start an internship program with a local Phoenix Area High School in the fall.
This is a very worthwhile cause and effort that hopefully will gain traction nationwide. The OnceUponASchool.org website mentions that there have been 100 pledge committments so far but there is still a gap to get to the goal of 1000 pledges.
