I seemed to have touched a raw nerve the other day with my post to the Australian Blogosphere for a list of "A-List Bloggers". Since the post hit as the same time as the folks attending the MediaConnect forum, it was always going to be interesting.
Mark jibbed, Charles jabbed, Cam feigned, Shane watched, and Paul commentated.
It was awesome to watch this all unfold, and I'm just waiting for Phil, Renai, Rodney and Rob to sink in the boots real soon now ;) It's a good thing I'm out of the country, or they may send 'the boys' round..
[ Currently Playing : Why It's So Hard - Madonna - Erotica (05:24) ]
I posted about TechTalkBlogs on Friday evening, and then Tuesday 28/02/06 saw the MSDN Flash go out which announced the arrival of TechTalkBlogs to the 1,000s of Australian MSDN Flash subscribers.
So, how is TechTalkBlogs doing so far. Well, there's some "buzz" in the blogosphere - Ben Barren, Alex Barnett
Let's look at some data from the system
OK, so when I did the post, there were 173 active feeds, and we now have a grand total of 183.
10 new people added. Welcome to all the new folks who have joined into the conversation!
So, now that it's live - what can we do to make this better? I'm open to suggestions.
What can we do to get this thing to soar???
[ Currently Playing : Cherish - Madonna - The Immaculate Collection (03:52) ]
I went on a trip to Fry's in Renton
From Fry's Electronics History :
Fry's was founded as a Silicon Valley retail electronics store to provide a one-stop-shopping environment for the Hi-Tech Professional. Fry's continues to keep hi-tech professionals supplied with products representing the latest technological trends and advances in the personal computer marketplace. Fry's retails over 50,000 electronic items within each store, now totaling 32. There are currently 7 stores in Northern California, 9 stores in Southern California, 8 stores in Texas, 2 stores in Arizona, and 1 store each in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The stores range in size from 50,000 to over 180,000 square feet. Fry's also provides customers with added shopping opportunities via its online center at Fry's Outpost.com.
OMG!
It's the biggest store I have ever seen. It's like a aircraft hanger filled with geek goodness.
I bought Brice a Build It Yourself Robotikit - it's the Binary_Player_Robot
Perhaps I will be just like this father & son, with my own Build It Yourself Robotikit
[ Currently Playing : Waiting - Madonna - Erotica (05:47) ]
If you were to organise a meetup of the A-list bloggers in Australia, who would you invite? And they can't be journalists who blog. That's a constraint.
I was posed this challenge last week. To be honest, I struggled to come up with a decent list.
I'll share the list once it's finalised, but I'll let you into a little secret - most of the folks are on my blogroll.
[ Currently Playing : Ray of Light [Radio Edit] - Madonna - GHV2 (04:36) ]
I got my copy of Naked Conversations last night at a local Borders and will be reading it over the next few days.
The book tackles the topic about how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers (as it says on it's cover).
To be honest, the book is very familiar to me, as I watched it evolve online.
It's a shame Ali didn't have a reference to the book in the interview that went to air recently.
As Ali concludes "For many companies blogging will require a change of culture, they will be literally inviting the critics in but the blog believers say that won’t stop the corporate blog soon being as common as the website. So for a corporate can you afford to not be in that space?". Sounds like a good summary of the book, bit more than an 18 word summary, but good never the less.
Now, I need to track Robert Scoble down for an author's signature. And no, I wont be asking him to remove his shirt
** Update ** Shel Israel just left me a comment. He offered to sign the book too. Cool. I need to track Shel down too while I'm over here!
Tags: robert scoble naked-conversations naked conversations Shel Israel
[ Currently Playing : Holiday - Madonna - The Immaculate Collection (04:06) ]
Last week I got to spend some time with Master Blogger Ben Barren and his A-team. Ben is the only Aussie member of the Web 2.0 Work Group, and a young man I worked with many years ago when I was at ninemsn.
Ben gave me a run down on his idea, which got some coverage on ZDNET recently.
It's a little *BIG* idea, an Aussie blog search engine. I love the concept. He's got lots of good ideas from tagging, user created content in the form of local reviews, even hook ups with big media. The idea has legs and I reckon it will fly. Ben posted his comments on our meeting too.
His team took my through the high level technical architecture - Linux, Apache, MySQL (moving to PostgreSQL), Python. That my friends is L.A.M.P, the open source Web Platform.
During the meeting, the folks offered me a snack - a nice healthy bowl of figs, picked fresh from a tree out the back of their 'office'. I couldn't eat the figs. I had a lump in my throat, but I did take a photo.
[ Currently Playing : Music - Madonna - GHV2 (03:49) ]
One thing I noticed in the transcript of the interview, there are no link to the bloggers interviewed. Maybe they were on screen during the program, but as I haven't seen it yet, I can't be certain. (Yes, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt).
So, as a public service to those interviewed for the story on Business Sunday, as well as those who saw the interview and what to know more, here are the links to the blogs, and some of the other stuff mentioned in the interview.
[ Currently Playing : Let It Will Be - Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor (04:19) ]