WSJ to open up all online content? (for a week....)

WSJ to open up all online content?  (for a week....)

 

From Rafat Ali’s amazingly informative daily newsletter www.paidcontent.org.

 

These two notes below link to the same story by Mark Glaser, very worth reading if you are interested in the topic of online content business models

 

But the question remains…what exactly is a viable business model for online content?  Clearly the walled-subscription and premium content business models are not working.

My notes on this subject are here:

http://typaldos-expertise.blogspot.com/2004/09/online-content-business-models.html

 

WSJ.com To Open Up Site For One Week: That's the news bit coming out of the OJR story (also linked below): WSJ.com will also open up the entire site for five days starting November 8. This comes after the site started opening up one story a day through RSS and Google News, for bloggers to link to...
WSJ.com editor Bill Grueskin: "Between Google News and everything else, we had to decide how to open them up, and it's something I don't have the answer to yet." [Oct.20, 04] | WSJ |

Open Season For News Sites: Mark Glaser round up some of the recent developments in online media industry: sites such as the BBC and News.com are linking more outside their domains, and WSJ.com and NYTimes.com are opening up more complimentary content in a nod to the "news conversation" online. Call it the blog effect, really...
Richard Deverell, head of BBC News Interactive: "I think Google News has been a shot across the bow of all news originators, making us say 'hold on, there's a different way of doing this.' It's very easy to flip between different sources of news. We either try to reverse that trend, which is likely futile, or we facilitate it, and I'm keen that we take the latter route." [Oct.20, 04] | Newspapers |

 

 

Buy.com buys social networking site Metails.com

-- Buy.com Buys Social Networking Site Metails: Buy.com, the online retail site, has bought out a small Boston based social networking startup called Metails.com.

 

Thanks to www.paidcontent.org for the alert…go here for more info:

http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_10_18.shtml#010755

 

I never even heard of this site…not that I could possible have heard of them all.  I wonder how many there are now?

 

 

Business Week article about revenue threats to content providers

Business Week article about revenue model threats to content providers due to shared registrations and mirroring

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041019_9800_db016.htm

 

Why Web Publishers Fear a Little Sharing
Surfers are increasingly sharing passwords to gain access to online content, threatening ad revenue at registration-only sites

 

“…these community registration systems pose a problem for online publishers. To boost ad sales, many content providers require viewers to answer questions about their gender, age, and income level before allowing access to their site. With that information, they can tell their advertisers exactly what kind of demographic groups they would be reaching and then charge a premium to advertise to those readers.“

”Take away such registration, and the future of the $6.6 billion online advertising market begins to look fuzzy. Advertising typically accounts for 85% to 90% of an online content provider's revenues, so this has got to be troubling…”

 

…….

 

“A growing chorus says the only credible response is to abandon online registrations in favor of registrations for premium services, such as message boards. "We use registration only where it makes sense to do so from a reader's perspective," explains Adrian Holovaty, lead developer of World Online, the Web division of The Lawrence Journal-World newspaper in Lawrence, Kan. "The classic example is on message boards and comment forms, where readers want to register so they can own the rights to their usernames -- and, thus, their online reputations." "

 

……..

 

‘Net collaborators pose other dangers to publishers. Just in the last month, sites that completely copy a content providers' site have popped up. Mirrordot.com first posted in September copies, summaries, and links of stories that appear on Slashdot.org, a popular tech message board. Then Mirrordot.com simply caches the stories to which Slashdot links. Mirrordot.com, which runs its own ads with the stories as well as the original sites' ads, tallies the traffic for itself. And it all appears quite legal under current law, say experts.”

 

……..

 

“On the upside for publishers, getting someone to read a news organization's "dumb story", as Haughley puts it, may be getting easier. But making a buck off of content may be getting a lot harder.”

 

 

These are just excerpts, to read the entire article, please go here:

Business Week article about revenue model threats to content providers due to shared registrations and mirroring

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041019_9800_db016.htm

at the time of this posting, registration is not required J

 

Thanks to www.paidcontent.org (a great daily newsletter) for alerting me to this article

http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_10_19.shtml#010777

 

My solution to this problem is called “SubscriptionPal”.

 

Cynthia

 

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C y n t h i a    T y p a l d o s: Passion, Expertise, Experience

Social Media & Social Software  | Web Communities | Online Content Business Models

Online Career Profiles & Social Networking | Software & Internet Product Mgmt & Marketing

cynthia@typaldos.com  | 408 867-8875 office | 408 828-1370 cell

 

 

article - "Investors flock to Web Networking Sites", Wash Post, 10/13/04

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28951-2004Oct13.html

 

Investors Flock to Web Networking Sites

By Michael Liedtke

The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 13, 2004; 7:05 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- Internet whiz kids Marc Andreessen, Josh Kopelman and Joe Kraus share something in common besides reaping huge jackpots during the dot-com boom.

All three belong to LinkedIn, a rapidly growing online networking service whose ability to connect people with common friends and work interests helped persuade the trio to invest in the company before it even started to generate revenue.

 

"From Pull to Point: How to Save The Economist and The Journal from Irrelevance", John Battelle, 10/11/04

Topic is the power of deep linking thru blogs.

John Battelle is Visiting Professor, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, one of the co-founders of Wired magazine and the founder and former Chair of Standard Media International ("The Standard"), publisher of The Industry Standard and TheStandard.com. http://journalism.berkeley.edu/faculty/battelle/

He makes the same point that Adam Penenberg did in “Searching for the New York Times” (major media is becoming irrelevant because it can’t be found via links) but his emphasis is on blog links rather than search engine links. http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,64110,00.html

I added a comment to his blog entry and linked to my description of SubscriptionPal.
http://battellemedia.com/archives/000957.php

Cynthia

----------------------------------------

From Pull to Point: How to Save The Economist and The Journal from Irrelevance

by John Battelle

http://battellemedia.com/archives/000957.php

 

EXCERPT (NOT THE WHOLE POST)

 

“The real issue is how paid registration is handled. I find, increasingly, that sites which wall themselves off are becoming irrelevant. Not because the writing or analysis is necessarily flawed (though honestly, I don't trust journalists who eschew the blogosphere), but rather because their business model is. In today's ecosystem of news, the greatest sin is to cut oneself off from the conversation. Both the Economist and the Journal have done that.

 

”So what is to be done? My suggestion is simple: Take the plunge and allow deep linking. Notice I did not say abandon paid registration, in fact, I support it. Publishers can let the bloggers link to any story they post, but limit further consumption of their site to paid subscribers.

 

“I'd be willing to wager that the benefit of allowing the blogosphere to link to you will more than make up for potential lost subscribers. First off, if you as a publisher do not offer additional paid subscription benefits beyond the articles themselves, you're not paying attention to your community. And in any case, many folks will pay to subscribe to a site which is continually being linked to. In fact, I'd wager that the landing pages from blog links might be the most lucrative place a publisher can capture new subscribers. It's a massive opportunity to convert: the reader has come to your site on the recommendation of a trusted source (the blog he or she is reading). It's pretty certain that if you make that page inviting, and use it as an opportunity to sell the reader on the value of the rest of your site, that that reader will eventually feel like the Journal is worthy of his or her support.

 

“Why? In short, if a reader finds him or herself pointed to the Journal on a regular basis, that reader knows that by subscribing to the Journal, he or she would be more in the know. After all, all of the blogs read and point to the Journal, the reader thinks, so perhaps I should read it too. Before subscribing, the only time a reader might find out something in the Journal is if someone points to it (a far sight from where things stand today, by the way). But if they subscribe, they can get their own RSS feeds, and be first to know something. And, in the end, isn't that what drives subscription sales?

 

“Net net, I think allowing deep linking will drive subscription sales, rather than attenuate them.”

 

RE: [webcommunities] Yelp - local recommendations thru friends

Charles,

 

Wow, thanks for the great link to Slashdot which linked to the Register article which is excellent and links to some other interesting stuff.

Warning!!!!!  Social Networking Luddite opinions in those articles!!!!  Don’t say you weren’t warned and don’t go there if your toes will get burned.

 

Cynthia 

---

From: Charles Jo [mailto:cjo@inteliant-tech.com]
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 11:20 PM
To: webcommunities@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [webcommunities] Yelp - local recommendations thru friends

 

Slashdot has a discussion on Yelp here:
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/10/15/1633235.shtml?tid=95&tid=111

My favorite comment from one of the readers is:

It's about time somebody saved me the hassle of having to hit that CC button, my efficiency is going to skyrocket now.

This one may be a tough sell unless they change their model. But out of curiosity, I may test it.

Best Regards,

Charles Jo
Silicon Valley 

 

article: Neopets gambling controversy

Article: Neopets gambling controversy

 

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/15/1413222

 

Posted by Zonk on Friday October 15, @10:05AM
from the neoaddicts-eh? dept.
Neopoet writes "Players of the online virtual pet game Neopets (claims 70 million pet owners worldwide) have gone nuts against an Australian current affairs show called Today Tonight after the show ran segments railing against the Neopets for introducing children to gambling. Click below to read on.

It started when McDonalds Australia included a Neopets plush toy with every kids' Happy Meal in Australia, directing kids to the Neopets website.

To "feed" their pets, Neopets players have to win points in a variety of mini-games, including versions of poker and blackjack. Australia has a high rate of gambling problems with poker machines ("pokies"), so when a mother discovered her nine-year-old playing online poker to feed his virtual pet, she approached Today Tonight claiming McDonalds was setting her son up for a life of gambling addiction.

TT aired the story Parents not McHappy over pokie toy and the Neopets message boards went nuts. Meanwhile McDonalds heavied Neopets into banning Australians from the gambling games. Today Tonight must have received a lot of hate mail because the next night came Neopet players fight McDonalds ban, featuring interviews with adult Neopets addicts. But this only increased the outrage on the Neopets boards - they're now trying to squash rumors of McDonalds withdrawing sponsorship altogether, and Neopets shutting down."

 

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C y n t h i a    T y p a l d o s: Passion, Expertise, Experience

Social Media & Social Software  | Web Communities | Online Content Business Models

Online Career Profiles & Social Networking | Software & Internet Product Mgmt & Marketing

cynthia@typaldos.com  | 408 867-8875 office | 408 828-1370 cell

 

 

my latest bio

I wrote this new bio for the upcoming Online Community Summit conference sponsored by the Online Community Report.

I have been creating, developing, and managing online communities since January 1995 when my co-founder and I launched GolfWeb, a dot.com that included a golf course database with reader reviews and a "find a playing partner" service. With a small group of engineers and product managers I added further capabilities including a classifieds section (1995) and the "GolfWeb Players Club" (July, 1997).

The GolfWeb Players Club was a purposeful community application for golfers to use improve their game. It was offered as a subscription service and consisted of a game tracking system (golfers entered their rounds and the community provided the tee lengths for each course), private and public groups (where members could compare themselves to others in 30 different ways), online searchable and browsable profiles (including a reputation system), "invite a friend", and other features which were unique at the time; now standard in successful online communities. GolfWeb was featured in Business Week as one of the "Best Products of the Year" in the January 1997 issue that covered 1996 (click on the image to make it larger). GolfWeb was acquired by CBS Sportsline in early 1998.

Using my experience at GolfWeb as a specific example, I spent the next year exploring the underlying principles of communities by researching sociology and speaking with the leading sociologists involved in online communities (most notable was/is Marc Smith). From that research I developed "The 12 Principles of Civilization", a framework for developing and analyzing online communities (this space is now also called "social software" or "social media").

In 1998 I founded RealCommunities, a software startup that transformed the "12 Principles" into a software platform. We had early success with 3 major customers, then the internet bubble burst and RealCommunities was acquired by Mongoose Technology.

For the last three years I have been consulting and, with colleagues, creating and managing various free services including the Software Product Marketing eGroup (a.k.a. ProfGuilds) and the ResumeBlog.

My areas of passion, expertise and experience are:

• Social Media & Social Software
• Online Career Profiles & Social Networking
• Online Content Business Models
• Software/Internet Marketing & Product Management
• Enterprise Software Product Management & Marketing
• Speaking, Teaching, & Training: Hi-Tech Marketing
• Software Standards
  

I am particularly interested in how my clients can tap into existing services such as blogs, groups, Amazon (lists, reviews, guides), eBay, Evite, social networking sites, etc. to achieve their online community goals -- either as prototypes or even as the final offerings. I look forward to discussing this and other topics with the rest of the attendees.

I invite all dog-lovers to visit the blog of Sam, my foster German Shepherd dog, who is seeking his forever home.

Passion, Expertise, Experience

I've created a new view of my career interests:
Passion, Expertise, & Experience

Blogs are boring

I’ve come to the conclusion that blogs are boring. And the comments on blog entries are often worse than boring…not only are many of them silly but just like the online guest books of 10 years ago, the software is so unsophisticated that it allows the same entry again and again and again.

The goofiest blogs are the group blogs where a chosen “elite” get to post and the hoi polloi get to respond with comments. Each of the chosen attempts to make brilliant posts that will prove s/he is a genius, and each of the commentators attempt to either kiss up to the blogger (because s/he is one of the chosen), or prove that they (the commentator) are actually much smarter and have an even better idea, or just be silly.

However, I’m sure there are plenty of great blogs and great group blogs – but those are hidden from our view. They belong to cohesive communities, companies, friends, etc. – people that communicated before the internet and are just using blogs as one of the many online tools to continue to accomplish their purpose.

Feel free to agree or disagree or just be silly. And prove me wrong by pointing to a blog that you rely on and passionately follow (feel free to include your own).

Incompetent people cannot recognize their own incompetence

This study on incompetent people came out a few years ago but a recent experience reminded me of how true it is.


So, in case you missed it the first time around...

"There are many incompetent people in the world. But a Cornell University study has shown that most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent. People who do things badly, according to David A. Dunning, a professor of psychology at Cornell, are usually supremely confident of their abilities -- more confident, in fact, than people who do things well. One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence. "

http://www.lingsoft.fi/~reriksso/competence.html
http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/overestimate.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_7_29/ai_79826905
http://www.applesforhealth.com/competence1.html
http://comp9.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/dad6.html
lots more here:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=Cornell+University+psychology+professor+David+Dunning+competence&btnG=Search

Blogging at the Demo Nat'l Convention

Maybe I'm reading the wrong blogs, but most of the convention blogs seem to be drivel. The second biggest story of the convention might we actually need journalists after all. I also found it difficult to even find the convention bloggers (OK, it took a few minutes googling but it should have taken a few seconds). And then they weren't connected to each other so it was a pain to go from one to the other. Only to read exciting comments such as "I'm going to my hotel room now to upload some photos". Please tell me I'm missing something here.

CyberTourists in Boston
July 30, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Charles Cooper

Professional politicians aren't famous for being early to embrace new technology. So when the Democrats extended credentials to bloggers to cover the party's national convention in Boston, I was left pleasantly stunned.

With all the pageantry and the circus-like atmospherics that make up an American political convention, you couldn't ask for a better backdrop to show off blogging's potential. In full view of the rest of the journalistic world, here would be the most welcome--albeit belated--recognition yet by the establishment that the media landscape is changing before our eyes.

All the more disappointing, then, to report back that blogging blew its big chance in Beantown.

With a few exceptions, most of the credentialed bloggers came off like cyberhayseeds in the big city.

for the rest of the article go here:
http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5289475.html?tag=nefd.acpro

John Dvorak on the blogger fiasco

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?dist=&param=archive&siteid=mktw&guid=%7B771BE781%2DB80B%2D48DD%2DB94D%2DA1917D357E4D%7D

Unfortunately you have to register to read, but here are a few tidbits.

Blogging at the convention
Commentary: Results of novel experiment prove mixed
By John C. Dvorak
Last Update: 2:55 PM ET July 28, 2004

Editor's note: John C. Dvorak is a regular contributor to CBS MarketWatch.
Dvorak is a longtime technology industry observer and columnist. His own daily musings can be read at www.dvorak.org/blog.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- When the Democrats issued credentials to between 30 and 50 bloggers and treated them to a special "breakfast for bloggers" at this week's Boston convention, you sensed something is changing in the media.
.......
From what I've seen so far on the Technorati convention blog watch, I'm not impressed.
Many of these posts are vapid observations combined with simple Kerry boosterism or knee-jerk Limbaugh-Republicanist complaints. Some are simply an undecipherable mess. Hopefully a few professionals will come in and publish some thoughtful pieces before the exercise is over, but this looks laughable thus far.
........
Blog mavens see blogging as a new form of media that will destroy the old media and its old-fashioned methodologies. They are living in a dream world.

Blogging is important and will take its rightful place as a resource, but not as a substitute for news organizations. And like the legions of Star Trek fans who pour over every episode frame-by-frame to find flaws, bloggers will, in fact, become the watchdog of the media, combing news reports, and keeping everyone honest. What's more important than that?

ProfGuilds/ResumeBlog Presentations

We presented yesterday (5/5/04) at the Silicon Valley Product Management Association monthly meeting on the topic of Career Management in the era of globalization (this link goes to the current event, at some point our event will be moved to the archive so if this link does not describe our event, look in the event archive).

Our presentations are in the ResumeBlog blog. One is my presentation on Professional Guilds and Career Management, the other is Sachin Gangupantula's presentation specifically about the ResumeBlog. Heather Hamilton, the Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout, gave a presentation but rather than posting her presentation she will make comments in her blog.

BOB - the Big Orange Bee

This is completely unrelated to "work" but...

My relationship with BOB (the Big Orange Bee) is written up in an article on the front page of Saturday May 1, 2004 San Francisco Chronicle Home and Garden section and includes a photo I took of him.
Uncovering the secret life of a blond bee, by Ron Sullivan

BOB is a male Valley Carpenter Bee.

On the webpage, click on the photo to get a larger version, or go here: my photo of BOB

Another photo of BOB that I took.

That’s all the non-blurry photos I’ve been able to take. He never alights.

My plant list is here if you are interested: www.ceanothus.com

My gardener is Jeffrey Caldwell.

My Career is My Business - Presentation

I will be giving a presentation next week on May 5, 2004 evening title "My Career is My Business". I invited Heather Hamilton, the Microsoft Talent Scout, to join me. Sachin Ganganpantula who is a member of the core ResumeBlog team will also be on our panel.

The details can be found here:
Next SVPMA Event
at least until before the event.
I really don't like it when webpages don't have a permanent link. Anyway, if you are reading this after May 5th the SVPMA (Silicon Valley Product Marketing Association) has an archive of the events.

But here are the details. If you read my blog and come to the event, please let me know.
----------------------------------------

Wednesday, May 5th, 2004

My Career is My Business - Career Management in the era of globalization

Speakers:
Cynthia Typaldos, Founder and President - ProfGuilds
Heather Hamilton, Sr. Talent Scout, Microsoft
Sachin Gangupantula, ProfGuilds ResumeBlog Team

Location: Wyndham Hotel
1300 Chesapeake Terrace, Sunnyvale, 94089
408-747-0999 (map)

Cost: $20 at the door for non-members or $100/year for annual membership covering 12 meetings.

6:30 pm Registration/networking/refreshments
7:30 pm Presentation
9:00 pm Wrap-up/networking

Cynthia Typaldos, founder and president of ProfGuilds (previously known as the Software Product Marketing [SPM] eGroup) will speak and lead a discussion on managing your career in the era of globalization. Product marketing and management, like many other knowledge worker occupations. is being globalized and commoditized. Cynthia will speak about how the product management job market will evolve, and how to develop and market a deep expertise thus differentiating yourself. Cynthia will also cover how to achieve professional visibility online, build your reputation, and participate on virtual teams wherever your skills are needed. Heather Hamilton, Senior Talent Scout at Microsoft for marketing, will provide her perspective on the way she seeks out top talent and how this has changed and is further evolving because of the internet. Sachin Gangupantula, a consultant and key member of the ProfGuilds/ResumeBlog team, will highlight the process of creating a ResumeBlog and the benefits this brings.

Cynthia and Heather will also explain the difference between being a “wolf or a potato” in managing your career.

The audience will be encouraged to participate throughout the discussion. This promises to be a lively topic. Please join us and learn the strategies that product managers are using to succeed in today's difficult job climate.

50% off the entry fee if you bring a copy of your ResumeBlog! It’s best to print it in landscape format.

Heather Hamilton and a colleague will be interviewing candidates during the day before and after the presentation for marketing positions at Microsoft (for various geographical locations, not just Silicon Valley or Redmond). If you would like to be interviewed, please follow the directions here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/webcommunities/message/987

Speaker Bios

Cynthia Typaldos is currently the founder and president of ProfGuilds. ProfGuilds is a set of professional guilds for knowledge workers (formerly known as the Software Product Marketing [SPM] eGroup), currently consisting of 5 guilds in the software space (marketing, sales, engineering, project management, and jobs in India), and over 5,000 members. The ProfGuilds are not-for-profit volunteer-managed organizations composed of career-minded knowledge workers who are employees, consultants, contractors, and entire project teams in the software, networking, internet and telecommunications markets. In tandem with the not-for-profit professional guilds she would like to develop a for-profit company to provide services to the guilds including hosted social software, partnerships, consulting projects, and a barter economy (funding needed). The primary services are a job postings and the ResumeBlog service.

Typaldos is a two-time entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in software and networking. She was previously founder and CEO of RealCommunities, an enterprise software platform for collaboration (a.k.a. social networking) applications (acquired by Mongoose Technology in 2001), founder and COO of GolfWeb, one of the first dot.coms (acquired by CBS Sportsline in 1998), Director of Software Product Marketing at Sun Microsystems, Group Manager of Product Marketing at Data General, and Senior Systems Software Engineer at Bank of America

She is widely recognized as an expert on web collaboration, online communities, and social software. She earned an undergraduate science degree and did graduate course work in computer science at UC Berkeley and was awarded an MBA from MIT.

Heather Hamilton has been working in the staffing industry for ten years and is currently Senior Recruiter for Marketing Talent Acquisition at Microsoft. She is responsible for creating and driving strategies for identifying and attracting the industry's best marketing talent to Microsoft. Heather has been with Microsoft for 5 years in different roles, supporting business and technical organizations' staffing needs. Prior to Microsoft, Heather held roles leading the technical recruiting team at a large multi-line insurance company's corporate headquarters as well as staffing full-time consultants for Y2K remediation and application development and application outsourcing projects for a national IT consulting firm. Heather started her staffing career at Robert Half International in the AccounTemps division after a brief career excursion in accounting. Heather has a BS degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and currently resides in the Seattle area.

Sachin Gangupantula is an independent consultant providing services in product and technology strategy, Competitive Analysis, Product Marketing and business development. Most recently, he helped iManage develop, market and deploy highly reliable enterprise collaborative content management solutions. He has over 8 years of experience in developing and bringing to market innovative web-based products and services.

He is currently helping the ProfGuilds team in developing & delivering a compelling open-source innovation with the ResumeBlog Service that redefines Professional Visibility on the web. He is also on the board of SVPMA.

Sachin earned an undergraduate degree from BITS, Pilani and has a Master's in Computer Science from Univ of Hawaii.

Honesty Online Higher than Offline

March 21, 2004
The New York Times
ESSAY
The Honesty Virus
By CLIVE THOMPSON


This is an incredibly interesting article, that draws the conclusion that people are more truthful online than in person or on the phone. I’ve highlighted the most interesting parts below.

The author’s last two paragraphs are astonishing…yet he seems to be on the right path. I certainly agree that I can get to know someone just as well, maybe even better, by working with them virtually.

Our impulse to confess via cyberspace inverts much of what we think about honesty. It used to be that if you wanted to know someone -- to really know and trust them -- you arranged a face-to-face meeting. Our culture still fetishizes physical contact, the shaking of hands, the lubricating chitchat. Executives and politicians spend hours flying across the country merely for a five-minute meeting, on the assumption that even a few seconds of face time can cut through the prevarications of letters and legal contracts. Remember when George W. Bush first met Vladimir Putin, gazed into his eyes and said he could trust him because he'd acquired ''a sense of his soul''?

So much for that. If Bush really wanted the straight goods, he should have met the guy in an AOL chat room. And maybe, in the long run, that's the gratifying news. As more and more of our daily life moves online, we could find ourselves living in an increasingly honest world, or at least one in which lies have ever more serious consequences. Bush himself can't put old statements about W.M.D. behind him partly because so many people are forwarding his old speeches around on e-mail or posting them on Web sites. With its unforgiving machine memory, the Internet might turn out to be the unlikely conscience of the world.
-------------
March 21, 2004
The New York Times
ESSAY
The Honesty Virus
By CLIVE THOMPSON

RealCommunities Business Model

Summary: Goal was to own the API for personal profiles

The business model of my previous company, RealCommunities, had an ambitious plan to create and then dominate in the area of personal profiles. Here's the short description from my business model document that I prepared for our angel investors (written in September 1999).

Community (and Community Application) Portal
As we build up a large base of customers we can create a portal whose purpose is twofold:

• Enable individuals to find the “best” community for their needs (e.g. for mentoring, community opinion, experts, investment clubs, etc.)
  
• Enable individuals to store, retrieve, update and otherwise maintain a “myrealcommunities” capability in order to
  
  • More quickly join new communities (that are powered by RealCommunities)
    
  • Be alerted to new communities of interest to them
    
  • Quickly find and manage their involvement in various communities

The revenue stream from this portal could be from our customers (based on referrals, new members to their site), and targeted advertising (since we know a lot about what our community members are interested in).

Traffic to our portal would primarily come from links from our products on our customers’ websites rather than through expensive branding programs.

RealCommunities Business Model Discussion document, 9/27/99
RealCommunities Executive Summary, 10/00
More about RealCommunities on Typaldos.com

Microsoft Talent Scout Blogs

Heather Hamilton, the Microsoft Talent Scout who gave us all the great ResumeBlog tips previously
(see my notes at http://typaldos.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_typaldos_archive.html#107713767999431713)
has now started her own blog at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/heatherleigh/

Several of the other Microsoft Talent Scouts are also doing a blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog

Heather invites all of the SPM members to send her questions about “Marketing at Microsoft” that she will respond to in her blog. See her note below.

If you send a question to Heather, be sure to mention you are an SPM member AND provide a link to your ResumeBlog.

If you don’t have a ResumeBlog, you can create one in 15 minutes by following the directions here:
www.resumeblog.com


Please do not forward this message or re-post it to other lists, but rather if there are other people you know that might be interested, invite them to join our spmdiscussion egroup at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/softwareproductmarketingdiscussion.


From: Heather Hamilton (Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout)
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 8:24 PM
To: cynthia@typaldos.com
Subject: RE: notes from our conversations

Hi Cynthia,

I wanted to follow up since our conversation and let you know that I am working on the "top 10 tips" article that we discussed. I have some other projects this week but it is coming along and you should expect it the middle of next week.

I also wanted to let you know that I am officially blogging at http://blogs.msdn.com/heatherleigh/. Maybe some of your folks would be interested in sending in some questions about "marketing at Microsoft". I'd love to hear from people! I've added a link to the Software Product Management eGroup. I hope I can contribute to some additional traffic for your resume blogs as well!

Internet-based Techniques for Recruiters

The Microsoft Talent Scout mentioned the AIRS website where recruiters/talent scouts congregate. We (ProfGuids volunteers) took a look at their website and found two fascinating classes!

• Googling for Candidates
  
• Guerrilla Job Posting Strategies

Some info on the two classes below but go to the class pages for the entire description.

This is excellent proof that recruiters and their like are using internet to troll for candidates rather than just posting jobs on the tradition media or job boards. I believe it also shows that recruiters are spending less time working their rolodexes and more time just finding the people directly.

Googling for Candidates

Class is offered once/month at $495 per person (discounts for multiple attendees)
Online, 4 hours.

The world of Internet search has been turned upside down by Google and other new search engines that reach farther into the Web to bring back pages never before available! This ground breaking class will update you on the hottest techniques on the cutting edge. This class is full of startling new ways to use Google to bring back great results - this is really fun stuff!

Why You Should Attend

Google Rocks!
Google is the uber-search engine that most people rely on today. If you're like our researchers, you've come to rely on the massive scale of Google's index, and the precision of it's results. Though it's still important to use a variety of search engines to canvass the Web, Google is definitely becoming the first stop for Internet search - and an increasingly great resource for finding passive candidates.

Documents You Won't Find Anywhere Else
Google indexes documents that other search engines do not. Learn to find MS/Excel and MS/Word phone directories, MS/PowerPoint organizational charts and other unique documents hidden inside the Web servers of companies, colleges, organizations, forums and other Web communities.

A Suite of New Search Tools
You'll learn to leverage the power of the Google Toolbar, Google News and Google Groups to flip Websites, find hidden pages, get past 404 errors, find executives and listen-in to expert discussions online. Google's advanced features and secrets are powerful tools for recruiters and researchers.

Learn From the Best
AIRS trainers are seasoned professionals with first-hand experience recruiting through a time of revolutionary change in the industry. All are Certified Internet Recruiters, and have cutting-edge e-recruiting skills and technical knowledge, as well as expert sourcing, contact, assessment and hiring skills.

What You'll Learn

* Getting around inside Google.
* The best advanced search process for passive candidates.
* The ins and outs of the Google Toolbar.
* How to find gurus in Google Groups.
* How to find the right Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
* How to find DeepWeb pages you can't get to any other way.
* Uncover phone lists, org charts and other high-value documents.
* Using Google Images and News to find specific kinds of candidates.
* Super commands and Google "hacks".
* And lots more!

Guerrilla Job Posting Strategies

Class is offered once in April at $495 per person (discounts for multiple attendees)
Online, 4 hours

Why You Should Attend

Reduce Your Advertising Costs
Lower your costs while you sharpen your focus. Why pay hundreds of dollars a posting to compete with over 400,000 other customers at Monster.com, when you can post your ads for pennies into specialized communities filled with passive candidates? Stop paying a fortune to job boards that broadcast to the general public - and start narrowcasting to the right candidate pools, at a fraction of the cost.

Leave the Crowds Behind
Knowing where passive candidates gather is a powerful competitive advantage. Now you can stop jostling with every other recruiter on the planet for the same overexposed group of job seekers at the big boards. Instead, you'll learn to go out on the Net to find fresh, untapped communities of passive candidates that you can capture with focused, personalized ad campaigns.

Reach Better Candidates
The best candidates are not surfing job boards, because they're not looking for a job. But that doesn't mean you can't reach them. This class will teach you to reach passive candidates by growing relationships with the alumni directors, mail list managers, forum moderators, user group presidents and other gatekeepers who can help you advertise to their targeted audiences.

Learn from the Best
Your trainers are seasoned professionals with first-hand experience recruiting through a time of revolutionary change in the industry. All are Certified Internet Recruiters, and have cutting-edge e-recruiting skills and technical knowledge, as well as a solid grounding in sales, client management and candidate development.

What You'll Learn

* How to write job ads guaranteed to produce better results.
* How to optimize your placement on the Big Boards.
* The most efficient niche board strategies.
* How to build no-cost and low-cost job posting campaigns.
* Find the right Web communities for your search.
* Low cost advertising into forums, mail lists and vertical portals.
* How to cost-effectively drive eyeballs to your own Web site.
* How to measure and refine your ad strategies.
* To reach the best passive candidates at the lowest possible cost.
* And lots more!

Conversations with Microsoft Senior Talent Scout – Rev 2.18.04

Two sets of notes, the first set is from my conversation with the talent scout on Monday, 2.16.04, and the second set is from our group conversation with her on Tuesday 2.17.04.

There is a wealth of information in these notes including specific advice on how to improve your ResumeBlog to make yourself more visible to recruiters and more interesting once you are found.

Cynthia

--------------------------------------

Notes from my conversation with the Microsoft Senior Talent Scout, 2/16/04

Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout is one of 5 “Senior Talent Scouts” at Microsoft. Talent Scouts are essentially the recruiting swat team that helps the business division recruiters when they are having trouble filling a position. This Microsoft Senior Talent Scout first learned about us (ProfGuilds) thru a internet search using keywords (MSN or Google, I didn’t probe). She found the ResumeBlog of Andy Klein (www.andrew-klein.blogspot.com) of this group along with others. Several of the ResumeBloggers are now in discussions with Microsoft concerning open positions. In fact, the talent scout went thru most of the ResumeBlogs in the BlogRoll (the list of ResumeBloggers that is on the right-hand side of every ResumeBlog). This particular Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout and one other talent scout are responsible for marketing, the other three talent scouts are for technical jobs. Via email Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout has shared information about the ProfGuilds’ ResumeBlogs with other Microsoft recruiters. (Note: my ResumeBlog is here - www.cynthia-typaldos.blogspot.com, but see the advice below, my ResumeBlog needs some improvement! A ResumeBlog is different than an ordinary blog -- go to the ResumeBlog blog for more information.)

What the Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout is really excited about is the ResumeBlogs. Overall she is thrilled with blogs in general because they reveal more about a potential candidate and in particular provide insight into candidates that are the levels below director. Higher level people often have more information about them because of speaking engagements, being on company websites, etc. She considers blogs to be a revolutionary tool for staffing professionals to use to find top talent.

The Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout never uses job boards for a variety of reasons including:

• Typically Microsoft already has a person’s resume if they have put it into a job board
  
• The quality is lower than what she can find by an internet search
  
• Microsoft Sr. Talent Scouts find candidates through internet search and then follow-up via phone or email to prospective candidates or people that might know of prospective candidates. They do not usually post their job openings as the internet search method is more effective.
  
• When they (the Talent Scouts or presumably any of the Microsoft recruiters) find a community or cluster of similar professionals they are very excited because they have found these communities to be the best source of good talent.

Feedback on the ResumeBlog service overall:

• This is exactly the kind of service she loves to discover. I got the impression it was unique amongst the various communities she has found. She has already told a number of other recruiters about the ResumeBlogs.
  
• She did not realize the search box would take keywords. We need to change the box description to say “keyword search” rather than “member search”. She thought it was a search by member name only.
  
• She would like to see the ResumeBlog members split out by ProfGuild (we are working on that already)
  
• She would like a “last updated” flag next to each members’ link in the BlogRoll
  
• She would like a service where a recruiter could sign up to receive notification of new or modified ResumeBlogs (some kind of RSS feed?)
  

As you can see, our conversation centered around the ResumeBlogs. Microsoft does not use our job posting services. However that doesn’t mean the job posting services aren’t important. These services are what attracts members to ProfGuilds and then it’s our job to get them to create ResumeBlogs.

Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout and her team are going to write up a list of 10 tips on how to get found as a job candidate on the internet. She will sign this herself and post it to our members. Our thoughts behind this are to get our members to hear directly from one of the industries top talent scouts on how to get a job. I suspect she will be quite convincing in getting more people to create ResumeBlogs.

But wait, do we want more people to have ResumeBlogs and therefore create more competition for ourselves? Absolutely because the more ResumeBlogs we have the more likely one of us is going to be found and as we have seen numerous times, once hiring managers/recruiters find one ResumeBlog they tend to use the search box or the list of links in the Blogroll to find additional candidates.
-------------------

Notes/Input from the Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout from group meeting with ProfGuilds on 2/16/04

Suggestions on how to improve your ResumeBlog:

Content

• Explain more about product space, industry space in your ResumeBlog
  
• Include product context: explain something about the product, that's useful information.
  
• Make it look like a resume rather than a bio; link to other information about yourself (articles, website, press mentions, etc.).
  
• Experience, even older experience is relevant. If there is a natural break you might want to just put company, title, date. Technology changes but functional role does not. Marketing people with previous technical experience is very relevant.
  
• Red flags no dates of employment, too much movement although more acceptable lately.
  
• Green flags. What did the person actually DO? What did they OWN, not just what did they do as part of a team. Strategic without tactics is bad. How they put something thru the whole process.
  
• Keep personal stuff out of it (that is, don’t use it as a personal blog also). Blogs should clearly indicate whether they are personal or professional.
  

Getting Found

• Talent Scouts start with an internet search using keywords of company names, product types, they find people, then use those people to find more people
  
• They search discussion groups to find knowledgeable people too
  
• Once find a person that might be interesting they do an internet search on the name of that person
  
• Are they using social networking tools – LinkedIn, Spoke, and Plaxo? She doesn't use them for the intended purpose, just uses them to get names by keyword e.g. network security. Once she has names she does an internet search on those people. [By the way, my personal opinion is that references are LESS important in the internet world than previously, because now professionals have ways of actually showing their work to a wide audience via internet presentations, articles, press mention, etc. -- Cynthia.)
  
• Smaller companies may have to use other mechanisms because they don’t get the same candidate flow.
  
• Once you get your resume to one recruiter they will pass to other recruiters in that company.
  
• Use KEYWORDS. Company names, titles, is what they do the initial search on. You want your ResumeBlog to come up in that search. OK to put keywords into source code -- talent scout doesn’t look for actual word. Market space terms server, business intelligence, security, digital media, desktop applications, operating systems, ebusiness, smart personal objects, mobility, embedded, consumer space, devices, home entertainment, customer segment specific experience, consumer packaged goods, branding and advertising, architect, developer, etc.
  
• Be part of a community of similar professionals…creates a pool of talent for the recruiters to tap into. They will look at a lot of ResumeBlogs if the are in a logical grouping (e.g. our professional guilds, note that we will be breaking the ResumeBlogs into chunks by guild soon)
  

Getting Hired

• Why are some product marketing/management & technical positions “hard to fill” such that the Talent Scout gets involved? Niche-y jobs. Not just hiring for the position, hiring for the long run. Hiring the best in the industry. Or some recruiters are working on a lot of positions (e.g. 40+) need help from the Talent Scouts.
  
• Looking for people who are smart and not how to get stuff done. People that are successful in working towards a GOAL (and accomplishing that goal). This was THE most important thing she said re: Microsoft, their culture. Can't emphasize that enough. She noted working hard is commendable, but what's important is that the hard work is related to a GOAL.
  
• Picking out doers from talkers. What have they done. Must have been at a company long enough to get stuff done (at least 1.5 yrs).

Recruiting Industry Observations:

• How should we (ProfGuilds) approach recruiters? Network our way in, using email addresses on job postings doesn’t work because those typically go into a folder. AIRS is http://www.airsdirectory.com/. Go thru those organizations and find the recruiters.
  
• Change in the recruiting industry: It’s now all about finding the BEST talent. Typically someone who has a web presence is viewed as a better potential hire…speaking at conferences, discussion groups, articles, etc. Who are the best people in this space?

Make your small URL H*U*G*E !!!

Many of you are familiar with www.tinyurl.com to make a long URL short but…

What if you want to impress others? Wouldn’t it make sense to make a small URL huge?

There is now a service to do this and it is completely totally FREE. No obligation. Total privacy (I don’t actually know if this is true.)

I successfully turned my small ResumeBlog URL into the humongous URL below. You can do the same by going to www.hugeurl.com.

www.cynthia-typaldos.blogspot.com: original short ResumeBlog URL is now the huge URL below!

http://www.hugeurl.com/?NTg2OWE5MzYyYzhjMmU1Y2YzZGVhNjg2MjUyODEyMGYmMTEm
Vm0wd2QyUXlWa2hWV0doVVYwZG9jRlZ0TVZOWFZsbDNXa1JTVjFac2JETlhhMk0xVjBaS2My
SkVUbGhoTVhCUVZteFZlRll5VGtsalJtaG9UV3N3ZUZadGNFdFRNVTVJVm10a1dHSkdjSEJX
TUZwSFRURmFjVkZ0UmxSTmF6RTFWVEowVjFaWFNrbFJiR2hYWWxob00xWldXbUZrUlRGWlkw
ZDRVMkpIZHpGV2EyUXdZVEZrU0ZOclpHcFRSVXBZVkZWa1UyUnNjRmRYYlVacVlrWmFlVmRy
V25kV01ERkZVbFJDVjAxdVVuWlZha1pYWkVaT2NtSkdTbWxXUjNoWFZtMHdlR0l4U2tkaVNF
WlRZbGhTV1ZWcVJrdFRWbFowWlVoa1YwMUVSa1pXYkdoclZqSkZlVlZZWkZkaGExcFhXbFph
VDJOdFJraGhSazVzWWxob1dGWnRNSGhPUm14V1RVaG9XR0pIVWxsWmJHaFRWMFpTVjFkdFJt
eFdia0pIVmpJeE1GWlhTa2RqUkVaV1ZqTm9lbFpxU2tkamJVVjZZVVprYUdFeGNGaFhiRnBo
VkRKTmVGcElUbWhTTW5oVVZGY3hiMkl4V1hoYVJFSmFWbXhzTTFSc1ZtdFdiVXB5WTBac1dt
SkdXbWhXYTFwVFZqRmtkVnBGTlZOaWEwcElWbXBLZWs1V1dsaFRhMlJxVW14d1dGbHNhRk5O
TVZweFVtMUdVMkpWYkRaWGExcDNZVWRGZWxGcmJGZFdNMEpJVmtSS1RtVkdaSFZVYkZacFZq
Tm9WVlpHVWt0aU1XUlhWMWhvWVZKR1NuQlVWbHBYVGxaYWRHVkhkR2hpUlhCNldUQmFjMWR0
U2toaFJsSlhUVVp3YUZwRlpGTlRSa3B5VGxaT2FXRXdjRWxXYlhCTFpXczFWMWRzYUZSaVJu
QlpWbXRXZDFZeGJISlhhM1JUVW14c00xWXlNVWRWTWtwR1RsaHdXbFpXY0ROWlZXUkdaVWRP
UjJKR1pGZE5NRXBKVjJ0U1IxTXlVa2RVYmtwaFVteEtjRlpxU205bGJHUllaRWRHYTAxcmJE
UldNV2h2V1ZaS1JsTnRSbGRpVkVVd1ZtcEdVMVp0UmtoUFYyaHBVbGhCZDFkV1ZtOVVNVnB5
VFZWa1YxZEhhR0ZVVmxwM1lVWndSbHBGT1U5aVJYQjVWR3hhVDJGWFJYZGpSV3hYWVd0dmQx
WlVSbFpsVmtweVdrWm9hV0Y2Vm5oV1Z6RTBaREZrUjJKSVRtaFNhelZQVkZaYWQyVkdWblJr
UkVKV1RXdHdTVlpYTlhkV01WbDZZVWRvVjJGcldreFdha3BQVWpGYWMxcEhhR2hOU0VKMlZt
MTBVMU14VW5SV2EyUnFVbGQ0VlZsclZrdFhSbXh6VjJ0MFYxWnNjSGhWVjNoclZrVXhjbUpF
VWxkTlYyaDJWMVphUzFKc1RuTmhSbFpYWWtoQmVsZHNXbUZWTWsxNFdraFNhMUp0VWs5WlZF
WmFUVlphYzFwRVVsWk5WbXcxVld4b2MxWnNXa1pUYkdoWFlXczFkbGxWV21GalZrcHpXa1pv
VjJKclNrbFdWbVEwV1ZaWmVGTnJXbE5XUlZVNQ==

I couldn't get Blogger to accept this as a valid URL but if you cut and paste it back together you will see it actually works!!!

Amazing...