Omigod, Why Won't They Stop?

[from email: Stowe: New site to find, organize, create & share media - stowe.boyd@gmail.com]

Stowe: New site to find, organize, create & share media

Hi Stowe,

Hope you are well! Web 2.0 Expo is only a few weeks away and I want to touch base with you about the upcoming launch of Oosah, the first website with a file management system, similar to your desktop that allows you to store and share all of your media content including pics, videos, mobile uploads etc. As consumers are storing more media content “in the sky” (photo sharing sites, social networks, etc.), Oosah recognized the need for one universal location that allows you to manage and organize your content and create slideshows, playlists and galleries (aka “Oosahs”).

Oosah has a number of exciting upcoming announcements such as a tool that will let users swap media content from all their favorite photo and video sharing sites and social networks. This will solve the problem that a lot of consumers have – too many photos, galleries and videos scattered across the Internet. It will give users the freedom to drag and share content across several sites while simultaneously storing it on Oosah for future use.

I have included additional information about Oosah, as well as what it can offer developers in terms of branding media content below. Let me know if you are interested in a briefing and live demo during Web 2.0 Expo.

Best,

Margaret

Margaret Clark | Account Executive | SHIFT Communications |
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About Oosah

Oosah is a simple, easy-to-use, but feature rich "Web 2.0" content hosting site. We give you one spot on the Web where you can manage all of your digital media content - photos, videos, and music/audio files. It is designed to be easy enough for novice users to use, while at the same time providing features that even the advanced user can appreciate. Oosah is a fully Web-based application, there is no Oosah application or code that you need to download or install on your Mac or PC.

• Oosah has also developed an API for designers/developers that lets users create applications with better management, organization, and sharing of content. Developers can also brand their media and collect data on how content is shared and viewed across the Web.

• The ability to upload content directly from your capture device (e.g., digital camera or cell phone) to Oosah, without having to transfer it to a PC or Mac first. (Of course, you can transfer it onto a PC or Mac, and then to Oosah if you want to.)

• More sharing options than almost any other site, including email, RSS, linking/embedding, SMS, podcasting, and even downloading and burning to CD/DVD, and local high resolution printing of photos.

Do they think we need another online file-sharing application? Another app that emulates the clutter on our desktops? And just forgetting the Oosah name, does this Web 1.0 marketing message stimulate anymore, if it every did?

I have arranged exactly one meeting so far at Web 2.0 Expo with new companies that I hadn't been aware of already. Is it me, the season, or a downturn in creativity and innovation?

Comments

[Dan]

Hi Stowe,

I'm one of the founders of Oosah and came across your blog post yesterday about our upcoming launch. Just thought I'd touch on a few points that explain why Oosah isn't just 'another online file-sharing application.'

Unlike competitors in this space, we have developed a site and platform that gives users the tools to actually do something practical with their media. As Margaret mentioned in her e-mail to you, we're showcasing a way to manage and share media content across popular media sites and social networks.

This technology is not yet publicly available, but I'd be happy to give you a demo before our launch at Web 2.0 Expo, to demonstrate the functionality and highlight how we differ from the other sites. We've created a site that can essentially be a marketing solution for small businesses to market/brand products, or for consumers that have so much multimedia content across the Web, that they get lost in the organization process.

There's much more to Oosah than a service that emulates the desktop. I understand you probably get dozens of e-mails about the next best service, but I would welcome the opportunity to chat and give you a little more background on Oosah and its' direction.

Thanks for your time.

Dan

[SteveB]

Stowe, I think you have given complete unwarranted response. First of all, you tout yourself as being a consultant and having some influence in the market. You continually spread the word as to how great you are and that you're at the epicenter of all that is happening. So why is it a surprise to you that a fledgling organization should try and get your attention in the hope that you will pass along some of this knowledge and perhaps help guide them to a better place? Secondly, when they do, how do you think they would feel that their private request to you is published and then kicked around like you're trying to get dirt off your shoe? I think this behavior is appalling.

What they have done is get on and do something rather than talk about it. It's easy to talk about what other people are doing and to find fault (which is what you do most of the time) but it's quite another to put your money where your mouth is, come up with an idea, and then take it to market. Very, very few people do that and we in the technology community should NEVER denigrate another in the way that you have done in this post - and do so often, might I add.

I recall writing you a similar email over a year ago looking for guidance, paying you $1000 to 'consult' with us, and then after the first 2 hours of you telling us how great you are, spending about 15 minutes evaluating what we had only to declare it rubbish, followed by the next 3 hours trying to convince us how you and one of your buddies could fix it all and create the product it should be - for about $40,000 in 'consulting'.

Well, since that day of ignoring your advice we have gone on to raise over $2.5 million in investment and have secured an amazing customer base.

I think you moderate pretty much everything that goes on your site so I have no expectation as to whether you'll put this up or not but, if you do, please do not edit for content. Either put it all up or nothing.

My comments to Dan and Margaret would be to ignore you and stay focused on their goals. There was a time when people said who needs another search engine, or another browser, or another "x" ..... You fill in the X.

[Stowe Boyd]

Steve -

I moderate comments, but only to weed out spam, not people who disagree with me, or even dislike me.

Congratulations the fund raise. Keep me posted on your progress: getting good uptake? It's the first I've heard of you in some time. Where you asking me to help you raise money? It's not really my area, except when I am a partner in a business.

I'm sorry you were unhappy with the consulting; I find that many people hire consultants to feed back their own expectations, or to act as PR agents, or any number of things. My purpose in many engagements is to challenge assumptions, offer alternatives, and question strategic decisions. If I can't do that, there is seldom any reason for my involvement.

I structure the initial engagement to be a half day or so, so that everyone can find out if there is good synergy and a basis for moving forward. If it is, I enter into a longer term strategic relationship. Clearly, in our case it wasn't there.

On my side, I find I drop a large number of clients ever after weeding them out, and investigating them on their product and background in advance of any meeting (as I am sure I did you your case). I ask to be paid for my time -- and people are willing to pay it -- because otherwise I would have an endless series of people seeking my thoughts and insight on their products and plans, and it serves to filter out the unserious and opportunistic.

The chemistry that leads to a positive working relationship is difficult to characterize, and hard to find.

Regarding Oosah, my point is that there is a large number of products in that space, and as an market watcher I just shudder when I see the umpteenth social bookmarking tool or whatever. So much wasted energy! There are so many green fields, why do people want to push into a crowd?

I am all for perseverance, but some corners are so crowded there is no oxygen left. Sometimes perseverance isn't enough.

[SteveB]

Stowe,

I applaud you for putting my entire comment up in its entirety. Indeed it does show considerable integrity and the resistance to duck for cover in the face of a little flack.

In answer to your question, no, we were not looking for you to help us raise money but we had come to a juncture in out product development that could se us going doing down the red brick or the yellow brick road. We knew that choosing the right road would lead to the money and the customers.

The best thing that happened was listening to Guy Kawasaki. Then we were introduced to a seriously rich uber-investor that understood that what we were trying to achieve hadn't been done before and, if we pulled it off, would change the way small to medium sized businesses interact with their customers.

Now we're on our way and have carte blanche to actually acquire other companies that compliment our foot print.

I understand you point about Oosah but it should be made in private and, at the very least, between you and the person that wrote you the email.

Imagine how you would feel if you wrote an email to your lawyer saying, "Jack, I just got busted for doing 90 in a 55, can you get me off?" and he wrote on his lawyer blog, "Here we go again, another jackass that thinks it's okay to do 90 in a 55 and ask his lawyer to somehow make the law fit his purpose"... I think you'd be upset and I think you owe more to any company that sees what you do, thinks that there's a window of hope to get their company out there and make it better for the contact with you, to respect them and not publish what they send to you.

It may be the stupidest idea on the planet, but it's their stupidest idea, and they have enough about them to test the idea with you. Don't insult them.

Thank you.

[Stowe Boyd]

Steve -

I'm happy for you but I disagree with your points about what I should and should not blog about.

But then you expected that I wouldn't post your negative comments about my consulting with you.