Eric Griffin's Blog

Microsoft Vine Available

ebgriffin1968 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:37:45 GMT

If you hurry you may be able to get on the private Beta of

It’s a social network tool that let’s you stay connected with family and friends

See me at Barnes & Noble in Atlanta on Friday

ebgriffin1968 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:42:56 GMT

This week the Microsoft Learning career express bus kicks off its Tech-Ed bound bus tour in Atlanta on Friday, May 1. Join them (and me) at some of these key events, I think there will even be prizes!

Ask the Experts at New Horizons Atlanta 3:00pm – 6:00pm
I will be speaking and signing my book “Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition Step by Step” at Barnes & Noble (Buckhead store), 7:00pm – 8:00pm

For the full event schedule of the bus along all of their tour stops, check out their blog at http://blogs.technet.com/mslcommunityPosted: Monday, April 27, 2009 11:28 AM by glengordon

Why Facebook and Twitter will Fail

ebgriffin1968 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:55:01 GMT

Facebook and Twitter will fail as independent ventures. I love both (I have accounts on both. See my sidebar) but they will go the way of acquisition by a major player this year ( I am not stating that it will be Microsoft). They will be acquired not because of their occasional outages, interface frustrations or mainstream adoption demand on their servers.

Facebook and Twitter will fail because of simple economics. In particular, the failure of Web 2.0 monetization models that violate simple economic principles.

The standard playbook in Web 2.0 economics is to give away a kool service for free to ramp up the eyeballs and then figure out how to make money from advertisers. The principle being: “get the users and money will come”. This is a dangerous game that venture capitalists who fund these ventures play that ultimately leads to the dreaded “cashflow” problems.

How much is twitter worth?

What is monthly Twitter access worth to you? How much will you pay per month? If you had to pay $10 a month would you do it? What about $50? How many users would twitter have if it charged $5 month?

How do you value Facebook?

This is why Facebook is having such a hard time with its “valuation”. Without the decision by a consumer to pay (thus determining its value), it becomes very difficult to determine its market worth. So you are left with is an advertising perspective, based on eyeballs, to determine value.

Advertising is a volume game. The more eyeballs, the greater the worth. However advertising is a discount pricing model. The more ads you buy the less you pay per eyeball (even though the overall cost of the ads may be more). So advertising has diminishing revenue returns per eyeball. All the while your expenses per eyeball increases (not linearly but it increases none the less.) due to more resources (employees, R&D, servers etc..) It not the best way to build a business model.

A simplified equation for service businesses:
revenue\user – expense\user = profit or loss (for most it is big losses)

Well, you may say, what about Google?

Google’s Adsense is an advertising platform. They don’t just make money from their search engine users. They make money from everyone that uses Adsense too. It’s not the same model. But even Google is feeling the effects because part of their model is ad based. How much revenue would Google make solely from it’s search engine searches?

How per month would you pay for Twitter? Facebook?

The Twitter Generation is here…

ebgriffin1968 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:03:01 GMT

… you better figure out your IM technology strategy.

I am seeing many ISVs trying to prepare for the new generation of users entering the workforce. Generation Y (more about them in future posts) are internet savvy in greater numbers than their Gen X (that’s me) and the baby boomers forbearers and are completely immersed in social networking interfaces.

Have you defined your enterprise software UX strategy for Gen Y?

With Microsoft Communication Server 2007 you can quickly integrate IM features into your application on the desktop or on the web.

You can download the SDK here.

You get to the team blog here.

You can dial the 180 day trial here.

Silverlight 2.0 is Here

ebgriffin1968 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:48:00 GMT

Go get it: http://www.silverlight.net

Silverlight 2.0 Hands on Lab

ebgriffin1968 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:10:18 GMT

Tim Sneath created a detailed hands on lab to get you started.

Go get it and have some fun.

TextGlow

ebgriffin1968 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:04:19 GMT

Silverlight Word 2007 document viewer on the Web. Kool

TextGlow

Silverlight at the MIX08 Conference

ebgriffin1968 — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:02:14 GMT

Can't go to Mix? It's sold out. But

Watch the MIX08 keynotes streamed live real time over the internet on Wednesday, March 5th 9:30 AM - 12:00PM Pacific Time and Thursday, March 6th 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Pacific Time by clicking on one of the following three streams: 750kbps, 300kbps, 100kbps.

View MIX08 sessions posted 24 hours after they happen at the conference.

Take a class at MIX University

Subscribe to MIX RSS Feed

MIX08 Conference - March 5-7, 2008

Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint

ebgriffin1968 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:05:00 GMT

I consult for MS customers for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

You can find out our plans for Silverlight and SharePoint.

Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint

Windows Server 2008 Launched

ebgriffin1968 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:02:00 GMT

Go check out what is happening!

Heroes Happen Here

First Look at Silverlight 2.0

ebgriffin1968 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:33:33 GMT

Scott G. the man, posts about Silverlight 2.0.

Silverlight Tafiti Search App Source Code

ebgriffin1968 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:47:27 GMT

I have talked about Tafiti before, but I don't think I have let you know that the source code is available at CodePlex. You can download the source here.

Free Software for Students at Microsoft DreamSpark

ebgriffin1968 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:49:54 GMT

No Express editions here. We're talking Professional versions. Know a student? Are you a student? Go find out more about DeamSpark

Microsoft DreamSpark

New Silverlight Home page

ebgriffin1968 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:44:22 GMT

Nice new look and feel of the Silverlight Home page. Go take a look.

Silverlight Video Streaming Solution with Source Code

ebgriffin1968 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:26:25 GMT

Quality code up on CodePlex called Video.Show.

Here is the description of what you get:

Designed to get you up and running quickly with minimal setup and configuration

All video is hosted at Silverlight Streaming, which gives you 4GB storage and 700 Kbps bandwidth via Microsoft's worldwide Content Delivery Network

Comments are time-based and are synchronized with video playback

Demonstrates a data layer built using Linq To Sql

Broad media format support (avi,mp4,asf,mpeg,dvr-ms,mpg,m2v,ts,m4v,vob,mov, and wmv) via Expression Encoder

Leverages the AJAX Control Toolkit to add animations and interactivity

Encoding properties are configurable via standard Expression Encoder job file

Cross broswer (IE 6 and 7, Firefox 2, and Safari 3)

Open source and designed with a webservice architecture

Video.Show - Home